Major tech companies have joined together to form the AllSeen Alliance group with the common goal of enabling the Internet of Things (IoT), also known as the Internet of Everything (IoE). Consortium members include Qualcomm, LG Electronics, Cisco, Panasonic, Sharp, Silicon Image, D-Link and Haier. The nonprofit Linux Foundation made the announcement of the group, which plans to use Qualcomm technology to connect appliances and gadgets to the Internet.

“The ‘IoT’ vision is that consumer appliances, lights, office machines, industrial equipment, cars — in short, anything with an on switch — may eventually be connected to the Internet,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

Some of those products may be managed by consumers using smartphones. But in other cases, objects may communicate automatically with one another, “sometimes taking action without human intervention.”

According to PC World, the software framework developed by Qualcomm in a project called AllJoyn, is “intended to allow systems to seamlessly discover, connect and interact with each other regardless of their manufacturer or the operating system they are using.”

Members of the alliance will each contribute their own resources and software to the overall framework, “allowing software developers, manufacturers and service providers to make interoperable services and devices.”

“Among fans of AllJoyn, LG has been particularly vocal, announcing plans earlier this month to incorporate the technology into some TVs in ways that can let devices interact in new ways,” says WSJ. One example is a plan that would allow for several smartphones or tablets running different operating systems to “control a multi-player car-racing game on an LG Smart TV,” according to the article.