Part 1  Mr. Morio HIRAHARA
           Chairperson of ECHONET Consortium
“Spread of　participation　leads to the opportunity to build the Certification Center”

Mr. Morio HIRAHARA　【Biography】

In 1992, he joined Toshiba Corporation, studied on the control of home appliances and engaged in development work. Since 2001, at the same company, he has engaged in the development of “Feminity”, home IT system with adapting ECHONET protocol. In 2011 he has been appointed as Chairperson of ECHONET Consortium.

Q．　What’s the point of building the HEMS Certification Center?

The main idea is to make the possibility for participators to perform an interconnection test. Up till now, manufacturers have made everything and secured interconnection of their equipment or controllers. However from now on, there are many different possibilities of making business. For example, some people only make equipment, others only controllers or just adapters.  In that case, it is very important that there is a place to certificate　interconnectability. It will broaden participants’ horizons. This is the biggest benefit.

Q．　The Certification Center is necessary to control interface standardization. But why there was no certification centers or similar kind of certification system up till now?

It actually already was necessary,  but one of the biggest reason was the market wasn’t big enough. Until now, people of the market didn’t have any interest in the home network. That is why the first plan was that each manufacturer makes their own system. Because of that, certification system was only needed inside each company but it was not needed outside.

However, the market has changed in the last few years. HEMS is gradually growing an interest and interoperability is getting important. That means, certification center becomes necessary as a request of the world. Many people got interested as participation on the market grew. This is why we need a certification center by a third party.

Q．　At the website of ECHONET Consortium there are some example cases such as remote operation with connecting security equipment to the network. How to cope with security while connecting each company’s service in the future?

Currently, each company uses their own security. Regarding as how to cope with security while interconnecting, we have recognized it as a very big technical issue and are still currently discussing.

Thank you very much for the interview.