UK funds development of 'world wide web for machines'

While this goes some way to realising the vision of the 'internet of things' – allowing everyday objects to communicate with each other without human intervention – APIs are limited in that they confine data to narrow vertical silos based on commercial partnerships between companies.

In other words, a Jawbone Up wristband and a Mercedes-Benz car can communicate with a Nest thermostat, because Google has partnered with those companies, but a Garmin Vivofit wristband and a Volkswagen car cannot.

Now a group of over 40 British-based companies including BT, ARM, BAE and Rolls Royce, known as the HyperCat consortium, has been awarded a total of £8 million in government funding, via the Technology Strategy Board, to develop a publicly-available universal specification for the internet of things.

"In the same way that Sir Tim Berners-Lee's world wide web specification unlocked the potential of the internet, the HyperCat specification will unlock the full potential of the internet of things by creating a world wide web for machines," said the HyperCat consortium.

Rather than forcing every company to use the same data format, which would be impractical, the HyperCat specification describes the data held by different companies' in a common language, helping developers find the information relevant to their specific needs.

The consortium claims that this is the first step towards an open, international standard for internet of things interoperability.

It is working with standards bodies in other countries, including the Industrial Internet Consortium and OASIS (Advanced Open Standards for the Information Society) in the US, Spring in Singapore, and the Joint Technical Committee of the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC JTC1), to drive adoption HyperCat.

"The UK has an opportunity now, through HyperCat, to be central to the Internet of Things revolution, levelling the playing field with the ubiquitous American giants," said Justin Anderson, chief executive of operational intelligence firm Flexeye, which is leading the HyperCat consortium.

He added that the government’s latest investment of £1.6 million (in addition to a previously-announced pot of £6.4 million) will support the UK economy by creating new jobs and attracting foreign investment, enabling Great Britain to "grow back its industrial teeth".

The British Standards Institute will publish the consortium’s HyperCat standard as an independent, Publicly Available Specification (PAS) in 2015. Lord Erroll, chairman of Flexeye, said the next step will be to create policies around privacy and security of data, to ensure that HyperCat is not used to exploit people's personal information.

"People are going to want to bolt on security to this quite quickly," he said. "I think it's going to be essential for the credibility of the internet of things".

HyperCat is not the only player seeking to create an Internet of Things standard. Last month saw the launch of the Open Interconnect Consortium , supported by Samsung, Intel and Dell. The AllSeen Alliance, established in December 2013 with the support of Qualcomm and LG, also aims to create a standardised model for smart home appliances.

Analyst firm Gartner estimates that, by 2020, the global economic gain to industry as a result of Internet of Things engagement will be $1.9 trillion across multiple sectors, with manufacturing, healthcare and finance benefiting the most.

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