It’s undeniable: 2014 was the year when the electronics industry decidedly and collectively moved forward to push the Internet of Things (IoT). In year 2015 IoT markets will continue to grow. I think we’re going to see some critical mass on corralling the IoT in 2015. IoT is a young market – no one seems to be clearly leading. Communications are the key here. Over the last 10 years the world has done a remarkably good job of connecting the global wireless world. The last decade has radically changed the way we live. The smartphone and its cousin, the tablet, was the final link to ubiquitous wireless coverage, globally. The fantasy of the IoT is quite grand: everything on the planet can be smart and communicate. The idea is both powerful and impractical.
IoT is entering peak of inflated expectations: The Internet of Things is at that stage when the efforts of various companies involved in it, along with research, are proving to have a lot of promise. At this stage, the Internet of Things should not have too many difficulties attracting developers and researchers into the fold. As we turn to 2015 and beyond, however, wearables becomes an explosive hardware design opportunity. Tie the common threads of IoT and wearables together, and an unstoppable market movement emerges. There seems to be a lack of public appreciation of the extent to which the Internet of Things is going to fundamentally change how people interact with the world around them.
On the other hand, the Internet of Things is getting poised to enter the trough of disillusionment, which means that there is more room for failure now. There are issues of security, privacy, and sharing of information across vertical implementations that still need to be worked out. Until they are, the IoT will not be able to fulfill all its promises.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is beginning to grow significantly, as consumers, businesses, and governments recognize the benefit of connecting inert devices to the internet. The ‘Internet of Things’ Will Be The World’s Most Massive Device Market And Save Companies Billions Of Dollars in few years. BI Intelligence expects that the IoT will result in $1.7 trillion in value added to the global economy in 2019. This includes hardware, software, installation costs, management services, and economic value added from realized IoT efficiencies. The main benefit of growth in the IoT will be increased efficiency and lower costs: increased efficiency within the home, city, and workplace. The enterprise sector will lead the IoT, accounting for 46% of device shipments this year, but that share will decline as the government and home sectors gain momentum. I expect that home, government, and enterprise sectors use the IoT differently.
The IoT is only enabled because of two things: the ability of networks to reach countless nodes, and the availability of cost-effective embedded processors to attach to a multitude of devices. The prices for components and devices continues to decline while the skyrocketing global demand for 24/7 Internet access grows exponentially. The Internet of Things growth will benefit mostly from the autonomous machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity that will make up the bulk of the objects of the IoT. This is the main driver for double-digit growth across verticals in the electronics, and especially the semiconductor industry well into the next decade. The IoT will connect places, such as manufacturing platforms, energy grids, health-care facilities, transportation systems, retail outlets, sports and music venues, and countless other entities to the Internet.
Internet of Things can become Engineering for Everyone. The emergence of open-source development platforms, developed and maintained by dedicated volunteers, has effectively raised the level of abstraction to a point where nonexperts can now use these platforms. The availability of open-source software and, more recently, hardware targeting embedded applications means that access to high-quality engineering resources has never been greater. This has effectively raised the level of abstraction to a point where nonexperts can now use these platforms to turn their own abstract concepts into real products. With the potential to launch a successful commercial venture off the back of tinkering with some low-cost hardware in your spare time, it’s no wonder that open-source hardware is fuelling an entirely new movement. A new generation of manufacturer is embracing the open-source ethos and actually allowing customers to modify the product post-sale.
Exact size predictions for IoT market next few years vary greatly, but all of the firms making these predictions agree on one thing—it’s going to be very big.
In year 2014 very many chip vendors and sensor algorithm companies also jumped on the IoT bandwagon, in hopes of laying the groundwork for more useful and cost-effective IoT devices. Sensors, MCUs, and wireless connectivity are three obvious building blocks for IoT end-node devices. Wireless connectivity and software (algorithms) are the two most sought-after technologies. Brimming with excitement, and with Europe already ahead of the pack, a maturing semiconductor industry looks expectantly to the Internet of Things (IoT) for yet another facelift. The IC sales generated by the connectivity and sensor subsystems to enabled this IoT will amount $57.7 billion in 2015.
Chips for IoT market to grow 36% in 2015, says Gartner as automotive V2X, LED lighting and smart domestic objects are set to drive semiconductor market growth through the year 2020, according to market analysis firm Gartner. The move to create billions of smart, autonomously communicating objects known as the Internet of Things (IoT) is driving the need for low-power sensors, processors and communications chips. By 2018, the market value of IoT subsystems in equipment and Internet-connected things is projected to reach $103.6 billion worldwide, which represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.0 percent from $39.8 billion in 2013.
BI Intelligence expects that by 2019 IoT market will be more than double the size of the smartphone, PC, tablet, connected car, and the wearable market combined. A new report by Yole Developpement pegs the market size in the $70 billion range by 2018, with the next five years presenting a golden opportunity for device makers as the IoT enters the growth stage. Device shipments will reach 6.7 billion in 2019 for a five-year CAGR of 61%.
Number of connected devices is expected to to reach 36 billion units by 2020, cautions that “all of this new market opportunity is under threat.” Other estimate according to market research firm Radiant Insights of San Francisco is that the number of Internet connections will grow from 9 billion devices in 2014 to 100 billion by 2020 (twice as many as the estimate from Cisco Systems Inc). IC Insights forecasts that web-connected things will account for 85 percent of 29.5 billion Internet connections worldwide by 2020. Currently fragmented market, the number of cellular M2M connections could rise from 478 million today to 639 million in 2020.
By 2024, the report predicts that overall market value for components will exceed of $400 billion, of which more than 10% will come from hardware alone. Revenue from hardware sales will be only $50 billion or 8% of the total revenue from IoT-specific efforts, as software makers and infrastructure companies will earn the lion’s share. As the Internet of Things grows to a projected 212 billion items by 2020, the question of regulation looms increasingly large.
The growth of the IoT will present some very interesting issues in a variety of areas. You will see some very fast activity because unless it gets resolved there will be no IoT as it is envisioned.
General consensus is that the interconnect protocol of the IoT will be IP (Internet Protocol). As it stands today, the deployment of the billions of IoT objects can’t happen, simply because there just aren’t enough IP addresses with IPv4. While there is still some discussion about how to connect the IoT, most are in agreement that the IoT protocol will be IPv6. The first step will be to convert all proprietary networks to an IP-base. Then, the implementation of IPv6 can begin. Because direct interoperability between IPv4 and iPv6 protocols is not possible, this will add some some complications to the development, resulting in a bit of obfuscation to the transition for IPv6.
Is There Any Way to Avoid Standards Wars in the Emerging Internet of Things? I don’t see that possible. IoT will be in serious protocol war in 2015. There is a wide selection of protocols, but no clear set of winners at the moment. The real IoT standardization is just starting – There are currently few standards (or regulations) for what is needed to run an IoT device. There is no single standard for connecting devices on the Internet of Thing, instead are a handful of competing standards run by different coalitions of companies: The Thread Group (Qualcomm, The Linux Foundation, Microsoft, Panasonic), The Industrial Internet Consortium (Intel, Cisco, AT&T, IBM, Microsoft), Open Interconnect Consortium (Samsung, Intel, Dell), Physical Web (Google), AllSeen Alliance (Samsung, Intel, Dell) and huge number of smaller non-standardized protocols in use. Each of the standards vary how they do things.
Anyone who tries to build a physical layer and drive a software stack based on it all the way up to the application layer is a fool. But many companies try to do it this year. Today Zigbee is the most cost effective, but tomorrow WiFi will figure it out. On networking field in every few years there’s a new management protocol – what will happen in IoT, it will keep moving, and people will need open APIs.
Currently the IoT lacks a common set of standards and technologies that would allow for compatibility and ease-of-use. The IoT needs a set of open APIs and protocols that work with a variety of physical-layer networks. The IP and network layer should have nothing to do with the media. The fundamental issue here is that at the moment the Internet of Things will not have a standard set of open APIs for consumers. IoT, it will keep moving, and people will need open APIs. I suspect that at some point, after the first wave of the Internet of Things, open APIs and root access will become a selling point.
It is not just technical protocol details that are problem: One problem with IoT is that it is a vague definition. Do we simply mean ‘connected devices? Or something else? One of the main issues, which will only get worse as the IoT evolves, is how are we going to categorize all the different objects.
Early in 2015, the Industrial Internet Consortium plans to wrap up work on a broad reference architecture for the Internet of Things, ramp up three test beds, and start identifying gaps where new standards may be needed. The group, formed by AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM, and Intel, now has about 115 members and aims to make it easier to build commercial IoT systems. The IIC hopes to finish a first draft of its reference architecture by the end of January and have it ratified by March. It will define functional areas and the technologies and standards for them, from sensors to data analytics and business applications. The framework includes versions for vertical markets including aerospace, healthcare, manufacturing, smart cities, and transportation. A breakout section on security also is in the works. Hopefully the reference architecture could be used to help people construct industrial IoT systems quickly and easily.
With the emergence of the Internet of Things, smart cars are beginning to garner more attention. Smart cars are different than connected cars, which are simply smartphones on wheels. Even though the technology has been on the evolutionary fast track, integration has been slow. For car manufacturers, it is a little tricky to accept driverless cars because it disrupts their fundamental business model: Private resources will evolve to shared resources, centrally controlled, since autonomous vehicles can be controlled remotely.
Over the next few years, we’ll see a torrent of new devices emerge that are connected to the Internet and each other through a wide range of different wireless networking protocols. As a result, there’s a race on, not just to get those devices connected, but also to provide the network infrastructure necessary to managing all of them at scale. WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular networks are nowadays widely used, nut new alternatives are coming to solve applications were those technologies are not most suitable. There are different plans for wide area wireless networks that use licensed or unlicensed wireless bandwidth to transmit small amounts of data from various connected device – this could create its own connection to them in a cost effective manner without relying on existing cellular or WiFi networks.
Recently we have developed a pressing need, or desire to put our refrigerators, and everything we have access to while mobile, on the net, morphing the brave new world of the Internet of Things, into the Internet of Everything (IoE). And that will make that last 100 meters—that final frontier of interconnect—a reality. Today, only about 10% of the last 100 meter devices that will make up the IoT are connected. As the IoT evolves, other small cells such as businesses, city centers, malls, theaters, stadiums, event centers, and the like, will connect much of what they have on premise (soda or popcorn machines, vending machines, restaurants, parking garages, ticket kiosks, seat assignments, and a very long list of others). And, there are a very large number of devices that are short-range in all of these various cells. What was once the last mile for connectivity is now the last 100 meters.
Plenty of people and companies in the technology world tend to come at the Internet of Things by dwelling on the “Internet.” But what if, instead, we started with the “Things?” Knowing intimately what “things” are supposed to do and how they think and behave will be the key to solving one of the IoT’s most pressing issues: application layers. Over the past 18 months, the industry has launched numerous consortia, from Qualcomm’s AllSeen and Intel’s Open Interconnect Consortium to Apple’s HomeKit and Google’s Thread. Every entity says it’s targeting the “interoperability” of things at home, but each is obviously concentrating primarily on its own interests, and making their “layer” specifications slightly different from those pursued by others.
It seems that no industry consortium is particularly interested in defining — in gory detail — the specific functions of, say, what a door lock is supposed to do. The library of commands for each function already exists, but someone, or some group, has to translate those already determined commands into an IP-friendly format. One of the standards organizations will take up the challenge in 2015. This will be the first step to “knock barriers down for IoT” in 2015.
Missing today in the IoT are reliability and robustness. Consumers expect their light switched and other gadgets to be infinitely reliable. In many today’s products we seem to be far from reliable and robust operation. Today’s routers can relay traffic between networks, but they have no idea how to translate what functions each device attached to them wants to do, and how to communicate that to other devices. The network needs to be able to discover who else is on the network. Devices connected to network need to be able to discover what resources are available and what new devices are being added. The network needs to be extensible.
Despite the oft-mocked naming scheme, the Internet of Things (IoT) has an incredibly practical goal: connecting classically “dumb” objects—toasters, doorknobs, light switches—to the Internet, thereby unlocking a world of potential. Imagine what it means to interact with your home the same way you would a website, accessing it without geographic restriction. But there is one missing piece of the smart home revolution: smart home operating system. So what will be the system that capitalizes on the smart home in the same way, the enabler of all the applications and actions we want our homes to run and do? There are no ready answers for that yet. And there might not be a singular, cohesive operating system for your home, that this stuff isn’t one-size-fits-all. It might be that the real potential for home automation lies not in local software running on a home device but in the cloud. I think that the cloud is going to be more important over time, but there will always be also need for some local functionality in case the connection to cloud is lost. Right now the Internet of Things is rather disjointed compared to Internet and computers.
When everything will be connected, how about security? In the path to IoT, the issue of data and device security looms large. Security for the ‘Internet of Things’ will be talked about very much in 2015 for a good reason. As Internet of Thigs becomes more and more used, it will be more hacked. Thus security of Internet of Things will be more and more talked about. Virtually anything connected to the Internet has the potential of being hacked, no matter how unlikely. Internet of Things devices often lack systematic protections against viruses or spam. Nowadays most security breaches are software-based, when an application can be compromised. Counter-measures for such attacks range from basic antivirus scanning software, to embedded hypervisors to hardware-bound secure applications tying their execution to uniquely identifiable hardware. There is emerging customer demand for silicon authentication. But the threats extend way beyond software and some hackers will put a lot of effort into compromising a system’s security at silicon-level. Individual devices can get hacked, but all systems should have some way of self-checking and redundancy. Those IoT systems can be very complex at device and system level. The problem with complexity is that you create more attack points and make it easier for hackers to find flaws.
Experts recommend far more layers of cyberprotection than manufacturers have thought necessary. Because many of the devices will often be practically inaccessible, the “patch and pray” strategy used for many desktop software packages is unlikely to be an effective strategy for many forms of IoT devices. Right now, there are hundreds of companies churning out “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices as fast as they can, without thinking too much on the security issues they can cause in the future. The imperative is clear: Do your homework on the specific security features of any IoT device you might consider bringing into the home. What steps are IoT companies taking to keep us safe from others online, and what constitutes a truly “safe” smart appliance?
What we’re opening up is a whole new subject not just of security but of safety. That safety depends on devices to be constantly connected to the Internet the same way they’re connected to the power grid. That’s a whole new area that deserves its own consideration. Keep in mind that IoT is one field where cyber security flaws can kill in the worst case. Connecting unrelated devices in the IoT means many more pieces now affect reliability and security. More devices are now considered critical, such as a connected baby monitor or a smart smoke detector, because wrong information can injure or kill people. The Internet of Things is coming no matter what happens. The people in charge of keeping the public safe and the industry healthy need to be ready.
The European Police Office (Europol) said governments are ill-equipped to counter the menace of “injury and possible deaths” spurred by hacking attacks on critical safety equipment. There are many potential dangers are in transportation: many new cars are Internet connected and potentially vulnerable, SCADA Systems in Railways Vulnerable to Attack and Airline bosses ignore cyber security concerns at their peril. With industrial control systems becoming network-connected, security risks rise and will need a long-term solution. In light of the trend toward the Industrial Internet of Things, development teams must start thinking hard about network security and planning for its long-term viability.
You have to accept the fact that at each point in the IoT there are vulnerabilities to malicious attacks and interception of vital information. Soon, almost every network will soon have some IoT-hacking in it. IDC predicts that in two years from 90 per cent of the global IT networks have met IoT data theft. In a report, cybersecurity firm Fortinet expects greater threats from “denial of service attacks on assembly line, factory, industrial control systems, and healthcare and building management…resulting in revenue losses and reputation damages for organizations globally.” This opens new doors of risks in the areas of corporate extortion, altering of corporate business operations, and the extension of cyberattacks to include physical threats of harm to civilians.
There are lessons to be learned to keep the cyber security in control in the IoT era. There will be lessons to be learned for all the parties of the IoT ecosystem. The companies that figure out how to make security available on multi-stakeholder platforms will be the most successful ones. Figuring out a secure platform is important, but having different levels of security is still important. Different uses have different bars. Security is a self-regulating system to some extent because it is supply and demand. That is the Holy Grail for technology right now, which is how to build systems with enough security—not 100% protection right now—from a unified platform point of view for multiple applications.
The data generated by the Internet of Things has the potential to reveal far more about users than any technology in history: These devices can make our lives much easier … The Internet of Things however, can also reveal intimate details about the doings and goings of their owners through the sensors they contain. As the Internet of Things grows to a projected 212 billion items by 2020, the question of regulation looms increasingly large. There is a lot of effort is going today at the government level. They’re not thinking about whether the Internet goes down. They’re worried about what happens if the Internet gets compromised.
When we have devices on the field, there is question how to analyze the data coming from them. This is easily a “big data” problem because of the huge amount of data that comes from very large number of sensors. Being able to monitor and use the data that comes from the Internet of Things is a huge potential challenge with different providers using different architectures and approaches, and different chip and equipment vendors teaming up in a range of different ways. Many large and smaller companies are active on the field: Intel, IBM, Lantronix+Google, Microchip+Amazon, Freescale+Oracle, Xively, Jasper, Keen.io, Eurotech, and many other.
The huge increase of data is coming. Radiant predicts that wireless sensor networks will be used to monitor and control very many domestic, urban, and industrial systems. This promises to produce an explosion of data, much of which will be discarded as users are overwhelmed by the volume. As a result, analysis of the data within the wireless sensor network will become necessary so that alerts and meaningful information are generated at the leaf nodes. This year has seen the software at the very highest point in the Internet of Things stack — analytics — becoming tightly coupled with the embedded devices at the edge of the network, leading to many different approaches and providers.
Integrating data from one IoT cloud to another will have it’s challenges. Automation services make big steps by cutting corners. Sites like IFTTT, Zapier, bip.io, CloudWork, and elastic.io allow users to connect applications with links that go beyond a simple synch. Check what is happening with integration and related services like IFTTT, ItDuzzit, Amazon Lambda. For example IFTTT is quietly becoming a smart home powerhouse.
Most important sources of information for this article:
With $16M In Funding, Helium Wants To Provide The Connective Tissue For The Internet Of Things
IFTTT, other automation services make big steps by cutting corners
Internet of Things: Engineering for Everyone
IoT in Protocol War, Says Startup – Zigbee fortunes dim in building control
Analysts Predict CES Hotspots – Corralling the Internet of Things
What’s Holding Back The IoT – Device market opportunities will explode, but only after some fundamental changes
Apps Layer: ’800lb Gorilla’ in IoT Nobody Talks About
Analysts Predict CES Hotspots – IoT, robots, 4K to dominate CES
10 Reasons Why Analytics Are Vital to the Internet of Things
Tech More: Mobile Internet of Things BI Intelligence Consumer Electronics – Most Massive Device Market
Wearables make hardware the new software
Zigbee Opens Umbrella 3.0 Spec
IoT Will Give ‘Embedded’ a Shot in the Arm - Connected cities to be largest IoT market
Chips for IoT market to grow 36% in 2015, says Gartner
Apps Layer: ’800lb Gorilla’ in IoT Nobody Talks About
Short-Range, Low-Power Sensors – once the last mile for connectivity is now the last 100 meters
The one problem the Internet of Things hasn’t solved
Plan Long Term for Industrial Internet Security
To Foil Cyberattacks, Connected Cars Need Overlapping Shields
IoT cybersecurity: is EDA ready to deliver?
More Things Are Critical Systems
Silicon, Security, and the Internet of Things
The missing piece of the smart home revolution
Hackers will soon be targeting your refrigerator
10 Reasons Why Analytics Are Vital to the Internet of Things
1,316 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
TheProtocol.TV
https://www.theprotocol.tv/
TheProtocol.TV is a premium multi-channel video network covering the global decentralization movement, including Bitcoin and beyond. We highlight the people and projects around the world using distributed technologies to make life better for their communities. TheProtocol.TV is being purposefully built for distribution to a mainstream, international audience.
Our mantra: “Show real people using this technology to solve real problems.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Telehash
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telehash
Telehash is a peer to peer data distribution and communication protocol that is designed to be decentralised and secure.[4] The protocol is licensed under the Creative Commons Public domain.[5]
Telehash is also a set of implementations of the protocol which is still in heavy development.[6] As a security-sensitive application, it has yet to receive a third-party security review.[7] TeleHash is similar to BitTorrent Sync in that it allows users of the software to share data securely without any central server authority.[4] There are implementations in C, Python, Ruby, Erlang, Javascript, Go, and Objective-C.[
Telehash.org
http://telehash.org/
A lightweight interoperable protocol with strong encryption to enable mesh networking across multiple transports and platforms. Each endpoint generates its own unique public-key based address (a hashname) to send and receive small encrypted packets of JSON (with optional binary payloads) to other trusted endpoints. An endpoint may also provide routing assistance to others for bridging across different transports and to help negotiate direct peer-to-peer links.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Device democracy
Saving the future of the Internet of Things
http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/thoughtleadership/internetofthings/
More than a billion intelligent, connected devices already comprise today’s “Internet of Things (IoT).” The expected proliferation of hundreds of billions more places us at the threshold of a transformation sweeping across the electronics industry and many others.
As the number of connected devices grows from billions to hundreds of billions, and as governments and corporations race to take control of devices and data, we need to save the IoT.
This “rescue” will require business and technology leaders to fundamentally rethink technology strategy by building solutions for radically lower cost, privacy and autonomy. Business models that guide these solutions must embrace highly efficient digital economies and create collaborative value, all while creating improved products and user experiences. How can executives prepare for digital success as the IoT keeps changing?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Executive Report
IBM Global Business Services
Electronics
IBM Institute for Business Value
Device democracy
Saving the future of the Internet of Things
http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/gb/en/gbe03620usen/GBE03620USEN.PDF
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Smart Oven Bakes Perfect Cookies Without Your Help
http://www.wired.com/2015/06/june-oven/
It tends to smell good inside June headquarters, a four-story, green and gold San Francisco townhouse. The real office is the kitchen, where the 22-person team has spent the last year developing what it calls “The June Intelligent Oven,” a $1,495 connected appliance that will quite literally cook your food for you.
It looks like a big toaster oven
On one hand, it’s designed to be a better oven.
It’s simple and sleek, with no buttons, no garish fans.
As co-founder Matt Van Horn explains the interface—a touchscreen and stainless steel knob on the glass door, which has been carefully engineered to not get hot—he pops in six chocolate chip cookies.
Using what amounts to a fancy meat thermometer, along with scales in each of the June’s four feet and an internal camera, the oven can figure out what you’re cooking, how hot it is, and how much it weighs. And if you know those three things, you can cook almost anything. Want a medium rare steak? Well, if you know it’s 12 ounces and that the ideal temperature is about 135 degrees, all it takes is some simple math to program the oven for you. There’s an Nvidia K1 processor inside the oven, which runs the basic touch-friendly software and powers the algorithms for cooking your food.
There’s a certain tension that comes with this Modernist Cuisine-ish notion that a great algorithm is better than a great chef.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM releases IoT electronic design automation tools in the SoftLayer cloud
Tools allow scalable Internet of Things chip design
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2412304/ibm-releases-iot-electronic-design-automation-tools-in-the-softlayer-cloud
IBM HAS ANNOUNCED the industry’s first cloud service designed specifically for electronic design automation (EDA).
The service provides on-demand access to tools from SiCAD, an expert in EDA, design flows, networking, security, platform development and cloud technologies.
The pay-as-you-go SoftLayer infrastructure introduces a range of IBM tools that had previously been available only internally.
The pedigree of these tools includes designs for IBM mainframe and Power microprocessors, interconnects, ASICs and other custom projects totalling over 100.
The first phase of the launch will include three key tools all contained on an IBM Platform LSF cluster built on the IBM SoftLayer cloud. These are:
IBM Library Characterisation to create abstract electrical and timing models required by chip design tools and methodologies
IBM Logic Verification to simulate electronic systems described using the VHDL and Verilog design languages
IBM Spice, an electronic circuit simulator used to check design integrity and predict circuit behaviour
Tomi Engdahl says:
Securing the Internet of Tomorrow
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326803&
For most startups who design IoT devices, it’s difficult to change the path of least resistance mindset when it comes to time to market and time to revenue.
Gartner estimates that the majority of IoT products in the market by 2017 will be from companies less than three years old. These companies will likely have application, functionality or connectivity expertise, but not necessarily appreciate or know how to implement tight security.
With an explosion of connected apps for mobile, wearables, the home and car, standards may be lacking in new market segments where security has not previously been of concern or priority.
Your network is only as strong as your weakest end node.
But securing an end nodesystem is an incredibly complex task that requires an intricate set of corresponding security technologies/solutions that need to be employed to mitigate and protect against various vulnerabilities.
Complexities can arise due to geography, the sheer number of possible connections, the number of entities involved and the diffuse nature of cloud infrastructure.
For many of these startups, security is not baked in from the beginning, mainly because there is often an associated cost to implementation of security but it’s not profitable in the short run. However, if these companies get hacked, it can cost even more doing remedial security and damage control.
It’s difficult to change the path of least resistance mindset when it comes to time to market and time to revenue. A big component of this change effort is educating designers and system architects to understand the flow of information from end nodes to cloud and how security ties in at each level.
I believe it will fall to the silicon suppliers to provide the hardware and software components and build security from the outset of design.
Proactively providing security training, technical support and connections with global partners to help implement security in designs will be essential moving forward.
We need to empower startups to seamlessly design and qualify security for their solutions as they will be the future lifeblood of the Internet of Tomorrow.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gartner Says Smarter Machines Will Challenge the Human Desire for Control
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3072717
CIOs Should Maintain and Promote an Objective Understanding of the Real Capabilities of Smart Machines
The growth of sensor-based data combined with advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) are enabling smart machines to make increasingly significant business decisions over which humans have decreasing control, according to Gartner, Inc.
“As smart machines become increasingly capable, they will become viable alternatives to human workers under certain circumstances, which will lead to significant repercussions for the business and thus for CIOs,” said Stephen Prentice, vice president and Gartner Fellow. “In the 2015 Gartner CEO and business leader survey, opinions were equally divided on this issue and indicate that business leaders are starting to take notice of the advances being made and more readily acknowledge that the threat to knowledge work is real.”
Already the growing capabilities of automation and robotics have led to their increasing deployment in a wide range of industrial and business environments, which has prompted debate as to their impact on existing jobs in sectors such as manufacturing. “As smart machines become more capable, and more affordable, they will be more widely deployed in multiple roles across many industries, replacing some human workers. This is nothing new. The deployment of new technology has eliminated millions of jobs over the course of history,” said Mr. Prentice. “At the same time, entirely new industries have been developed by those technologies, almost always creating millions of new jobs. Organizations must balance the necessity to exploit the significant advances being made in the capabilities of various smart machines with the perceived negative impact of resulting job losses.”
During the next five years, Gartner predicts that smart machines will inevitably be relied on to make more decisions that are of growing significance to the business, raising the fear that they may become “unstoppable” or run out of control.
“The fear among many individuals is that the machines will ‘take over,’ start making decisions on their own and run out of control, posing a threat to individuals, society and even humanity itself,” explained Mr. Prentice. “However, within the confines of currently known technology, the idea of machines attaining some level of ‘self-awareness,’ ‘consciousness’ or ‘sentience’ is still the stuff of science fiction. Even with the coming generation of smart machines, which actively ‘learn’ and will be able to adapt their actions to optimize their progress toward a goal, humans can choose to remain in control.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Industrial IoT and new sources of energy set to transform the power equipment industry in 2015
http://www.csemag.com/single-article/industrial-iot-and-new-sources-of-energy-set-to-transform-the-power-equipment-industry-in-2015/7dfc6d590cf6e5af0d81515e31ae9103.html
The power equipment industry is going through significant changes as equipment manufacturers explore various energy sources and enhanced data capabilities in 2015.
Here are the top power equipment trends in 2015
1. Power equipment manufacturers also searching for qualified workers
2. Wind and solar power generation could be solution to an antiquated electric grid system
3. Introduction of the smart grid and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connected equipment
Like we’ve seen in almost every industry, the advent of the Internet of Things has also proven disruptive to the power equipment industry in the form of the Industrial Internet of Things. As generators, meters, and building systems start to collect and send out more and more data it will be more important than ever to know how to manage it.
4. Power industry starts to look forward with alternative fuels for generators
5. Internet of Things makes preventative maintenance a priority for power equipment
With the Internet of Things becoming so advanced and connected, it will be important that service technicians are up to speed on new functionality. The industrial Internet will make it easy to know when things might be going awry in power system equipment, but it will be up to technicians to know how to work that information into preventative maintenance plans. The ability to know what may go wrong with a system before it happens is of great value to power systems manufacturers, whose equipment is often mission critical to the sites at which they’re installed.
Conclusion: A shift in traditional power equipment means new territory for service organizations
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power generation: The challenge of industrial IoT
http://research.gigaom.com/2015/02/use-cases-from-industrial-iot/
Last week I wrote about the challenges in industrial IoT in terms of dealing with many different connectivity points from different hardware manufacturers, the need for standards, and the reality of longer product cycles in the industrial space. These are, I believe, surmountable obstacles.
But one way to understand these obstacles is to understood how IoT is being applied in various industrial sectors so that making the investment in adding connectivity, analytics and new standards makes sense for a given sector.
Power plants include a number of different systems along with significant security risks associated with so many levels to a system. For example, power plants include control and protection systems that can include multiple network levels. There can be a network level for machine maintenance and diagnostics, another one for business operations/back office and another for control of turbines and generators.
Typically today’s plants are combined cycle, meaning that gas turbines capture energy and then steam turbines recover the heat that is lost thermally from gas turbines. In some cases power plant processes are linked to refineries or desalination plants for further efficiencies, creating ever more layers of process and network complexity.
The problem is that this complexity is growing as more applications are being added and as new cloud based services come online. One can look to the growth of smart grid analytics to see how power generation is accessing more and more cloud based software services.
Scalability can become a problem. As can concerns about security related to multiple levels of access points to a network. Yet, going forward it’s becoming clear that utilities are making these IT investments which rely on connecting data from more and more grid assets. And similar to what we see in other industries like oil and gas, fewer maintenance engineers are on hand, leading to more automation of equipment maintenance. That adds up to an even greater need for interoperability.
So what’s needed? Information must move under guaranteed latency to ensure coordinated actions in a power plant system. They must also be resilient and flexible to adapt to new configurations at a plant as new applications come on line as well as new infrastructure. Finally security must be maintained across multiple networks at mission critical facilities like power plants.
Standards and certification have an obvious role to play in power generation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Smart Lens kicks off DAC 2015
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/benchtalk/4439661/Google-s-Smart-Lens-kicks-off-DAC-2015?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20150610&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20150610&elq=3d5cd72611e141ff8b4dede809b907ec&elqCampaignId=23401&elqaid=26378&elqat=1&elqTrackId=b1c65170173646e78c8ce94d89d0e5cf
This year’s Design Automation Conference (DAC) kicked off in San Francisco this week with a keynote on the Google Smart Lens, Apple Watch and quadcopter teardowns, and even a Tesla.
The DAC keynote series stared out with an impressive “X” project presentation by Google: their Smart Lens project. Smart Lens builds a blood glucose monitor/logger into a disposable contact lens! We’re living in the future.
Google’s Brian Otis explained that current invasive monitoring methods are only used by the relatively small number of people who have type 1 or 2 diabetes, but many more could benefit
The system employs RFID for comms between its SoC and a reader, but is powered from a local micro battery
Google is already looking forward to other possible systems, such as auto-focusing lenses, given that only 3% of the contact lens is needed by the blood glucose monitor.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kellex / Droid Life:
Sources: New Nest Cam is a slimmed down version of Dropcam; new app has updated UI, slide-down menu, button-heavy interface
This is the Nest Cam and the New Nest App for Android
http://www.droid-life.com/2015/06/10/this-is-the-nest-cam-and-the-new-nest-app-for-android/
The new unit appears to have been slimmed down quite substantially to a much more modern and sleek body that should fit quite nicely on a shelf. Dropcams were never the most beautiful piece of technology in your house, but the Nest Cam certainly changes that some.
Nest has been slowly rolling out new features to test units, like full 1080p video streaming (likely recording too) and a simpler setup process that involves Bluetooth and QR codes.
On a related note, the Nest app is about to receive a major overhaul that also brings together Dropcam and Nest products. The new app is getting a UI makeover that looks quite modern, has a slide-down menu (yes, down), and a new button-heavy interface. But maybe more importantly, the new Nest app has the ability to show you Dropcam cameras and their status.
Nest Hosting Press Gathering on June 17, Rumored to Launch First Product Since Google Acquisition
http://www.droid-life.com/2015/06/04/nest-event-june-17/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How the FT used wearables to open up the reporting process
https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/how-the-financial-times-experimented-with-wearable-technology-/s2/a565423/
The newspaper’s employment correspondent spent four days being tracked with devices in order to report on a story
Chris Brauer, a professor at Goldsmiths University, has been conducting studies focusing on wearables in the workplace and the correlation this may have with people’s performance and productivity.
But she decided to take her reporting one step further and not only wear them herself, but give readers daily updates on her progress.
“I thought this might give me a chance to find out more about how it actually feels to be an employee wearing all this stuff and whether or not it changes the way you feel about your job, your boss or yourself,” O’Connor told Journalism.co.uk.
The FT’s Wearables at Work Facebook page gathered more than 1,000 likes during the four days of the experiment.
Readers actively engaged in conversation with O’Connor, often leaving comments about how interesting the experiment had been and how it had made them aware of the implications of wearable technology.
“The fact that we told people what we were doing and what we were up to meant lots of people approached me and said ‘oh actually, I know this about something that’s happening here’ or ‘talk to this company that’s doing this sort of thing’ – it was quite helpful in terms of gathering interesting material about the topic,” O’Connor said.
He explained they initially decided to publish the updates via a “week-long, running liveblog”, but decided it was more practical to use Facebook as the primary publishing platform and “bring the content back onto the FT’s site using Storify.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ericsson has introduced a network-connected bus stop in the world’s largest public event in Milan UITP Fair. Connected to the network bus stop to take advantage of 3G, LTE or Wi-Fi-small cell technology.
Small cell technology allows public transport companies can gain additional revenue by selling the operators of the bus stop provided additional network capacity. In addition, the bus stop to provide services for the benefit of business travelers, for example.
For example, the network thanks to the bus stop can provide real-time information about the location of buses, interactive maps, local news and information for tourists. In addition, the bus stop is capable to install an emergency button or open up a direct voice connection, for example, the emergency call center, which will help to improve safety.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2949:ericsson-liitti-bussipysakin-verkkoon&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Big Brother at the Wheel
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326835&
‘A car is one’s second living room today,’ says Audi chief. ‘That’s private. The only person who needs access to the data onboard is the customer.’
Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to judge whether a “space” is private or public, in light of the reality that whatever technology we carry constantly collects and sends out data from wherever we are — via smartwatch, smartphone or the system in the family car.
“Is the data collected via autonomous cars considered ‘public domain,’ since it was obtained on public roads?”
We’re all aware of the Orwellian nightmares about the possible impact on privacy of remote tracking in autonomous cars.
On one hand, I suspect that monitoring, tracking and remotely controlling autonomous cars is probably a necessary evil for the safe operation of self-driving cars.
On the other hand, I admit that I know little about legal grounds for collecting such data. Do I want Big Brother to know where I’ve been in an autonomous car? Is it OK for Big Brother to share that data with somebody, anybody, everybody? How will my passengers’ data be protected? What are the legal obligations for carmakers in the future?
The Edward Snowden controversy aside, I’ve sensed lately that users, even in the United States, are more aware of the potential privacy complications of all their devices. But awareness doesn’t mean action. It could just be prelude to resignation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data Privacy Playbook For Wearables And IoT
http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-devices/data-privacy-playbook-for-wearables-and-iot/a/d-id/1320690
Wearables and the Internet of Things raise significant consumer privacy issues that you need to prepare for now. We outline the key concerns with a primer on how to get your organization ready.
The study specifically highlights the following privacy concerns:
Sponsor video, mouseover for sound
Social implications and the lack of awareness of the impact on the privacy of others: Devices may not only record a user’s activity, but also record the activities of those around the user.
“Right to forget”: Users fear that when certain data are combined, they could have serious personal implications; users therefore want the data collected — with or without user consent or awareness — to be deleted.
Implications of location disclosure: Users are concerned that their GPS location may be made available to malicious parties and criminals.
Discrete display of confidential information: Confidential information displayed on smart watches may be viewable to other parties nearby.
Lack of access control: Users fear that organizations and the government may use their personal data without their awareness or consent.
Surveillance and sousveillance: Users fear continuous surveillance and sousveillance, not only as a matter of personal privacy, but also in light of the potential for criminal abuse.
Privacy concerns for head-mounted devices: Users are concerned that head-mounted display (HMD) computers with cameras and microphones may impact their privacy and the privacy of others.
Speech disclosure: Users express concerns about their speech being overheard or recorded by others.
Surreptitious audio and video recording: Users are concerned that wearables with camera and audio input may record them discreetly without their knowledge.
Facial recognition: Users are concerned that systems may recognize and identify them individually.
Automatic synchronization with social media: Some users do not like the idea of their devices immediately synchronizing with social media applications and sharing their data without being able to control this sharing.
Visual occlusion: Head-mounted displays that cover the user’s field of view disrupt the user’s ability to interact privately because vision is blocked.
According to PwC’s report “Consumer Intelligence Series: The Wearable Technology Future,” 82% of respondents in the survey indicated that they are worried that wearable technology would invade their privacy. Eighty-six percent expressed concern that wearables would make them more prone to security breaches.
On the legislative front, Congress and some federal agencies are investigating the practices of third-party consumer data collectors. The FTC has recommended that Congress pass a law giving consumers the right to have access to their personal data compiled by data brokers. Regulators may require data resellers to periodically provide consumers with free data reports.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low-power position sensing in harsh environments: A robust application example
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4439651/Low-power-position-sensing-in-harsh-environments–A-robust-application-example?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20150611&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20150611&elq=1b2ff464f1cc4acfa06a0fc717a9df5c&elqCampaignId=23405&elqaid=26382&elqat=1&elqTrackId=92b977990d2b4646a70370b61db80c51
For a variety of reasons, the requirement for low-power position sensing is growing in many product categories. With appliances and consumer goods, government regulations and environmental programs often are motivating factors in the drive for higher efficiency.
Low power consumption also is required in an entirely different category of products, for a different reason: in remotely installed instruments, or in subterranean or submarine sensors, low power is a purely financial and operational requirement. In many of these applications, low power consumption must be combined with extreme robustness: operating conditions might be harsh because of wide temperature ranges, high humidity, high pressure, or the presence of contaminants.
This article explores the latest options for position-sensing systems that combine low power consumption with tolerance of extreme conditions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google wants you to buy Nest CCTV, turn your home into a Brillo pad
Networked security webcam details ahead of launch
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/12/google_nest_camera_launch/
Google is expanding its smart-home tech offerings with a networked security camera that could be the first hardware to run its cutdown Android OS, Brillo.
The search giant’s Nest arm – famous for its smart thermostat – will unveil a new version of the wireless camera Dropcam called the Nest Cam next week. The new camera will integrate with the company’s existing thermostat and could not only use Brillo, as well as its new Weave and Thread internet of things protocols.
Despite asking for non-technical details on the Nest Cam to be kept confidential for 180 days, Android blog Droid Life was leaked pictures of the camera, and of the software that will be used to connect it to other smart-home technologies.
Mo’ standards, mo’ confusion?
Nest/Google may also use to the launch to push their two IoT standards – Weave and Thread.
Weave is a cross-platform communications layer standard to allow IoT devices to talk to one another (including products not running Brillo) and exchange useful data.
Thread, meanwhile, is a mesh-networking standard that sends and shares that information. Thread is Google’s effort (along with Samsung, ARM, Silicon Labs and others) to devise a simple, secure, low-power standard which puts it into competition with the two biggest IoT standards – ZigBee and Z-Wave – although ZigBee and Thread has agreed to interoperate.
In an effort to make the multitude of new and existing devices to work together, Google is planning to push a standard that works across multiple networking protocols: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and ZigBee (though not, it seems, Z-Wave). It’s a relatively open approach aimed at getting everyone on board.
In contrast, Apple has its HomeKit scheme to produce an IoT standard that will make everything interoperate. Apple has taken a different and potentially riskier route of insisting that all smart-tech hardware includes its authentication chip for additional security.
Tomi Engdahl says:
INTERNET of BOOBS: Scorching French lass reveals the smart bikini
No e-mankini yet in the ranks of IoT clothing, complains nobody
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/12/french_ekini_is_the_hottest_swimware_this_summer/
The French have updated their classic two-piece swimsuit with a networked version which will inform its wearers when they need to apply sunscreen.
The connected bikini (en français, bikini connecté) contains a removable and (wisely) waterproof UV sensor which will measure when its wearers may need to lather themselves in lotion.
According to The Local, the e-kini will record the temperature and correlate it with user inputted information regarding their skin type.
The e-kini then buzzes users’ smartphones before le soleil can do any skin damage
The e-kini is priced at €149, though connected beach towels (serviette de plage connectée) are also available for €99.
Tomi Engdahl says:
M2M Cellular: Long 2G Life Ahead
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326836&
Today, M2M communication traffic represents a small share — less than 1 percent — of total cellular traffic in terms of bytes.
While the cellular wireless market continues to grow through smartphones employing 4G/LTE technology that accommodates big screens and HD video, the world of machine-to-machine (M2M) technology continues to favor lower-bit-rate 2G cellular for many applications. Of course, there are wireless versions of M2M and IoT (Internet of Things) that employ non-cellular connections, but here we address only cellular.
The earliest implementations of M2M employed only the very-low-bit rate GSM (2G) control channel. That was more than adequate to occasionally monitor the level in distant oil tanks in a port city. But, M2M is now employing full 2G (not just the control channel) and increasingly 3G and even 4G/LTE for a few very-high-speed applications. Automotive applications, like commercial vehicle tracking and On-Star in the U.S., are leading the higher-speed applications.
Forward Concepts estimates that there were 166 million cellular M2M subscriptions by the end of 2014, and this number is expected to reach around 441 million by the end of 2019. Currently, almost 77 percent of M2M devices have GSM-only or CDMA-only subscriptions. But that is about to change, with 3G/4G subscriptions expected to exceed 51 percent of active M2M subscriptions by 2019.
Currently in North America, nearly all mobile handsets are 3G or 4G, and the only 2G devices that are left are for M2M. This will also be the case in Western Europe in two to three years’ time. One reason for this is that the cheapest M2M modules are still
GSM-only (or CDMA-only), and its low data speeds are adequate for most applications.
Many M2M applications have long lifecycles. For example, a smart meter device may be intended to last for up to 20 years, in contrast to smartphones, which are typically replaced every 2–3 years. Considering the long lifecycles, the selection of cellular device types (2G, 3G or 4G) for new installations depends on a variety of factors, such as present and future module costs as well as connectivity availability.
Although the number of M2M devices on GSM networks will increase in absolute terms, the share of devices using this technology will decrease to below 48 percent in 2019. In that year, it is expected that 3G/4G will represent over 52 percent of all active M2M cellular subscriptions. LTE M2M device penetration is expected to increase from around 9 percent today to an estimated 22 percent in 2019.
5G M2M subscriptions will become commercially available by 2020 and 5G usage will be driven to a large extent by new M2M use cases that are yet to be developed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Three (no, Four) Most Important Aspects of Software for Wi-Fi Enabled Devices
http://intelligentsystemssource.com/the-three-no-four-most-important-aspects-of-software-for-wi-fi-enabled-devices/?utm_source=Pubpress&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The+Three+%28no%2C+Four%29+Most+Important+Aspects+of+Software+for+Wi-Fi+Enabled+Devices+&utm_content=ISS+Enewsletter+June%3A+Intel+vs.+ARM%E2%80%94Will+the+Bear+Strike+Back%3F&utm_campaign=1506_ISS_enewsletter
Let’s assume for now that the hardware design is solid, the antenna design is good and will pass FCC, CE, IC, TELEC, RoHS, REACH and any others (like conflict metals requirements), and let us then focus on the software needs of a Wi-Fi enabled device. Consider terms like Apple Bonjour, MQTT messaging protocol, WPS Configuration, ProbMe, WPA Enterprise (TLS, TTLS, EAP), Security Certificates, Roaming support, Serial to Wi-Fi, Secure sockets with TLS support, TCP and UDP protocols, SPI, UART, Over The Air (OTA) system updates, Wi-Fi Direct (P2P), and Wi-Fi Monitor mode (Sniffer Mode). This truly is a case where a Wi-Fi product is 80% hardware and 80% software and 100% about compatibility.
For starters, let’s break the primary capability areas of software for Wi-Fi products into three categories: core Wi-Fi functionality, interoperability standards support and advanced features supporting configuration, control, and security. A fourth emerging aspect of Wi-Fi devices that is almost all software based is Cloud/IoT/IoE/M2M connectivity, so let’s add a fourth category, Internet/Cloud connectivity
In order to assess the minimum requirements of a module, and compare apples to apples, the designer should create a list with which to do comparisons. Table 1 is a high level Pre-Checklist for the ideal IoT module that would effectively eliminate any and all hardware effort and limit development to the software and internet/Cloud connectivity elements to Wi-Fi enable the device
For devices to communicate with other devices or within a wireless network, they need to have methods and protocols that allow them to interoperate using standard and mutually agreed upon messaging formats. Within Wi-Fi networks there are both basic and advanced capabilities that can be implemented or provided to extend the use of the device for home, commercial, and industrial purposes
As the use of IoT devices increase, user adoption will largely be driven by the ease and speed of establishing and using the devices in existing and future networks and networked devices. Amongst the myriad rapidly evolving standards and advanced features, it is important that developers provide users the ability to leverage as many of these capabilities given the variety of environments in which devices will be expected to be installed.
Internet/Cloud connectivity
The ultimate vision of IoT devices is to be connected to the larger public Internet (world wide web) and be able to easily connect with devices anywhere at any time to leverage the sharing of data to better optimize their own operation (or inform the operation of other devices). In order to get beyond direct personal connections to devices, resources must be available to talk outside of the local area network. The prevailing view is to have these devices talk to Cloud storage locations to capture and share the data with other devices that are also connected to the Cloud
All Wrapped up in a Single Package
Ideally, all of the capabilities from the core Wi-Fi functionality all the way to the evolving Cloud provider connectivity should be provided “out of the box” to a developer so that they need not worry about having to develop, test, and maintain these on their own. In the case of the Econais WiSmart offering this is definitely the case.
An increasing number of designers are planning on devices operating autonomously as well as connected to Cloud services – the devices have to be smart enough to perform their functions should they lose connection to their peers in the local network as well as if they were to lose connection with the internet/Cloud. In effect, these devices need to fail “Smart”. Additionally, the vast amounts of data that will be generated from myriad devices all over a home, commercial, mobile, or an industrial setting, will require that the devices be smart enough to identify “events” that need to be communicated to peer devices, to other devices remote from the local network, or even into the Cloud.
The collected data may be held locally (where transmission bandwidth costs are high), not transmitted at all (where power and storage are too expensive), or real-time (where the bandwidth is inexpensive and readily available). It is important to keep in mind the evolving expectations of networks of IoT devices that will increasingly benefit from knowing about and communicating with their peers, operating on their own when a connection may not be available and communicating globally through the Cloud.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Internet of Things and Wireless Communication Standards
http://intelligentsystemssource.com/the-internet-of-things-and-wireless-communication-standards/?utm_source=Pubpress&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The+Internet+of+Things+and+Wireless+Communication+Standards+&utm_content=ISS+Enewsletter+June%3A+Intel+vs.+ARM%E2%80%94Will+the+Bear+Strike+Back%3F&utm_campaign=1506_ISS_enewsletter
There have been several critical Physical/Link Layer (Figure 2) battles in our industry. In 1999 Bluetooth (Bluetooth SIG) was fighting Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11). That ended when both found their own solid application space and were able to retrench for maybe a next round (Wi-Fi Direct attacking Bluetooth).
So, with IEEE 802.15.4 becoming dominant in the low-power networking market, there is no surprise that two alternatives, Wi-Fi (with “low power Wi-Fi”) and Bluetooth (with Bluetooth Low Energy) are both sharpening the knives to get a piece of the action as well.
But it is fair to say that in this layer, the open worldwide standards—mostly IEEE based—are dominating, and actually there is not so much a war anymore, as most of the contentions are being resolved within standardization bodies.
Even though the three major IEEE-based standards are still competing to capture as large as possible application domain, all three – IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi (content sharing and distribution), 802.15.4/ZigBee (low power sense & control networking) and Bluetooth (wearables) – seem to have found their core application space and will be with us for quite a long time to come.
There have also been some important Network/Transport layer battles in the past.
this field was “democratized” by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) with TCP/IP, that we know as today’s IPv4 or the more recentIPv6, the IETF contribution to the IoT. The IETF also has produced a standard that is called 6LoWPAN (IPv6 over Wireless Personal Area Networks), essentially allowing IPv6 traffic to be carried over low power wireless mesh networks
Recently Google/Nest has adopted 6LowPAN as part of Thread, giving it instant credibility and putting it in direct competition with ZigBee PRO, another contender for this space. ZigBee PRO and Thread (based on the same IEEE 82.15.4 Physical/Link Layer) have certain advantages over each other. Supporting IPv6, Thread is well integrated in the IP world. In contrast, ZigBee is already widely adopted, integrated with a really broad and thoroughly tested application library (see below) and with proven security and ease of use features, while also very capable of bridging into IPv6.
To make the situation even more confusing, there is also another party in this space trying to enter this war at the Network/Transport Layer. In the Bluetooth SiG there is a serious effort to make Bluetooth “networking capable”.
Although completion is not expected before 2017, it will further muddy up the water.
Smart systems for the home are totally different compared to smart systems for buildings, or for smart cities (managing streetlights or parking garage vacancies), while industrial sensors are a separate class on their own. It is no surprise that the Application Layer is vast and diverse. And there is also a lot of continuing learning going on in this layer as well, including interfacing with the cloud, analytics, social media, smart phone apps, etc.
The first and most mature contender in this space is the so-called “Cluster Library” that is a part of the ZigBee standard (ZCL). In the ZigBee 3.0 version, this Cluster Library is completely integrated – including the so called application profiles of Home Automation and Lighting, supplemented by Green Power for ultra-low power (e.g. batteryless) applications, and ZRC for ultra-low latency applications, as required for Remote Controls. This ZigBee Cluster Library is very complete and includes very well thought-out security and ease of installation features. Today, it has by far the largest installed base of vendors.
The next contender is Apple Home Kit. It is a contender and not so much a standard because Apple Home Kit is proprietary to Apple. Nevertheless, because of Apple’s strong market presence and “following”, Apple Home Kit is developing a clear market presence with applications built on top of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for networking and low power wearables. Today, Home Kit is not integrated with IEEE 802.15, but it does contain the bridging capabilities to integrate with ZigBee and the ZigBee Cluster Library.
The third player in this Application Layer field is the Open Interconnect Consortium driven by Intel and supported by others like Cisco and Samsung. This is a group that recently started their activities and has expressed – like Apple – for a preference for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well, with future plans for ZigBee. It has announced IoTivity, an Open Source Project under the Linux Foundation that helps perform Application Layer device identification on the network.
The last contributor in this field is the AllSeen Alliance, which interestingly enough, also operates under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation.
To start with, there is quite an overlap in membership between these Application Layer contenders, even to the point that not only does the market, but also some of these participating companies seem to be confused as well. For instance, many of the 400+ ZigBee members are also members of the OIC and the AllSeen Alliance, bridging the gaps in between.
In addition to these overlaps, these different frameworks also have slightly different focus and are partially complementary.
Apple’s Home Kit is focused on presenting the devices to the user (per house, per room, etc.) and not surprisingly, builds this framework as an extension of the smartphone – using the smartphone as the center of the eco-system.
The OIC/IoTivity and AllSeen/AllJoyn activities are probably the most overlapping. Both are focused on special features for discovery of the devices on the network and finding out how these devices communicate, which puts them on an immediate competitive path. Both of them started by/driven by chip companies
An interesting last observation is that Google/Nest is completely absent from this Application Layer, and therefore (theoretically) could work with any of the other already defined application layers. However, the consequence of this absence is that Thread is not a complete standard and that on its own it will not enable interoperable products. Once the Thread standard is released it still will require integration with an Application Layer of some sort.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Launches Sidewalk Labs To Develop Smart Cities Tech
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/06/11/2233208/google-launches-sidewalk-labs-to-develop-smart-cities-tech
Google wants to join the Smart Cities movement with the launch of a new start-up, “Sidewalk Labs”, to develop technologies for cities, including IoT and mobility solutions. Larry Page and Dan Doctoroff describe Sidewalk Labs as an “urban innovation company”, geared to developing new technologies to improve city living by reducing pollution, streamlining public transportation, and effectively managing energy use.
Urban growth draws Google’s innovative eye: Sidewalk Labs is launched
http://www.citiesofthefuture.eu/google-launched-sidewalk-labs/
Google launched its first start-up focused on Smart Cities solutions, Sidewalk Labs.
“Sidewalk Labs is an urban innovation company devoted to improving city life for residents, businesses and city governments, in particular by developing and incubating civic technologies,” says the press release.
Sidewalk Labs arrives as the world continues to migrate toward urban hubs. By 2050, the population in cities will have doubled, intensifying existing socioeconomic, public health and environmental problems. Barcelona’s City Protocol and other Smart Cities solutions from companies such as Cisco and IBM are already putting technology at the service of cities and their residents.
“We are at the beginning of a historic transformation in cities,” said Doctoroff at the announcement of the new company. “At a time when the concerns about urban equity, costs, health and the environment are intensifying, unprecedented technological change is going to enable cities to be more efficient, responsive, flexible and resilient. We hope that Sidewalk will play a major role in developing technology products, platforms and advanced infrastructure that can be implemented at scale in cities around the world.”
Nevertheless, the fact that Google has decided to launch a whole new company to focus on urban issues demonstrates the importance of the smart cities movement. New technologies are continuously being developed to help cities manage their resources and improve the quality of life of citizens.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Awards
http://postscapes.com/internet-of-things-award/2014/winners
Honoring the year’s best products, organizations and ideas shaping the #IoT
22 categories // 72,000+ votes // 3 winners per category
Tomi Engdahl says:
GroBots – OpenGrow
https://hackaday.io/project/5921-grobots-opengrow
Grobots is a set of modular Bots that control any type of agricultural system
Hydroponics, Aquaponics, Aeroponics or Soil this system is design to handle any kind of grow.
Each GroBot has a specific mission inside a grow, and is managed by a central GroBot capable of Internet connection and full automation without the need for an External PC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia boss sees growth seam in a surprising direction
“Solving environmental issues is a huge potential for growth”, says Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri.
Bby utilizing wireless technology it is possible to address global resource problems. He raised the example metropolitan water supply enhancement: wireless sensors will enable, inter alia, the detection of pipeline leaks early.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/2015-05-30/Nokia-pomo-n%C3%A4kee-kasvusaumaa-yll%C3%A4tt%C3%A4v%C3%A4ll%C3%A4-suunnalla-3321338.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel imagines chips in nappies to create the Internet of sh*t things
We have a CODE BROWN down there, repeat CODE BROWN
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/02/intel_imagines_chips_in_kids_pants_to_create_the_internet_of_span_classstrikeshtspan_ithingsi/
Computex 2015
If you think the Internet of Things (IoT) is a steaming pile of you-know-what, Intel’s kind-of confirmed your suspicions by backing a team that’s imagined an internet-connected nappy (diaper for North American readers).
Computex 2015 is full of folks spruiking the internet of stuff. On the show floor you can hardly move for video cameras, sensors and associated networking kit.
Intel’s taken things a step further, revealing today that one of the “maker” teams its encouraged to play with its Edison platform has created a prototype internet-connected nappy (diaper).
The idea’s simple: nappies of the future will include a sensor, or you’ll get your tot to wear one, and when your offspring’s alimentary canals produce waste you’ll get a warning on your smartphone. WiFi produces too much energy to ensure the viability of infant innards, so Bluetooth LE gets the job of telling you about the presence of something brown or yellow.
For now, the nappy is full of an Intel Edison system and its host board
Before your correspondent’s children were toilet trained, their mother and I employed a sophisticated remote olfactory sensing technology to determine whether their pants were full. That biological device had a remarkable range and never ran out of batteries but was susceptible to viruses
Tomi Engdahl says:
Casa Jasmina
The open source way to the connected home
http://casajasmina.arduino.cc/
“Casa Jasmina” is a two-year pilot project in the business space of domestic electronic networking, or, “the Internet of Things in the Home.” Our goal is to integrate traditional Italian skills in furniture and interior design with emergent skills in Italian open-source electronics.
Although it resembles an apartment home, Casa Jasmina is actually a combination of lab, gallery space and B&B, so it needs dynamic management. Casa Jasmina is not merely a kitchen, library, bedroom, and bathroom. It’s a public interface for a larger Internet-of-Things process of building things, acquiring installing things, removing things, repairing and maintaining things, storing things, recording and linking to things, and, last but very importantly, getting rid of things.
We are building Casa Jasmina in order to encourage industries that will create tomorrow’s living spaces.
Casa Jasmina is an incubator, and its purpose is industry-boosting in the Torino and Piemonte IoT space. The successors of the Casa Jasmina project will be real homes with real, innovative products inside.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wearables, Home Devices Likely to Lead IoT Growth
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326860&
Wearables and home devices are likely to lead growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) business during the rest of this decade, according to semiconductor companies and industry analysts at the Computex Taipei show that wrapped up last week.
This year, 72 million wearable devices worth $17 billion will ship, growing in dollar terms at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 percent to 156 million units or $39 billion in 2019, according to Bryan Ma, a vice president with market research firm IDC. But exactly what device is likely to be the wearable of choice?
“If I were a betting man, it would be watches,” said James Bruce, director of mobile solutions for ARM, whose chip designs are in 90 percent of the world’s smartphones,” in a Computex presentation. “Wrist-based products are definitely going to be one of the leading categories. We’re at the start of that growth.”
Overall, the worldwide IoT market will grow from $655.8 billion in 2014 to $1.7 trillion in 2020 for a CAGR of 16.9 percent, IDC said in a June 2 report.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yole Predicts the ‘Sensorization’ of Modern Life
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326858&
After the consumerization of electronics — which took the semiconductor industry from something driven by enterprise computing to its current position as the supply of components of mobile devices — comes the sensorization of electronics, and of our lives. That is according to Jean-Christophe Eloy, CEO of market analysis firm Yole Developpement.
Over the next five years dramatic unit growth in MEMS sensors will be accompanied by a similar level of average selling price attrition along with investment cycles in software, production on 300mm-diameter wafers and the creation of novel methods of detection and related sensors.
Two of the categories likely to succeed are MEMS for photonics applications and gas sensors, according to Yole. This is based on an assessment of multiple criteria required for success in the market.
The global MEMS sensor market was worth about $11.1 billion in 2014, according to Yole. The company forecasts the market will be 30 billion units shipped in 2020 and be worth $20 billion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Defines an IoT Layer
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326873&
TCP/IP is very good at facilitating communication, but what the end nodes say to each other has largely been left as an exercise for the user. It may be about time for that to change.
The disappointing part of the setup process was how much of it was still predicated on me looking up exact model numbers for everything that I wanted to use it to control. This is an unwelcome legacy of the archaic IR remotes that are still being used to control TV’s and other consumer appliances. That interface is finally starting to migrate to smarter interfaces such as Wifi / Ethernet and HDMI-CEC, but we are still far from a true plug-and-play situation as far as having these devices smoothly identify each other and interoperate.
This is an issue in the nascent expansion of the Internet of Things. Several networks have service discovery protocols defined within their boundaries that can be used to effectively make connections. Bluetooth defines a number of service profiles, Zigbee defines a set of application end points, and Z-Wave defines a set of command classes. Endless arguments can be made as to which of these provides the more robust connectivity and interoperability, but the end result of each of them is that devices on these networks can sort out how to locate and work with other devices on the same network.
One network protocol that is much less rigorous about that is TCP/IP. Nodes on this network can advertise services through a number of protocols, but pretty much each of these does so independently and to some extent differently from the others. There have been attempts to build an overall framework for service discovery in TCP/IP over the years, but none of these has gained traction.
There is a possibility that this will change, though. Among the highlights of the keynote speech from the recent Google I/O conference was the announcement that Google was building Yet Another IoT OS (YAITOS? Think that acronym will catch on?) named Brillo.
Buried under that heading was something else that they were doing under that tent named Weave. The details of that were very vague, but it sounded to me like another run at defining a Service Discovery layer for TCP/IP. This would seem to go nicely with the Thread initiative, which could standardize the underlying networking layers.
If they really did this right perhaps they would integrate the device databases from the other IoT network protocols, giving an end-to-end view of the devices and services available in at least a local heterogeneous network.
As I said earlier, this has been tried before and there is certainly no guarantee that it will succeed this time around.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Insecure radio links and the end of Moore’s Law discussed at DAC 2015
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/benchtalk/4439670/Insecure-radio-links-and-the-end-of-Moore-s-Law-discussed-at-DAC-2015?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150616&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150616&elq=9ebbdd84e2f44b8595dccd06965132df&elqCampaignId=23462&elqaid=26475&elqat=1&elqTrackId=860123c9a6bf418cacd9dfbb76f58490
Crying wolf
Are you concerned about all the insecure radio links out there? The DAC panel “The Researcher Who Cried Wolf” featured several speakers who presented some simultaneously entertaining and troubling stories about security problems of various sorts.
The first speaker, a self-described SDR (software-defined radio) evangelist, talked about all the open radio protocols out there, focusing on aircraft systems. He’d created some impressive animations of aircraft operations over both large geographic areas, and right down to simulated views out the windshield of aircraft at a nearby airport. He also showed demos of restaurant pager hacking and decoding of items like toll transponders and keyless entry. Fortunately, the talk was mostly of a cautionary nature. Use as much security as your app demands.
The second speaker, from TrapX Labs, covered IoT and related attacks. With even electric toothbrushes available that connect to your network, one realizes that the number of potential attack vectors is only going to keep increasing. He also pointed out the need to expect the unexpected, such as malware planted in a barcode reader! Malware has also been found in medical equipment like analyzers and image archive systems running older OSes. Finally, the Nest thermostat was discussed. Well designed from a security standpoint, it was still possible to plant modified units on store shelves which would allow access into the purchaser’s network.
Next, the seemingly unlikely scenario of hardware trojans was discussed: the concept of modifying actual IC circuitry somewhere in the production process. The most undetectable scenario is changing doping of selected transistors to force various states and behaviours, the trick of course being it must be undetectable during test. A good example was that of a random number generator used for encryption
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bluz: A cloud-connected, Bluetooth LE development kit
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/264813863/bluz-bluetooth-made-smarter
Build Bluetooth LE devices for the Internet of Things with a REST API and Web IDE that run on coin cell batteries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A new window into our world with real-time trends
http://googleblog.blogspot.fi/2015/06/a-new-window-into-our-world-with-real.html
Every journey we take on the web is unique. Yet looked at together, the questions and topics we search for can tell us a great deal about who we are and what we care about. That’s why today we’re announcing the biggest expansion of Google Trends since 2012. You can now find real-time data on everything from the FIFA scandal to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign kick-off, and get a sense of what stories people are searching for. Many of these changes are based on feedback we’ve collected through conversations with hundreds of journalists and others around the world—so whether you’re a reporter, a researcher, or an armchair trend-tracker, the new site gives you a faster, deeper and more comprehensive view of our world through the lens of Google Search.
You can now explore minute-by-minute, real-time data behind the more than 100 billion searches that take place on Google every month, getting deeper into the topics you care about.
On the new google.com/trends, you’ll find a ranked, real-time list of trending stories that are gaining traction across Google
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Part Day: Indoor Location Systems
http://hackaday.com/2015/06/17/new-part-day-indoor-location-systems/
GPS is an enabling technology that does far more than the designers ever dreamed.
GPS, however, doesn’t work too well indoors. This is a problem, because we really don’t know what is possible if we can track an object to within 10cm indoors. Now there’s a module that does just that. It’s the decaWave DWM1000.
This module uses an 802.15 radio to track objects to within just a few centimeters of precision. It does this by sending time stamps to and from a set of base stations, or ‘anchors’. The module is also a small, and relatively high bandwidth (110kbps) radio for sensors and Internet of Things things makes it a very interesting part.
Some of the potential for this module is obvious: inventory management, and finding the remote and/or car keys. Like a lot of new technology, the most interesting applications are the ones no one has thought of yet.
ScenSor DWM1000 Module
http://www.decawave.com/products/dwm1000-module
For developers of Real Time Location and Indoor Positioning Systems, Location Based Services, Internet of Things and Wireless Sensor Networks
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Internet of Things Is the Password Killer We’ve Been Waiting For
http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/06/17/2233226/the-internet-of-things-is-the-password-killer-weve-been-waiting-for
You can’t enter a password into an Apple Watch; the software doesn’t allow it, and the UI would make doing so difficult even if it did. As we enter the brave new world of wearable and embeddable devices and omnipresent ‘headless’ computers, we may be seeing the end of the password as we know it.
IoT is the password killer we’ve been waiting for
http://www.itworld.com/article/2937232/security/iot-is-the-password-killer-weve-been-waiting-for.html
IoT, with its tiny screens & headless devices, will drive an authentication revolution. It’s a short leap from the kind of two-factor authentication used on the Apple Watch to proximity-based authentication that does away with any user interaction. Passwords are just the canary in the coalmine.
A brave, new, password-free world
The password is dead. We’ve known that for a while – password managers like LastPass (hacked last week) are but end-of-the-line accessories for a technology that has reached and surpassed its useful life – like a floppy disk holder or a cabinet for a big, fat cathode ray TV set.
The shift to wearables and other small form-factor devices will hasten that trend, eliminating the kind of screen real estate that alphanumeric passwords require. “For the Apple Watch, the user has to be authenticated to their phone for the Watch to get updates and such. If there’s any kind of security threshold, the phone provides that,” said Marc Boroditsky, the COO of the security company Authy, which provides authentication technology for the Apple Watch.
The solution, for now, is two factor technology of the kind Mr. Boroditsky’s company offers, and that is already common on many web sites and applications, including Google, Apple’s iCloud, Facebook and more. Software sends a simple numeric code to a mobile device that can then be entered into a traditional login screen. In the case of Apple’s Watch, that numeric code is simplified to a “Yes” or “No” authorization.
It’s a short leap from there to proximity-based authentication that does away with any user interaction. That’s already a common feature of automobiles. The Apple Watch or other wearables will greatly expand the possible use cases for such interactions. For example, if the homeowner is at the door and she is wearing the Watch, unlock the door! No need to put down the groceries.
But what about the universe of connected devices that don’t have any screen at all? So-called “headless” devices are likely to be among the most populous of the hundreds of billions of systems that will make up the Internet of Things. Think: embedded sensors, smart city infrastructure, industrial robots.
“We’re heading into a new world where user IDs and passwords won’t exist,” said , Jason Sabin, Chief Security Officer at the firm DigiCert, a U.S. based certificate authority. “Wearables, headless devices or small screen, small form factor devices – you definitely have to think about what identity means.”
On the question of authentication, Sabin believes that what is lost in graphical interfaces will be more than compensated for by the wealth of data – biometric and otherwise – that will be captured by IoT devices. “Maybe authentication becomes the way you walk as a person, or how you interact with the environment around you,” Sabin said. “My shoes, my phone, my watch, my clothing – those could be another form of identification to prove that I am ‘Jason.’”
Doing IoT security right?
Nobody knows how all of this will work – let alone how to secure it. And once you start talking about identity federation at the scale of the billions of connected endpoints on the Internet of Things, everything gets dicey.
Even today, online identity is splintered. Technologies and identity systems like Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), Initiative For Open Authentication (OATH) and OpenID provide ways for users to connect to applications and resources. Siloed identity systems like Facebook Connect have also become popular as a way to authenticate individuals to online services. But all of those suppose that the authenticating device is a “smart” and “connected” device, constantly connected to the Internet and capable of handling such processing-intensive exchanges. Those are assumptions that may not hold for the many low-power, single function, intermittently connected IoT endpoints that will soon fill our environment.
Simply connecting devices that were once disconnected is a much easier problem to solve than managing security and identity.
To do security “right,” IoT device makers need to lock down communications to and from their endpoint using TLS or some equivalent technology. They also need features to push down software and configuration updates and – when appropriate – to secure data at rest on the device. Also, IoT devices may have useful lives measured in decades; companies need a way to future-proof their creations.
That’s a high bar, which is why Sabin argues that it may be better – in many consumer use cases – not to attempt or make assurances about security at all. “Why pretend to inject security into system that you can never update or where you can’t manage the security of the system,” Sabin argues. “You’re just giving consumers and customers a false sense of security – that you’ve sprinkled in some security and think its enough.”
In most cases, however, not offering security for connected devices will not be an option. The risk posed by hundreds or thousands of vulnerable or insecure devices to the security of their corporate IT environment is considerable.
Shaw looks to emerging standards like OAuth2 and UMA (User Managed Access) as a way to do authentication and granular permissions at the scale of the Internet of Things.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Computex (and Taiwan) Tries to Pivot to IoT, Wearables
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326903&
This year’s show had a collection of interesting IoT devices and inexpensive wearable devices that you don’t normally see. Missing were larger Korean and Chinese manufacturers.
Taiwan’s entry into the IoT market is late and is a mixed bag of diverse devices and services. Many of the Computex talks and panel discussions featuring companies such as Acer, ARM, MediaTek, and STMicroelectronics, focused on IoT development and a section of the main TWTC hall was devoted to IoT devices. I found one of the more interesting connected power control approaches at Computex in the Full Enterprise Corp. booth — connected power switches with a flexible networking solution. The Full Enterprise power strips and outlets had network modules for each connectivity option including: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and Z-Wave. In many ways this represents the traditional Taiwan ODM approach towards any new technology: “tell us what you want and we will build it.” But it was still a refreshing change from the many IoT devices that commit to just one wireless networking protocol, limiting system integration flexibility, even if it wasn’t particularly elegant. The present Tower of Babel in IoT networking is one of the major challenges in industrial and home automation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
7 IoT Test Challenges for Network Providers
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326875&
The Internet of Things holds the potential for us to lead smarter, more productive lives by connecting devices over the familiar internet infrastructure. Wearable or connected computing, ubiquitous networks, real-time network intelligence, and optimum resource utilization are some of the expected virtues of implementing IoT. But as the number of interconnected devices in a network grow dramatically, designing the network service becomes complex. In turn, managing such networks becomes a massive undertaking.
Network service providers need to anticipate the effects of this new evolution and be prepared for the proliferation of connected devices on their networks. Network operators now face a daunting task of monitoring and managing the increased number of devices on their networks. Moreover, ensuring business-class SLAs for their services becomes critical especially since customer loyalty and brand perception are at stake.
Some of the hurdles, service providers see on their journey in adopting IoT are:
Exponential traffic
Scalability
Interoperability
Security
Real-time monitoring
Diagnostics
Intelligent Testing & Monitoring
Tomi Engdahl says:
NetAtMo Welcome camera is first to offer face recognition
If it knows you, it’ll leave you alone
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2413606/netatmo-welcome-camera-is-first-to-offer-face-recognition
NETATMO has released the first home security camera with active face recognition, allowing the camera to ‘learn’ the inhabitants and visitors to a dwelling and ignore them.
The French company better known for its weather stations and UV fitness bands said that NetAtMo Welcome uses proprietary algorithms to monitor and recognise faces.
Users of the camera can set up their own identity and those of regular visitors, and decide whether their movements are to be tracked or ignored.
All data is held on a microSD card and nothing is held in the cloud. Data is passed through a server only during streaming to the relevant Android, iOS or Apple Watch app.
Unrecognised faces trigger the camera to record footage. The SD card is bank-level encrypted so if it is removed it is unreadable and untraceable.
The camera is currently being sold as a standalone product for £199 and no subscription fees. However, with a range of NetAtMo products already on the market, and an open API available now, the use of face recognition to trigger events and control other home automation is only a matter of time, and a few boffins to build the bridge.
Tomi Engdahl says:
News & Analysis
ASICs for the IoT Cross the Horizon
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326924&
The recent burst of activity in the EDA, foundry, and contract chip design industries indicates that they have joined the scramble to stake out territory in the Internet of Things (IoT) market. While the design and fabrication of ASICs has broad applicability, EDA companies are now creating platforms and developing tool packages specifically to reduce barriers to entry for IoT design teams. The result may be a new wave of custom connected devices.
There are two major perceived issues with ASICs that have lead IoT design teams to work primarily with off-the-shelf resources instead, according to Huzefa Cutlerywala, a sr. director of Technical Solutions at custom chip designer Open-Silicon. “They think of ASIC design as being something long term,” Cutlerywala said in an interview with EE Times. “Because time to market is one of their main concerns, IoT designers have been avoiding ASICs.” The second major issue holding back ASIC use in the IOT, Cutlerywala pointed out, is risk. “It’s much safer when you’re starting with out-of-the-box functionality.”
But ASICs have significant advantages to offer the IoT design community, Cutlerywala added. Perhaps surprisingly, the traditional ASIC cost advantage in high-volume production is not necessarily one of them. “For IoT developers,” Cutlerywala said, “the product differentiation, added security, and form factor control that ASICs permit are more valuable than low cost.”
To secure these advantages for IoT developers while simultaneously reducing the design time and risks of an ASIC approach, the custom chip industry is turning to the platform approach, starting with sensor hubs for industrial IoT.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SmartConnect
http://www.atmel.com/products/wireless/wifi/smart-connect.aspx?utm_source=hackaday&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=learn%20more&utm_content=devicepage
Atmel® SmartConnect Wi-Fi is a family of self-contained, low-power, and certified modules bringing wireless Internet connectivity to any embedded design. These integrated modules offer the ideal solutions for designers seeking to integrate Wi-Fi connectivity without any 802.11, IP Stack or RF experience. SmartConnect Wi-Fi opens the door of the Internet of Things to the vast array of battery-powered devices and applications requiring the integration of WLAN connectivity without compromising on cost and power consumption.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Part Day: Nordic’s New Bluetooth SoC
http://hackaday.com/2015/06/21/new-part-day-nordics-new-bluetooth-soc/
You don’t need to look very hard to find Nordic’s nRF51 wireless module; it’s found in hundreds of products and dozens of projects over on hackaday.io. The nRF51 is a SoC that includes an ARM Cortex M0 processor and a variety of radios for Bluetooth and other protocols. Useful, if a bit limited in processing power.
Now, Nordic has a new SoC. It’s the nRF52, a Cortex M4F processor, a Bluetooth radio, NFC, and a bunch of Flash and RAM to make just about anything you can think of possible. Yes, it’s an upgrade to the nRF51
Already there are SDKs for IAR Workbench, Keil4 and 5, and gcc.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Using Low Cost Environmental Sensors in Geoscience Education
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBwqT3HVbBE
This is a screencast of a talk
some basics of sensors and micro-controllers, show an example of putting a 3-axis magnetometer online, and encourage makers and geoscientists to explore this wide-open space.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Market Will Grow 19 Percent in 2015, IDC Predicts
https://registrations.informationweek.com/IK_0618IOT?_mc=EM_IK_WP_IoT_061815&cid=EM_IK_WP_IoT_061815
An IDC report indicates the market for the Internet of Things will only become more robust over the next few years. An increase use in retail digital signage will help the IoT market grow 19 percent in 2015.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethan Zuckerman / The Atlantic:
As commonplace objects like toys become cloud-connected recording devices, policymakers should confront the implications
Beware the Listening Machines
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/06/listening-machines/396179/
When dolls and friendly robots can listen and respond to what people say, where’s the line between personal assistance and mass surveillance?
What’s a listening machine? The example of everyone’s lips was Hello Barbie, a version of the impossibly proportioned doll that will listen to your child speak and respond in kind. Here’s how The Washington Post described the doll back in March: “At a recent New York toy fair, a Mattel representative introduced the newest version of Barbie by saying: ‘Welcome to New York, Barbie.’ The doll, named Hello Barbie, responded: ‘I love New York! Don’t you? Tell me, what’s your favorite part about the city? The food, fashion, or the sights?’
ADVERTISING
Barbie accomplishes this magic by recording your child’s question, uploading it to a speech recognition server, identifying a recognizable keyword (“New York”) and offering an appropriate synthesized response. The company behind Barbie’s newfound voice, ToyTalk, uses your child’s utterance to help tune their speech recognition, likely storing the voice file for future use.
And that’s the trick with listening systems. If you can imagine reasons why you might not want Mattel maintaining a record of things your child says while talking to his or her doll, you should be able to imagine the possible harms that could come from use—abuse or interrogation of other listening systems. (“Siri, this is the police. Give us the last hundred searches Mr. Zuckerman asked you to conduct on Google. Has he ever searched for bomb-making instructions?”)
As one of the speakers put it (we’re under Chatham House rules, so I can’t tell you who), listening machines trigger all three aspects of the surveillance holy trinity:
1. They’re pervasive, starting to appear in all aspects of our lives.
2. They’re persistent, capable of keeping records of what we’ve said indefinitely.
3. They process the data they collect, seeking to understand what people are saying and acting on what they’re able to understand.
To reduce the creepy nature of their surveillant behavior, listening systems are often embedded in devices designed to be charming, cute, and delightful: toys, robots, and smooth-voiced personal assistants. Proponents of listening systems see them as a major way technology integrates itself more deeply into our lives, making it routine for computers to become our helpers, playmates, and confidants.
If a robot observes spousal abuse, should it call the police? If the robot is designed to be friend and confidant to everyone in the house, but was paid for by the mother, should we expect it to rat out one of the kids for smoking marijuana?
Despite the helpful provocations offered by real and proposed consumer products, the questions I found most interesting focused on being unwittingly and unwillingly surveilled by listening machines. What happens when systems like ShotSpotter, currently designed to identify shots fired in a city, begins dispatching police to other events, like a rowdy pool party (just to pick a timely example)?
A representative of one of the consumer regulatory agencies in the United States gave an excellent talk in which she outlined some of the existing laws and principles that could potentially be used to regulate listening machines in the future. While the U.S. does not have comprehensive privacy legislation in the way many European nations do, there are sector-specific laws that can protect against abusive listening machines: the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, HIPA, and others.
Do we want a world in which we confide in our phones? And how should companies be forced to handle the data generated by these new interactions?
The challenge is figuring out how, in our current, barely functional political landscape, we decide what technologies should trigger pre-emptive conversations about whether, when, and how those products should come to market.
If my example of Siri affecting your credit score seems either fanciful or trivial,
The good news is that there’s both a precedent of executive authority to ban certain lines of research, and a robust tradition of debate within the scientific community that seeks to influence this policymaking.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Interesting security technology:
Shotspotter
http://www.shotspotter.com/
ShotSpotter Flex instantly notifies officers of gunshot crimes in progress with real-time data delivered to dispatch centers, patrol cars and even smart phones. This affordable, subscription-based service enhances officer safety and effectiveness through:
Real-time access to maps of shooting locations and gunshot audio,
Actionable intelligence detailing the number of shooters and the number of shots fired,
Pinpointing precise locations for first responders aiding victims, searching for evidence and interviewing witnesses.
http://www.shotspotter.com/cloud-based-solution
SST’s cloud-based system is cost effective.
SST owns and operates the underlying sensor network as well as the data center infrastructure which provides the 24x7x365 real-time data. Sensors are installed and maintained by SST, and operate on “machine-to-machine” data contracts provided by our cellular provider partners. Because SST maintains thousands of live sensor connections with those partners, we achieve per-sensor connectivity savings far beyond what a single agency could negotiate, and we pass those savings along to our customers in the form of a fixed price subscription.
Built-in redundancy eliminates any single point of failure.
SST operates fully redundant data centers on both the East and West Coasts, both of which have doubly-redundant power and HVAC, and triply-redundant Internet connectivity. The company has invested in full data redundancy and backups, as well as offsite backup, and provides a level of 24x7x365 fault tolerant hardware and network uptime that no agency–even the biggest–could afford to procure, let alone maintain, on its own.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ecobee3: If you want a smart thermostat, this is likely the one for you
A cuckoo in the Nest
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/22/ecobee3_if_you_want_a_smart_thermostat_this_is_likely_the_one_for_you/
So in order to test out the Ecobee3 – as its names suggests, the third iteration of the product – it was necessary to pull the Nest smart thermostat off the wall and put it away.
That this act seemed somehow wrong and even came with a twinge of guilt is an indication of just how entrancing the product that has become the face of smart-home tech really is.
But the Ecobee has now lived on the wall for a little over two weeks and the incredible thing is that it will most likely stay there. Simply put, while the Nest is as sexy as any thermostat is ever going to be, the Ecobee is, well, better.
Tomi Engdahl says:
News & Analysis
Wide Area Network for IoT Gets Protocol Standard
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326931&
The LoRa Alliance has released an open protocol standard for IoT systems communicating over wide-area wireless networks in unlicensed frequency bands: LoRaWAN R1.0. LoRa is a proprietary spread-spectrum modulation and forward error correction scheme developed by SemTech that is able to communicate low-data-rate traffic over a 2-20 km range using very low power. The LoRa Alliance, formed earlier this year, aims to promote the use of the technology by establishing communications standards and certifying interoperability among devices.
A LoRaWAN network uses a star-of-stars topology with gateways serving as a transparent bridge relaying messages between end-devices and a central network server. Gateways connect to the network server via standard IP connections, while end-devices use single-hop wireless communication to one or many gateways. The structure is similar to a cellular telephony network, and gateway devices will typically be installed on existing cellular towers, but instead of providing a single, interconnected network, the scheme allows multiple independent LoRaWANs to operate in a given geographic area.
The LoRa modulation scheme at the heart of a LoRaWAN was developed to solve challenges facing IoT applications that needed wide area coverage as well as years-long battery life, Alliance assistant chairman Jaap Groot told EE Times. “A few years ago it was realized that mobile devices with SIM cards would not drive the IoT. Radios were too expensive and batteries wouldn’t last for more than a month or two.”
The LoRaWAN R1.0 protocol is open and the specification freely available for download at the Alliance website. The Alliance has made the specification available to encourage the protocol’s adoption as a de facto standard in long-range, low-bandwidth IoT systems. The physical layer radios, though, do use proprietary technology that must be purchased or licensed
Such radios were available well before the protocol standard was finalized, from companies such as Semtech, Microchip, Hope Microelectronics, IMST, and Link Labs.
http://lora-alliance.org/Contact/Request-Specification-Form
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Smallest SoC for IoT’ Adds Memory
Single Chip System Module packs dual A9s, security, Gbyte of DRAM
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326944&
A new category of chip has dawned upon the semiconductor industry according to Freescale. One step beyond the familiar system-on-chip (SoC), this new category dubbed Single Chip System Module (SCM) includes everything an SoC contains, plus gigaBytes of DRAM stacked on top along with a power management chip and flash memory chip alongside its dual ARM Cortex-A9 application processors.
As a result, Freescale claims a 50% reduction in board space and a 25% faster-to-market metric, plus the ability to do predictive data analytics with its first model of the new family of SCMs, the i.MX 6D.
“Right now the first model is for plugged-in Internet of Things [IoT] and graphics hubs, but the whole family will be expanded into portables, wearables, autonomous sensing nodes, and automotive applications soon,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Internet of Things Hits Its Stride
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/mouser/the-internet-of-things-hits-its-stride/
The technology has developed significantly over the years from RFID tags application to tele-operations, Internet of Things has undoubtedly sees its future as the next generation of fully-integrated Internet.
The current Internet of connected humans through social media is quickly and quietly morphing into an Internet of interconnected objects. In October 2013, IDC predicted that the Internet of interconnected objects would be an $8.9 trillion dollar market in 2020 with 30.1 billion autonomous devices connected. With the number of connected machines projected to outnumber the earth’s population by 4:1 by 2020, the future Internet will be primarily the Internet of Things – or, with due deference to humans, the Internet of Everything.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by machine-to-machine communication between devices, which in this case are communicating over the Internet.
Everything old is new again
Like all seemingly new ideas, the Internet of Things has some history. As far back as 1999, Bill Joy (inventor of Berkeley Unix and Sun Microsystems) described a “device to device (D2D) web…an Internet of sensors deployed in mesh networks” that would embed machine intelligence in everyday life. The idea lay dormant for ten years until MIT’s Kevin Ashton coined the term Internet of Things to describe how digitally tagged objects could be networked together, interacting without the need for human intervention. In Ashton’s words, “If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things – using data they gathered without any help from us – we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost.”
Working out of MIT’s Auto-ID Center, Ashton’s initial concept was to tag everything and possibly everyone with RFID tags or possibly bar codes.
Industry started putting the infrastructure in place for the Internet of Things with the introduction of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, such as remote terminals and programmable logic controllers, as early as the 1970s. A central computer would interact with sensors and actuators embedded in machines along an assembly line to control the operation of the line. Distributed lines led to distributed systems and later networked SCADA systems with more and more intelligence being built into peripheral devices.
There’s an app for that
Utility companies were early participants in the Internet of Things in the form of the smart grid. The smart grid is essentially a large, high-voltage communications network, although the backbone network might be cellular, Wi-Fi, or satellite based. Distributed systems throughout the grid continuously monitor usage and reroute power or respond to problems as needed. At the far end, smart meters continuously monitor consumption, enabling both utilities and end users to better manage their resources.
Smart devices in the home respond to remote directives to reduce power during peak loads or to power up later when demand on the grid slacks off. Smart air conditioners, washing machines, and other appliances enable better home energy management and allow electric companies to avoid blackout and brownouts without additional investment in equipment.
Health and fitness buffs already wear monitors that record their heart rate and the distance they run, coupling that to a PC to analyze the results. Wearable wireless medical devices include accelerometers to warn of falls, EKGs for heart monitoring, and insulin pumps and glucose monitors for diabetics. Each of these devices can connect to a mobile phone or PC via Bluetooth and an Internet of Things back end to upload data to servers at medical offices. End-to-end solutions in health monitoring are quickly becoming a reality with standards and regulatory bodies no longer dragging their feet. Early in 2014 the Continua Health Alliance will make public its lightweight protocol that works with mobile devices and GSMA has already made mobile health one of its target growth areas.
Get smart
At the heart of most IoT implementations are low-power wireless sensor networks (WSN) that connect to the Internet. A typical WSN node contains one or more sensors, A/D and possibly D/A converters, an MCU, an RF transceiver, and a power supply (often a battery). While a node may contain enough intelligence to respond to environmental changes, nodes usually send data to a distributed or centralized system for analysis. Active RFID, with its very limited processing and storage capabilities, comes in at the low end of the WSN range. More intelligent WSNs can perform high-speed data collection, processing, and communications, moving a great deal of control out to the node level.
As cellular and wireless connections increase, cloud-based computing is becoming central to the Internet of Things. The cloud provides scalable storage for the massive quantities of data provided by WSNs as well as the analytical tools required by human users to make sense of all that data. The cloud can provide the necessary computing resources and services to manage large IoT networks. Cloud-based software-as-a service (SaaS) is key to scaling IoT applications.