A patent from the early 1990s is forming the basis of a whole new industry for a small group of engineers from British Telecom. Nick Flaherty reports on the potential effects of linking consumer electronics to a base station in the home.

Smart Electrics is a patented technology which uses the caller line identification of the phone line and a simple modem, either over the mains power lines or radio, to link consumer electronics equipment to a base station in the home and then to an operations centre that controls the network. The equipment in the home, a PC, TV or video, will only work with that base station, called a home control centre (HCC), at that location.
The idea was patented back in 1994, and it has taken until now for the idea to venture towards commercial reality. Partly this is down to the bureaucracy of BT, partly down to the fact that the network and power modem technology is now sufficiently advanced to allow it to happen. The technology also has to be tightly integrated into the microcontrollers in the consumer equipment, which takes design-in time and partnerships with the major equipment makers, and BT already has a relationship with such a global Japanese consumer equipment maker, Matsushita, through the Open interactive digital satellite system.
But the main reason for the long gap is that the way the original patent has been put together makes it immensely more powerful than the original implementation. Smart Electrics is the first stage of what could become a giant in the world, and the founders are looking to create a global platform that spans many other areas. "It's the ultimate in disruptive technology, disrupting business models and the way people do business," said Charles Brennan, business development manager for the team.
The technology is not limited to one home either. The slight leakage of the signal on the power lines means that if a stolen TV or video is plugged in anywhere near another HCC, it rings up the operations centre to tell them there is a stolen unit nearby. That is sufficient evidence for the police to get a search warrant, says Brennan.
But the real key to the development is in the database that stores the names, addresses and a list of all the high value items in your house. Protecting these high value items is of interest to insurance companies who might even provide the HCC for free as part of the condition as of the policy, and having that database accessible means that you could get a quote over the Internet without having to type in lots of data.
That database potentially forms the basis of personal data on the web, which is why the idea is so powerful. The challenge is to make this happen in a way that is acceptable to the public and usable for business, and the team has thought carefully about the implications. Done correctly, this could get around the problems of handling data under the new Data Protection Act in the UK while still preserving the confidentiality of data and allowing you to see what data is stored about you. "Because of the way the technology works there are connotations in the Big Brother and that's something we have to keep in mind," said Dave McGlaughlin, one of the inventors.

As a result, they are talking to internet civil rights organisations Cyberrights and CyberLiberty about setting up the database as part of a trust, rather than a commercial operation. That commercial operation would be around the central trust, with licences to different partners in different areas, Smart Electrics being just one.
"For this to work we have to be seen to be whiter than white," said Brennan. "We recognise that the ethical stance is absolutely key. It would not work unless this is understood by the people using it."
Access to the database would be through the recently standardised P3P protocol, the Platform for Privacy Preferences, which allows users a standard way to restrict the information they give to a Web site based on the privacy policy of the site. This is a little bit like a credit check, where companies ask for a yes or a no, but never see the raw information. The difference is that the user has full access to the data held on the database and can change it if necessary.
The team are talking to companies like leading credit agency Experian as a potential partner for the technology, and the fit is interesting as Experian is part of the UK group Great Universal Stores group that also owns a high street retail store and would benefit from the underlying technology. "Companies don't want to have to manage all the data from their research, they want useful answers," said Brennan.
Security of the database is also critically important, and this is where the heritage of BT comes in. Although such a database connected to the worldwide web would be a beacon for hackers, Brennan points out that BT's billing systems already are such a target, and the company has vast expertise in network security. That is the area that McGlaughlin, was working in before being brought into the operation in March this year.
Despite the problems of being a small company inside a big one, this fits in well with other operations in the company. BT's Syncordia group has just won a bid to build the a system for the UK government that allows people to change their address with all government departments by filling in one form on the internet. And the company is bidding for the next stage of the development to integrate smartcard technology with government systems with a national public key infrastructure. It is these kinds of skills that are going to be needed to build the Smart Electric systems around the world, says Brennan.
The future implications of such technology are tremendous for the industry. Think of the supply chain for consumer electronics sold from, say, a supermarket, says Brennan. The supermarket doesn't pay for the goods until the units are sold, so any loses in the distribution chain are down to the manufacturer. With Smart Electrics and a smartcard system, the TV or video is registered to a location when it is sold, so stealing a container load of videos is pointless - they won't work when you plug them in.
TheBracknell in the UK is planning to issue smartcards to everyone in the town, which is just the kind of infrastructure that the team sees being part of the future of the system.
Similarly Brennan is talking to makers of central heating boilers and smoke detector. Why? It turns out that half the central heating boilers disappear between supply and installation, and housing associations building low cost housing particularly would benefit from having the functionality of the boiler disabled if it were stolen.
The smoke detectors can be linked to the HCC to notify the fire brigade when there is a fire detected in the house using Internet technology such as text to speech and linking directly to the existing 999 service. That is no fantasy. Brennan has a trial lined up with a fire brigade for later this year. This is geared more to housing association housing where smoke detectors tend to be mains powered to prevent the batteries being stolen.
The range of applications is almost unlimited, and the patent covers the world. The challenge now is to get the partners in place and the systems up and running. And that is going to determine whether or not they can create another Xerox.