Zigbee Extender.

The Cortet Z10 Range Extender (CGW-Z-010) for use in various wireless sensor network (WSN), machine-to-machine (M2M), and Internet of Things (IoT) applications has been announced by CEL. The Z10 Range Extender has been optimized for RF performance, providing industry-leading range within a compact and attractive design that is ideal for any project.

The Cortet Z10 Range Extender is a reliable, secure, and easy to install way to extend the range and/or capacity of a zigbee network within large facilities or facilities with a poor RF environment. The Z10 Range Extender is capable of distances greater than 325 feet (100M) in interior environments. It’s built in software makes it easy to set up the extender and commission the device into a zigbee network.

The Z10 is an HA 1.2 compliant repeater and range extender for a zigbee network. The Z10 requires a zigbee Coordinator such as the Cortet E100 Gateway. The Z10 Range Extender is also REACH and ROHS certified and has been tested to work well with a wide range of industrial lighting controllers, luminaires, lamps and other accessories from companies like Leviton, ILLUMRA and Magnitude.

“The Z10 acts as a relay for zigbee messages between zigbee devices that are otherwise out of range,” explains Erik Davidson, Cortet’s Director of Marketing and Product Management. “For example, a Cortet Z10 Range Extender can be used to relay messages between zigbee end nodes and an otherwise out of range zigbee Coordinator such as a Cortet E100 Gateway. The Cortet Z10 Range Extender can also be used to increase the total number of zigbee devices that a zigbee Coordinator can communicate with."

 @CortetbyCEL #PAuto #BAS

Acquisition allows RF solutions for home and IoT applications.

Qorvo has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held GreenPeak Technologies. The acquisition of Netherlands-based GreenPeak will allow Qorvo to expand its customer offering to include highly integrated RF solutions and systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) for the connected home and the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT).

James Klein, president of Qorvo’s Infrastructure and Defense Products (IDP) group, said, “The acquisition of GreenPeak Technologies will complement Qorvo’s market-leading high power RF portfolio with innovative ultra-low power, short-range wireless personal area network (WPAN) SoCs, ZigBee and Bluetooth solutions. GreenPeak brings a world-class technical team and solutions to Qorvo, allowing us to increase our presence in the rapidly expanding IoT market.”

Cees Links

Cees Links, founder & CEO of GreenPeak Technologies, said, “Our team is excited to join Qorvo and continue our legacy of creating ultra-low power RF solutions for our customers. We believe Qorvo will be a great environment for the GreenPeak team to grow as part of a much larger company serving many more global customers.”

According to research firm Gartner, Smart Home networking and IoT markets addressed by 802.15.4, ZigBee and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology are estimated to grow to $2.3 billion by 2020; and related smart markets such as retail, agriculture, automotive, lifestyle and commercial lighting are expected to grow to $4.9 billion by 2020. Beyond smart home networking, demand is growing to connect a variety of devices including HVAC, energy, security, home health, and remote controls utilizing innovative ultra-low power wireless data communication SoCs.

GreenPeak Technologies adds to Qorvo a legacy of world-class engineering and system-level expertise in wireless RF technology, and offers a broad range of proprietary antenna diversity and multiple receiver architecture technologies. GreenPeak solutions offer superior range, robustness and best-in-class WiFi interference rejection with no latency in production-ready reference designs that will allow quick time to market for integration into smart home and IoT applications. In 2015, GreenPeak celebrated shipment of its 100 millionth ZigBee chip to the smart home market.

GreenPeak will become part of Qorvo’s IDP group and will be headed by Mr. Links.

The transaction is expected to close in the current quarter, subject to customary closing conditions. Wells Fargo Securities, LLC served as financial advisor to GreenPeak in connection with the transaction.

@QorvoInc #PAuto @GreenPeak

Helping Grandma stay at home....

 GreenPeak Technologies, has announced the availability of Senior Lifestyle sensor and cloud based intelligent system technology for service providers and retailers. The Senior Lifestyle System empowers children and their elderly parents to privately and securely share lifestyle information, enabling the seniors to feel safe and live longer at home independently, while their children feel secure that their parents are safe and well.

The GreenPeak’s Senior Lifestyle System utilises a network of wireless ZigBee sensor nodes located throughout the home. This network connects via an internet gateway to a cloud based self-learning algorithm with advanced behavior pattern recognition capabilities that learn the normal day-to-day activities and behavior of people in their home. Because it does not require people to wear devices and does not use cameras, the system is unobtrusive and ensures privacy.

“Family Lifestyle Systems can encompass a wide range of living and family social environments. We are starting with the Senior Lifestyle System because that is an acknowledged need – keeping family members and loved ones informed, wherever they are, on how they are doing,” says Cees Links, CEO of GreenPeak Technologies. “With a growing number of elderly people wishing to continue living in their own home longer, the demands for smart assisted living solutions are rapidly increasing.”

"The core sensing and networking technologies supporting the "Smart Home" and Internet of Things continue to improve, and a big part of that is embracing standardized technologies that are proven to work, and are easy to install and require little maintenance," said Jim Montgomery, Senior Analyst for NanoMarkets. "What will truly drive success in the Smart Home area, though, is creating significantly more value for these systems through applications that address and solve real-world problems. This will create opportunities for everyone: consumers, service providers, and systems manufacturers."

Currently being rolled out in Europe and China, a Senior Lifestyle System learns what the normal patterns in the home are. When do the home’s residents get up in the morning? When are they in the kitchen cooking, when are they watching TV? When do they usually turn on the heating or air conditioning? When do they leave and come back? Where are they in the house and when do they need light? Within a few weeks, the application learns what is “normal”, and therefore also learns what is not as expected and can send an alert to a smart phone or integrated social media app when something is not quite right or when irregular behavior is detected.

The Senior Lifestyle System has been intensively tested in care environments, has won various awards for top quality home care, and is now also available for service providers, retailers, system integrators and Smart Home system developers

Another communications war in the offing?

GreenPeak Technologies, the Smart Home semi-conductor/systems company, has posted a new white paper regarding the oncoming war between ZigBee and the new version of Bluetooth – Bluetooth Mesh.

“Bluetooth & ZigBee: a new standards war?”

Available for download from GreenPeak's White Paper Page.

The white paper explores the confusion and damage created by previous battles between home networking standards and how this damage can and should be avoided in the near future.

“A decade ago, WiFi and Bluetooth battled but ended up sharing the home networking space and successfully growing the market to where both technologies are now found everywhere,” explains Cees Links, CEO of GreenPeak Technologies. “The battle is brewing again as Bluetooth Mesh is now attempting to move from the sensor wearable space into the ultra-low power sensor networking space, today successfully served by ZigBee. However, it will take a lot of work to evolve Bluetooth Mesh to the position where it can provide the functions and capabilities that ZigBee already provides today. So why confuse and divide the market?”

We expect the industry to respond the same way as it did in the previous decade – realizing that Bluetooth is the perfect solution for peripheral devices and wearables, whereas ZigBee is the optimal networking solution for connecting the hundreds of sentrollers (sensors, controllers and actuators) that will be functioning in our homes within the next few years.

High growth smart home sensors...

USI, Universal Scientific (Shanghai) Industrial Co. Ltd, a leading global expert in the design and manufacturing of wireless module solutions, has joined forces with GreenPeak Technologies, the industry leading Smart Home low-power radio communication semi-conductor company, to develop a high performance and low cost ZigBee module for Smart Home sensor devices.

The new USI ZigBee module enables a swift implementation with minimal integration efforts for a quick time to market. The module allows Smart Home device developers and manufacturers to quickly and economically upgrade their sensor devices by adding ZigBee technology.

The USI ZigBee module is a pre-qualified building block that integrates hardware with the ZigBee networking technology necessary to transform thermostats, motion sensors, lighting, smart plugs and other sentrollers into interactive Smart Home ZigBee devices. The ready-to-go module includes both hardware and software tools required for a quick time to market, is FCC certified, and includes guidelines and tools to ensure efficient product certification. It is available as a bare module with small form factor, allowing compact integration in existing designs and supports interfacing directly to a sensing component or a host processor.

“Adding a ZigBee module to our portfolio will help device developers who do not have ZigBee expertise in house to speed time to market” says Albert Liu of USI’s Wireless Product Business Unit. “We expect ZigBee will grow quickly in the Smart Home application market. By offering a production-ready and pre-certified ZigBee module, we can significantly help reduce the cost, complexity and time of designing ZigBee connected devices. We have chosen the GreenPeak silicon because it is the best in class ZigBee solution available today and because we know GreenPeak as a reliable business partner.”

According to Cees Links, CEO of GreenPeak: “This module approach offers the optimal combination of cost-efficiency, ease of integration and performance. Device manufacturers are keen to bring ZigBee connectivity and interactivity to their sensor and actuator products. They can use the module for prototyping, for a ZigBee product launch, or for test marketing purposes. As ZigBee continues to gain market momentum in the Smart home and the IoT, the module will allow further adaption for various applications and consumer electronic products that have previously been restricted by volumes. We are proud to have our chip in the USI modules and excited to work with USI, the world’s largest WiFi module manufacturer today, with an unmatched track record in wireless module manufacturing.”

ZigBee enables new markets for device developers

Expanding ZigBee networks in the home will open up multi-billion dollar markets for Sentroller and Device Developers

GreenPeak Technologies tells us that the growing success of ZigBee sentroller devices (sensors, controllers and actuators) enables Smart Home device developers and integrators to expand their markets into new areas and multiplying their sales.

As virtually all cable operators and broadband service suppliers are starting to offer Smart Home services to their subscribers and have chosen ZigBee as the wireless communication standard, there will be an almost insatiable demand for affordable and easy to install Smart Home devices that connect to the set-top box. Device developers are just starting to recognize this great opportunity to offer all types of different Smart Home devices at very affordable costs. GreenPeak’s ZigBee chips enable device developers to build and market ZigBee based smart devices starting at less than $5 each.

Multi-Service Operators need these smart home devices to bundle into their roll out of connected home systems. These new services include security, home monitoring, energy management and control, elderly care, health care support, location monitoring, and even mundane things like automated window and door controls, light switches, etc., enabling profitable business models for both the device developers and the service providers alike.

“ZigBee allows device developers to address a very profitable Smart Home market, expected to grow to several billion units in 2015.” says Cees Links, Founder & CEO of GreenPeak Technologies. “In many ways, ZigBee’s worldwide reach of the market parallels the market acceptance of WiFi. Just like Apple’s adoption of WiFi was the tipping point for the spread of WiFi networking to every internet connected home, the operator and service providers’ adoption of ZigBee is the tipping point for ZigBee to establish ZigBee networking for sentrollers and small devices in every internet connected home as well.”

“Operators looking to expand revenue by offering home automation services are currently driving the majority of growth in the connected home market,” said Greg Potter of Multimedia Research Group, “Low chipset costs, good security, and low power usage have made ZigBee the protocol of choice for most cable providers today and will remain so for the foreseeable future. In fact, revenues for services derived from ZigBee backbones within the home are set to grow immensely over the next years and are driven primarily by cable providers and operators looking for new revenue streams by offering fifth play services.”

“Although WiFi would be technically capable to connect these devices, the battery life of ZigBee is superior compared to WiFi,” adds Cees. “In the future Smart Home we expect to see maybe 10 to 20 WiFi devices along with 100 or more ZigBee devices, all working simultaneously in the home, without any interference. WiFi will be handling the big data applications like entertainment, while ZigBee will connect the sentroller Smart Home network.”

New office in Hong Kong to exploit burgeoning Chinese market

GreenPeak Technologies has expanded its international operations with the opening of a new office in Hong Kong.  GreenPeak's Asia Pacific presence already includes offices in Tokyo (J) and Seoul (KR).

Hong Kong - gateway to China

“China is an incredibly vibrant market - with the opening of our office in this region, GreenPeak will strengthen the support to our fast growing customer base.” says Frans Frielink, VP Business Development of GreenPeak Technologies, a market leader for ZigBee silicon. “There is a tremendous market potential in China and establishing this office is essential to support our clients operating in the region and will enable our growth. We have been working with customers and their OEMs in the region for a long time and this expansion will enable us to better assist our customers being successful in the Smart Home market.”

The year of ZigBee!

GreenPeak Technologies has announced the year of ZigBee. Worldwide, GreenPeak and other ZigBee semiconductor suppliers are now shipping millions of ZigBee chips every week, making ZigBee the only credible open worldwide standard for the smart home supported by cable and satellite operators and other companies playing in the smart home space.

“ZigBee has been recognized as the connected and smart home technology of choice, due to its worldwide standardization and acceptance via the cable TV and service provider industries,” says Greg Potter of Multimedia Research Group. “Once the cable companies have taken the first step of providing ZigBee networks in the majority of new set-top boxes, it helps create a thriving industry of ZigBee add-on devices for the home - making it easy for installers, system integrators, and home do-it-yourselfers to install a wide range of ZigBee devices onto the cable companies’ ZigBee backbone within the home". Revenues from services derived from ZigBee backbones within the home are set to skyrocket from $80 million in 2012 to over $1.7 billion in 2017.

According to IMS Research – now part of IHS (NYSE: IHS) – one of the key trends driving the use of ZigBee in the ‘smart home’ is the adoption of the technology by managed service providers in the U.S. and Europe, offering home monitoring and energy management systems via cloud-based home management platforms. The growing traction of ZigBee RF4CE in home entertainment devices is set to continue. IHS projects that shipments of ZigBee RF4CE ICs will grow with a CAGR of 29.1% in the period 2012 to 2018 as ZigBee RF4CE is increasingly incorporated in a range of devices such as set-top boxes, television sets and the accompanying remote controls as an IR replacement technology, enabling more sophisticated interaction with home entertainment devices.

According to Greg Potter, “The ZigBee revolution is driven by cable companies and service providers who wish to expand their market by a wide variety of home services, in addition to delivering content. Often called the Fifth Play, cable companies are now adding home services to the previous four plays: TV & movies, broadband Internet, VoIP and wireless phone services.”

“There are approximately 600 million homes connected to the internet – each of these is a potential customer for a ZigBee home network, with over a hundred possible devices in each home talking to the network: from thermostats, lights and switches, security sensors, door locks, appliances, remote controls, etc.” says Cees Links, Founder and CEO of GreenPeak Technologies. “GreenPeak’s Open Smart Home Framework provides a context in which all these devices seamlessly connect to each other and to the internet via the low power ZigBee standard, complementary to WiFi for data sharing and content distribution.”

Green power is golden!

GreenPeak Green Power product achieves Golden Unit Status for the new ZigBee PRO Green Power Feature

GreenPeak Technologies has announced its support for the ZigBee PRO Green Power feature, which adds support for energy harvesting and battery-free applications as part of the ZigBee 2012 standard. GreenPeak also announces achieving ZigBee Certified and Golden Unit status for its Green Power product.

Green Power is the newest feature for the ZigBee PRO feature set. Green Power gives battery-free, energy-harvesting devices the ability to join ZigBee PRO 2012 networks. Without requiring batteries, these self-supporting devices typically generate (harvest) just enough power themselves to communicate a brief command. For example, a light switch without a battery harvests energy from flipping the switch on or off. This energy is captured to send the “on” or “off” command to the network to switch on or off the appropriate light. Hence, the light switch is a self-powered device.

“GreenPeak is very enthusiastic about the ZigBee Alliance announcing the ZigBee PRO Green Power feature for battery-free devices. Battery-free has been in GreenPeak’s charter since its foundation. Today, Green Power creates autonomous sensors: install them and forget them.” says Cees Links, founder and CEO of GreenPeak Technologies. “Standardising the elimination of batteries is the next step needed to enable the Smart Home where light switches and sensors in and around the house are interconnected, but without the burden of keeping batteries charged. We are looking forward to contribute to making this maintenance-free and environmentally friendly initiative a success.”

GreenPeak is one of the first ZigBee Alliance members to achieve the Golden Unit status and as Vice Chair of the Green Power working group, GreenPeak has been one of the driving forces and an influential contributor in establishing the ZigBee PRO Green Power feature. GreenPeak is leading the industry as the standard of excellence and is enabling its customers to quickly develop and easily deploy certified battery-free, self-powered solutions.

Wireless US level

Vydas International Marketing has released the new Massa M3 and M3is Wireless Ultrasonic Level Sensors for tank level and precision distance measurement.

Manufactured by Massa Products Corporation, the M3 Zigbee enabled ultrasonic sensor design provides low cost non-contact ultrasonic distance measurement primarily for remote tank liquid level monitoring. The M3 wireless ultrasonic sensor is also available with IS Certification for Class 1 Division 1   (All Groups) Hazardous Locations.

Applications for this sensor include, liquid level control, mechanical positioning, roll diameter measurement, web loop/break monitoring, asset tracking, remote monitoring, automatic filling operation, automatic packaging, bulk level control, paper and plastic film processing and many others.

The M3 wireless ultrasonic sensors stand out because of their affordability and reliability. The sensor transmits narrow beam sound pulses, processes return echoes, and produces several outputs. The measurement output is then transmitted by low power Zigbee radio to a 'gateway' and the information is presented to the user via LAN, cellular, or web portal.

Operating on internal batteries with a typical life span of 3-5 years, the M3 family of sensors has a detection range of 4 inches foot to 30 feet. The distance measurement is transmitted via Digi International Xbee radios and gateway. The M3 sensor contains advance on board diagnostics as well as many user adjustable output settings including measurement sampling rate, radio transmission rate, averaging of multiple distance measurements as well as reporting battery voltage, temperature and other parameters.

The network also allows users to remotely program their sensors and read ranges for quick integration into their remote monitoring application. Other features of the M3 ultrasonic sensor include: chemically resistant Kynar housing with 2" NPS fitting for mounting, built-in temperature compensation, diagnostic and monitoring outputs.

1st dedicated ZigBee RF4CE chip for set-top box and gateway!

GreenPeak’s GP510 communication controller with integrated MAC and network layer for efficient in-house data communication management

GreenPeak Technologies has announced the general availability of its GP510 communication controller chip, supporting all communication between ZigBee RF4CE enabled devices and the set-top box or gateway. The GP510 is GreenPeak’s answer to the increasing market demand for making the set-top box the ZigBee RF4CE hub for the home.

Facilitating the transition from traditional IR for the set-top box to ZigBee RF4CE communication technology, the GP510 system-on-chip has been developed as a low cost RF4CE solution designed for the new generation ZigBee set-top boxes. The GP510 combines GreenPeak’s unique competitive advantages and is optimized for low cost BOM while providing superior range and reliability.

Superior Wi-Fi interference robustness in combination with patented antenna diversity technology results in approximately twice the reliable range (compared to similar systems with only one antenna) in a crowded wireless 2.4 GHz environment, enabling full home coverage. The integrated RF filtering simplifies the RF design complexity which enables low cost single layer applications using simple PCB antennas requiring no shielding and a minimum number of external components.

The MAC and network layer are integrated for efficient data communication management and the embedded ZigBee RF4CE network layer enables fast and simple integration. The chip is fully compliant with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, providing robust spread spectrum data communication with a highly secure encrypted data flow.

A complete suite of interfaces to the main processor is available (SPI, TWI or UART-based).

“The market for ZigBee RF4CE is ramping quickly and we see the remote control/set-top box market now growing into the millions per month. The GP510 is GreenPeak’s answer to this increasing demand and delivers an optimized architecture for the new generation set-top box. The set-top box is increasingly becoming the internet gateway into the home, combining the distribution of entertainment content as well as management data from sense and control applications for the smart home.” says Cees Links, Founder and CEO of GreenPeak Technologies.

GP510 development kits are available to assist OEMs to evaluate the GP510, to facilitate their integration and to allow a simple implementation of ZigBee RF4CE technology in the set-top box for a quick time to market.

ZigBEE RF4CE USB stick!

RF4CE reference design for plug-and-play USB stick allows cost-efficient RF4CE implementation

RF4CE USB stick

RF4CE mentioned here refers to the ZigBee RF4CE industry standard. Both ZigBee and ZigBee RF4CE are trademarks of the ZigBee Alliance.

GreenPeak Technologies has announced the first reference design for an RF4CE USB stick for the integration of RF4CE technology in PC’s and home entertainment applications like set-top boxes, TV’s and media players.

The RF4CE USB stick reference design enables a quick RF4CE USB stick implementation with minimal efforts. The stick design allows for an easy upgrade of PC’s, set-top boxes, TVs and other home entertainment applications to accept RF4CE commands from an RF4CE remote control or RF4CE wireless keyboard. The RF4CE USB stick is very compact, allowing small USB stick designs.

GreenPeak's ready-to-go reference design includes both hardware and software tools required for a quick time to market. This includes the software stacks for ZRD (ZigBee Remote Control profile) and ZID (ZigBee Input Device which is a HID (human interface device) -compatible profile). Certification guidelines and tools are provided to ensure an efficient RF4CE and USB certification process. GreenPeak’s patented radio architecture makes it very robust against Wi-Fi and Bluetooth interference.

"There are two big challenges with controlling home entertainment consumer devices. One is that things don't interoperate well and the other is that you generally have to be in the same room as most of the devices you are trying to control," said Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group.  "The brilliance of ZigBee RF4CE is that it aggressively addresses both problems because it can be added to any existing USB capable device and the remote uses the ZigBee network to provide location independent control".
 
According to Cees Links, CEO of GreenPeak: “This RF4CE USB stick approach offers the optimal combination of cost-efficiency, ease of integration and performance. OEM’s can use the USB stick for an RF4CE product launch or for test marketing purposes. Our reference design will help prototyping and will allow a quick time to market. As RF4CE is continually gaining market momentum, the USB stick approach will allow further adaption for various applications and consumer electronics products that have previously been restricted by volumes.”

Marketing of wireless standard

Founder and CEO of  GreenPeak Technologies, Cees Links, has been named as the Marketing Chair of ZigBee RF4CE. As Marketing Chair, Mr. Links is responsible for developing and coordinating the worldwide market acceptance of the ZigBee RF4CE wireless standards into set-top boxes, remote controls, television sets and other consumer electronics and home entertainment systems.

Cees Links

"Getting Cees Links as a member of our team is a real coup," said Mr. Bob Heile, Chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "There are few in the electronics industry who have the experience we need to evangelize our standards and drive their adoption into the consumer electronics market."

"ZigBee RF4CE is the specification created especially to control consumer electronics products," explains Cees. "Currently being rolled out worldwide, ZigBee RF4CE is a real step forward for entertainment control. No more wires, no more infrared, no more point and shoot thanks to more sophisticated home entertainment devices."

Recognized as a pioneer of the wireless data industry, Cees Links is a visionary leader dedicated to bringing together the world of mobile computing and continuous networking. Under his responsibility, the first wireless LANs were developed which ultimately became Wi-Fi, the ubiquitous household technology now integrated into the most of the world's notebooks, mobile computing devices, and smart phones. Cees has been involved in the establishment of the IEEE 802.11 standardization committee and the Wi-Fi Alliance. He was also instrumental in helping to establish the IEEE 802.15 standardization committee that is the base for all ZigBee specifications and standards.

Cees created the right vision for wireless LANs and saw it through to a complete success for Wi-Fi. He will do the same to make ZigBee RF4CE equally successful.

The next big thing in wireless!

GreenPeak Technologies is teaming up with one of the world's top Consumer Electronics companies, Service Providers and the ZigBee Alliance to help roll out the next big thing - The Third Wireless Network for home and office that is Green and conserves energy.

Operating concurrently in the home with Wi-Fi internet and cordless phones, the third wireless network is based on the newly approved ZigBee RF4CE (Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics) standard that is supported by the world's leading consumer electronic manufacturers.

Remote controls are among the first applications to benefit from ultra low power ZigBee RF4CE. As ZigBee RF4CE is based on radio which penetrates walls, furniture, and floors, rather than line of sight optical IR (infra-red), this new generation of remote control means that users no longer have to point-and-shoot to their TV set or set top box to change channels or program the DVR. A single ZigBee RF4CE remote can control the entire home's electronic systems – TV, games, communications, home automation, audio, security, environment, etc.

The innovative GreenPeak ultra low power control network enables the remote controls to function on a single battery for a decade or more. "Not only are we making remotes that are essentially maintenance free," says Cees Links, Wi-Fi veteran and CEO and Founder of GreenPeak, "but by enabling remotes to run for ten times as long or more on a single battery, we are greatly slashing the amount of heavy metals, toxic chemicals and carbon footprint required for the creation and disposal of batteries."

Other ZigBee RF4CE capabilities include a central "dashboard" function on the remote control that includes monitoring home energy consumption as well as a cool "Find-Me" feature. Find-Me enables users to press a button on their TV set or stereo and their hidden or lost remote will make itself known by blinking, beeping or even playing music.

As part of the ZigBee family, ZigBee RF4CE is not limited to remote controls and can be used for many other low power, low data rate applications including controlling lighting, heating/air conditioning, locks, home automation, in-home health monitoring and alerts, etc. This year we expect to see the emergence of ZigBee light switches that do not require any batteries whatsoever and can be stuck anywhere in the home. The effort of turning the switch generates enough power to transmit an on or off signal to a lamp across the room.