The Internet of Things revolution started in 2015 and will continue to be strong in 2016. 2015 was the year everyone talked about the Internet of Things. (So was 2014. And 2013.) But unlike before, it was the year everyone started making plans, laying groundwork, and building the infrastructure. Internet of Things is coming. It’s not a matter of if or whether, but when and how. The premise of IoT is that a connected world will offer gains through efficiency.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has been called the next Industrial Revolution — it will change the way all businesses, governments, and consumers interact with the physical world. The Internet of Things (IoT) is an environment in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer the data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. IoT has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)
and the Internet. IoT is also called the Internet of Everything. A critical component for the IoT system to be a success will be secure bi-directional communication, mobility and localization services.
In the future, everything will be connected. It won’t just be our phones that access the Internet; it will be our light bulbs, our front doors, our microwaves, our comforters, our blenders. You can call it the Internet of Things, The Internet of Everything, Universal Object Interaction, or your pick of buzzwords that begin with Smart. They all hold as inevitable that everything, everything will be connected, to each other and to the Internet. And this is promised to change the world. Remember that the objects themselves do not benefit us, but what services and functions they make it possible to obtain. We will enjoy the outcome, hopefully even better quality products, informative and reliable services, and even new applications.
There will be lots of money spend on IoT in 2016, the exact sum is hard to define, but it is estimated that nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years. IoT is now a very large global business dominated by giants (IBM, Intel, Cisco, Gemalto, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Bosch, GE, AT&T, T-Mobile, Telefonica and many others). I see that because it is still a young and quickly developing market, there will be lots of potential in it for startups in 2016.
There will be a very large number of new IoT devices connected to Internet in the end of 2016. According to Business Insider The Internet of Things Report there was 10 billion devices connected to the internet in 2015 and there will be will be 34 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devicesw ill comprise 10 billion (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.). Juniper research predicted that by 2020, there will be 38.5 billion connected devices. IDC says it’ll be 20.9 billion. Gartner’s guess? Twenty-five billion. The numbers don’t matter, except that they’re huge. They all agree that most of those gadgets will be industrial Internet of Things. The market for connecting the devices you use all day, every day, is about to be huge.
Businesses will be the top adopter of IoT solutions because they see ways the IoT can improve their bottom line: lowering operating costs, increasing productivity, expand to new markets and develop new product offerings. Sensors, data analytics, automation and wireless communication technologies allow the study of the “self-conscious” machines, which are able to observe their environment and communicate with each other. From predictive maintenance that reduces equipment downtime to workers using mobile devices on the factory floor, manufacturing is undergoing dramatic change. The Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling increased automation on the factory floor and throughout the supply chain, 3D printing is changing how we think about making components, and the cloud and big data are enabling new applications that provide an end-to-end view from the factory floor to the retail store.
Governments are focused on increasing productivity, decreasing costs, and improving their citizens’ quality of life. The IoT devices market will connect to climate agreements as in many applicatons IoT can be seen as one tool to help to solve those problems. A deal to attempt to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2C was agreed at the climate change summit in Paris in December 2015. Sitra fresh market analysis indicates that there is up to an amount of EUR 6 000 billion market potential for smart green solutions by 2050. Smart waste and water systems, materials and packaging, as well as production systems together to form an annual of over EUR 670 billion market. Smart in those contests typically involves use of IoT technologies.
Consumers will lag behind businesses and governments in IoT adoption – still they will purchase a massive number of devices. There will be potential for marketing IoT devices for consumers: Nine out of ten consumers never heard the words IoT or Internet of Things, October 2015! It seems that the newest IoT technology extends homes in 2016 – to those homes where owner has heard of those things. Wi-Fi has become so ubiquitous in homes in so many parts of the world that you can now really start tapping into that by having additional devices. The smart phones and the Internet connection can make home appliances, locks and sensors make homes and leisure homes in more practical, safer and more economical. Home adjusts itself for optimal energy consumption and heating, while saving money. During the next few years prices will fall to fit for large sets of users. In some cases only suitable for software is needed, as the necessary sensors and data connections can be found in mobile phones. Our homes are going to get smarter, but it’s going to happen slowly. Right now people mostly buy single products for a single purpose. Our smart homes and connected worlds are going to happen one device, one bulb at a time. The LED industry’s products will become more efficient, reliable, and, one can hope, interoperable in the near future. Companies know they have to get you into their platform with that first device, or risk losing you forever to someone else’s closed ecosystem.
The definitions what would be considered IoT device and what is a traditional computing devices is not entirely clear, and I fear that we will not get a clear definition for that in 2016 that all could agree. It’s important to remember that the IoT is not a monolithic industry, but rather a loosely defined technology architecture that transcends vertical markets to make up an “Internet of everything.”
Too many people – industry leaders, media, analysts, and end users – have confused the concept of
“smart” with “connected”. Most devices – labeled “IoT” or “smart” – are simply connected devices. Just connecting a device to the internet so that it can be monitored and controlled by someone over the web using a smart phone is not smart. Yes, it may be convenient and time saving, but it is not “smart”. Smart means intelligence.
IoT New or Not? YES and NO. There are many cases where whole IoT thing is hyped way out of proportion. For the most part, it’s just the integration of existing technologies. Marketing has driven an amount of mania around IoT, on the positive side getting it on the desks of decision makers, and on the negative generating ever-loftier predictions. Are IoT and M2M same or different? Yes and no depending on case. For sure for very many years to come IoT and M2M will coexist.
Nearly a dozen contenders are trying to fill a need for long distance networks that cut the cost and power consumption of today’s cellular machine-to-machine networks. Whose technology protocols should these manufacturers incorporate into their gear? Should they adopt ZigBee, Apple’s HomeKit, Allseen Alliance/AllJoyn, or Intel’s Open Interconnect Consortium? Other 802.15.4 technologies? There are too many competing choices.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, two pioneers of the Internet of Things are expanding their platforms and partnerships. Crowdfunding sites and hardware accelerators are kicking out startups at a regular clip, typically companies building IoT devices that ride Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Bluetooth Special Interest group is expected to release in2016 support for mesh networks and higher data rates.
Although ZWave and Zigbee helped pioneer the smart home and building space more than a decade ago, but efforts based on Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 6LoWPAN are poised to surpass them. Those pioneering systems are actively used and developed. Zigbee Alliance starts certification for its unified version 3.0 specification in few months (includes profiles for home and building automation, LED lighting, healthcare, retail and smart energy). EnOcean Alliance will bring its library of about 200 application profiles for 900 MHz energy harvesting devices to Zigbee networks. Zigbee will roll out a new spec for smart cities. The Z-Wave Security 2 framework will start a beta test in February and Z-Wave aims to strike a collaboration withleading IoT application framework platforms. Zigbee alredy has support Thread.
The race to define, design and deploy new low power wide area networks for the Internet of Things won’t cross a finish line in 2016. But by the end of the year it should start to be clear which LPWA nets are likely to have long legs and the opportunities for brand new entrants will dim significantly. So at the moment it is hard to make design choices. To protect against future technology changes, maybe the device makers should design in wireless connectivity chips and software that will work with a variety of protocols? That’s complicated and expensive. But if I pick only one technology I can easily pick up wrong horse, and it is also an expensive choice.
Within those who want to protect against future technology changes, there could be market for FPGAs in IoT devices. The Internet of Things (IoT) is broken and needs ARM-based field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology to fix it, an expert told engineers at UBM’s Designers of Things conference in San Jose. You end up with a piece of hardware that can be fundamentally changed in the field.
There seems to be huge set of potential radio techniques also for Internet of Things even for long distance and low power consumpion. Zigbee will roll out a new spec for smart cities in February based on the 802.15.4g standard for metro networks. It will compete with an already crowded field of 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz networks from Sigfox, the LoRa Alliance, Ingenu and others. Weightless-P is an open standard announced by Weightless SIG, which operates at frequencies below one gigahertz. Weightless-P nodes and development cards will be expected to be in the market already during the first quarter of 2016, at the moment Weightless IoT Hardware Virtually Unavailable.
I expect LoRa Technology is expected to be hot in 2016. The LoRaWAN standard enables low-data-rate Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) wireless communication with a range of up to 10 miles, a battery life of 10 years, and the ability to connect millions of wireless sensor nodes to LoRaWAN gateways. LoRa® technology works using a digital spread spectrum modulation and proprietary protocol in the Sub-GHz RF band (433/868/915 MHz). I see LoRa technology interesting because lots of activity around in Finland in several companies (especially Espotel) and I have seen a convincing hands-in demo of the LoRa system in use.
It seems that 3GPP Lost its Way in IoT and there is fragmentation ahead in cellular standards. In theory 3GPP should be the default provider of IoT connectivity, but it seems that it has now failed in providing one universal technology. At the moment, there are three major paths being supported by 3GPP for IoT: the machine-type version of LTE (known as LTE-M) and two technologies coming from the Cellular-IoT initiative — NB-IoT and EC-GSM. So here we are with three full standardization efforts in 3GPP for IoT connectivity. It is too much. There will like be a base standard in 2016 for LTE-M.
The promise of billions of connected devices leads everyone to assume that there will be plenty of room for multiple technologies, but this betrays the premise of IoT, that a connected world will offer gains through efficiency. Too many standard will cause challenges for everybody. Customers will not embrace IoT if they have to choose between LTE-M and Sigfox-enabled products that may or may not work in all cases. OEM manufacturers will again bear the cost, managing devices at a regional or possibly national level. Again, we lose efficiency and scale. The cost of wireless connectivity will remain a barrier to entry to IoT.
Today’s Internet of Things product or service ultimately consists of multiple parts, quite propably supplied by different companies. An Internet of Things product or service ultimately consists of multiple parts. One is the end device that gathers data and/or executes control functions on the basis of its communications over the Internet. Another is the gateway or network interface device. Once on the Internet, the IoT system needs a cloud service to interact with. Then, there is the human-machine interface (HMI) that allows users to interact with the system. So far, most of the vendors selling into the IoT development network are offering only one or two of these parts directly. Alternatives to this disjointed design are arising, however. Recently many companies are getting into the end-to-end IoT design support business, although to different degrees.
Voice is becoming more often used the user interface of choice for IoT solutions. Smartphones let you control a lot using only your voice as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung have their solutions for this. For example Amazon, SoundHound and Nuance have created systems that allow to add language commands to own hardware or apps. Voice-activated interface becomes pervasive and persistent for IoT solutions in 2016. Right now, most smart home devices are controlled through smartphones, and it seems like that’s unlikely to change. The newest wearable technology, smart watches and other smart devices corresponding to the voice commands and interpret the data we produce – it learns from its users, and generate as responses in real time appropriate, “micro-moments” tied to experience.
Monitoring your health is no longer only a small group oriented digital consumer area. Consumers will soon take advantage of the health technology extensively to measure well-being. Intel Funds Doctor in Your Pocket and Samsung’s new processor is meant for building much better fitness trackers. Also, insurance companies have realized the benefits of health technologies and develop new kinds of insurance services based on data from IoT devices.
Samsung’s betting big on the internet of things and wants the TV to sit at the heart of this strategy. Samsung believes that people will want to activate their lights, heating and garage doors all from the comfort of their couch. If smart TVs get a reputation for being easy to hack, then Samsung’s models are hardly likely to be big sellers. After a year in which the weakness of smart TVs were exploited, Samsung goes on the offensive in 2016. Samsung’s new Tizen-based TVs will have GAIA security with pin lock for credit card and other personal info, data encryption, built-in anti-malware system, more.
This year’s CES will focus on how connectivity is proliferating everything from cars to homes, realigning diverse markets – processors and networking continue to enhance drones, wearables and more. Auto makers will demonstrate various connected cars. There will be probably more health-related wearables at CES 2016, most of which will be woven into clothing, mainly focused on fitness. Whether or not the 2016 International CES holds any big surprises remains to be seen. The technology is there. Connected light bulbs, connected tea kettles, connected fridges and fans and coffeemakers and cars—it’s all possible. It’s not perfect, but the parts are only going to continue to get better, smaller, and cheaper.
Connectivity of IoT devices will still have challeges in 2016. While IoT standards organizations like the Open Interconnect Consortium and the AllSeen Alliance are expected to demonstrate their capabilities at CES, the industry is still a ways away from making connectivity simple. In 2016 it will still pretty darn tedious to get all these things connected, and there’s all these standards battles coming on. So there will be many standards in use at the same time. The next unsolved challenge: How the hell are all these things going to work together? Supporting open APIs that connect with various services is good.
Like UPnP and DLNA, AllJoyn could become the best-kept secret in the connected home in 2016 — everyone has it, no one knows about it. AllJoyn is an open-source initiative to connect devices in the Internet of Things. Microsoft added support for AllJoyn to Windows in 2014.
Analysis will become important in 2016 on IoT discussions. There’s too much information out there that’s available free, or very cheaply. We need systems to manage the information so we can make decisions. Welcome to the systems age.
The rise of the Internet of Things and Web services is driving new design principles. The new goal is to delight customers with experiences that evolve in flexible ways that show you understand their needs. “People are expecting rich experiences, fun and social interactions… this generation gets bored easily so you need to understand all the dimensions of how to delight them”
With huge number of devices security issues will become more and more important. In 2016, we’ll need to begin grappling with the security concerns these devices raise. The reality of everything being connected can have unintended consequences, not all of them useful – Welcome to the Internet of stupid (hackable) things.
Security: It was a hot topic for 2015 and if anything it will get hotter in 2016. The reason is clear. By adding connectivity embedded systems not only increase their utility, they vastly increase their vulnerability to subversion with significant consequences. Embedded systems that add connectivity face many challenges, of which the need for security is both vital and misunderstood. But vendors and developers have been getting the message and solutions are appearing in greater numbers, from software libraries to MCUs with a secure root of trust.
Bruce Schneier is predicting that the IoT will be abused in conjunction with DMCA to make our lives worse instead of better. In theory, connected sensors will anticipate your needs, saving you time, money, and energy. Except when the companies that make these connected objects act in a way that runs counter to the consumer’s best interests. The story of a company using copy-protection technology to lock out competitors—isn’t a new one. Plenty of companies set up proprietary standards to ensure that their customers don’t use someone else’s products with theirs. Because companies can enforce anti-competitive behavior this way, there’s a litany of things that just don’t exist, even though they would make life easier for consumers.
Internet of Things is coming. It’s not a matter of if or whether, but when and how. Maybe it’ll be 2016, maybe the year after, but the train is coming. It’ll have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and probably eight other things, and you’ll definitely get a push notification when it gets here.
More interesting material links:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Interoperability specification for IIoT launched
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/interoperability-specification-for-iiot-launched/b97e06e442e874652dd4e84e3db68312.html
The CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) and Profibus & Profinet International (PI) announced an interoperability specification between CC-Link IE and Profinet.
The CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) and Profibus & Profinet International (PI) announced an interoperability specification between CC-Link IE and Profinet. CC-Link IE is used in the Asian Market, while Profinet is most prevalent in Europe, therefore the new specification will greatly simplify integration and increase freedom of choice for end users who source production machinery globally. After less than a year of work, the specification will be made available to members of both organizations, which will allow them to develop hardware products to support the new specification.
Promoting transparency and ease of integration is one of the primary concerns for achieving concepts such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
The specification centers on the functionality of a ‘coupler’ device, which allows transparent communication between CC-Link IE and Profinet. As a result, both networks can seamlessly share information. This can effectively achieve communication between differing parts of a line on separate networks, hugely increasing transparency and integration.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bluetooth: Remember us? Internet of Things before it was a Thing?
Bluetooth 5 unveiled, boosts range and coexistence, but no mesh yet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/14/bluetooth_5_boosts_range_and_coexistence_but_no_mesh_yet/
Bluetooth 5 has finally been unveiled, with headline claims of 200-metre range (quadrupling that of Bluetooth 4) and doubled bandwidth (now 2Mbps). There is a clear focus on Internet of Things devices and applications, but no sign of the proposed mesh protocol, which would do even more to improve the spec’s capabilities.
The Bluetooth SIG’s timing comes before the busy holiday season – and the launch window of the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.
This is Bluetooth’s attempt to provide device makers with a capable alternative to the low power mesh networking protocols that have been used in the smart home – namely, ZigBee and Z-Wave, and eventually Thread once it gets into gear.
For device developers and manufacturers, the big selling point for Bluetooth is the familiar brand, as well as plentiful chipsets at huge volumes, and that name recognition could go a long way towards selling more products into a consumer market that has met the smart home with a very reserved enthusiasm. Most industry watchers were predicting big things for the smart home market a few years ago, but we’ve yet to see the sector take off.
The SIG says that consumer devices with the new spec will be available within two to six months, and stresses that the protocol allows for new applications for Bluetooth – especially in the IoT. It specifically cites beacons as a main focus, noting Bluetooth 5’s improved location awareness and increased broadcast message size (800 per cent larger) that enable the tech to push alerts to users from these beacons.
Tomi Engdahl says:
congatec presents Quick Starter Kit for SMARC 2.0
Everything you need for the evaluation of SMARC 2.0 and the new Intel® Atom™ low power processors (Apollo Lake)
http://www.congatec.com/congatec-ag/press-releases/article/congatec-presents-quick-starter-kit-for-smarc-20.html
The kit comes with congatec’s first SMARC 2.0 module – the conga-SA5 – and everything developers need for the immediate evaluation of the new SMARC 2.0 standard as well as the latest Intel® Atom™ processor generation. Application engineers of connected Industry 4.0 and wireless IoT devices will love the option of the integrated wireless interfaces with standardized antenna connectors on board.
“With SMARC 2.0, developers of highly integrated IoT and Industry 4.0 applications will get the next level of technology on a credit card sized, off-the-shelf module with minimum space requirements. The starter kit is an important building block for our SMARC eco system enabling a quick evaluation of this latest state of the art technology that satisfies various IoT connectivity requirements. The Quick Starter Kit comes with a ready to use SMARC 2.0 module that provides pre-integrated fast WLAN and Bluetooth LE support. Additional connectivity can be supported with dual Gigabit Ethernet for cloud connected appliances with redundancy or for secure firewall solutions.” explains Martin Danzer, Director of Product Management at congatec.
The Quick Starter Kit is completed by an ATX power supply, the conga-ACA2 MIPI CSI-2 dual camera module, WLAN antenna, LVDS adapter, SATA, USB cables and a cooling solution for the module. On the software side, the congatec starter kit includes board support packages of the conga-SA5 module for the complete Windows 10 IoT family and Linux operating systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows Blog:
Microsoft announces Cortana Devices SDK for OEMs, in private preview, and Cortana Skills Kit preview for developers to publish Bot Framework bots to Cortana — We believe that everyone deserves a personal assistant. One to help you cope as you battle to stay on top of everything, from work to your home life.
Cortana to open up to new devices and developers with Cortana Skills Kit and Cortana Devices SDK
https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2016/12/13/cortana-skills-kit-cortana-devices-sdk-announcement/
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT device produces more than EUR a month
The Internet of Things is povattu hundreds of billions of business, but still just can not be so long. Berg Insight research institute, the operators will make IoT has this year a total turnover of EUR 11 billion, so any space to store all is no longer the case.
2016 is also practically the first year in which operators have begun to report the IoT revenue. For example, Vodafone and Verizon both recorded in the third quarter, net sales IoT revenues of approximately EUR 200 million amount.
Berg Insight estimates that there are already half a billion mobile network connected to the IoT devices next year. This year, one IoT nodes to produce the operator an average of EUR 1.40 months.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5587&via=n&datum=2016-12-14_13:49:17&mottagare=30929
Tomi Engdahl says:
Industrial IoT to gain traction in 2017
http://www.edn.com/design/systems-design/4443142/Industrial-IoT-to-gain-traction-in-2017
Tomi Engdahl says:
John Cook / GeekWire:
Wynn Resorts to put Amazon Echo in 4.7K+ Wynn Las Vegas rooms, starting summer 2017
Wynn Las Vegas to equip 4,748 hotel rooms with Amazon Echo: It’s ‘seamlessly delicious,’ Steve Wynn says
http://www.geekwire.com/2016/wynn-las-vegas-equip-4748-hotel-rooms-amazon-echo-steve-wynn-touts-ability-talk-room-making-guest-experience-seemlessly-delicious/
Alexa, open the curtains?
You may soon be able to ask that question when traveling to the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, which announced today that it will place Amazon’s Echo device — powered by the voice assistant Alexa — in all 4,748 hotel rooms. Wynn Resorts called it an “industry first,” and founder Steve Wynn seems extremely excited about the concept of allowing hotel guests to get basic information about their rooms and the hotel rather than calling the front desk.
“I have never, ever seen anything that was more intuitively dead-on to making the guest experience seamlessly delicious, effortlessly convenient, with the ability to talk to your room and say: ‘Alexa, I am here, open the curtains, lower the temperature, turn on the news.’ She becomes our butler at the service at each of our guests.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Solid-state multi-ion sensor is an IoT breakthrough
http://www.electropages.com/2016/12/solid-state-multi-ion-sensor-iot-breakthrough/?utm_campaign=&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=article&utm_content=Solid-state+multi-ion+sensor+is+an+IoT+breakthrough
A tiny sensor that determines pH and chloride levels in fluid simultaneously has been demonstrated by research organisation Imec and the Holst Centre. It will provide accurate measurement of ion concentrations in applications ranging from health diagnostics to agriculture.
Imec and the Holst Centre say its electrode design results in a similar or better performance compared to today’s standard equipment for measuring single ion concentrations and also facilitates additional ion-related tests.
When it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT) the sensor is claimed to be an industry first thanks to the use of System on Chip (SoC) integration.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RS Components – Reimaging how we connect in the smart city
http://www.electropages.com/2016/12/rs-components-reimaging-connect-smart-city/?utm_campaign=2016-12-14-Electropages&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=article&utm_content=RS+Components+-+Reimaging+how+we+connect+in+the+smart+city
The idea of a smart city is encouraging new ideas from TE Connectivity for integrating the services that we all rely on daily – delivering convenience, safety and efficiency that we could only have dreamed of a few years ago.
In the future, our interface with the smart city will take many forms, from enhancing security through smarter lighting and video monitoring to increasing revenue opportunities by using wifi access to promote parking availability; special offers for local stores and restaurants through to managing traffic with real-time information, allowing officials to re-route traffic and change traffic light patterns to optimise the flow, as well as monitoring environmental information such as weather, pollution and noise.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Technology looking to improve the human condition
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/design-rx-blog/4443070/Technology-looking-to-improve-the-human-condition?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20161214&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20161214&elqTrackId=4533ec0c65cb4fb7bc3f3cb53c889d15&elq=6e4579b045a24afea6928d0f5cf4b789&elqaid=35161&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30716
Tomi Engdahl says:
Turn your stone age curtains into voice-controlled super-curtains with Slide
Cha cha real smooth
http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/12/15/13965370/smart-curtains-retrofit-control-slide
Are you embarrassed by your dumb curtains? Do you spend hours each morning simply shouting at them to open before giving up and cutting your way through with a knife? Well, stress no more: Slide is here to automate your shades.
Currently raising funds on Kickstarter, this little gizmo can be retrofitted to a wide range of horizontal curtains, before connecting to your Wi-Fi to automate opening and shutting. You can use the Slide app for iOS and Android to set alarms, and support for If This Then That (IFTTT) means you can connect it any number of smart devices such as the Amazon Echo (which lets you control it with your voice). Prices start at €69 ($72) and the Slide is estimated to ship to consumers in June 2017.
Now, believe it or not, this isn’t the first smart curtain and/or blind operator we’ve seen. Earlier in the year we tested out the FlipFlic
Slide: Make Your Existing Curtains Smart!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/41829059/slide-make-your-existing-curtains-smart?ref=pr.go2.fund&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pr.go2.fund
Tomi Engdahl says:
Non-invasive blood glucose monitoring using near-infrared spectroscopy
http://www.edn.com/design/systems-design/4422840/Non-invasive-blood-glucose-monitoring-using-near-infrared-spectroscopy
Blood glucose monitors are used to measure the amount of glucose in blood, especially of patients with symptoms or a history of abnormally high or low blood glucose levels. Most commonly, they enable diabetic patients to administer appropriate insulin doses. The availability of home-use glucometers, as opposed to clinical-use equipment, has greatly improved the quality of life of such individuals. However, such monitors require a blood draw through finger pricks for each test, which causes pain and inconvenience. Each test also requires a new test-strip, contributing to the recurring cost of such a device.
Optimum insulin dosage, however, requires frequent/continuous monitoring of blood glucose, and currently available glucometers do not address this requirement. Continuous monitors do exist, but they need to be implanted under the skin, causing trauma while being implanted, and they need to be replaced every week. An alternative exists in non-invasive blood glucose monitors. This article introduces an architecture that uses Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to determine blood glucose levels based on transmittance spectroscopy on the ear lobe. Using various body parameters, such as tissue thickness, blood oxygen saturation, and a linear regression-analysis based calibration system, an accurate and real-time architecture is proposed. An example implementation using full analog, digital, and mixed signal capabilities of a programmable system-on-chip, the PSoC-5LP controller from Cypress, is given as well.
Operating Principle/System Design
Near Infrared transmittance spectroscopy is used across the ear lobe to measure glucose. Transmittance spectroscopy involves a light source and a light detector positioned on either side of the ear lobe. The amount of near infrared light passing through the ear lobe depends on the amount of blood glucose in that region. The ear lobe was chosen due to the absence of bone tissues and also because of its relatively small thickness [1]. Near Infrared (NIR) light is applied onto one side of the ear lobe, while a receiver on the other side receives the attenuated light.
Apart from the level of glucose in blood, the transmittance of NIR light also depends on the amount of blood in the path of the light. That is, for the same glucose level, a large amount of blood will result in lower transmittance, whereas less blood will result in a larger transmittance. The glucose value needs to be scaled according to the amount of blood residing inside the ear lobe at a time of measurement. The amount of blood can be estimated by measuring the blood oxygen levels [1]. Pulse Oximetry was used to measure blood oxygen. Pulse Oximetry uses Red and Infrared (IR) light to distinguish between Hemoglobin and Oxy-Hemoglobin in the blood, on which further processing is applied to get the oxygen saturation [2].
Another physical parameter that affects the glucose measurement is the ear lobe tissue thickness
All these variables are then amplified, sampled, and processed inside the PSoC5LP, after which they are communicated via Bluetooth to an Android application.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Internet of Things will also be in recreational craft
Finnish company (owned by Yamaha) Buster Boats take advantage of the Internet of Things in the new interface that integrates a boat trip computer, charts and entertainment system. DNA data interface to connect to the network intelligence devices.
DNA delivers Buster boats monitor the system online machine machine interfaces. Buster Q called the terminal brings together boaters useful data. The touch screen combined with electronic maps, trip computer and entertainment system into a motor boat to the basic equipment.
“The modern consumer expects that the integrated smart devices are also boats that date. In particular, small boat models boat industry is not, however, kept up with developments, “Buster Boats Product Development Manager Anders Kurtén says.
Buster Q is connected to the Internet DNA M2M interface through. Kurtén according to reliable and complete data connections are a prerequisite for IoT applications can be used on boats.
Buster Q includes a Wi-Fi base station, through which a wireless network connection can be shared by other devices. The corresponding DNA’s 4G network hotspot using has been in use already Buster M-class boats.
The new system, for example, to eliminate the need to acquire a separate chartplotter or sonar device. Because the user interface is designed for motor boats, is all the unnecessary features and menus have been left out by Buster.
“Our goal is to make boating easier and safer for everyone,” says Juha Lehtola Buster Boats CEO.
“Buster Q stands for the Internet of Things inputs boats. The device, for example, to update themselves whenever a network connection is available and develop Buster Q’s new features, ”
Sources:
http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/06/14/langaton-m2m-yhteys-buster-veneisiin/
https://www.dna.fi/yrityksille/artikkelit/esineiden-internet-tulee-myos-huviveneisiin
Tomi Engdahl says:
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:
30+ companies including Quora, WebMD, Dominos Pizza, and Product Hunt add Google Home support
Google Home launches support for WebMD, Quora, Domino’s, and dozens more
http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/15/google-home-launches-support-for-webmd-quora-dominos-and-dozens-more/
More than 30 startups and companies like Domino’s Pizza, Food Network, and Product Hunt launched new actions for Google Home today.
Actions, like Amazon Alexa skills, give a user control and command of Google Assistant.
This marks the largest rollout of actions since Google Home went on sale in October and since the Google Assistant platform to make commands for Google Home launched last week. There are currently 35 third-party conversation actions you can use on Google Home, 32 of which were released today.
“Conversation Actions from early access partners will begin rolling out over the coming weeks — starting today. We’re excited to see what developers build!,” Google Assistant product lead Jason Douglas told VentureBeat in an email.
There’s WebMD for health-related questions, Food Network for recipes, Headspace for meditation, Product Hunt for tech insiders, and Lonely Planet for travelers with a bit of wanderlust.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Go Green… Save Money?
http://intelligentsystemssource.com/go-green-save-money/
Sure, it’s good for the planet. But smart home energy management can save you money in some unexpected ways.
It’s easy to understand how being more efficient with energy usage can reduce day-to-day energy costs, but what about unexpected expenses like accidents in the home and equipment failures?
Minimizing Damage from Everyday Disasters
Let’s look at water heaters. One of the most common appliances around, found in most homes. Water heaters have a short lifetime—maybe fifteen years at best. When a water heater starts to go bad, it’s typically in the form of a slow leak. The less fun alternative is the catastrophic failure of the tank rupturing and spilling out gallons of hot water, flooding the house and creating a costly mess of property damage, cleanup and replacement expenses.
A simple fix is to install a water heater leak detector that sends an alarm when the tank fails. But by taking that a step further and connecting that leak detector sensor to a smart home network that includes actuators and controls on the power and water sources, the smart home can alert the home owner and control the power and water systems.
This same smart home scenario can also save the day in cold climates where frozen water pipes are a concern. A smart home with a water flow sensor can be programmed to notice when there is water moving in the pipes when no one is home. It can send a notice to the homeowner and turn off the water at the main valve, saving valuable resources and avoiding high water bills and expensive flood damage.
Insurance companies are recognizing the cost-saving (and claim-reducing) potential of smart homes, too. In addition to home security and fire prevention, a smart home system can also prevent the mold that results from water damage—a common home insurance claim.
Going Beyond the “Smart Meter”
In many areas, local utilities are rolling-out what they call “smart power meters.” Basically, these are smart for the utility companies, since they no longer have to pay the expense of meter readers coming out to a home to read the meter. These meters can also allow power companies to allocate more energy during times of grid stress or reduce stand-by power during periods of lower demand. But none of this is much help to the homeowner.
A true smart power system in a home would actually monitor and manage how and when power is consumed. It could be used to control the amount of time your kids spend on their electronic devices, and to turn-off power-consuming appliances or systems unless they were actually needed
Cost-effective Comfort & Convenience
By using a network of position and motion sensors, the smart home controls temperature and lighting to accommodate which rooms in the home are being used at any given time. For instance, if the family is watching a Netflix movie on a hot summer night, the system would be smart enough to turn off the lights and the A/C in the empty parts of the home, especially in areas that are usually not visited by the family during those hours. After the family goes to bed, the system can then turn off the A/C or heating in the unused areas and just keep it on in the areas where people are sleeping. And since many people prefer cooler temperatures for sleeping, the system could be smart enough to slowly reduce the temperature at night and then then raise it again in the morning.
The analytics behind the smart energy system are key. The system learns from the people who live in the home to make predictions about future behaviors—the number of household members, how rooms are used and when, bedtimes, who works from home and where, who gets up early, etc. Of course, simple overrides are available when needed, but the majority of patterns are absorbed by the system and used to enhance comfort and convenience settings that also happen to be cost-saving.
The smart home power system can learn which devices are the worst power consumers when not in use and simply disconnect them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NB-IoT is Dead. Long Live NB-IoT.
We’re at the point where IoT battery life is greater than the comms network life.
http://www.nickhunn.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2016/12/NB-IoT-is-Dead.pdf
As the old adage goes, “whilethe cat’s away, the mice will play”. In the case of NB-IOT, “when the
spec’s delayed, LPWAN will play”, which is exactly what’s happening in the Internet of Things
market today.
The problemis that 3GPP (the 3rdGeneration Partnership Project), the standards body which
has been responsible for the 3G, 4G and 5G mobile standards, dropped the ball as far as the Internet of Things is concerned.
Whether they believed the LPWAN story, or just hoped it would fill a hole is difficult to ascertain,
but no-one can deny that LPWAN is now firmly on the map , in the form of
Sigfox, LoRa, Ingenu and a raft of others.
To address that challenge to their hegemony, the GSM Association (GSMA) directed the
3GPP to assemble their own suit of imperial clothing which would be called the
Narrow Band Internet of Things, or NB-IoT.
This is the story of why NB-IOT was too late, why it will fail in the short term, why it will win in the
long term, and why the industry will struggle to make any money from it.
What happened is that the industry became fixated with the concept of revenue today, rather than
revenue tomorrow.
Developing a wireless standard is a slow business. Back in 2010 I tried to estimate
the time and cost involved and came to the conclusion that it costs around a billion dollars
and takes 8 – 10 years before the standard is robust and getting traction in the market.
That was for personal area networks like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and ZigBee.
Cellular networks are more complex, so cost more and take longer.
In a recent Mobile Broadband Forum meeting, the GSMA and other operators kept on implying that IoT devices need data rates of tens or hundreds of kilobits per second.
That is definitely what network operators want to sell, but it’s not what IoT devices need.
Trying to make NB-IoT more complex than GPRS is not going to kickstart the IoT era.
Over time, the GPRS modules which are used in most current IoT devices have fallen in price
to around $7. However, as the desire for more bandwidth has grown, 3G and 4G chips have become much more complex.
As a result, 3G modules cost around $20 and 4G modules $35.
It would be nice to think that the specification group had realised that this first release was just a PR exercise and were working on harmonising the two conflicting proposals, but it seems they’re
ignoring that and looking at adding location features instead, presumably because LoRa is offering that, and they don’t want to be left behind again. In other words, bells and whistles are more important to them than making NB-IoT work.
Making it work appears to be left to market forces.
Vodafone is using Huawei’s NB-IoT, which is totally different for the Nokia NB-IoT which Sonera is using.
Sigfox is being aggressive in pricing, both for module s and data contracts. They recently
announced that modules will be available for just $3 in 2017 and already have data plans with charges as low as $1.50 per year.
LoRa is a more distributed community, with multiple vendors providing parts of the ecosystem.
However, LoRa has a significant difference from other LPWAN offerings, which
could be important. It is the fact that anyone can buy a gateway and set up their own network. A crowdfunded initiative – the Things Network, has designed modules and gateways and persuaded the electronics distributor Farnell / Element14 to sell them in the same way they sell Raspberry Pis.
The Things Network / Farnell initiative is relevant, as they will be selling LoRa gateways for €250. In
other words, for €250, anyone can become an Internet of Things network operator covering a radius of around 5km. The Things Network-a development community attempting to build a global LoRa network
Costs will probably be slightly higher than Sigfox, but this will appeal to an open source
community, with the innovation benefits that brings to an emerging technology.
SK telecom is down to $0.30 per month and Sigfox’s pricing will probably push that down to
below$2 a year in the near future. That’s a long way away from the $50-$200 that
operators get from their current M2M contracts.
At $2 a year, 20 billion devices will contribute around 4% of current global mobile subscription revenues. That is probably less than network operators currently make from their GPRS subscriptions
Tomi Engdahl says:
Startup Launches IoT Net in Canada
Eleven-X plans national network
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331003&
A startup co-founded by a pair of former Blackberry developers launched a network for the Internet of Things they hope to spread across Canada. Eleven-X switched on a LoRa network in Waterloo this week, aiming to extend it to major cities across the country by the end of 2018.
LoRa is one of a handful of low power wide area networks (LPWA) operating in sub-gigahertz bands for IoT. Its open specification has helped it achieve traction in a highly competitive market of players including Sigfox, Ingenu and emerging cellular IoT variants. The LoRa Alliance currently has more than 400 participants
The network launched with “multiple pilot customers” but no paying customers yet, said a company spokesperson.
The Eleven-X network targets a wide range of business, manufacturing and municipal uses. They include asset tracking, street and building lighting controls, water metering and monitoring of water flow, health and environmental factors such as soil moisture and nutrient levels.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SensorTile development kit
http://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/steval-stlkt01v1.html
The STEVAL-STLKT01V1 is a comprehensive development kit designed to support and expand the capabilities of the SensorTile and comes with a set of cradle boards enabling hardware scalability. The development kit simplifies prototyping, evaluation and development of innovative solutions. It is complemented with software, firmware libraries and tools, including a dedicated App.
The SensorTile is a tiny, square-shaped IoT module that packs powerful processing capabilities leveraging an 80 MHz STM32L476JGY microcontroller and Bluetooth low energy connectivity based on BlueNRG network processor as well as a wide spectrum of motion and environmental MEMS sensors, including a digital microphone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arduino Lighting Controller With Remote Twist
http://hackaday.com/2016/12/15/arduino-lighting-controller-with-remote-twist/
The time for putting up festive lights all around your house is nigh, and this is a very popular time for those of us who use the holiday season as an excuse to buy a few WiFi chips and Arduinos to automate all of our decorations. The latest in this great tradition is [Real Time Logic]’s cloud-based Christmas light setup.
In order to give public access to the Christmas light setup, a ESP8266 WiFi Four Relay board was configured with NodeMCU.
Mako Server and Arduino IoT Christmas Light Controller
https://makoserver.net/apps/LightController/
The Holiday Light Controller is a fun project that lets you provide public access to your outdoor lights during the holiday season. Perfect for homeowners, parties, café, restaurants, and church displays to allow admiring visitors a selection of lighting transitions such as Wave, Psychedelic, Sequence On/Off, and Overlapping commands via a mobile phone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home security
Home security project based on atmega and ardunio. MQTT gateway for data gathering.
https://hackaday.io/project/587-home-security
This project should replace standard home security alarms, and And function as gateway to pass or receive data from various sensors. All configuration is done over nice web interface.
Gateway board consists of atmega1284P that has inputs for sensors and outputs to relays. It also hosts Wiz5500 Ethernet for configuration and overview, RFM69HW for radio remote nodes, communication module to wired nodes (RS485 protocol), GSM modem, Battery backed up RTC, EEPROM for log, I2C expansion connector, and AC supply and battery monitoring.
Gateway board has 8 analogue inputs that can recognize different events on PIR sensors, and 5 digital inputs. Inputs can be further expended.
Tomi Engdahl says:
High-Performance Intel Joule Modules
https://www.eeweb.com/news/high-performance-intel-joule-modules
Mouser Electronics, Inc. is now shipping the highly anticipated Intel® Joule™ 550x and 570x modules, high-performance devices capable of delivering human-like senses to a new generation of smart devices. Featuring high-end compute and graphics, with support for Intel RealSense™ depth-sensing cameras and multiple high-speed interfaces, the Intel Joule platform enables developers to build out embedded systems or take prototypes to commercial products faster, while also minimizing development costs.
The Intel Joule compute modules are available from Mouser Electronics in two high-performance configurations. The Intel Joule 550x module features a 64-bit, 1.5 GHz quad-core Intel Atom™ processor T5500 with 3 GBytes of LPDDR4 RAM and 8 GBytes of eMMC memory. The higher-performance Intel Joule 570x module offers a 64-bit 1.7 GHz quad-core Intel Atom processor T5700 with burst up to 2.4 GHz plus 4 GBytes of LPDDR4 RAM and 16 GBytes of eMMC memory. Both modules support 4K video capture and display, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® 4.1 connectivity, and a customizable Linux-based operating system designed for Internet of Things (IoT) and smart devices. The modules’ interfaces include USB 3.0, I²C, UART, and multiple general-purpose inputs and outputs (GPIO).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Could a robot vacuum cleaner monitor your data centre?
El Reg takes LG’s webcam-and-WiFi equipped Roboking Turbo+Homeview for a spin
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/16/robot_vacuum_cleaner_review/
Can you monitor a data centre with a vacuum cleaner?
The Register decided that question had to be answered after learning about LG’s Roboking Turbo+Homeview (model VR66803VMNP), a robot vacuum cleaner packing a webcam and WiFi so the images the camera captures can be viewed from afar.
Robot vacuums now are well-known product category and the need to keep a data centre clean is widely-understood. So we imagined the machines would likely be considered innocuous by visitors and decided to test whether they could serve as an extra line of data centre defence.
Data centre sentry
But of course we didn’t get the Roboking in for its domestic qualities, instead hoping it would make a data centre sentry.
In that role you’ll need to connect it to WiFi, a task accomplished quite easily with LG’s ThinQ app for Android or iOS.
Once connected, the app offers a rather more intuitive way to automate the vacuum’s operations and the chance to see the world through its camera. You can also drive the device manually with simple Left/Right and Forward controls.
This is all possible if you’re on the same WiFi network as the Roboking, or if you’ve left home and are using a public mobile phone network. Impressively for consumers, this can all be set up without needing to make a single change to router settings, learn the meaning of the acronym “VPN” or footling about with services like DynDNS. We’ll get back to that later, as we consider security.
The remote viewing feature that most interested us is called HomeGuard and lets you instruct the machine to watch out for any movement. Once it spots motion, it sends an Alert to the app along with a photo. The app captures a handful of photos in a hurry and puts the most recent one on-screen.
HomeGuard works well, perhaps too well.
a Galaxy S6 Edge, produced a warning within a second.
All very impressive, until you look at the picture quality.
Security? They’ve heard of it, which is better than many other IoT thing-makers
Anything that operates in the data centre needs to be secure. We simply can’t say whether the Roboking’s remote access routines are secure, and worry they will disqualify it from data centre duty. But LG has done a couple of things to give you a bit more confidence.
Conclusion: A question of hygiene
My tests suggest the Roboking can do a job anywhere. As a vacuum, it will keep a data centre floor nicely clean. As a webcam, it will alert you to motion and detect it in most light conditions and do so perhaps too well and too often.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Buhr / TechCrunch:
Scanadu to shut down support for its Scout device per FDA regulation and customers are mad
https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/13/fda-orders-scanadu-to-shut-down-support-for-its-scout-device-and-customers-are-mad/
Medical startup Scanadu informed customers today it will no longer support its Scout device starting May 15, 2017.
The reason? Though Scanadu has been working with the Food and Drug Administration to get full approval for this and other devices, it seems Scout didn’t make the cut.
Scanadu came out of the X Prize Foundation’s Qualcomm Tricorder competition, but soon broke an Indiegogo record, raising more than $1.6 million in less than a month for the Scout, a medical device that could check for heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature.
Scanadu used Scout, which could detect vitals such as temperature and upload that information to a smartphone, as a preliminary device for medical research. The device could also send collected information from an app to your doctor.
However, customers paid anywhere from $149 on Indiegogo to $199 to use the device and the information Scout users were given at the beginning of the study conveyed Scout would continue to work after the study.
But it is the collection of that data without anything in return that has sparked a lot of anger in those who’ve bought and supported the use of Scout.
Another user, long time supporter Dr. David Fraser wrote TechCrunch in an email, “They basically took our money, took our data, took the learnings from the process and dumped the very backers who got them started. No recompense, no future trade-up voucher, nada!”
Tomi Engdahl says:
PIC Mesh, Accessible Distributed Networking
http://hackaday.com/2016/12/17/pic-mesh-accessible-distributed-networking/
It is however interesting once in a while to take a look at the operation of a real wireless network, and [Alex Wong], [Brian Clark], and [Raghava Kumar] have given us a project with the opportunity to do just that. Their PIC Mesh university project is a distributed wireless mesh network using 2.4GHz NRF24L01 transceiver modules and PIC32 microcontrollers. They have it configured for demonstration purposes with a home automation system at the application layer, however it could be applied to many other applications.
PIC Mesh
A Programmable Home Automation System
http://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece4760/FinalProjects/f2016/bac239_aw528_rk534/bac239_aw528_rk534/bac239_aw528_rk534/index.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Has Amazon Managed To Make Hackers Love Alexa?
http://hackaday.com/2016/12/19/how-has-amazon-managed-to-make-hackers-love-alexa/
Big Brother Sister
An Alexa-supporting device is constantly listening to conversations within its range, and when it detects its activation word, in most cases “Alexa”, it lights up and records the question that follows before sending it to a cloud-hosted voice recognition engine which makes the decision on its response. The company claims that a lot of effort has been made to ensure the privacy of users, however there remains the possibility for a significant invasion for anyone within range of an Alexa device.
Given that our community contains a lot of people who are concerned by issues involving privacy and surveillance, I am surprised that so many have embraced Alexa. For a community with qualms about a security camera for a hackspace, to wholeheartedly embrace a listening device under the control of a global company raises some interesting questions about our real relationship with the technology.
Who Do You Trust?
Help Grow the Surveillance Infrastructure
So it shouldn’t be news to any of us that these devices raise privacy concerns, but the interesting thing here is that some companies seem to have slipped their products under our natural defenses while others haven’t. So back to our hackspace members who get twitchy about CCTV cameras monitoring building entry points, why are they seemingly happy to have a voice assistant device from one company in their space when they’d start to get cold feet about one from another extremely similar company?
Whatever secret sauce Amazon have invented to gain that level of trust, I want a bottle of it. Dogbert would have nothing on my evil genius armed with that stuff!
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Beacon Suitable for Tracking Santa’s sleigh?
http://hackaday.com/2016/12/19/a-beacon-suitable-for-tracking-santas-sleigh/
They have now shared their design for an “Iridium 9603 Beacon” — a small Arduino-compatible unit which can transmit its location and other data from anywhere via the Iridium satellite network.
The beacon uses the Short Burst Data service which sends email to a designated mail box with its date, time, location, altitude, speed, heading, temperature, pressure and battery voltage. To do all of this, it incorporates a SAMD21G18 M0 processor; FGPMMOPA6H GPS module; MPL3115A2 altitude sensor; Iridium 9603 Short Burst Data module + antenna and an LTC3225 supercapacitor charger. Including the batteries and antenna, the whole thing weighs in at 72.6 g, making it perfectly suited for high altitude ballooning.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Week In Review: IoT
http://semiengineering.com/the-week-in-review-iot-31/
Google previews Android Things for developers; ARM Cordio radio IP is qualified for Bluetooth 5; forecast for IoT-enabled managed services.
Google this week updated its Internet of Things platform, releasing a Developer Preview for Android Things, enabling application developers to create IoT devices running on the mobile Android operating system. “We incorporated the feedback from Project Brillo to include familiar tools such as Android Studio, the Android Software Development Kit (SDK), Google Play Services, and Google Cloud Platform,”
ARM said its Cordio radio intellectual property has been qualified for the Bluetooth 5 standards. “In 2017, we will see an increase in the number of devices with the new Bluetooth 5 standard, including key features such as range extension, delivering robust and reliable connections that make home, building, and outdoor IoT use cases a reality,”
Security
The October 21 cyberattacks on Dyn brought to light how easily many IoT devices can be compromised, Steve Zurier writes in this analysis. “There’s no question that everyone in the chain – manufacturers, retailers and consumers – have to do a better job securing connected devices,” says Craig Spiezle, executive director of the Online Trust Alliance.
When it comes to IoT, more security is needed
https://www.scmagazine.com/when-it-comes-to-iot-more-security-is-needed/article/578654/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Startup Launches IoT Net in Canada
Eleven-X plans national network
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331003&
A startup co-founded by a pair of former Blackberry developers launched a network for the Internet of Things they hope to spread across Canada. Eleven-X switched on a LoRa network in Waterloo this week, aiming to extend it to major cities across the country by the end of 2018.
LoRa is one of a handful of low power wide area networks (LPWA) operating in sub-gigahertz bands for IoT. Its open specification has helped it achieve traction in a highly competitive market of players including Sigfox, Ingenu and emerging cellular IoT variants. The LoRa Alliance currently has more than 400 participants
The network launched with “multiple pilot customers” but no paying customers yet, said a company spokesperson.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DoT Shifts V2V Mandate into Gear
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330993&
The U.S. Department of Transportation issued Tuesday a proposed rule to advance deployment of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technologies. The action put the United States on a path as the first in the world to mandate V2V communication on all new light-duty vehicles.
The U.S. regulator’s notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) will provide a long overdue political push for dedicated short range communications (DSRC) technology, otherwise known as IEEE 802.11p, to be installed in vehicles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UK city of Cambridge to be IoT testbed using LoRa wireless network
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2016/12/uk-city-of-cambridge-to-be-iot-testbed-using-lora-wireless-network.html
As one of six partners selected across the UK, the CW programme will make use of the city-wide LoRaWAN network,which is currently being deployed by the Smart Cambridge programme as part of its work with the Greater Cambridge City Deal. Partners include Everynet, the LoRa Alliance, Iotic Labs and Smart Cambridge as well as the University of Cambridge.
Tomi Engdahl says:
5th RISC-V Workshop Points to Growing Interest in the RISC-V Platform
http://www.securerf.com/5th-risc-v-workshop-points-growing-interest-risc-v-platform/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ambiq Micro is known for ARM-based driver circuits whose power consumption will be significantly lower than competing chips.
Apollo 2 is Ambiqin first tailor-made for IoT applications, the driver circuit. Its current consumption is less than 10 microamps per megahertz. Such a controller is able to practically double its functioning with a small button cell IoT node operating time.
Apollo-circuits, low power consumption based on the SPOT technology (subthreshold Power Optimized Technology).
First version, like Apollo 2 bottom of the ARM Cortex-M4 processor. It operates up to 48 MHz clock frequency.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5608:maailman-pihein-mullistaa-nyt-esineiden-internetin&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Toshiba offers BLE plug-in for Bluetooth® Developer Studio
https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/eu/company/news/2016/09/wireless-20160901-1.html
Plug-in significantly simplifies and speeds code generation for IoT devices and other Bluetooth Smart-enabled applications
Toshiba Electronics Europe has launched a Bluetooth® Developer Studio ‘plug-in’ that will significantly reduce the development time of IoT (internet of Things) devices and other applications based around Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) components from Toshiba.
Bluetooth Developer Studio (BDS) is a GATT-based application development tool provided by the Bluetooth SIG that helps developers create consistent Bluetooth services and applications across multiple chipsets and platforms. Toshiba’s new BLE plug-in allows users to harness the power of the BDS to quickly and easily create optimized code for the company’s family of integrated Bluetooth ICs.
The Toshiba BDS plugin generates source code for standard and custom GATT (Generic Attribute Profile) server and client profiles that include GATT Services, GATT Characteristics, GATT Descriptors, GATT Operations and GAP (Generic Access Profile) Advertising.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daniel Terdiman / Fast Company:
Mark Zuckerberg talks about progress and challenges building his home assistant Jarvis, a project he’s spent 100-150 hours on this year
At Home With Mark Zuckerberg And Jarvis, The AI Assistant He Built For His Family
https://www.fastcompany.com/3066478/mind-and-machine/mark-zuckerberg-jarvis
Facebook’s CEO still loves to code. Here’s an exclusive peek at his new project, which plays music, makes toast, and occasionally annoys his wife.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile World raised the tip of topics including starting a battle between different IoT technologies. Customer-specific technologies such as Sigfox and Lora are currently longer, but functional mobile networks NB-IoT will race in earnest by next year.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5622:video-note-7-oli-mobiilivuoden-suurin-uutinen&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sensor Net to Run on RF Power
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331030&
Researchers at PARC aim to develop a platform for distributed sensors made on a flexible substrate and powered by a 900-MHz RF link. The work is one of 18 building-automation projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy geared to reduce wasted energy.
PARC hopes to stage demonstrations within 18 months of peel-and-stick temperature and humidity sensors and an RF hub to power them. The sensors target costs of less than $10 while the hub would send micro-joules of energy distances initially up to 10 meters and cost less than $100.
The RF hub will use multiple antennas in different combinations to detect when a sensor receives a signal and automatically steer power to it. The approach enables anyone to deploy and move the sensors and hubs as needed without needing to calibrate the system.
The sensors will use as many as 10 chips mounted on a plastic substrate, including a capacitor to store energy. Another group at PARC aims to develop automated techniques for mounting chips of different sizes on flexible substrates. Traces between chips are printed on the plastic using inks with silver nanoparticles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sitting Around on Your Zuckerbutt
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331032&
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg AI experiment yields good news and bad news.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg built “Jarvis,” an artificial intelligence system, called Jarvis, to run his own home.
In a post on Facebook, Zuckerberg explained that he spent about 100 hours of his spare time over the last year building Jarvis. The simple AI system, customized to his own home, is now capable of choosing and playing music, turning lights on and off and recognizing visitors at the door.
As Zuckerberg noted, this was his personal challenge. He designed it so that he can learn more about the state of AI, he explained.
He said the system uses several AI techniques, “including natural language processing, speech recognition, face recognition, and reinforcement learning, written in Python, PHP and Objective C.”
While reading about how he built Jarvis, five things struck me.
Tinkerer in chief
- Facebook CEO is a deft, capable software engineer.
Not so connected home
- Second— the most interesting part of his blog— Zuckerberg’s AI project exposes fundamental problems, not with AI, but with the “connected home.”
To Zuckerberg, AI was the easy part.
Much more complicated than he expected was “simply connecting and communicating with all of the different systems in my home.”
AI discoveries
Third, once he was able to get going with the AI system development, Zuckerberg actually offers a number of useful AI-related discoveries and nuggets in his blog post.
AI discoveries
Third, once he was able to get going with the AI system development, Zuckerberg actually offers a number of useful AI-related discoveries and nuggets in his blog post.
“I spent about 100 hours building Jarvis this year, and now I have a pretty good system that understands me and can do lots of things. But even if I spent 1,000 more hours, I probably wouldn’t be able to build a system that could learn completely new skills on its own — unless I made some fundamental breakthrough in the state of AI along the way.”
Zuckerbutt
Fifth, reading through what Jarvis can now do at Zuckerberg’s home, I couldn’t help but think “Is that it?”
In short, any one of the things he accomplished by connecting devices and teaching Jarvis seems like putting a lot of labor into saving labor that ain’t that hard without Jarvis.
Building Jarvis
https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/building-jarvis/10154361492931634/?_fb_noscript=1
My personal challenge for 2016 was to build a simple AI to run my home — like Jarvis in Iron Man.
My goal was to learn about the state of artificial intelligence — where we’re further along than people realize and where we’re still a long ways off.
Tomi Engdahl says:
High-Speed Fiber Optics Connect Smart Factories
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331041&
As M2M and IoT shape business and operations strategies, influence product design and compel companies to re-examine how suppler and customer data is collected and used, a question begs: How will companies pool together all their internal factory.
Machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity and the Internet of Things (IoT) have risen to the forefront of many strategic technology conversations.
Companies are revamping product designs and component capabilities to allow for seamless, real-time communication flows between devices.
As M2M and IoT shape business and operations strategies, influence product design and compel companies to re-examine how suppler and customer data is collected and used, a question begs: How will companies pool together all their internal factory and supply chain data in a way that matches the speed, consistency and reliability of what IoT promises? The factory, after all, is the heartbeat that keeps many companies operating, and a data bottleneck there comes with a costly implication.
A New Use for High-Speed Fiber Optics: Connecting Smart Factories
http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=1061&doc_id=282239&%22target=%22_blank%22
Many in the industry in have started to realize that, and it’s resulting in a deeper conversation around industrial IoT, or IIoT.
To keep factories up to pace, some of the conversation is moving around the idea of wiring up manufacturing facilities with high-speed fiber optics.
And, the Industrial Internet Consortium is taking a lead on that. The group, led by GE and supported by Cisco, Accenture and Bayshore Networks, has created a new high-speed networking testbed. The new fiber optic technology is capable of reaching speeds of 100-gigabit per second–the equivalent of downloading 6,000 high-definition movies simultaneously, the GE press release noted.)
The 100 gigabit capability extends to the wireless edge, allowing the testbed leaders to provide more data and analytical results to mobile users through advanced communication techniques, according to the consortium’s website. GE is installing the networking lines at its Global Research Center; Cisco provided the infrastructure needed to give the network its national reach, Accenture and Bayshore Networks are demonstrating the application of the High-Speed Network Infrastructure for power generation, the group said
“A software research focus for GE has been to advance the real-time connections between large scale systems and to develop sophisticated control systems that increase the performance and efficiency of our products,” said Colin Parris, vice president of GE Software Research, in a statement. “These high-speed networking lines enable accelerated data movement and an increase in data volumes within Industrial Internet products and services. This ability will greatly accelerate needed advancements in these areas, and in collaboration with the Industrial Internet Consortium, help advance industry standards.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Menorah For The 21st Century
http://hackaday.com/2016/12/21/a-menorah-for-the-21st-century/
For those new and experienced, this time of year is a great chance for enterprising makers to apply their skills to create unique gifts and decorations for family and friends. [Mike Diamond] of What I Made Today built a phone controlled, light-up menorah. It’s a charming way to display some home automation know-how during the holidays.
Expanding on his previous project — a pocket-sized menorah — a Raspberry Pi Zero with a WiFi dongle, some LEDs, wire, and tea lights suffice for the materials, while setting-up Blynk on the Raspberry Pi and a phone to control the lights ties it together after mounting it in an old monitor housing.
Light Your Menorah (Hanukiyya) or Christmas Tree Remotely from your Phone
http://www.whatimade.today/light-your-menorah-hanukiyya-christmas-tree-remotely-from-your-phone/
12 December 2016 on blynk, raspberry pi, Raspberry-pi, LED, Hanukkah Menorah, home automation, remote control, WiFi, screen bash, hanukka, Hanukkah, Hanukkia, E-hanukkia
Initiating Blynk
So, now that the hardware was ready, it was time to get back to the programming.
Running Blynk on the Raspberry Pi
We’re very close to the end. All we need to do is get Blynk running on the Pi and we’re done.
Blynk should then connect to their company servers and allow you to access the Menorah’s lights through your phone app. Just press the buttons and watch your lights come on! (As long as you’re connected to the internet, you can do this from anywhere in the world!)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Enterprise-class version of Internet of Things = EIoT
Tomi Engdahl says:
IIoT analytic solution and platform suppliers
Entrants into fast-growing market include solution specialists and platform suppliers.
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/iiot-analytic-solution-and-platform-suppliers/b501ed89cd4f056976e93a18c0a74fe7.html
Emerging IIoT technology markets include for sensor advances, connectivity solutions, and analytics. In just the last several years, analytics advances have had impact on many walks of life. A growing number of companies are now addressing industrial analytics use. It’s therefor safe to say that for manufacturing and process production industries, their time has come to make the most of data they already have and to garner insights they would otherwise have to do without.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finding IIoT benefits
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/finding-iiot-benefits/2e0bada48cfa0e2ecbad5a0fb0fc66fc.html
Think again, smarter manufacturing: Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) with smart applications of automation can include process optimization, higher quality, safer processes, lower energy use, regulatory compliance, higher profits, and more sustainable operations. These real benefits in real money are worth the investment; see examples.
Use of automation to efficiently enable a connected enterprise and realize benefits of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Industrie 4.0, digital enterprise, smart manufacturing, and other initiatives, were among topics discussed at Automation Perspectives 2016, a conference prior to Automation Fair 2016 for media and analysts.
Automation helps fill the skills gap
The lower cost of connectivity has driven opportunities, such as IT-OT convergence. Different levels of networks are collapsing and converging on Ethernet. With that infrastructure, another level of productivity can be achieved with information management and analytics applied at the right point in the architecture. Depending on the application, that may be at the plant floor, in the control room, and/or in the cloud, Moret suggested.
Manufacturers and facilities in countries around world are understanding how they can have home field advantage if they embrace connectivity. Adoption of the productivity requirements in China Manufacturing 2025, similar to IIoT and I.40 initiative, is required for Chinese manufacturers, Moret said. They’re adopting that connectivity at every level in these initiatives to unlock unprecedented productivity.
Value in connectivity
“Our vision of the connected enterprise is a practical way to get started and help companies along their journey,” Moret said, noting that value can be added four ways, by making companies realize:
1. Faster speed to market
2. Lower total cost of ownership (TCO) of critical assets
3. Increased asset utilization and less downtime
4. Greater ability to manage risk and comply with regulations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OPC Foundation, OMAC Develop IIoT Building Blocks
https://www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/opc-foundation-omac-develop-iiot-building-blocks/19020557647158?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20161220.tst004c
PackML and OPC UA offer an industry-standard approach to data connectivity between machines, as well as MES, ERP, and SCADA systems.
The combination of OPC UA with PackML is moving toward completion, the result of a strategic cooperation between OMAC (Organization for Machine Automation & Control), the OPC Foundation, and PLCopen. As open communications standards proliferate, and the IIoT drives the need to flatten network communication architectures, technology organizations are actively engaged to do just that in automation applications.
Using TR88-00.02 (PackML) provides the advantage of a standard state-based template for defining a machine’s status and behavior, making it easier for system integrators to integrate machines in a line. Combining TR88-00.02 (PackML) with OPC UA provides an industry-standard approach to sharing data securely, and making that data seamlessly available to other machines, as well as MES, ERP, and SCADA systems.
“A standard method for modeling and sharing data, used consistently across the industry, is vital for the implementation of automation standards such as TR88.00.02-2015 (PackML) that will feed data into the IIoT. A companion specification between TR88 and OPC UA will fill this need,” said Dr. Bryan Griffen, OMAC chair and group engineering manager at Nestlé USA.
PLCopen worked with OPC to define a set of IEC 61131-3-compliant Function Blocks providing OPC UA client functionality and mapping the IEC 61131-3 software model to the OPC UA information model.
Since most automation controllers support the IEC languages, it makes sense for the three organizations to get together and avoid redundant developments. OMAC has for many years recognized IEC 61131-3 as the preferred programming language standard in its Packaging Guidelines document.
Ongoing Technology Developments
“While much of the IIoT talk has been about Big Data in the cloud, the fact is that good data starts at the machine and production line level. That’s where the two organizations had been working in parallel,” said John Kowal, business development director for B&R Industrial Automation Corp., a member of the OMAC board and co-chair of the Industrial Internet Consortium’s Smart Factory Task Group.
In 2015, OMAC and OPC Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding to proliferate communications standards necessary for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to succeed.
OMAC is widely known among automation suppliers for developing ISA TR88.00.02-2015, better known as PackML, which is now also finding broader application in manufacturing by defining machine modes, states, and tag naming conventions.
TR88 does not, however, specify a communications protocol and that is where OPC UA comes in.
“The combination of OPCF, OMAC, and PLCopen promises transparent communication ‘right out of the box’ and independent from network architecture and protocol, using TR88 tag naming and machine states, providing standardized access between any OPC client and server via a secure channel,” added PLCopen Managing Director Eelco van der Wal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rohde & Schwarz helped NB-IoT tests
China Mobile, and Rohde & Schwarz received in October the end of the first tests NB-IoT-acting base stations. Huawei has also tested the NB-IoT act on the German company’s testers. Also Nokia has tested NB-IoT.
Rohde & Schwarz offers test solutions (SMW200A, FSW, R & S VSE software) for base stations in order to create and analyze NB-IoT signals.
The first 3GPP standard, the NB-IoT based on the 4G technology. It meets the general requirements of cellular phone network that rely on IoT networks such as wide coverage, better indoor coverage, low power consumption, small equipment costs and support a large number of devices.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/12/23/rohde-schwarz-auttoi-nb-iot-testeissa/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Seeing Clearly in the Fog: Fog Computing Solutions for the IoT
http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4442990/Seeing-Clearly-in-the-Fog?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20161222&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20161222&elqTrackId=e5895f42d19f446faffd7dc7b6d647c6&elq=7f7a6655fed442a2b41fe04a57c5de92&elqaid=35276&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30827
The growth of IoT is burdening wireless networks, running up corporate cloud costs, and exposing gaps in real-time analytics.
Fog computing puts computation, communication, control, storage, and services closer to edge devices and systems. Implemented in the edge-to-cloud space where tasks are performed, it enables operational decisions to be made locally, often autonomously, and in real or near-real time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Solving IoT Problems with Node.js for Hardware
http://hackaday.com/2016/12/22/solving-iot-problems-with-node-js-for-hardware/
Tod Kurt knows a thing or two about IoT devices. As the creator of blink(1), he’s shipped over 30,000 units that are now out in the wild and in use for custom signaling on everything from compile status to those emotionally important social media indicators. His talk at the 2016 Hackaday SuperConference covers the last mile that bridges your Internet of Things devices with its intended use. This is where IoT actually happens, and of course where it usually goes astray.
I think this device is a good reference for thinking conceptually about Internet of Things. It’s dead-simple hardware: a thumbnail-sized PCB with a USB connector hosts two WS2812 RGB LEDs and a microcontroller.
Does this qualify as IoT? Absolutely. Think of IoT as anything that brings data into the real world (or vice versa).
The computer is the gatekeeper of that USB port and provides a direct and easy connection for software access to it. This can be true of wireless devices as well, but your best bet on that front is devices that are LAN only and depend on another gatekeeper to regulate access to them.
Lacking One OS to Rule Them, Tod Looks to Node
Of the myriad options to explore for cross-platform apps, Tod is preaching for Electron, a browser-based framework that uses Node.js for your every whim. This last part isn’t hyperbole. One of the chief benefits of Node.js is the extremely widespread adoption that means if you can think of a use, a library probably already exists. There are numerous examples of support for common hardware (from ESP8266 to Sphero BB-8 toy robots). Even if your programming chops can’t keep up with the new hotness there are tools like Node-RED which help you stomp out complexity with a graphic programming flow.
Think Security, Think User, Then Think Product
blink(1) USB notification light
Get notified without looking at your computer
https://blink1.thingm.com/
Build cross platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
http://electron.atom.io/
Node-RED
A visual tool for wiring the Internet of Things
https://nodered.org/
Electron and Node.js to Think Differently about IoT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr2EILGO3Hs
Tod Kurt knows a thing or two about IoT devices. As the creator of blink(1), he’s shipped over 30,000 units that are now out in the wild and in use for custom signaling on everything from compile status to those emotionally important social media indicators. His talk at the 2016 Hackaday SuperConference covers the last mile that bridges your Internet of Things devices with its intended use. This is where IoT actually happens, and of course where it usually goes astray.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Billy Steele / Engadget:
Report: police sought Echo data with warrant in murder case; Amazon declined to share the data Echo logged on servers but did provide suspect’s account details — Amazon’s Echo devices and its virtual assistant are meant to help find answers by listening for your voice commands.
Police seek Amazon Echo data in murder case (updated)
The company declined to do so, but the case raises bigger questions about IoT privacy.
https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/27/amazon-echo-audio-data-murder-case/
Amazon’s Echo devices and its virtual assistant are meant to help find answers by listening for your voice commands. However, police in Arkansas want to know if one of the gadgets overheard something that can help with a murder case. According to The Information, authorities in Bentonville issued a warrant for Amazon to hand over any audio or records from an Echo belonging to James Andrew Bates. Bates is set to go to trial for first-degree murder for the death of Victor Collins next year.
Amazon declined to give police any of the information that the Echo logged on its servers, but it did hand over Bates’ account details and purchases. Police say they were able to pull data off of the speaker, but it’s unclear what info they were able to access.
Amazon Echo and the Hot Tub Murder
https://www.theinformation.com/amazon-echo-and-the-hot-tub-murder?eu=JnmYMZlQZHz7uehZk0Lvtg
Tomi Engdahl says:
FPGAs solve challenges at the core of IoT implementation
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4442318/FPGAs-solve-challenges-at-the-core-of-IoT-implementation?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20161227&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20161227&elqTrackId=558e40ffd4c94b958f422a1d1e57a0e1&elq=fc9826e634894133b423a008db5f8390&elqaid=35310&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30857
The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a wildly popular term these days, often used to describe a world in which virtually every electronic device connects to the Internet and each other. It comprises a staggering list of applications—everything from smart consumer appliances and vehicles to wearables—and that list will only grow as mobility continues to explode. But this growth brings with it implementation challenges to which solutions need to be found.
But to reach the tens of billions of devices projected to make up the IoT, designers will have to overcome significant implementation challenges. Some of the key among them will be making IoT devices power efficient, handling incompatible interfaces, and providing a processing growth path to handle the inevitable increase in device performance requirements. An FPGA-based design approach can help address such challenges.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Narrowband Internet of Things
http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4442606/Narrowband-Internet-of-Things?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20161223&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20161223&elqTrackId=03c8fd3ab0e349bf9390b04978166f58&elq=a6ede47adaf9434e8696f3e062b3e4a7&elqaid=35292&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30839
3GPP has specified a new radio interface, the Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), optimized for machine type traffic.
Although NB-IoT is an independent radio interface, it is tightly connected with LTE, which also shows up in its integration in the current LTE specifications
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Week In Review: IoT
http://semiengineering.com/the-week-in-review-iot-32/
TDK buys InvenSense for $1.3B; PARC gets $19M for peel-and-stick sensors; Honeywell and Dover unit team up.
TDK has agreed to acquire InvenSense for $13 a share, representing a total of $1.3 billion in cash.
Honeywell and Dover Energy Automation will work together on Industrial Internet of Things technology and software. “It is clear that a robust ecosystem is key to successfully implementing an effective IIoT solution for manufacturers,”
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $19 million to PARC to develop peel-and-stick sensors that can monitor IoT activity, using radio-frequency power.
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $19 million to PARC to develop peel-and-stick sensors that can monitor IoT activity, using radio-frequency power.
ABI Research forecasts shipments of cellular machine-to-machine modules will reach more than 400 million units in 2021, increasing earlier forecasts, citing the accelerated rollouts of narrowband Internet of Things networks. “In the mid to latter half of 2016, several mobile operators, including DT, Vodafone, China Mobile, and China Unicom announced NB-IoT network availability as early as 2017,”
The Wi-SUN Alliance, which is working in the areas of field area networking and the Internet of Things, said it completed an interoperability testing event of the IEEE 802.15.4u physical layer radio-frequency specification for India.
Sigfox announced this week it has installed its low-power wide-area networks in more than 100 U.S. cities, covering 20% of the American population.
STMicroelectronics and Valencell have collaborated on a development kit for biometric wearables, pairing ST’s SensorTile turnkey multi-sensor module with Valencell’s Benchmark biometric sensor system. “
Digi-Key Electronics will distribute a new IoT software platform from enmo Technologies.
Gobot this week released version 1.0 of its open-source robotics and Internet of Things framework. It supports more than 24 hardware and software platforms, it was said, along with machine-to-machine communication standards, such as MQTT. “We created Gobot to make IoT development easy, and at the same time provide industrial-strength tools,”
https://gobot.io/news/gobot-1.0-release/