It is no secret that homes are ever-increasing hotbeds of new technology such as set-top boxes, game consoles, wireless routers, home automation devices, tablets, smart phones, and security cameras. This innovation is breeding heterogeneity and complexity that frustrates even technically-savvy users’ attempts to improve day-to-day life by implementing functionality that uses these devices in combination. For instance, it is impossible for most users to view video captured by their security camera on their smartphone when they are not at home. Heterogeneity across devices and across homes also makes it difficult to develop applications that solve these problems in a way that work across a range of homes.

To simplify the management of technology and to simplify the development of applications in the home, we are developing an "operating system" for the home. HomeOS provides a centralized, holistic control of devices in the home. It provides to users intuitive controls to manage their devices. It provided to developers high-level abstractions to orchestrate the devices in the home. HomeOS is coupled with a HomeStore through which users can easily add obtain applications that are compatible with devices in their homes and obtain any additional devices that are needed to enable desired applications.

Prototype

We conducted studies to both understand the difficulties that people face today in managing modern technologies in the home and understand how they would like to manage and secure them in an ideal world. Based on these findings, we have developed a research prototype of HomeOS. Our current prototype includes support for a range of devices (e.g., switches, cameras, TVs) and applications. Experimental results show that it is easy for developers to write applications and for non-technical users to manage their home networks with HomeOS. A dozen homes have "dogfooded" our prototype, and over 50 students have developers applications and drivers for it. 

In addition to the publications and talks below, the following resources provide more information on the HomeOS prototype and what it supports:

• Programming guide
• Applications and drivers that we developed
• Applications and drivers that others have contributed

The video below shows a demo of our prototype. More demos!

Software Licensing

We are licensing (free; non-commercial use) the HomeOS prototype to academic institutions to encourage teaching and research on connected homes and devices. Thanks to Sigma Designs, we also provide an SDK for Z-Wave devices. 

Many research groups have licensed our prototype, including those at the Georgia Institute of Technology the University of Arkansas,  the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Waterloo.

• Current list of users
• Demo videos of some systems developed using HomeOS 

Contact ratul@microsoft.com if you are interested in licensing HomeOS.

Talks

• Digital Neighborhood Watch: Investigating the Sharing of Sensed Data amongst Neighbors
  Talk at CSCW, Feb. 2013
• HomeLab: Shared infrastructure for home technology field studies
  Talk at HomeSys workshop, Sep 2012
• Enabling smarter homes for everyone
  Talk at USC, Sep 2012
• An operating system for the home
  Talk at NSDI, Apr 2012
• Towards commodity smarthomes
  Talks at Duke University, ETH (Zurich), and MPI-SWS (Saarbrucken, Germany), Oct-Nov 2011
• Design for the "uninterested" user
  Panel at IEEE CCW, Oct 2011
• View the home as a computer
  Panel at IEEE CCW, Oct 2011
• Home automation in the wild: Challenges and opportunities
  Talk at CHI, Apr 2011
• The home needs an operating system (and an app store)
  Talk at HotNets, Nov 2010
• Beyond the super-rich and the super-geeks: Smart homes for the rest of us
  Panel at ACM SIGCOMM workshop on Home Networks (HomeNets), Aug 2010

Selected media coverage

• HomeOS: Microsoft Works on Bringing Smart Homes to the Masses, Time TechLand, Apr 2012
• Microsoft forges ahead with new home-automation OS, CNET, Apr 2012
• Microsoft's Smart House: Microsoft Research presents ‘HomeOS’, Technology Review, May 2012
• Microsoft HomeOS merges the smart home and smartphone, Gigaom, Apr 2012
• Microsoft Is Building An Operating System To Run Your House, Business Insider, Apr 2012
• Microsoft Research wants to automate your house, introduces HomeOS, Engadget, Apr 2012
• Microsoft’s HomeOS brings smarter homes, blue hallway of death, VentureBeat, Apr 2012
• Microsoft continues to push for home-automation OS, Electronista, Apr 2012
• Microsoft Releases HomeOS, Hopes It Powers The Smarthome Of Your Dreams, Fast Company, Apr 2012
• Microsoft's 'HomeOS' automation platform detailed in research paper, The Verge, Apr 2012
• Microsoft forges ahead with its campaign to automate your home, The Next Web, Apr 2012
• Microsoft tests "smart home" waters with HomeOS, Gizmag, May 2012
• Microsoft Planning Home Invasion, Geeks are Sexy, May 2012
• Microsoft HomeOS: An Operating System For The Home, May 2012
• Microsoft's HomeStore: Home automation, with an iPhone-inspired twist, ZDNet, Oct 2010

People

• A.J. Brush
• Ratul Mahajan
• Evgeni Filippov
• Michel Goraczko
• Danny Huang
• Jaeyeon Jung
• Khurshed Mazhar
• Ray Matharu
• Frank Martinez
• Amar Phanishayee
• Arjmand Samuel
• James Scott

Alumni and other contributors

• Sharad Agarwal
• Victor Bahl
• Colin Dixon
• Bongshin Lee
• Kirk Olynyk
• Stefan Saroiu
• Peter Stern (logo design)
• Brian Zill

Related events

• ACM Workshop on Systems and Infrastructure for the Digital Home (HomeSys), Sep 2012
• ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Home Networks (HomeNets), August 2011
• ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Home Networks (HomeNets), September 2010
• UW MSR Summer institute: Unraveling the technological knot in homes, July 2009