The Internet of Things revolution started in 2015 and will continue to be strong in 2016. 2015 was the year everyone talked about the Internet of Things. (So was 2014. And 2013.) But unlike before, it was the year everyone started making plans, laying groundwork, and building the infrastructure. Internet of Things is coming. It’s not a matter of if or whether, but when and how. The premise of IoT is that a connected world will offer gains through efficiency.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has been called the next Industrial Revolution — it will change the way all businesses, governments, and consumers interact with the physical world. The Internet of Things (IoT) is an environment in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer the data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. IoT has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)
and the Internet. IoT is also called the Internet of Everything. A critical component for the IoT system to be a success will be secure bi-directional communication, mobility and localization services.
In the future, everything will be connected. It won’t just be our phones that access the Internet; it will be our light bulbs, our front doors, our microwaves, our comforters, our blenders. You can call it the Internet of Things, The Internet of Everything, Universal Object Interaction, or your pick of buzzwords that begin with Smart. They all hold as inevitable that everything, everything will be connected, to each other and to the Internet. And this is promised to change the world. Remember that the objects themselves do not benefit us, but what services and functions they make it possible to obtain. We will enjoy the outcome, hopefully even better quality products, informative and reliable services, and even new applications.
There will be lots of money spend on IoT in 2016, the exact sum is hard to define, but it is estimated that nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years. IoT is now a very large global business dominated by giants (IBM, Intel, Cisco, Gemalto, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Bosch, GE, AT&T, T-Mobile, Telefonica and many others). I see that because it is still a young and quickly developing market, there will be lots of potential in it for startups in 2016.
There will be a very large number of new IoT devices connected to Internet in the end of 2016. According to Business Insider The Internet of Things Report there was 10 billion devices connected to the internet in 2015 and there will be will be 34 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devicesw ill comprise 10 billion (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.). Juniper research predicted that by 2020, there will be 38.5 billion connected devices. IDC says it’ll be 20.9 billion. Gartner’s guess? Twenty-five billion. The numbers don’t matter, except that they’re huge. They all agree that most of those gadgets will be industrial Internet of Things. The market for connecting the devices you use all day, every day, is about to be huge.
Businesses will be the top adopter of IoT solutions because they see ways the IoT can improve their bottom line: lowering operating costs, increasing productivity, expand to new markets and develop new product offerings. Sensors, data analytics, automation and wireless communication technologies allow the study of the “self-conscious” machines, which are able to observe their environment and communicate with each other. From predictive maintenance that reduces equipment downtime to workers using mobile devices on the factory floor, manufacturing is undergoing dramatic change. The Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling increased automation on the factory floor and throughout the supply chain, 3D printing is changing how we think about making components, and the cloud and big data are enabling new applications that provide an end-to-end view from the factory floor to the retail store.
Governments are focused on increasing productivity, decreasing costs, and improving their citizens’ quality of life. The IoT devices market will connect to climate agreements as in many applicatons IoT can be seen as one tool to help to solve those problems. A deal to attempt to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2C was agreed at the climate change summit in Paris in December 2015. Sitra fresh market analysis indicates that there is up to an amount of EUR 6 000 billion market potential for smart green solutions by 2050. Smart waste and water systems, materials and packaging, as well as production systems together to form an annual of over EUR 670 billion market. Smart in those contests typically involves use of IoT technologies.
Consumers will lag behind businesses and governments in IoT adoption – still they will purchase a massive number of devices. There will be potential for marketing IoT devices for consumers: Nine out of ten consumers never heard the words IoT or Internet of Things, October 2015! It seems that the newest IoT technology extends homes in 2016 – to those homes where owner has heard of those things. Wi-Fi has become so ubiquitous in homes in so many parts of the world that you can now really start tapping into that by having additional devices. The smart phones and the Internet connection can make home appliances, locks and sensors make homes and leisure homes in more practical, safer and more economical. Home adjusts itself for optimal energy consumption and heating, while saving money. During the next few years prices will fall to fit for large sets of users. In some cases only suitable for software is needed, as the necessary sensors and data connections can be found in mobile phones. Our homes are going to get smarter, but it’s going to happen slowly. Right now people mostly buy single products for a single purpose. Our smart homes and connected worlds are going to happen one device, one bulb at a time. The LED industry’s products will become more efficient, reliable, and, one can hope, interoperable in the near future. Companies know they have to get you into their platform with that first device, or risk losing you forever to someone else’s closed ecosystem.
The definitions what would be considered IoT device and what is a traditional computing devices is not entirely clear, and I fear that we will not get a clear definition for that in 2016 that all could agree. It’s important to remember that the IoT is not a monolithic industry, but rather a loosely defined technology architecture that transcends vertical markets to make up an “Internet of everything.”
Too many people – industry leaders, media, analysts, and end users – have confused the concept of
“smart” with “connected”. Most devices – labeled “IoT” or “smart” – are simply connected devices. Just connecting a device to the internet so that it can be monitored and controlled by someone over the web using a smart phone is not smart. Yes, it may be convenient and time saving, but it is not “smart”. Smart means intelligence.
IoT New or Not? YES and NO. There are many cases where whole IoT thing is hyped way out of proportion. For the most part, it’s just the integration of existing technologies. Marketing has driven an amount of mania around IoT, on the positive side getting it on the desks of decision makers, and on the negative generating ever-loftier predictions. Are IoT and M2M same or different? Yes and no depending on case. For sure for very many years to come IoT and M2M will coexist.
Nearly a dozen contenders are trying to fill a need for long distance networks that cut the cost and power consumption of today’s cellular machine-to-machine networks. Whose technology protocols should these manufacturers incorporate into their gear? Should they adopt ZigBee, Apple’s HomeKit, Allseen Alliance/AllJoyn, or Intel’s Open Interconnect Consortium? Other 802.15.4 technologies? There are too many competing choices.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, two pioneers of the Internet of Things are expanding their platforms and partnerships. Crowdfunding sites and hardware accelerators are kicking out startups at a regular clip, typically companies building IoT devices that ride Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Bluetooth Special Interest group is expected to release in2016 support for mesh networks and higher data rates.
Although ZWave and Zigbee helped pioneer the smart home and building space more than a decade ago, but efforts based on Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 6LoWPAN are poised to surpass them. Those pioneering systems are actively used and developed. Zigbee Alliance starts certification for its unified version 3.0 specification in few months (includes profiles for home and building automation, LED lighting, healthcare, retail and smart energy). EnOcean Alliance will bring its library of about 200 application profiles for 900 MHz energy harvesting devices to Zigbee networks. Zigbee will roll out a new spec for smart cities. The Z-Wave Security 2 framework will start a beta test in February and Z-Wave aims to strike a collaboration withleading IoT application framework platforms. Zigbee alredy has support Thread.
The race to define, design and deploy new low power wide area networks for the Internet of Things won’t cross a finish line in 2016. But by the end of the year it should start to be clear which LPWA nets are likely to have long legs and the opportunities for brand new entrants will dim significantly. So at the moment it is hard to make design choices. To protect against future technology changes, maybe the device makers should design in wireless connectivity chips and software that will work with a variety of protocols? That’s complicated and expensive. But if I pick only one technology I can easily pick up wrong horse, and it is also an expensive choice.
Within those who want to protect against future technology changes, there could be market for FPGAs in IoT devices. The Internet of Things (IoT) is broken and needs ARM-based field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology to fix it, an expert told engineers at UBM’s Designers of Things conference in San Jose. You end up with a piece of hardware that can be fundamentally changed in the field.
There seems to be huge set of potential radio techniques also for Internet of Things even for long distance and low power consumpion. Zigbee will roll out a new spec for smart cities in February based on the 802.15.4g standard for metro networks. It will compete with an already crowded field of 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz networks from Sigfox, the LoRa Alliance, Ingenu and others. Weightless-P is an open standard announced by Weightless SIG, which operates at frequencies below one gigahertz. Weightless-P nodes and development cards will be expected to be in the market already during the first quarter of 2016, at the moment Weightless IoT Hardware Virtually Unavailable.
I expect LoRa Technology is expected to be hot in 2016. The LoRaWAN standard enables low-data-rate Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) wireless communication with a range of up to 10 miles, a battery life of 10 years, and the ability to connect millions of wireless sensor nodes to LoRaWAN gateways. LoRa® technology works using a digital spread spectrum modulation and proprietary protocol in the Sub-GHz RF band (433/868/915 MHz). I see LoRa technology interesting because lots of activity around in Finland in several companies (especially Espotel) and I have seen a convincing hands-in demo of the LoRa system in use.
It seems that 3GPP Lost its Way in IoT and there is fragmentation ahead in cellular standards. In theory 3GPP should be the default provider of IoT connectivity, but it seems that it has now failed in providing one universal technology. At the moment, there are three major paths being supported by 3GPP for IoT: the machine-type version of LTE (known as LTE-M) and two technologies coming from the Cellular-IoT initiative — NB-IoT and EC-GSM. So here we are with three full standardization efforts in 3GPP for IoT connectivity. It is too much. There will like be a base standard in 2016 for LTE-M.
The promise of billions of connected devices leads everyone to assume that there will be plenty of room for multiple technologies, but this betrays the premise of IoT, that a connected world will offer gains through efficiency. Too many standard will cause challenges for everybody. Customers will not embrace IoT if they have to choose between LTE-M and Sigfox-enabled products that may or may not work in all cases. OEM manufacturers will again bear the cost, managing devices at a regional or possibly national level. Again, we lose efficiency and scale. The cost of wireless connectivity will remain a barrier to entry to IoT.
Today’s Internet of Things product or service ultimately consists of multiple parts, quite propably supplied by different companies. An Internet of Things product or service ultimately consists of multiple parts. One is the end device that gathers data and/or executes control functions on the basis of its communications over the Internet. Another is the gateway or network interface device. Once on the Internet, the IoT system needs a cloud service to interact with. Then, there is the human-machine interface (HMI) that allows users to interact with the system. So far, most of the vendors selling into the IoT development network are offering only one or two of these parts directly. Alternatives to this disjointed design are arising, however. Recently many companies are getting into the end-to-end IoT design support business, although to different degrees.
Voice is becoming more often used the user interface of choice for IoT solutions. Smartphones let you control a lot using only your voice as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung have their solutions for this. For example Amazon, SoundHound and Nuance have created systems that allow to add language commands to own hardware or apps. Voice-activated interface becomes pervasive and persistent for IoT solutions in 2016. Right now, most smart home devices are controlled through smartphones, and it seems like that’s unlikely to change. The newest wearable technology, smart watches and other smart devices corresponding to the voice commands and interpret the data we produce – it learns from its users, and generate as responses in real time appropriate, “micro-moments” tied to experience.
Monitoring your health is no longer only a small group oriented digital consumer area. Consumers will soon take advantage of the health technology extensively to measure well-being. Intel Funds Doctor in Your Pocket and Samsung’s new processor is meant for building much better fitness trackers. Also, insurance companies have realized the benefits of health technologies and develop new kinds of insurance services based on data from IoT devices.
Samsung’s betting big on the internet of things and wants the TV to sit at the heart of this strategy. Samsung believes that people will want to activate their lights, heating and garage doors all from the comfort of their couch. If smart TVs get a reputation for being easy to hack, then Samsung’s models are hardly likely to be big sellers. After a year in which the weakness of smart TVs were exploited, Samsung goes on the offensive in 2016. Samsung’s new Tizen-based TVs will have GAIA security with pin lock for credit card and other personal info, data encryption, built-in anti-malware system, more.
This year’s CES will focus on how connectivity is proliferating everything from cars to homes, realigning diverse markets – processors and networking continue to enhance drones, wearables and more. Auto makers will demonstrate various connected cars. There will be probably more health-related wearables at CES 2016, most of which will be woven into clothing, mainly focused on fitness. Whether or not the 2016 International CES holds any big surprises remains to be seen. The technology is there. Connected light bulbs, connected tea kettles, connected fridges and fans and coffeemakers and cars—it’s all possible. It’s not perfect, but the parts are only going to continue to get better, smaller, and cheaper.
Connectivity of IoT devices will still have challeges in 2016. While IoT standards organizations like the Open Interconnect Consortium and the AllSeen Alliance are expected to demonstrate their capabilities at CES, the industry is still a ways away from making connectivity simple. In 2016 it will still pretty darn tedious to get all these things connected, and there’s all these standards battles coming on. So there will be many standards in use at the same time. The next unsolved challenge: How the hell are all these things going to work together? Supporting open APIs that connect with various services is good.
Like UPnP and DLNA, AllJoyn could become the best-kept secret in the connected home in 2016 — everyone has it, no one knows about it. AllJoyn is an open-source initiative to connect devices in the Internet of Things. Microsoft added support for AllJoyn to Windows in 2014.
Analysis will become important in 2016 on IoT discussions. There’s too much information out there that’s available free, or very cheaply. We need systems to manage the information so we can make decisions. Welcome to the systems age.
The rise of the Internet of Things and Web services is driving new design principles. The new goal is to delight customers with experiences that evolve in flexible ways that show you understand their needs. “People are expecting rich experiences, fun and social interactions… this generation gets bored easily so you need to understand all the dimensions of how to delight them”
With huge number of devices security issues will become more and more important. In 2016, we’ll need to begin grappling with the security concerns these devices raise. The reality of everything being connected can have unintended consequences, not all of them useful – Welcome to the Internet of stupid (hackable) things.
Security: It was a hot topic for 2015 and if anything it will get hotter in 2016. The reason is clear. By adding connectivity embedded systems not only increase their utility, they vastly increase their vulnerability to subversion with significant consequences. Embedded systems that add connectivity face many challenges, of which the need for security is both vital and misunderstood. But vendors and developers have been getting the message and solutions are appearing in greater numbers, from software libraries to MCUs with a secure root of trust.
Bruce Schneier is predicting that the IoT will be abused in conjunction with DMCA to make our lives worse instead of better. In theory, connected sensors will anticipate your needs, saving you time, money, and energy. Except when the companies that make these connected objects act in a way that runs counter to the consumer’s best interests. The story of a company using copy-protection technology to lock out competitors—isn’t a new one. Plenty of companies set up proprietary standards to ensure that their customers don’t use someone else’s products with theirs. Because companies can enforce anti-competitive behavior this way, there’s a litany of things that just don’t exist, even though they would make life easier for consumers.
Internet of Things is coming. It’s not a matter of if or whether, but when and how. Maybe it’ll be 2016, maybe the year after, but the train is coming. It’ll have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and probably eight other things, and you’ll definitely get a push notification when it gets here.
More interesting material links:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Developing Internet of Things Projects with the Intel® XDK
https://software.intel.com/en-us/developing-iot-projects-with-intel-xdk?utm_campaign=IHI-IoT-Broad-Q3_16&utm_medium=Syndication&utm_source=Taboola&utm_content=How%20to%20Develop%20IoT%20Projects%20with%20Intel%C2%AE%20XDK&utm_term=bloomberg
This guide contains background information and steps to create applications for your Internet of Things (IoT) board using the Intel® XDK. The Intel XDK, part of the Intel® IoT Developer Kit, lets you create and run Node.js* applications directly on Intel-based IoT platforms. This edition of Intel® XDK also provides templates for creating new applications and offers the possibility of remotely debugging your application and running it from your own desktop.
Developers do not need to use the Intel XDK, but it’s a great tool to have. For example, since the Intel® Galileo board is intended to run IoT projects, its processing power is somewhat limited. Using the Intel XDK allows bigger or more complex projects to take advantage of a more powerful processor to run a complete developer environment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Industrial Shields
http://www.industrialshields.com/?gclid=CM-L8uzI-M8CFcYucgod4TMDVg
Get into Industrial Internet of Things with our PLC’s, all equipped with original Arduino boards
Tomi Engdahl says:
Converting a TP Link Router to Mission Control for Cheap 433MHz Home Automation
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/26/converting-a-tp-link-router-to-mission-control-for-cheap-433mhz-home-automation/
[Jean-Christophe Rona] found himself with some free time and decided to finish a project he started two years ago, reverse engineering cheap 433MHz home automation equipment. He hopes to control his space heaters remotely, in preparation for a cold and, now, robotic winter.
In a previous life, he had reverse engineered the protocol these cheap wireless plugs, garage doors, and electric window shutters all use. This eventually resulted in a little library called rf-ctrl that can toggle and read GPIO pins in the correct way to control these objects.
Home automation with cheap 433MHz plugs, a 1$ 433MHz transmitter, and a TP-Link TL-WR703N router
http://blog.rona.fr/post/2016/10/22/Home-automation-with-cheap-433MHz-plugs-a-1%24-433MHz-transmitter-and-a-TP-Link-TL-WR703N-router
Two years ago, I started playing around with cheap 433MHz plugs that can be found almost everywhere. At that time, I got several from different brands, from the well known Chacon Di-O plugs, to the most obscure chinese/no-name ones, and my goal was to reverse engineer as much protocols as possible. I compiled the result into a little tool I called rf-ctrl (now available on my GitHub), and forgot about it. However, this summer, I needed to find a solution to remotely control my electric heaters (not because I was cold obviously, but because I had the time to do it), and thought it was time to dig up rf-ctrl with a bit of polishing (a Web UI called Home-RF).
Reversing the protocol of a 433MHz plug
To replicate a protocol, one must understand two things. The OOK timings (physical characteristics) is the first one and the easiest, while the actual data format of the frame will be the second one.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart Devices Require Smarter Automated Test Systems
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/53075/en/?cid=Paid_Display-70131000001RoyVAAS-United_States-PID19370113
Smart devices are creating an inflection point in automated test for both the test managers and engineers challenged with ensuring the quality of these devices at increasingly lower costs, and the vendors that serve them. To test their smart devices, organizations are transitioning from the status quo of rack-and-stack box instruments and closed-architecture automated test equipment (ATE) systems to smarter test systems that scale with escalating requirements to continually shorten time to market and drive down cost.
. Smart Devices
For many of us, the Internet of Things (IoT) has already become a personal reality. When we control our Nest thermostat from a smartphone, measure the number of steps we’ve taken with a wristband, or stream video to a tablet, we enjoy the benefits of a device that can sense, connect, and compute. However, even for early technology adopters, the IoT is still in its infancy. Gartner estimates there will soon be more connected devices than humans, and by 2022 each household could contain more than 500 connected devices.
2. Outsmarting Your Smart Device-Under-Test (DUT)
What makes a test system smart? It takes flexible and software-defined I/O modules to sense the right connectivity for synchronization and data streaming (whether locally or to the cloud), and computational horsepower for signal processing where it can have the most benefit.
3. A Platform Built for Customization
All technology vendors talk about platforms. With large engineering teams, a sense of hierarchy and modularity is crucial for efficient development. To forgo a platform-based approach is to doom yourself to re-engineering, often from the ground up, whenever your system reaches a breaking point. In past eras, you may have been able to prolong the inevitable for years or even decades, but the pace of smart device innovation is making the unexpected routine.
4. An Ecosystem Built on the Platform
Once you accept that a user-customizable platform is necessary to keep pace with smart devices, you might then start to worry about your own ability to customize it. By contrast, box instruments have been providing, for decades, push-button answers to common measurements and firmware-based algorithms that offered confidence in the validity and traceability of the measurement. How can that same level of confidence and trust be imparted from something you customized? In summary: an ecosystem of customization IP.
As the devices you have to test become smarter, you are left with a question: Do I trust my instrument vendor to innovate fast enough for my business needs? Or perhaps more importantly, is it worth risking your business to find out?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Retrofitting Smoke Alarms With Bluetooth
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/26/retrofitting-smoke-alarms-with-bluetooth/
Everybody should have a few smoke alarms in their house, and everyone should go check the battery in their smoke alarm right now. That said, there are a few downsides to the traditional smoke alarm. They only work where you can hear them, and this problem has been solved over and over again by security companies and Internet of Things things.
Instead of investing in smart smoke alarms, [Johan] decided to build his own IoT smoke alarm. It’s dead simple, costs less than whatever wonder gizmo you can buy at a home improvement store, and reuses your old smoke alarm. In short, it’s everything you need to build an Internet-connected smoke alarm.
For the microcontroller and wireless solution, [Johan] has settled on TI’s CC2650 LaunchPad. It’s low power, relatively cheap, allows for over the air updates, and has a 12-bit ADC. Once this tiny module is complete, it can be deadbugged into a smoke alarm with relative ease. Any old phone can be used as a bridge between the alarm network and the Internet.
SmartAlarm
https://hackaday.io/project/10347-smartalarm
An addon to all 9V battery fire alarms that sends the alarm and battery status to phones by Bluetooth. The phone then rings or sends a SMS.
What if the alarm sounds when no-one is home, sleeping deep or is deaf. By connecting the fire alarm to the phone all those problem can be solved.
An addon between the 9V battery and the fire alarm to detect fire by measuring the power consumption of the unit. Also voltage measurement for low battery warning. A IoT microprocessor with Bluetooth Smart (4.1, Bluetooth low energy) will be used to send the alarm and warnings to a phone.
The phone can then let different apps respond to the message or vibrate to notify deaf. For example if the owner doesn’t deactivate the alarm a SMS can be sent out to warn family and friends that the house is on fire. An app can also log the battery status and notify the user when he needs to buy a new battery.
An old phone can also be used as the bridge between the alarm and the internet to notify the user when he is on holidays.
A custom made minimal PCB and connector assembly that fits between the battery and the unit should be made.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Converting a TP Link Router to Mission Control for Cheap 433MHz Home Automation
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/26/converting-a-tp-link-router-to-mission-control-for-cheap-433mhz-home-automation/
[Jean-Christophe Rona] found himself with some free time and decided to finish a project he started two years ago, reverse engineering cheap 433MHz home automation equipment. He hopes to control his space heaters remotely, in preparation for a cold and, now, robotic winter.
http://blog.rona.fr/post/2016/10/22/Home-automation-with-cheap-433MHz-plugs-a-1%24-433MHz-transmitter-and-a-TP-Link-TL-WR703N-router
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Devices Scale from Billions to Trillions
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=281857&cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20161024.tst004c
ARM CEO Simon Segars will take the keynote stage twice at ARM TechCon 2016 next week. On Tuesday, he’ll introduce the ARM TechCon community to Masayoshi Son, the chairman and CEO of SoftBank, which acquired ARM this year. Son will offer his vision of the future that ARM and SoftBank will now share.
As part of this, Segars will discuss how he sees billions of devices scaling to trillions of devices as IoT applications proliferate. We know it’s happening: Today, there are around 800,000 IoT developers worldwide, but that’s expected to jump to 4.5 million by 2020, according to the research firm VisionMobile. In fact, more than half of all mobile app developers are diversifying into IoT.
Read the full article, “How do we get to 1 trillion devices?,” where Brian Fuller, editor-in-chief at ARM, provides more information about the insights Segars will share at ARM TechCon.
How do we get to 1 trillion devices?
http://www.armtechcon.com/how-do-we-get-to-1-trillion-devices/?_mc=blog_x_dnr_le_tsprtsnr_price_armr_des_33_x_x-ARMkeynote
Big scale
As part of this, Segars will discuss how he sees billions of devices scaling to trillions of devices as IoT applications proliferate. We know it’s happening: Today, there are around 800,000 IoT developers worldwide, but that’s expected to jump to 4.5 million by 2020, according to the research firm VisionMobile. In fact, more than half of all mobile app developers are diversifying into IoT.
So how are we going to enable these innovators to succeed?
“We need to be thinking about the system and not just individual elements,” Segars says. “The rapid innovation we’ve seen in the app world is carrying over to hardware, therefore we need to ensure hardware is easy to build, maintain, power and has the security attributes that will keep data protected.”
The more the ARM ecosystem can solve the questions–in every layer from sensor to server to service–the faster that adoption and IoT expansion.
It won’t happen overnight, but neither will it take years of painfully slow progress. Parallels to what makes IoT possible can be found in the history of the mobile phone, Segars says.
“The first mobile phones were big and bulky, and not very interoperable between networks and other devices. As devices came down in size, cost and power consumption, the user base increased, but it still wasn’t a ‘must-have device’ for everyone. And even if you wanted a mobile phone you didn’t necessarily have a network to support it.”
As the network evolved and system-on-chip innovation enabled sophisticated, low-power processing, smartphones came on the scene and sparked an inflection point, he said. “The mobile phone was no longer a communications device enabling you to text, send emails and take pictures. Instead, it became a full-blooded computing device with the ability to become your one-and-only portal to a secure digital world,” he added.
Tomi Engdahl says:
An NFC-enabled multi-parameter bio-signal monitor for wearable systems
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4442911/An-NFC-enabled-multi-parameter-bio-signal-monitor-for-wearable-systems?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20161027&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20161027&elqTrackId=b9b597be749d472f8e5236b279496053&elq=ee8ad414c7964d06974638f533887518&elqaid=34555&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30157
Bio-signal wearables are sensors worn on the body that enable continuous, as well as semi-continuous, monitoring of physiological and psychological parameters without tethering the patient or athlete to a wired hub.
Body temperature, blood pressure, pulse (heart rate) and breathing rate (respiration rate) are just a few of the vital signs which help assess the general well-being of a person. Any deviation of normal vital signs can be indicative of health issues. With the aid of vital signs, potential problems can not only be discovered early on, but can also help with the recovery process. Traditionally, such long term monitoring has been done by doctors in a clinical setting. The biggest drawback with this type of traditional doctor monitoring is the expense.
In-home monitoring is a growing trend, where patients monitor their vital signs on their own. Some in-home monitoring advantages include, but are not limited to, increases in access to care, decreases in healthcare delivery cost, decreased travel discomfort/inconvenience levels and overall patient independence.
Previously, barriers to developing an in-home monitor included system processing power, cost, size, usability and more. Thanks in part to technological improvements and the decrease in microprocessor and sensor costs as well as size; they are no longer factors for in-home monitoring feasibility.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Train Time Ticker Will Save Your Morning Commute
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/27/train-time-ticker-will-save-your-morning-commute/
The fatal combination of not being a early riser and commuting to work using public transit can easily result in missed buses or trains. Frustrated with missing train after train while fumbling with a complicated transit schedule app, [Fergal Carroll] created a Train Time Ticker to help his morning routine run right on time.
A Particle Photon hooked up to a 2.2″ TFT screen — both mounted on a breadboard with a button — fit the purpose tidily.
Train Time Ticker
https://www.hackster.io/gref/train-time-ticker-7aab12?ref=user&ref_id=75931&offset=0
Tomi Engdahl says:
Creandum invests in KNL Networks to provide Internet Anywhere
https://medium.com/creandum-family/creandum-invests-in-knl-networks-to-provide-internet-anywhere-15caa8c038f3#.2yme0ya45
Most of us take fast, reliable internet access at a reasonable cost for granted. While this is true for people living in cities, for the majority of the world’s land and sea areas, this is most certainly not the case. KNL Networks is solving exactly this by providing fast, global, always-on, secure data communication at a reasonable rate for users anywhere in the world.
Working in stealth mode for several years, the KNL founders Toni, Matti Raustia and Teemu Vanninen and the KNL team built a patented communication systems based on a fully automated software-defined radio that can receive and transmit data communication over many thousands of kilometers at unparalleled reliability and speed.
This means that the $200 billion container shipping market now can have continuous internet access needed for streaming critical operations data from sensors and engines. It means that the $300 billion public safety and security market can have a reliable, always-on and secure two-way communication mean in cases of emergencies or catastrophes.
We believe that KNL has the potential of disrupting communication services for many sectors including maritime, offshore, IoT, public safety, defense and security. Today, most users outside wifi and cellular-covered areas rely on satellite communication. By contrast, KNL’s terrestrial peer-to-peer network offers superior reliability, coverage, data speeds and security at a fraction of the cost. The need for data in many of these sectors and industries is exploding and satellite communication just cannot deliver a good enough service for many users.
As for the business model, KNL Networks is operating a network while providing users with long-commitment data subscriptions. This is an attractive model but typically the problem is that it requires a lot of capital to build the infrastructure needed to provide the service.
KNL Networks has an opportunity to overcome all of these problems. The cost of building out the communication network is a fraction of the cost of satellite technologies. Also, by offering a peer-to-peer network where all participants help build out capacity, KNL’s network gets better the more users that are on it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Web Bluetooth Opens New Abusive Channels
https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/10/27/154229/web-bluetooth-opens-new-abusive-channels
Recently, browsers are starting to ship Web Bluetooth API, soon to become a component of Web of Things. Web Bluetooth will allow to connect local user devices with remote web sites. While offering new development and innovation possibilities, it may also open a number of frightening security and privacy risks such as private data leaks, abuses and complexity. Web Bluetooth as currently defined by W3C may introduce unexpected data leaks such as location, and personally-identifiable data.
The fascinating and frightening future of the Internet of Things
http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/web-bluetooth-api-privacy-security/
The Internet of Things is about to get more powerful—and potentially more dangerous.
Earlier this year, developers began rolling out the Web Bluetooth API, which is a foundational component of the evolving Web of Things, the application layer of the IoT. With Web Bluetooth, any Bluetooth Low Energy device—think smart lightbulbs, appliances, health monitors, door locks, and more—will be able to connect to the web through your browser.
Web Bluetooth enables you to control your Bluetooth devices directly from your browser without the need for a special app. But it also also lets you give websites permission to connect to your IoT devices.
Integrating Bluetooth with the web means developers can make apps that work across platforms (like iOS, Android, or Windows), and users can even avoid having to download apps at all.
“It’s going to democratize development,” Steve Hegenderfer, director of Developer Programs at the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, told the Daily Dot in a phone interview. “From a developer’s perspective,” he added, “it opens up a lot of different new scenarios.”
Easier app development is only one part of why the tech world is buzzing with excitement about Web Bluetooth. The second part—allowing websites to connect with your IoT devices—may open virtually endless possibilities.
W3C Web Bluetooth API Privacy
https://blog.lukaszolejnik.com/w3c-web-bluetooth-api-privacy/
Web of Things
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_of_Things
The Web of Things (WoT) is a term used to describe approaches, software architectural styles and programming patterns that allow real-world objects to be part of the World Wide Web. Similarly to what the Web (Application Layer) is to the Internet (Network Layer),[1] the Web of Things provides an Application Layer that simplifies the creation of Internet of Things applications.
Rather than re-inventing completely new standards, the Web of Things reuses existing and well-known Web standards[3][4] used in the programmable Web (e.g., REST, HTTP, JSON), semantic Web (e.g., JSON-LD, Microdata, etc.), the real-time Web (e.g., Websockets) and the social Web (e.g., oauth or social networks).[6]
Research in the Web of Things usually considers things in the broad sense of physical objects. Things can include (but is not limited to) tagged objects (RFID, NFC, QR codes, Barcodes, Image Recognition)[9] to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), machines, vehicles and consumer electronics.[5]
Tomi Engdahl says:
Web devs want to make the Internet of S**t worse. Much worse
The W3C wants to hook your bluetooth s**t to Websites, because shiny
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/28/web_devs_want_to_make_the_internet_of_st_worse/
Vendors including Google have spent a few years crafting an API they hope to push into browsers that will make this month’s Internet of Things conflagrations pale by comparison.
There’s not been much noise about the Web Bluetooth API, and thankfully it’s not yet accepted as a standard.
First, the API itself.
“It will enable a web browser to contact the user’s connected devices such as smartphones, kettles, toasters, TVs, thermostats, heart rate monitors, and so on. Imagine a world where every web site can connect to devices near you – or on you.”
Surely, given the dire state of IoT security, that paragraph alone should be sufficient, but Olejnik is thorough, so there’s much, much more.
His first issue is the simple question of permission: the boffins driving the API believe users will know the difference between pairing two devices and pairing a device with a Web site; Olenjik isn’t so sanguine.
Such is the extent of the API’s collection capabilities, Olejnik suggests the Web site owner could be subject to laws like Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation.
And then there’s hacking: the API “will decrease the entry barrier” for attackers, he writes, and if an attacker hijacks a user’s browser, “might even become channels for attacks directed by someone else.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile HMI improves plant operations
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/mobile-hmi-improves-plant-operations/3ada116f952f1bb8da7d249dbd0f7c6a.html?OCVALIDATE&ocid=101781
Cover Story: Once a mobile device is connected to the IIoT and can access real-time manufacturing data, it can improve plant operations by helping decision makers when they need the information.
It starts with the data
For many applications, all the data needed to implement a complete Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solution has not arrived in the hands of decision makers just yet. The first step is to collect the data from field devices, and the next is to get it in the hands of those who need it.
For example, an application of IoT with industrial and commercial relevance is the EcoNet Home Comfort WiFi module for select Rheem water heaters. This application connects via WiFi to the Internet and can provide alerts and notifications, such as leak detection, directly to a mobile device. It also allows cost-saving functions, such as vacation mode and temperature adjustments. The connection to a Web portal also enables long-term collection of usage data.
IIoT applications are being implemented more slowly than commercial counterparts in many cases due to 24/7 uptime requirements, cybersecurity concerns, and other factors. But some companies are providing data collection and storage as a service.
For example, GE’s Smart Grid service integrates collected data with the electrical generation and distribution system infrastructure. In theory, collected data can be used to increase productivity, promote renewable uses, empower consumers, reduce CO2 emissions, increase productivity, and prevent overloads and brownouts. Expected success of smart grid applications like this one will help highlight the importance of real-time and historical data to improve reliability and optimize machines, systems, and enterprise.
In other manufacturing applications, data typically originates with field devices connected to industrial controllers. These controllers are in turn connected to HMIs, which provide data distribution to mobile devices.
Accessing data via mobile devices
Figure 2: Mobile visualization of data and using software such as Wonderware Online, when and where needed, can lead to smarter and faster decisions. Courtesy: InduSoftThe right process and machine data needs to get into the hands of the decision makers, where and when it is needed. At this point, the sweet spot for many mobile device users is metrics or statistics about the machine or process. Direct control of a machine using a mobile device is also an option, but this is typically restricted to local users, such as plant operators or technicians.
Particular software and other HMI software platforms have several options to access data and graphics present in plant floor or control room HMIs. An HMI run time application can be installed on an office PC to provide an identical user experience, but this is typically overkill.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Technology and engineering-based program for reducing operational losses launched
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/technology-and-engineering-based-program-for-reducing-operational-losses-launched/db3d6e59587f47b3a3c72393032b8016.html
Emerson’s Operational Certainty is a technology and engineering-based program designed to help industrial companies achieve top performance and recover more than $1 trillion in operational losses globally.
Emerson’s (NYSE: EMR) Operational Certainty is a technology and engineering-based program designed to help industrial companies achieve top performance and recover more than $1 trillion in operational losses globally. The peer benchmarking insights are intended to bring better perspective on best practices
Additionally, the company will announce a new Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) digital ecosystem to provide the technology foundation for companies to securely implement the IIoT to achieve measurable business performance improvement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT – And A Tear In The Fabric Of The Connected World
http://semiengineering.com/iot-and-a-tear-in-the-fabric-of-the-connected-world/
Network security is nothing new, but when it comes to the IoT will it be too little, too late?
Billions of connected things. Massive silicon consumption. Exponentially rising data volumes. Global compute farm build-out to make sense out of all of it. Lots of dollar signs. Everyone is talking about IoT with an optimistic view toward the future. There is a dark side to all this. Many, including yours truly have written about it. If you’re familiar with the Terminator series, you can call it Judgment Day. If you’re a Bruce Willis fan, you may be familiar with the term “fire sale” from Diehard 4.0.
These are references to Hollywood’s version of a grand-scale takeover of a pervasive network of devices. Which is exactly what IoT promises. Network security and IoT are not new. There is plenty of work going on to address this requirement. The question is – will it be too little, too late?
There’s also the question of who will pay for it. Robust security for a high-end router is one thing. But the same sophisticated protection for your wearable gadget, or even your thermostat is another thing. Demand for these products is very sensitive to price, so making them more expensive and more secure will probably not fly.
I’ve always believed that we’ll need some seminal “bad event” to make this problem real for everyone. This would be an unfortunate outcome, so I hope I’m wrong.
Right or wrong, we’ve recently seen an IoT security breach unfold in the national press. The headline was, “Who Took Down the Internet on Friday?” OK, some drama here for sure. There are over 1 billion websites on the internet, and a small fraction were affected by the denial of service attack on Friday. Twitter, Amazon, Spotify, PayPal, and CNN were among the sites affected, so that certainly does get attention.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FPGAs Accelerating IoT Gateway And Infrastructure Tiers
http://semiengineering.com/fpgas-accelerating-iot-gateway-and-infrastructure-tiers/
Programmable logic can be used to create IoT solutions that can tolerate more power consumption in exchange for optimized processing.
We now expect all devices we use in our personal and professional lives to be connected, starting from the obvious ones in smartphones and computers, going through wearables, smart home and security devices, to industrial automation applications, and of course automotive electronics.
Creating devices for the IoT is a big challenge for engineering teams at the design and verification levels, but also at the application and data levels. As all those devices (already estimated to number in the billions, and growing) start generating their data, IoT gateways and infrastructure will need to experience a new revolution. Clouds and data farms will become a common medium not only for data storage and message exchange, but also for processing and analytics which will require much more specialized computing power.
How does FPGA design fit into the IoT? Programmable logic offers a unique opportunity to create IoT solutions that can tolerate more power consumption in exchange for accelerated hardware processing capability optimized to the task – without major investments in an ASIC. A natural first step for FPGA-based solutions on the IoT is a multi-protocol gateway node that gathers data from different sensors and controls actuators at the edge.
With best-of-breed capability for both a processor core and programmable logic, the Xilinx Zynq-7000 All-Programmable SoC is an excellent starting point for higher performance IoT gateway designs. Starting with the TySOM board based on Zynq, Aldec’s FPGA experts have implemented an IoT gateway reference design that aggregates messages coming from edge sensors, processes them, and presents results.
What comes next? The reference design illustrates how edge and gateway tiers of an IoT network are integrated.
Aldec has explored Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services in IoT applications; any public cloud implementation could fill a similar role. After registering a Aldec TySOM gateway in the cloud, it opens new possibilities for exchanging IoT messages between different devices quickly and easy.
Very simple examples of cloud-based IoT applications enable lighting based on Bluetooth sensor readings, or generating an alarm based on motion detector alerts. While these simple tasks can be accomplished locally using a home automation system, deploying and managing hundreds or thousands of sensors and actuators – typical of industrial IoT contexts – requires speed and scalability. Gateways deal with localized IoT device networks, while a cloud infrastructure connects them all together and provides network-wide provisioning, maintenance, monitoring, and analytics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Industry 4.0 And The Internet Of Manufacturing For PCB Assembly & Fabrication
http://semiengineering.com/industry-4-0-and-the-internet-of-manufacturing-for-pcb-assembly-fabrication/
Using the Open Manufacturing Language to make data accessible across the entire shop-floor.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Security Foundation For Billions Of Devices
http://semiengineering.com/a-security-foundation-for-billions-of-devices/
What’s different about the Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33.
Securing connected devices is a well-known challenge – and opportunity – at ARM. There are more than 10 billion units of Cortex-A based chips deployed in mobile devices that use ARM TrustZone technology to protect the root of trust from potentially distrustful software. ARM tasked some of its most talented engineers to optimize and transfer this security foundation into the very heart of a new version of the M-profile architecture. They have achieved this and ensured it fits within the tight embedded constraints:
Real-time, with fast transitions between security states
Deterministic
Still highly energy efficient
The outcome, the ARMv8-M architecture, was unveiled last year at ARMTechCon 2015, promising to bring advanced software isolation into the smallest of processors and devices using ARM TrustZone for ARMv8-Mtechnology. If you are looking for more information on this new architecture, Joseph Yiu’s great blog is the best place to get started.
Introducing Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33
Today I am pleased to announce two new ARM Cortex-M processors built on TrustZone technology: the Cortex-M23, for the most area and energy constrained applications, based on the ARMv8-M Baseline profile; and the Cortex-M33, for the more capable systems, based on the ARMv8-M Mainline. Both profiles offer ARM TrustZone technology as their security foundation and provide an easier-to-use MPU programmers’ model, with the capability to restrict debug visibility, thus protecting the secure software confidentiality. The security concept is holistic, it goes beyond processor boundaries and encompasses the complete system: bus/interconnect, memories and peripherals, exporting the processor security state across the system using the AMBA AHB5 standard.
Whitepaper – ARMv8-M Architecture Technical Overview
https://community.arm.com/docs/DOC-10896
Tomi Engdahl says:
Embedded Software Platform Enables Convergence on Industrial IoT Edge Devices
https://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/blog/post/embedded-software-platform-enables-convergence-on-industrial-iot-edge-devices-4f045aeb-5fa6-4cd6-9935-dc4e5783dd32?contactid=1&PC=L&c=2016_10_27_embedded_technical_news
“Convergence” means combining different forms/components of technology in a single entity. This term has been widely used recently in the software industry and can mean different things to different people depending upon the level of software they are talking about. For example, there is “convergence” of servers and storage machines by utilizing virtualization technology in enterprise world, or there is “convergence” at operational level when there is talk about IT/OT convergence in industrial environments. Today we are going to talk about convergence at embedded system level.
Traditionally embedded systems are designed with one processor – 1 function in mind – so, to achieve a complete system control, multiple discrete processors are connected together.
In addition to HMI and process control, the robotic arm controller implements some safety inputs/interlocks.
Now, if this is an IoT enabled unit, then it also needs to connect with an external network infrastructure. So we can add a 4th processor to do the network communication and handle the firewall, etc.
This is fairly simplistic view of an industrial unit with 4 processors with each processor responsible for a discrete function. It is perfectly fine to realize this design in this discrete way. It will require building multi-processor PCBs, defining communication architecture between the processors, integration testing both at hardware and software level, etc.
Convergence
What if we can “Converge” and collapse some or all of these components into single processing entity? The upside can be huge as in short term it means smaller BOM, less inter-processor communication circuitry and reduced overall design complexity, and in long term it means easy inventory management and savings in support/maintenance.
Clearly we need to select a SoC that can support all or most of these scenarios so that we can “Converge” or collapse the complete system on it. The good news is that semiconductor companies are already flooding the market with very capable SoCs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Industrial IoT: Scaling Systems Reliably and Securely
https://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/events/industrial-iot–scaling-systems-reliably-and-securely?contactid=1&PC=L&c=2016_10_27_embedded_technical_news
As the Internet of Things continues to transform businesses and entire industries, key enabling technologies must evolve to address the ever-increasing requirements for these systems. Of particular note is the trend of “fog computing”, an architectural design where key functions (typically executed in powerful cloud server infrastructure) are pushed towards the network edge with the goal of making intelligent decisions locally to avoid flooding Internet bandwidth with raw data. Fog computing is made possible by the extraordinary growth of computing power, connectivity, and functional consolidation in traditional embedded devices. These fog computing assets can now scale to “systems of systems” with a layered databus architecture implementation using Data Distribution Service (DDS). However, these architectures generate concerns about security, reliability, and Quality of Service among other things.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Real-time Performance across the Factory Floor
https://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/blog/post/real-time-performance-across-the-factory-floor-b319231a-62df-4286-a525-3585b9e241f0?contactid=1&PC=L&c=2016_10_27_embedded_technical_news
Next generation processors continue to push the performance envelope. It seems the price continues to drop while the processing speeds increase with each new processor release. I recall discussions not that long ago in which the future utility of real-time operating systems and middleware were being bantered about as if they were not going to be required going forward. After all, with each subsequent new processor released executing faster then it’s predecessor, wouldn’t the obvious conclusion be that at some point a general purpose operating system and stack on a really fast processor would be good enough? I suspect in many circles that conversation is probably still ensuing.
As important a real-time can be for industrial systems, any discussion on latency and performance must include consideration for jitter.
To that end, EtherCAT® is one of the most efficient Ethernet based industrial communication protocols available. It is based on standard Ethernet hardware to provide real-time communication for industrial applications. “Processing on-the-fly” is a key feature of EtherCAT. As network traffic is generated from the Master EtherCAT controller, EtherCAT slave devices process each frame “on-the-fly” without stopping them. Data reads and writes can be extracted and inserted by each slave device as the frame navigates throughout the network without losing any overhead. As the required control loop period can change depending on the control function required, EtherCAT offers flexiblity- there can be longer cycles for I/O updates, or ultra-short cycle times for synchronizing robotic arms, for example, on the same wire.
Because EtherCAT can be deployed on existing networks it is easy to see why it has been so widely embraced. Mentor Graphic’s Nucleus RTOS has been recently integrated with Koenig-PA’s EtherCAT Master stack.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4G delay is just too long
Ericsson demoed yesterday in Kirkkonummi 5G TVs and the Internet of Things. The two future technologies, which are inseparably linked. Demo on it became very apparent why 5G is required for.
The robot is equipped with sensors, which measure the balance. The measurement data is sent to the cloud – in this case, Ericsson’s server – in which the basis of the measurement data to the robot navigation instructions are given. This all happens so fast that the robot manages to juggle.
However, the demo shows that reliable balancing requires pressing latency of about 10 milliseconds. Latency can be extended, and once we get the values of the existing networks, ie 20 to 30 milliseconds, the robot keel over.
Roughly speaking, this is the reason why 5G technologies are examined in such as Nokia, Ericsson Kilo Jorvas. Multi-application robotic cars in virtual universes requires a link that is virtually real-time. In yesterday’s demo latency of a Wi-Fi link for more than 10 milliseconds. 5G sought in one millisecond latency to the terminal via an access point to the cloud and back.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5304:4g-ei-vain-riita&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Finnish Innovation controls the electrical equipment
Reactive Technologies’ (from Oulu Finland) technology can control the connected devices in smart electrical network. The solution has been tested in the UK and now it is declared for commercial customers. Latest money at the company received an investment company Octopus Capital.
(Grid Data and Measurement System) Reactive Technologies GDMS solution, the devices receive data via the electricity network. For example, the system may prompt the freezer to raise the temperature of half a degree. GDMS allows extremely fast, automated response network load. Appliances are controlled via a grid of small frequency changes.
“GDMS counts of smart grids construction costs significantly and enables everyday devices such as refrigerators and air conditioners smartifying expose them to Internet security threats,”
the importance of data collection has been on the rise in electricity networks, the future electricity networks are experiencing great changes, when the solar panels, battery systems and electric cars are becoming more common.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/10/28/suomalaisinnovaatio-ohjaa-sahkolaitteita/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nucleus in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
https://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/blog/post/nucleus-in-the-age-of-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-b49c5607-eb83-404c-963b-a9036333fa4f?contactid=1&PC=L&c=2016_10_27_embedded_technical_news
Nucleus® RTOS has been a workhorse for the embedded software industry for more than two decades.
What is required are edge devices and sensors, connectivity protocols, sweeping security protections, the cloud… and a whole lot of software.
According to IC Insights, and assuming that IoT market standards take hold, connected “things” are projected to account for 85 percent of the 30 billion Internet connections worldwide by 2020
And if you’re a silicon provider, the news couldn’t be better. IC Insights predicts that worldwide semiconductor sales associated with IoT/IIoT system functionality will increase from $18.4 billion today to $29.6 billion in 2018.
Unfortunately, with all this promise the IIoT is still going through some growing pains
Challenges persist
One of the biggest obstacles is lack of device interoperability. In some respects this can be attributed to the lack of standardization and the many available protocols; new and old. Nowadays, devices not only need to communicate with each other (D2D), but also connect, gather, and distribute data up to a server in the sky (D2S).
There’s also the issue of “brownfield” versus “greenfield.” Factory automation has been around for a while now. Brownfield has to do with using the legacy infrastructure and how developers build on top of it. Greenfield is bringing in a totally new factory automated system.
One of the more interesting aspects in the brownfield/greenfield discussion is SCADA, or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. SCADA has been used for years in factory automation, but it was designed as part of the more conventional IT domain – behind the wall. Today we are seeing increased integration between information technology and operations technology with networks using SCADA, which makes for an easier path toward upgrading IIoT networks while keeping the legacy system in place.
So where does Nucleus fit in?
We hear about the promise of what IIoT will bring: factories will become more efficient and flexible. Connected factories will offer new services, lower prices for consumers, and faster turn-around times. IIoT will facilitate the direct connection between factories and customers. The era of mass production will be usurped by a new generation of nimble production facilities capable of interacting directly with customers and the entire supply chain.
But to accomplish this, IIoT developers and architects need a proven and reliable runtime system. It’s more than a single operating system though; it’s also about all of the corresponding middleware and the ability to communicate with other “things”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How do I change the IoT data center infrastructure?
IoT due to the acquisition of large amounts of data on a real-time processing of data centers to increase the load significantly. This in turn will create new challenges, especially for safety, capacity, monitoring and analytics field.
Source: http://www.nordicmind.com/20161102-iot/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Now you want a remote controller IoT household appliances
Remote control of home appliances interested in Finnish, survives Siemens commissioned the poll. It bodes well for the future of IoT device developers.
Siemens’ survey, at present, almost 70 per cent of Finnish stays at home to monitor the progress of home appliances. In other countries, mainly machinery are allowed to self. Yet in all countries, a majority believed the remote control to bring relief to uncertainty.
Most Finnish interested in the possibility of controlling smart equipment washing machine (34.7%) of the oven (28.7%), coffee maker (25.5%) and dishwasher (24.5%).
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/10/31/halutaan-etaohjattavia-kodinkoneita/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Week In Review: IoT
http://semiengineering.com/the-week-in-review-iot-24/
ARM touts IoT security; 64M IoT gateways to ship in 2021; Honeywell and Flowserve collaborate.
ARM TechCon 2016 conference and exposition in Santa Clara, Calif. Attendees heard from ARM CEO Simon Segars and SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son on the opening day of the conference, which featured sessions with such titles as “Internet of Things Device Management Security.”
Webcams made by Xiongmai of China were apparently involved in the October 21 cyberattack on Dyn DNS, turned into botnets by the Mirai malware code, leading cybersecurity experts to call for standard security measures to protect IoT devices against such assaults. “There is not a viable defense against it for the foreseeable future,” said Ted Harrington, executive partner at Independent Security Evaluators, adding, “IoT adoption is rapidly increasing, while security considerations in connected devices remain largely absent.”
The well-covered DDoS attack coincided with the release of a survey by ESET, an IT security firm, and the National Cyber Security Alliance. The survey found while about 25% of Americans own an IoT device, 40% of the survey respondents said they weren’t confident in the privacy
ABI Research predicts more than 64 million IoT gateways will ship in 2021. The market research firm expects industrial, infrastructure, mobility, and transportation segments to represent most of the IoT gateway market, while home automation and security will account for 30% of the IoT gateway market’s five-year value.
Honeywell and Flowserve said they will work together on Industrial Internet of Things applications.
Synopsys offers broad tool support for designing Internet of Things devices with ARM’s new Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 processors, which incorporate the ARMv8-M architecture.
Cadence Design Systems is also on the ARM Cortex-M23/Cortex-M33 bandwagon, offering the Cadence Rapid Adoption Kit for those new cores, implemented in secure IoT devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bluetooth® low energy or Sub-1 GHz? Connecting to a smartphone or a longer distance? Ultra-low power or wide area coverage? Why compromise when you can have it all? The SimpleLink™ dual-band CC1350 wireless microcontroller (MCU), newest member of the Texas Instruments (TI) SimpleLink ultra-low power wireless MCU platform integrates dual-band Sub-1 GHz + Bluetooth low energy connectivity on a single chip in a tiny package and is the lowest power, longest distance dual-band solution on the market.
Source: https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=reg20.jsp&referrer=&eventid=1240255&sessionid=1&key=EBCC43F59046A94147B8C053C9C5A235®Tag=&sourcepage=register
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia’s first commercial IoT test in 4G network
NB-IoT, or Narrow Band IoT is a 3GPP Release 13 technology organization approved assays, allowing data communication between the devices 180 kHz band width, among other 4G-in traffic. Now, Nokia has tested the technology Sonera’s commercial LTE network.
The test is in many ways a revolutionary among the IoT network technologies. On the 800 MHz band in use in the commercial. For the first time tested the roaming NB-IoT technology.
During the test, the Nokia put the temperature, humidity and barometric pressure data Sonera’s 4G network in Helsinki. As part of the test experimented roaming indicates that NB-IoT’s, it is possible to identify different devices
According to Nokia devices connected to the IoT sent rains of up to 200 kilobits per second.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5325&via=n&datum=2016-11-01_14:10:14&mottagare=30929
Tomi Engdahl says:
Where Are The IoT Industry Standards?
http://semiengineering.com/where-are-the-iot-industry-standards/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Choose Right Frequency for Remote Control Transmitter Project – 315MHz VS 433MHz
https://www.solidremote.com/blog/choose-right-frequency-for-remote-control-transmitter-project-315mhz-vs-433mhz/
For newly developed remote control transmitter or receiver project, we always recommend our customer to use 433.92Mhz frequency or known as 433Mhz or 434Mhz in some places, as there are many advantages for choosing this frequency.
First, choosing 433.92Mhz is more suitable for international marketing.
Customer in Europe will no doubt choose 433Mhz since is it required in EU / CE R&TTE regulations, while in the USA, customer usually can choose from 260 to 470Mhz freely, as they’re all approved frequencies in FCC ID regulation, but due to the cost and other concerns, there are simply two options that chosen most by customers, that is 315Mhz or 433Mhz.
So 315Mhz is not allowed in Europe, while both 315Mhz and 433Mhz can be allowed in USA, so to be more international, we would recommend our customers choose 433Mhz because it is simply a worldwide frequency that can be used everywhere.
Second, choosing 433.92Mhz has operating distance advantage.
In conclusion, if there is no other aspects to consider, such as specific requirement in given operating environment, then choose 433.92Mhz
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > Talking Things
Enterprise IoT: a standards-based approach to the connectivity and security challenge
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/talking-things/4442940/Enterprise-IoT–a-standards-based-approach-to-the-connectivity-and-security-challenge-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20161102&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20161102&elqTrackId=3c522f9125504e74b17f8839a232fabf&elq=8e4ee01c0b44448cb411e8f2c420044b&elqaid=34624&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30220
As many analysts have predicted, the IoT will be comprised of billions of devices within the next two decades, each device needing its own connection. The IoT universe today supports a fairly wide range of standards, which is a good thing since, for customers, standards are fundamentally about seamless experience and economies of scale in building out solutions. There’s an obvious “connecting everything” challenge, and open standards will enable meaningful connections to be made more seamlessly and securely.
In addition, recent research by Machina Research, commissioned by InterDigital, indicates that open standards will not only speed up the growth of IoT overall (acceleration by 27 percent), but will also lead to dramatic reductions in the cost–by as much as 30 percent–of deploying and managing an enterprise IoT system.
This shows us that there’s tremendous interest in sophisticated innovation and many companies are willing to develop solutions that comply with multiple diverse standards while keeping a close eye on their bottom line. Unfortunately, no single standard or interoperable suite of standards has yet emerged, so there’s some uncertainty in the market for the time being.
only time will tell which standards will become most widely used and supported. In the meantime, enterprises have to be wary of potential future incompatibility issues within their large-scale IoT deployments.
We also need to recognize that not one single standard will be the only IoT standard. There are standards in development at all levels of the IoT technology stack, each one specific to the function or layer it serves. Ensuring that robust open standards exist at every level–from the device connectivity and network layer, through to the transport layer, up to service and application layers–will help create an interoperable ecosystem, and the industry’s growth and cost-reduction projections can be fully realized.
The need for secure solutions is primary for enterprise IoT deployments, beyond simply preventing data breaches. Privacy is most relevant to consumer applications, while security–securing devices, data, and networks–is paramount in enterprise and industrial applications. Each new device can open the enterprise to potential threats, and, yet, different types of devices will have different security requirements.
The majority of these early adopters believe that fairly little organizational change will be necessary in order to fully integrate IoT into their day-to-day operations. As with most technology adoption cycles, less sophisticated technology-savvy adopters can learn a great deal by analyzing the successes and failures of the early deployments. We expect to see more successes from those companies who opt to take an open-standards based approach.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Energy Harvesting Seeks Good Vibes
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1330738&
Energy harvesting using vibration is a niche business but one attracting significant research in hopes of pioneering a broader market.
At power levels of watts to megawatts energy harvesting from wind, tides and even regenerative braking in vehicles is a great success with significant growth forecast in our 2016-2026 forecast report.
At levels of microwatts to milliwatts, energy harvesting is a more troubled area commercially. Academics love it, particularly developing piezoelectrics, one of the least successful approaches commercially due to reliability, performance and toxicity issues.
Most of the work on low power harvesting uses vibration.
Nevertheless, much research on energy harvesting is specifically directed towards vibration harvesting. Researchers hope the technology can be made more affordable, smaller, more standardized and with wider acoustic bandwidth so it is more effective and more widely applicable.
Vibration harvesting is used to power sensor/transceiver units where mains power or batteries would be expensive and/or impracticable and where photovoltaics would not work. Ironically, that is often where huge amounts of electricity or other energy are being used nearby as with large servo motors in factories, helicopters and trains.
Perpetuum, for instance, has been successful using an electrodynamic approach instead of piezoelectrics
Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are a 2012 energy harvesting invention that offer new formats and materials for vibration harvesting
Think Technologies showcased an electric capacitive harvester in the form of a shaken device that lights an LED.
DARPA’s N-Zero Sensors Use “0″ Power
Keeping troups safe overseas
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330749&
DARPA is working on a new way to power war-zone sensors that watch over roads U.S. armed forces travel. The U.S. Defense Advance Research Project Agency’s (DARPA) Troy Olsson described its Near Zero Power Radio Frequency and Sensor Operations (N-Zero) in a keynote (Monday Oct. 31) at the IEEE Sensor 2016 conference in Orlando, Florida (Oct.30-Nov.2).
By 2018 the DARPA’s N-Zero initiative aims to have deployable sensor networks that require near-zero standby-power, a goal the team quickly found that was impossible without microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). In addition the teams discovered an extra benefit of MEMS — an advantage the team had never imaged possible. MEMS provides not just near-zero standby power, but can be configured for absolute zero standby power by using the power from the signal to be detected itself to power-up the transmitter. And in some situations, the transmitter too can be powered without a battery, by storing up energy on a super-capacitor from renewable sources — from solar to vibration harvesters.
“Now we want the signals themselves to actually power the processing before waking up a more powerful signal-processor and transmitter,” said Olsson.
The N-Zero effort will enable super-small sensors built from hybrid MEMS and micro-electronics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Driving Intelligence To The IoT Edge Invents A New Breed Of Designers
How to create a design flow for edge devices.
http://semiengineering.com/driving-intelligence-to-the-iot-edge-invents-a-new-breed-of-designers/
A new breed of designers has arrived that is leveraging inexpensive sensors to build the intelligent systems at the edge of the Internet of Things (IoT). These systems play in every space: from devices on the body, vehicles, the workplace, across the land, sea, air, and the outer reaches of space. It’s no surprise that this new breed of designers is taking full advantage of advanced sensing technology to invent IoT devices for an unlimited market space. Who are the new breed of designers and what tools and processes do they employ to get their jobs done quickly?
https://www.mentor.com/tannereda/resources/overview/driving-intelligence-to-the-iot-edge-invents-a-new-breed-of-designers-9b46f6e5-6655-472f-8b5d-23c34f05c343?cmpid=10171
Tomi Engdahl says:
What a circuit designer needs for a robust, wearable health sensor system design
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4442954/What-a-circuit-designer-needs-for-a-robust–wearable-health-sensor-system-design?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20161103&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20161103&elqTrackId=c824c95a15c14f3aa3af3ed91f308bdc&elq=53e729cb9fac4e6a9bb8c5e44a0a9074&elqaid=34639&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30234
Global wearable technology is a market worth $30B this year according to IDTechEx and is projected to grow by 9% over the next 3 years, but from 2019 that growth rate will jump almost exponentially to $100B by 2023.
Circuit design engineers need to get product to market quickly but with tight time-constraints and a need to educate themselves regarding a myriad of new IC solutions emerging almost daily, it is a daunting task as best. There are so many IC solutions out there that need to be professionally designed into a working architecture that will serve customers who want to properly monitor their progress either in sports and fitness or their progress improving their health.
A newly released health sensor platform, the MAXREFDES100#, is such a platform that takes the sheer volume of the many ICs that need to be properly integrated into a full architectural system and helps designers see and evaluate the features of these ICs at work in a fully functioning system architecture that will cut their design time down significantly
This so-called “hSensor” Platform will enable such things as measuring motion, precise skin temperature, and a multitude of biopotential measurements as well like electrocardiography (ECG), electromyography (EMG), and electroencephalography (EEG).
Another critical area of measurements that this system enables is reflective photo plethysmography measurements1 including pulse oximetry and heart-rate (HR) detection at three wavelengths, 880nm (infrared, IR), 660nm (red) and 537nm (green). Green light at 537 nm can be an excellent heart rate (HR) monitoring method during a normal everyday life activity because of its really good freedom from artifacts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analog Devices Acquires Industrial Ethernet Chip Maker
http://mwrf.com/systems/analog-devices-acquires-industrial-ethernet-chip-maker?NL=MWRF-001&Issue=MWRF-001_20161103_MWRF-001_948&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=8322&utm_medium=email&elq2=67d6d88fc25944cb915503870617b99b
For years, Analog Devices has been shifting toward chips that manage power and condition sensors inside cars and factory equipment.
On Thursday, the company said that it had acquired Innovasic, a maker of Ethernet chips that act like tiny switchboards inside large networks of devices, such as factory robots or security cameras. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Innovasic, which was founded in 1992, started out making replacement chips for products no longer manufactured by companies like AMD and Intel. The New Mexico-based company focused on creating products with long lifetimes since industrial equipment is not typically updated as often as consumer electronics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LDO Regulators: An Unexpected Option for Industrial/IoT Applications
http://electronicdesign.com/power/ldo-regulators-unexpected-option-industrialiot-applications?code=UM_NN6TI44&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=8321&utm_medium=email&elq2=a95c17f6b8254cf4b81b361b841dda62
The power supply for new products is often taken for granted. However, judging from recent experience, it’s clear that the power supply for new industrial equipment or Internet of Things (IoT) products is a major factor in product success and reliability.
One unexpected realization gleaned from the latest designs is that the often-neglected low-dropout (LDO) linear regulator can go a long way to help designers meet the stringent needs of such products. Whether your new power-supply design operates from the ac line or batteries, the LDO may just be the solution you are seeking.
Most linear regulators use an NPN transistor or N-type MOSFET for the series control element. The circuit is basically an emitter (or source) follower. The output voltage is monitored and compared to a fixed stable reference to develop a feedback-control error signal.
This method of regulation is very effective but has some downsides. First, the regulation ceases to function if the overhead voltage drops below some minimum value—typically around 2 V for an NPN transistor or N-type MOSFET. Second, one must deal with power dissipation in the transistor created by overhead voltage and load current. Heat and wasted power are undesired consequences.
An LDO solves this problem by using a PNP transistor or P-type MOSFET as the series pass device
The P-type devices can operate near saturation with minimal voltage drop. A typical LDO overhead voltage is less than 100 or 200 mV, and can be as low as tens of millivolts for low-power cases.
A modern utility meter for monitoring electric, gas or water usage exemplifies how to meet such design objectives. Low power consumption is imperative for modern meter design. Whether you’re measuring gas, water, electricity, or heat, you must limit the current draw to achieve long battery life and/or prevent inaccurate readings.
The design challenge is the dc supply for the microcontroller and sensors. With an electric meter, the ac line is present; therefore, power can be extracted and conditioned for the dc supply. Battery backup may also be required. Gas and water meters require a battery supply with a long life (up to 10 years).
A typical ac supply uses a series capacitor and resistor to drop the line voltage down to IC levels, eliminating the need for a transformer. A half-wave rectifier and shunt Zener provide an initial dc voltage that’s subsequently conditioned by an LDO regulator. Battery backup is often provided with an isolation diode. For gas and water meters, a long-life battery is used followed by an LDO regulator. Here, the low shutdown and quiescent currents of the LDO play an important part in extending battery life. In both the ac and battery supply cases, the LDO delivers clean stable power to the microcontroller and any sensors.
The design question then becomes: “What can we do to make our thermostats, doorbells, security systems, and other IoT products more efficient while maintaining the same functionality and connectivity?” A simple linear regulator (LDO) is part of the answer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Netatmo’s security camera Presence uses deep learning to spot intruders, animals, and cars, launching for $300 in US on November 17
Netatmo’s security camera Presence uses deep learning to spot intruders, animals, and cars
http://venturebeat.com/2016/11/02/2096578/
Netatmo is launching Presence — a smart outdoor security camera that will send you an alert if someone is loitering around your house. Presence is available now in the U.S. market for $300.
The product is one more piece of the smart home, which is expected to become a $71 billion market by 2018, according to Jupiter Research. Paris-based Netatmo unveiled Presence earlier this year, saying that the camera uses a deep-learning algorithm to detect people, cars, and animals that are within view.
Presence can detect if a car enters your driveway, if a pet wanders into your yard, or if a person walks onto your property. It notifies the user when something new is detected in the monitored area. Those notifications are customizable, as is the recording of incidents. Integrated floodlights turn on at night, and infrared LED lights allow for night watching. The product is compatible with IFTTT smart home technology, and video storage is free.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Visible Things’ platform could enhance the IoT
http://wireless.electronicspecifier.com/iot-1/visible-things-platform-could-enhance-the-iot
Avnet Memec announced the launch of the Visible ThingsTM platform for the development of IoT systems and applications. Targeting a wide range of industrial markets, Visible Things is a highly flexible and comprehensive evaluation and development platform for edge-to-enterprise IoT projects. The platform delivers tested, proven, secure and integrated hardware and embedded software to connect smart sensors and embedded devices via gateway solutions or LPWAN, right through to the cloud and enterprise software applications.
“With Visible Things we are one of the first distributors in the market offering a highly flexible edge-to-enterprise solution devoted to enable fast and easy development of industrial IoT applications,”
The platform supports short-range connectivity to a gateway, and Wi-Fi-, 3G and 4G cellular communications to the cloud and enterprise software applications. It also supports the SIGFOX and LoRaWAN IoT networks. These networks have been designed with specific features such as secure low-cost narrowband information messaging to meet the requirements of the IoT and smart city, machine-to-machine and industrial applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet of Things
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=i/iot-internet-of-things&mpn=w1g130
The Internet of Things (IoT): a world of connected devices, smart factories, cities and homes all powered by the latest technologies available from RS.
IoT, put simply, is anything that’s connected to a network (including the internet) or other machines and works autonomously without needing human intervention. All the other terms just describe things that are made possible by IoT. So Connected Home, Car, etc., just means that they are connected to a network in some way. Same for industrial. This is the less cool (but actually just as exciting) business element of IoT. This connectivity – made possible with an array of modern components and wireless protocols – simply enables designers to make equipment and machinery ‘smart’, so it can track, log, display, monitor and adjust itself accordingly.
That’s it? Yes, that’s really it. So don’t be daunted by all the new terminology, The Internet of Things is actually that simple.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Google Home review: attractive design and good sound quality, but works with only one Google account at a time, and its assistant is not proactive — Help me, Google — For over a decade, Google search has been indispensable. It’s the first place we go whenever we need to find information on virtually anything.
Google Home review: Home is where the smart is
http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/3/13504658/google-home-review-speaker-assistant-amazon-echo-competitor
it’s not surprising that Google is making a massive effort to make its services accessible via voice, for all those times when you don’t have a screen in front of you.
And the most obvious way it’s doing that is with the Google Home, a $129 voice-controlled, connected speaker.
This always-listening feature is what makes the Home (and Echo) so useful, but raises a number of privacy concerns you might not be comfortable with. In order to perform actions and provide responses, the Home sends its information to Google’s cloud for processing. The company insists that it only does so after it’s heard the wake word, so it’s not constantly recording every sound and conversation around it. There’s also a mute button on the back of the device that turns off the listening feature entirely.
The data that the Home does send back to Google is stored with all of the other data in your Google account, and can be reviewed anytime at myactivity.google.com. Still, you might not feel comfortable with an always-listening Google device in your home, and that’s perfectly understandable. (For what it’s worth, this is the same policy Amazon has with the Echo, but some might feel more comfortable with the Echo always listening and collecting data versus the Google Home, which touches many more parts of their lives and thus collects substantially more data.)
Having a connected speaker in your home changes how you listen to music.
While a voice-activated, connected speaker is great, and probably enough to justify the Home’s cost, Google, like Amazon, has much greater ambitions for the Home. One of those ambitions is for it to become a control center for smart home gadgets, allowing you to turn lights on and off or adjust the thermostat with a simple voice command.
Right now, the Home supports Nest, Hue, and SmartThings, which covers the most popular smart lights and devices. If you’re up for it, you can also program IFTTT commands for other products. The Home has far fewer integrations than are now available for the Echo, but Google says it is working to bring more in the future.
Controlling my lighting system is probably what I find most useful about the Home, as it precludes the need for me to pull out my phone, open an app, and tap a button to just turn out the lights.
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google Home’s assistant outshines Amazon Echo’s Alexa assistant as it can answer complex as well as a variety of questions — Google has a winner with Google Home, for those who want a hands-free assistant that can answer a broad range of questions that come up during day-to-day activities in the house.
For answering questions, Google Home bests Amazon Echo & Alexa
If you’ve always wanted someone around the house to answer all the questions you have during the course of your day, that someone is a something — Google Home.
http://searchengineland.com/google-home-amazon-echo-262438
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESPCLOCK
NTP-enbling a cheap $2 Ikea analog clock using ESP-12/NodeMCU/Arduino
https://hackaday.io/project/16742-espclock
In this project, I connected a cheap $2 Ikea analog clock to the ESP-12/NodeMCU dev module and synchronized the clock time with NTP time (localized with Google Maps Timezone API). On startup, simply connect to the device configuration AP and configure your Wi-Fi login credentials and physical clock time. The config web page will capture your current location automatically using HTML5 Geolocation and use that to automatically figure the local time and DST offset via the Google Maps Timezone API.
In an ideal world, all clocks should synchronize with the network and deal with daylight saving hell automatically. Not only that, they should run for at least a year on a single AA battery and cost around the same price as current clocks.
In this project, I try to NTP-enable a cheap $2 Ikea RUSCH wall clock using a ESP-12E dev module. This project was inspired by another blog post that explores controlling the Lavet motor in a typical analog quartz clock using an Arduino.
setup is extremely simple. Connect to the device configuration access portal and enter 1) Wi-Fi credentials 2) clock face time. Hit “Save” and the device should take care of the rest.
The clock will sync within a few seconds of NTP time, take care of DST automatically and only cost a few dollars more due to the low cost of ESP12/ESP8266. The only problem that remains is the practical need to run this clock from the mains. Even when connected to a 10,000mha battery pack, it will only last for about 6 to 7 days
Once the development environment is set up and running, we need to take apart the Ikea clock and solder 2 jumper wires to the clock mechanism
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet of things came to floating rigs
A remote control system supplied by the Tampere-based Remionin Rolls-Royce is a major international breakthrough. Ocean Vessels IoT technology has been used only a little bit, but the trend is toward unmanned robot ships.
Internet of things will bring significant savings to the sea. Yet just a completely new matter is not the case, because of limited remote monitoring has been carried out for many years.
” The modern remote monitoring data raise the flood of the typical problems, and shows the problems”
“Remote control system allows determination of the propeller devices and troubleshooting solution has picked up a couple of days to a few seconds”
In the future, the ship is controlled remotely, is believed to Roll Royce. The company has applied for the implementation of the self-moving cargo ships research and development of people.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/11/04/teollinen-internet-tuli-oljynporauslaivaan/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Healthcare IoT: Promise And Peril
Regulation, legal liability and added design costs make this a difficult market to tap.
http://semiengineering.com/healthcare-iot-promise-and-peril/
As more connectivity and communication capability is built into everyday healthcare and medical devices, engineers are tasked with ensuring these devices are both completely secure and ultra-reliable.
Reliability generally is measured in mean time between failure (MTBF), but when it comes to safety-critical markets, that equation takes on a whole new level of importance. A failure in a smart phone is inconvenient. A failure in a medical device can cost a life, and that affects everything from how much effort is put into pre-silicon verification and post-silicon validation to the length of time a product will be considered safe to use. It also adds to the cost and complexity of designs—even those developed at older process nodes—including multiple levels of signoff to reduce potential liability if something goes wrong.
“Different applications have different levels of signoff,”
This is one of the reasons the medical IoT market has been much slower to develop than consumer markets. The amount of regulation and data required to bring products to market can be huge, and the requirements go up proportionately with the risk.
Still, medical IoT devices continue to gain acceptance. The sheer convenience of the devices for a reasonable cost, as well as the potential for providing far more data over time rather than a one-time check of vital signs, for example, has resulted in a far different reception to healthcare electronics than the one received several years ago.
It also opens new opportunities for what in the past were unexciting technologies from a system design standpoint.
But hearing aids today are undergoing something of a technological revolution.
“We’re seeing more bendable packages,” said Mike Gianfagna, vice president of marketing at eSilicon. “But we’re also seeing more adaptive behavior. It’s pretty standard to be able to control this with Bluetooth on a cell phone. New devices use a simple DSP to get more sophisticated about what they can interpret. So the device automatically can determine if you’re in a crowded room or if you’re watching TV. That presents big packaging and power challenges, too.”
David Niewolny, healthcare segment manager for NXP’s Freescale business unit, pointed to a “huge emergence of technology in healthcare,” in a recent webinar. “Our aging population is set to double, with no increase in the number of physicians.”
That means for chronic diseases of the heart and for diabetes, for instance, technology will lead the way in improving patient care and lowering costs. So, how to bring that about? Hardware engineers have the usual constraints of power and continuous operation, and resisting physical tampering. But by far the biggest risk to manage is security, Niewolny said.
“Making sure someone does not have the ability to change [device] functionality or pull data off the device [is paramount],” Niewolny said. “So you prevent unauthorized execution of software. Whether it’s a simpler Cortex-M type device or the most sophisticated ARM A9s, you want and you get secure storage, a secure clock, a true random number generator [for the encryption tasks and securing software downloads].”
Innovations abound
How much of a burden security and reliability put on designers isn’t clear. Innovation continues, but most of it involves external monitoring rather than implantable devices, where the risk is higher. The ARM/UNICEF partnership, for example, has spawned a “Wearables for Good” design challenge. One of the winners, according to ARM’s Muller, was Khushi Baby, a data storing necklace using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. A smart phone can read the child’s immunization record from it, as well as update the record.
“The interesting thing here is that it can be used to actually prevent disease,”
There are some bright spots on implantable medical devices, as well. Muller pointed to the promise in what we learn from the biomedical sensors by gathering and analyzing all their data, and then using the learning to guide medical treatment.
Technology is boundless, human nature less so
Still, the barriers clearly are not in what today’s hardware and software engineers can do. They lie more with medical device maker engineering budgets post-Affordable Care Act (ACA), the vast and fragmented inter-device communication standards landscape and, in the United States and Europe, the intense regulatory and lawsuit risk management pressures.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OK, Alexa: A Google Home Versus Amazon Echo IQ Test
https://www.wired.com/2016/11/ok-alexa-google-home-versus-amazon-echo-iq-test/
Both Platforms Have Weaknesses
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ubuntu also runs the Internet of Things
Canonical Ubuntu has introduced the Internet of Things IoT devices customized version of Ubuntu Core 16. Canonical promising platform for regular updates, and application offering a variety of IoT devices. Canonical, the Ubuntu Corea is already being used, for example, rack switches, industrial gateways, mobile devices, digital display tables, robots and robot helicopters.
For example, Dell’s PowerEdge Gateway products are fully certified for the new Ubuntu Core for 16.
Ubuntu Core is also uses Snap Ubuntu package manager.
It allows the devices can be updated applications in separate packages, or upgrade requires the creation of the entire system dependencies again. Snap recalls, in this sense, a container-type applications management.
The whole core-operating system with kernel is delivered in Snap packets, so updating is easy.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5354:ubuntu-pyorittaa-myos-esineiden-internetia&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wearable Devices That Could Heal Themselves When They Break
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/science/printed-electronics-self-healing.html?smid=fb-nytscience&smtyp=cur&_r=0
Endless though the possibilities seem, most wearable electronics today are expensive and complicated to make, with multiple moving parts. One option for making cheaper components en masse is to print electronic devices, using a process that looks much like conventional printing, but with special, electrically functional inks. The promise of printed electronics is low-cost, flexible devices — including batteries and sensors, and wearable circuits that can be incorporated into smart clothing. But the multibillion-dollar industry has a major downfall: Printed electronics are fragile.
Joseph Wang’s nanoengineering lab at the University of California, San Diego, is now developing a solution: ink that includes magnetic particles. If a fabric or device printed with this magnetic ink breaks, the particles attract one another and close the gap. In a paper published today in Science Advances, Dr. Wang’s team reports that their self-healing ink can repair multiple cuts up to three millimeters long in just 50 milliseconds.
All-printed magnetically self-healing electrochemical devices
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/11/e1601465
The present work demonstrates the synthesis and application of permanent magnetic Nd2Fe14B microparticle (NMP)–loaded graphitic inks for realizing rapidly self-healing inexpensive printed electrochemical devices. The incorporation of NMPs into the printable ink imparts impressive self-healing ability to the printed conducting trace, with rapid (~50 ms) recovery of repeated large (3 mm) damages at the same or different locations without any user intervention or external trigger. The permanent and surrounding-insensitive magnetic properties of the NMPs thus result in long-lasting ability to repair extreme levels of damage, independent of ambient conditions. This remarkable self-healing capability has not been reported for existing man-made self-healing systems and offers distinct advantages over common capsule and intrinsically self-healing systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The User friendly Servomotor you hoped existed.
https://hackaday.io/project/6912-the-user-friendly-ervomotor-you-hoped-existed
IoT enabled, servo drive with Ethernet. Platform independent, +/- 0.2° accuracy, 0.2 Nm @ 1000 RPM
The HDrive is an easy to use, all in one servo motor. It can be controlled with just a few lines of code in nearly any programming language. No need for device drivers nor cable adapters, the HDrive can be configured by the build-in web-server.
Just tell the motor what final position you want, the internal motion controller will do the rest for you.
inexperienced or professionals, the HDrive brings a simple start or a deeply configurable control system to run all your applications smoothly and reliable. High dynamics super fast communication and clean design will make this motor to your best friend.
Company funded
Recently we have funded the company henschel-robotics. Please take a look at our website: http://www.henschel-robotics.ch
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Coop Door Cares for Chickens, Tests Home Automation
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/06/iot-coop-door-cares-for-chickens-tests-home-automation/
Most chickens are pretty good at putting themselves to bed when the sun sets, and [Eddy]’s chickens are no exception. But they’re not terribly thoughtful about closing up after themselves, so he set about on a long-term project to automate the door of their coop.
[Eddy] used a servo to power the door and an Arduino to control it. To keep track of bedtime and wakeup, a Raspberry Pi looks up the local civil dawn and twilight times online and tells the Arduino when the moment is at hand. The Pi cleverly caches the times for use the next day in case the WiFi connection is down, and also provides a web interface to check on the door’s status and manually override the cycle. Result: safe, happy chickens.
DIY Home Automation: Coopener – Source code and IoT functionality
https://makeitbreakitfixit.com/2016/10/31/diy-home-automation-coopener-iot-chicken-coop-part-3/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Marvin: Plug&play IoT development board
Internet of Things development board with LoRa communication
https://hackaday.io/project/16663-marvin-plugplay-iot-development-board
Marvin is easy to use, Arduino based, plug and play grove sensor compatible and works with LoRa communication on LoRa networks such as the KPN LoRa network, the Belgium Proximus network or The Things Network working with 868MHz.
Yes, LoRa, the new standard for Internet of Things solutions. There are various communication protocols available nowadays and we think that LoRa is just another, yet a very useful addition to the connectivity scheme. Long Range, Low Power is what catalyst the development of IoT.