Matter, the Terminator of the IoT Chaos Era
Ai-Thinker
Ai-Thinker focuses on IoT module, antenna, RF test, cloud and PCBA service, to provide customers with one-stop solution
Recently, the CSA Alliance (Connectivity Standards Alliance) officially released the Matter 1.0 standard and announced that the certification program is now open. This means that smart home brand manufacturers can conduct Matter-related tests and certifications on their products. Once certified, the company can start selling devices with Matter logo.
01 What is Matter?
What is the Matter of protocol?
The concept of Matter was first proposed in December 2019, when it was called CHIP (Connected Home Over IP), and then it was formally proposed as a new connection standard in May 2021.
CHIP is an organization jointly established by AWS, Google, Apple, IKEA and other international companies. Its core goal is to jointly develop and formulate a set of smart home connection standards based on IP protocol through cooperation among various companies, to simplify the transmission process between smart home devices and strengthen the protection of users' privacy. Generally speaking, with Matter, different brands of smart home products can be interconnected.
02 What problem can Matter solve?
The significance of Matter's existence is that it can solve the complicated fragmentation problem between different communication protocols, break the interaction barriers between multiple ecosystems, and realize smoother communication and collaboration between smart devices.
(The above is the intelligent control effect based on Matter protocol shown in IFA 2022 held in Berlin in September this year.)
For consumers
Consumers can use only one App to control all devices that support Matter, which greatly improves the ease of manipulation and is more acceptable to consumers. At the same time, users have a wider range of product choices. They can no longer only choose specific equipment manufacturers due to agreement restrictions, but can choose their favorite products from more brand manufacturers.
For hardware manufacturers
Hardware manufacturers do not need to build wheels repeatedly, and do not need to maintain multiple ecosystems or pass multiple certifications at the same time. A set of Matter standards can meet users' connection and intelligent control requirements. Brand manufacturers can devote more resources to polishing products to provide users with products with better experience. Smart products from small and medium-sized equipment manufacturers can also have the opportunity to interconnect with branded equipment.
For service providers
Service providers are no longer limited to specific vendors and can choose products from more vendors. Matter simplifies supply chain management, communication and operating costs, making service providers more focused on improving their service capabilities and creating greater value for customers.
What are the core advantages of Matter?
1. Simple, easy to buy and use
For consumers, in order to ensure the actual use experience when purchasing smart home products, consumers may only choose smart products of the same brand, which can reduce the number of gateways and speaker control centers, and download several apps. Matter was born to solve this problem.
At present, AWS, Apple, Google and other companies have announced their support for Matter, which means that common smart device control terminals (such as smartphones, voice assistants, smart speakers, etc.) in our daily life will support Matter protocol.
Now users build a set of Matter ecological smart home, it is easy to purchase related equipment, only need to buy equipment with Matter logo, you can easily join the network. Users can also buy smart products that are more in line with their own aesthetic and needs according to their own personality preferences. ?
2. Reliable, safe and responsive local connection
The Matter protocol is jointly initiated, developed and verified by several industry-leading companies. With the release of the Matter 1.0, eight authorized testing laboratories can also carry out product certification, which means that the equipment certified by Matter will have excellent safety performance. In addition, under the Matter ecosystem, local devices are allowed to communicate directly, and data no longer needs to be circulated through cloud docking. ?
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3. Compatibility and interoperability, devices from multiple brands can work together locally
Matter is a set of open specifications. Alliance members develop and implement this new unified connection protocol in an open-source way. The Matter products purchased and used by users are certified by unified technology, so they also have good compatibility and equipment interoperability.
03 How do brand manufacturers access Matter?
The Ai-WB2 series of modules, as the first product to implement the "big connection" concept of Ai-Thinker Technology, will support the Matter protocol.
Ai-WB2 series modules will support Google Matter.
The main chip of Ai-WB2 series modules adopts BL602. At present, chip manufacturers have established EAP (Early Access Program) partnership with Google. Our company will participate in the development of Matter-related special experiences, and will obtain access to Google SDK and Matter development tools jointly supported by the original chip manufacturer and Google.
Ai-WB2 series modules will support Apple Matter
Ai-WB2 series modules already support pairing and control using Apple devices. According to Apple's latest official release instructions, iOS 16.1, iPadOS 16.1, HomePod software 16.1, etc. also support the new smart home connection standard Matter, and a wide variety of smart home accessories can work across ecosystems. ?
Matter warehouse address:
Both brand manufacturers and solution providers can choose to use Ai-Thinker’s Ai-WB2 series modules for product development and design. With compatible hardware packaging, helping enterprises quickly carry out the iteration of Matter new products.
04 How will Matter develop in the future?
The Matter protocol standard may cause a new trend in the global smart home market.
In the past, the development of smart home has experienced a variety of release standards, and various manufacturers have done their best to enable their products to support more standards.
Nowadays, the emergence of the open-source Matter protocol has given manufacturers the opportunity to participate in standard-setting and reduced the research and development costs for products that support multiple protocols and corresponding apps. Manufacturers can also reduce the research and development of a variety of communication technologies and choose a development route that is more suitable for their own products.
It is worth noting that everyone has their own opinions on whether Matter will replace other platforms. In fact, Matter provides a brand-new common language for ecological platforms and device manufacturers to help devices in local networks to interact with data.
In the future, Matter-enabled devices will also coexist with non-Matter devices through bridged gateways, and non-Matter devices can also support Matter through OTA upgrades.
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(Note: Some pictures and videos come from the Internet)