The group behind Matter, the protocol dedicated to the unification of connected objects, announces that it is attacking tech objects relating to health, such as connected watches. This is enough to unify applications dedicated to health, but also to ensure the interoperability of all systems, like what it does in home automation.
Matter is a protocol managed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (not to be confused with the French CSA which is integrated into Arcom). It is a group of several companies with activities in home automation, with big names like Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, etc. After the connected home, the CSA has announced that it wants to tackle the connected health and well-being market, as indicated The Verge.
Matter wants to be supported by our wearables
The CSA says it has created a working group in charge of developing ” a standardization and certification program for health and wellness technologies “, can we read on the English media. It would be an equivalent to Matter, but for all wearablesas well as other technological objects relating to connected health.
The stated goal of the CSA is to help senior consumers to delay addiction. For the moment, we have very little information about the project: the development is only at its very beginning. ForThe Vergethe uses are great, “such as remote patient monitoring, chronic disease management and home care.In reality, the strength of Matter would not be from a technological point of view: the systems already exist, but they are not interoperable enough. It is on this precise point that Matter could change everything, as it tries to do in the field of home automation.
Matter is already imagining potential applications
The example given by Aaron Goldmuntz, chair of the new task force and chief operating officer at the Center for Medical Interoperability, is that of fall detection. Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch have had this feature for several years. In an ecosystem entirely managed via Matter, if a fall is detected by a connected object capable of monitoring the way a user moves in a home, he could have it confirmed using a connected watch. Then, the latter could confirm it and alert the emergency services as well as the emergency contacts. When they arrive, a connected lock could then unlock to let the people concerned enter.
However, this remains a scenario given for example, we do not yet know if it will be possible to set it up when this Matter for health is released, if it is deployed one day. Indeed, there are many difficulties to overcome: health-related requirements are higher in terms of reliability and privacy compared to the connected home. A problem that Aaron Goldmuntz does not deny, who nevertheless imagines short-term possibilities which would concern products already marketed.
At this time, it is unclear which companies are part of this newly formed task force. The list “prestigiousof CSA members getting involved in Matter is likely what will make it successful (if it comes across one). It could be the same for this Connected Health Matter, the name of which is not yet known. The Connectivity Standards Alliance only specified that dozens of companies were partners in the project. The next objective for the group is precisely to make other companies aware of the challenges of a unified standard in connected health.
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