How a consumer products company diversified into connected home security
With a decade of experience in end-to-end IoT solutions and IoT services, read how Thinxtream® used AWS® IoT, Android™ and iOS® to create a cloud-based, smart, secure home solution with mobile access.
The business goal
Our customer, a consumer products company, wanted to diversify into connected home products, with a smart security solution that offers protection at home and on the go. Their product goal was to be stylish, advanced, well-considered, user-friendly, premium and modern.
While our customer understood the market and critical success factors, they lacked product engineering expertise. They wanted IoT vendors with expertise in smart home products and digital video, and end-to-end development spanning device, cloud, mobile, security and DevOps.
Working with Thinxtream, an experienced end-to-end IoT solutions partner, provided them with a rapid, cost-effective rollout of an IoT-based, next-generation, connected home security solution with cloud connectivity and mobile app access.
Top IoT challenges
- Out-of-the-box provisioning and user registration experience
- Real-time alerts to users
- Highly secure operating environment with restricted access to live and recorded video assets
- Scaling from light-weight pilot to tens of thousands of users
- Real-time, high quality video calling experience
- Multiple subscription tiers
Key highlights
- Complete automation of CI/CD pipeline
- Subscription-based business model
- Over-the-air (OTA) updates
- Role-based access, device security, transport and data storage security
- Feature-rich home security solution with consistent UX
- Smart cameras with 2-way audio and HD quality video calling
- Motion, loud noise, person and pet detection using machine learning on the edge
The IoT solution
Thinxtream designed and implemented a comprehensive connected home security platform spanning device firmware, cloud services, mobile apps and a CI/CD pipeline:
- Cloud platform: AWS IoT
- Video services: Amazon® Kinesis® Video Stream, TokBox WebRTC
- Device: AWS IoT® Device SDK for Android, TensorFlow™ model for video analytics
- Cloud services: AWS IoT Core, AWS Lambda®, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Cognito®, AWS IAM, Amazon S3®, Amazon DynamoDB®
- Subscriptions: ChargeBee SMS
- Security: Microsoft® Threat Modeler, Fortify™ and VCG Static Code Analyzer, OWASP™ Zap tool
- Apps: iOS®, Android™, React web app
- CI/CD: AWS CodePipeline®, AWS CloudFormation® templates
The solution architecture included streaming server infrastructure, machine learning for edge-based event detection, serverless computing, telemetry and device status management, live 2-way video and audio, event notifications (sound, motion, person, pet detection), fleet management, a web portal for customers, an admin portal and a subscription management platform. The solution integrated with existing CRM systems and a social cloud notification platform.
The results
The consumer products company successfully diversified their product portfolio with their first smart home security solution, leveraging Thinxtream's end-to-end IoT services and expertise in digital video, device, cloud, mobile, security and DevOps.
An instant alert feature with video calling and 2-way audio from the mobile app provided users with home security on the go. Mobile provisioning and auto-configuration greatly simplified the first-time use experience. The OTA capability enabled easy, field upgradation.
Thinxtream leveraged AWS IoT Core, AWS Kinesis Video and AWS serverless reference architectures and best practices to implement this IoT solution, with rapid turnaround and a stable, repeatable development and deployment process.
The IoT solution architecture has created the foundation for the customer's product roadmap and innovation.
"Your diligence, knowledge and hard work have been a great asset to the connected home project and we would not be where we are today without you."— Customer Program Manager
More information
- Business benefits of IoT solutions
- Thinxtream IoT advantage
- Smart services for IoT devices
- IoT solutions with AWS IoT
- Technology enablers for IoT device firmware
- Technology enablers for IoT cloud solutions
- UX for IoT solutions
- Security for IoT solutions
- Testing of IoT solutions
- Scope of IoT solutions and IoT services
