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:
Smart sensors’ drill ready to house walls
On Friday, beginning at Seinäjoki Housing Fair presents Teijo-houses-Sense smart house. A new type of building structure is factory-installed condition of the measuring sensors. Included in the project is Sola Sense company from Salo Finland.
presented at the Housing Fair Teijo-Sense of houses is the house of the health monitoring system. integrated building structures, sensors constantly measure the structures and the humidity, temperature, vibration and position of the foundations.
Sensors installed in Teijo-houses prefab structures already at the factory. Teijo Sense collects information on changes in the structure and sends the information via the radio units in the cloud. Information can explore the mobile phone, computer or tablet.
Electronics service book can be combined with the service of the house all other internal systems. The collected data is also an advantage when selling the house, where it can be demonstrated to show maintenance carried out and how the house has over the years worked.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/07/06/alyanturit-porautuvat-valmistalon-seiniin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
FPGAs Solve IoT Implementation Challenges
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1330046&
IoT development faces many challenges, but FPGAs can help.
But to reach the tens of billions of devices projected to make up the IoT, designers will have to overcome significant implementation challenges. Some of the key among them will be making IoT devices power efficient, handling incompatible interfaces, and providing a processing growth path to handle the inevitable increase in device performance requirements. An FPGA-based design approach can help address such challenges.
FPGAs solve challenges at the core of IoT implementation
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4442318/FPGAs-solve-challenges-at-the-core-of-IoT-implementation
hallenge 1 – Power Efficiency
The IoT is a powerful concept with capabilities promising to literally transform the way society lives and works. In fact, development is currently underway in a variety of areas that will make many things look very different than they are today—and not just from a consumer perspective.
Today, virtually every aspect of the IoT device’s design is focused on making sure it is as energy efficient as possible
For a smartphone, for example, that might mean making it an order of magnitude better, but this won’t happen overnight. On the contrary, it will happen in steps over multiple generations of products. IoT devices must be created with energy efficiency as a prime concern at all levels.
Most IoT applications are required to be “Always-On”.
One aproach provides “always-on” solutions using a small, low-power FPGA to monitor sensors, buttons, or even voice commands. The processors, wireless modules, and displays can be left in a standby mode until the FPGA determines the user’s need to “wake-up” the terminal and provide service.
Challenge 2 – Incompatible Interfaces
Any IoT product will consist of several subsystems with unique functions. Depending upon requirements, there are many choices of components for each of these subsystems. In many cases, however, designers are forced into selecting components solely based on interface compatibility.
There are numerous reference designs for the bridging of different interfaces. These FPGA-based solutions solve problems like interfacing with an image sensor when the processor does not support SubLVDS, CSI-2, or HiSPI. Or the implementation of a low-cost display with a processor that only has a SPI output for video. FPGAs can solve that problem and still preserve cost savings and form factors.
Challenge 3 – Migration to a New Processor Due to Increased Requirements
As the saying goes, the only thing that is constant is change. This is quite true in all electronic products, including those involved in IoT. Most of this change in electronic products is additive in nature – adding new features, new interfaces, more memory, bigger displays, improved wireless modules, and new sensors. Such a migration from generation to generation of a product family often demands migration to a larger, more powerful processor to accommodate extra IOs, higher bandwidth, and new interface standards.
There is, however, another option – A processor companion FPGA. A low cost FPGA can be used to augment and supplement many of the processor’s requirements, allowing the designer to keep the existing processor and minimize the impact to the firmware. This companion FPGA can expand the number of IOs, control a new type of memory, bridge to new serial interface standards, or add more sensors by expanding I2C and SPI serial ports.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This sensor could be useful for industrial IoT:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Open Source FFT Spectrum Analyzer
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/06/hackaday-prize-entry-open-source-fft-spectrum-analyzer/
Every machine has its own way of communicating with its operator. Some send status emails, some illuminate, but most of them vibrate and make noise. If it hums happily, that’s usually a good sign, but if it complains loudly, maintenance is overdue. [Ariel Quezada] wants to make sense of machine vibrations and draw conclusions about their overall mechanical condition from them. With his project, a 3-axis Open Source FFT Spectrum Analyzer he is not only entering the Hackaday Prize 2016 but also the highly contested field of acoustic defect recognition.
For the hardware side of the spectrum analyzer, [Ariel] equipped an Arduino Nano with an ADXL335 accelerometer, which is able to pick up vibrations within a frequency range of 0 to 1600 Hz on the X and Y axis. A film container, equipped with a strong magnet for easy installation, serves as an enclosure for the sensor.
From there, another Python script filters the captured waveform, applies a window function, calculates the Fourier transform and plots the spectrum into a graph.
Open Source FFT Spectrum Analyzer
An FFT spectrum analyzer for machinery vibration analysis, using open source hardware and software
https://hackaday.io/project/12109-open-source-fft-spectrum-analyzer
Tomi Engdahl says:
Another strong voice chimes in for remote control
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4442306/Another-strong-voice-chimes-in-for-remote-control?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160706&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160706&elqTrackId=40b17c5b229b4a7280e29d81d7c9aa7d&elq=3594814851a6412cb5909f7011d9885d&elqaid=32973&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28794
Voice control is ever increasing in popularity and the technology is now moving further towards ubiquity with Texas Instrument’s voice remote control solution. I have always admired TI’s Evaluation boards and reference designs as they are designed by engineers for engineers.
Designers can enhance their systems with lower power solutions like the ultra-low power SimpleLink ZigBee RF4CE CC2620 wireless microcontroller (MCU) as well the existing Bluetooth low energy CC2640 wireless MCU or the multi-standard CC2650 solution to create feature-rich remote controls with different technologies.
How do you decide between Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and ZigBee RF4CE for your design?
TI has made Bluetooth low energy and RF4CE development for remote controls easier for designers by offering an all-in-one SimpleLink multi-standard CC2650 remote control development kit (CC2650RC) which also connects to the SimpleLink SensorTag ecosystem to expand functionality using DevPack plug-in modules.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google is reportedly working on its own Android Wear smartwatches
http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/7/6/12109392/google-android-wear-smartwatch-rumor
Google is reportedly working on two Android Wear smartwatches, according to a new report from Android Police. Such a move would mark yet another expansion of Google-made hardware; the company already manufactures laptops (Chromebook Pixel), tablets (Pixel C), streaming devices (Chromecast), and will soon launch its own “intelligent” speaker (Google Home) to compete with Amazon’s Echo.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Visible Light Communication for the masses
https://hackaday.io/project/12556-visible-light-communication-for-the-masses
This project will focus on making current research in field of Visible Light Communication (VLC and LiFi) usable and meaningful for use.
published research papers:
Analysis of Visible Light Communication System for Implementation in Sensor Networks
http://infoteh.etf.unssa.rs.ba/zbornik/2016/radovi/KST-1/KST-1-15.pdf
To fully benefit from observed 80-100MHz clock transmission per color channel we will focus our efforts in future on developing better receivers with flat bandwidth greater than 200MHz, and on hi-performance asymmetric-pulse generators in nano seconds range. Preserving whole system within power consumption 1-2W range without use of unhealthy and hazardous technologies like LASER LEDs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finnish company smart ring exported out of control even if the marketing has not even started
Wearable Technology sells. It has been noticed Ōuraring, which developed ring welfare measures, inter alia, the quality, the recovery of alertness and sleep.
Oura started at full power held last fall Kickstarter campaign, a number of financial, which managed to multiply beyond our expectations.
“We are targeting $ 100 000 funding, but we got more than $ 600 000,”
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/kl-suomalaisyrityksen-alysormus-viedaan-kasista-vaikka-markkinointiakaan-ei-viela-tehda-6565008
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dumbing Down a Smart Switch
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/07/dumbing-down-a-smart-switch/
Internet of Everything is the way to go for home automation these days. ITEAD makes an ESP-8266 switch that IoT-ifies your appliances. If you still have an ancient, 433 MHz style radio switch system, they even make one that does WiFi and 433 MHz. But if you’re too cheap to shell out for the dual-mode version, you can always add a $1 433 MHz radio yourself. Or at least, that’s what [Tinkerman] did.
Aside from the teardown and reverse-engineering of the WiFi-enabled switch, [Tinkerman] also flashed custom firmware into the switch’s ESP-8266, and worked it all into his existing home Node-RED framework.
Adding RF to a non-RF ITEAD Sonoff
http://tinkerman.cat/adding-rf-to-a-non-rf-itead-sonoff/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Software development kit for Industrie 4.0, IIoT applications
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/software-development-kit-for-industrie-40-iiot-applications/55d730fb286e2f548cfc28b6538b0e76.html
Honeywell Process Solutions’ (HPS) Matrikon OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) software development kit (SDK) is able to operate in small embedded environments and PC-based applications that use Industrie 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things
Honeywell (NYSE: HON) Process Solutions’ (HPS) Matrikon OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) software development kit (SDK) is a scalable toolkit designed to allow users to interconnect industrial software systems regardless of the platform, operating system or size. The Matrikon OPC UA SDK is able to operate in small embedded environments as well as in large PC-based applications that use the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industrie 4.0.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > LED Zone
Introducing intermittent light and data (ILAD)
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/led-zone/4442331/Introducing-intermittent-light-and-data–ILAD-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160707&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160707&elqTrackId=b094e8bc59e7404e8d32fee687ac679f&elq=670adc8bb7044a7296e78f65b3833195&elqaid=32993&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28816
I realized that after three decades hanging around this industry it’s time for me to make an impact. So, I’m coining a name for the concept of using light for data communication, no matter how the technology behind it is achieved; I’m calling it intermittent light and data (ILAD).
I recently read about an example of ILAD from Disney Research, which is using commercial-grade LEDs to connect IoT devices. According to Markus Gross at the Disney Research Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, “Interconnecting appliances, sensors, and a wide variety of devices into the Internet of Things has many potential benefits but using radio links to do so threatens to make the radio spectrum an even scarcer resource. Visible light communication networks conserve the radio spectrum, while also making it difficult to eavesdrop for anyone out of line of sight of the network.”
Recently presented at the IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communication and Networking (SECON) in London, the Disney research was based on having individual LEDs alternate between sending modulated light signals and serving as receivers of signals to create a network of bulbs that can send messages to each other and connect to devices, while having no discernible effect on room lighting.
Stefan Schmid, also from Disney Research in ETH Zurich, demonstrated that a visible light communication (VLC) system is a viable way to interconnect devices within a room. “We used commercially available, off-the-shelf LED light bulbs as our starting point,” Schmid said. “They are readily available at low cost and can be used in any lamp with standard sockets. This leads to an easy-to-setup and flexible testbed that can be readily duplicated.”
For the demonstration, however, an SoC running an embedded version of Linux was added to each bulb, as were photodiodes that enhanced the sensing of incoming signals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rethinking The Sensor
http://semiengineering.com/rethinking-the-sensor/
As data gathering becomes more pervasive, what else can be done with this technology?
Sensor technology is beginning to change on a fundamental level as companies begin looking beyond a human’s five senses, on which early sensors were modeled, to what can be done with those sensors for specific applications.
“We limit ourselves if we think of this as human vision,” said Lucio Lanza, managing partner of Lanza techVentures. “Once you start thinking of this as machine vision, which is perception of different phenomena, it opens up a whole new level of opportunity.”
There has been much work in embedded vision in the automotive and robotic sectors. Each has radically different goals than human vision. But they also have distinctly different goals from each other.
The solution is to add more intelligence into image sensors, and this is where many semiconductor companies are focusing their efforts. For one thing, it’s one of the most lucrative areas for chips these days, and margins continue to hold due to high demand and constant changes in the technology.
What exactly is that smell?
Research is underway for all five electronic senses, but the real money so far has been in the image processing arena.
“With rotational spectroscopy, you collect the molecules in a gas state and vibrate and spin them,”
“The goal here is specificity at an affordable cost,” said O. “Right now it costs about $150 per line (single gas identification) and machines run as much as $80,000. If we can implement this on CMOS, we can sell chips for as little as $500 to $1,000 using sensors tuned for one molecule. And this isn’t leading-edge technology. We’ve built prototypes at 65nm.”
The brain behind the senses
Similar work is underway to digitize the other senses so the data can be effectively processed and mined. But the bigger question is what else can be done with all of this data.
“There are a lot of places for growth in the near-term,” said Mentor’s Rhines. “Longer term, there will be an inevitable infusion of knowledge downward. This has been the pattern from mainframe to minicomputer to terminals, and over time to peripherals like network controllers and optical drives. It always starts with the intelligence being centralized, which is why we have massive data centers and why everyone is designing a gateway. But that’s an intermediate intelligence. Ultimately, it will diffuse down to semiconductors and actuators. When we finally get to the IoT, there will be a lot of device intelligence.”
“There are times when you’re in a good, fast low-latency network and times when you are not,” said ARM CEO Simon Segars. “It doesn’t all go into the cloud. There’s a tradeoff between what’s remote and what’s being done offline. Nothing is more frustrating than when you’re talking into your device and there is no network connection. But it does require more compute power, different types of processing. We’ve spoken about moving a big CPU to a more distributed computing environment where you have accelerators for specific functions. That’s how you get power efficiency.”
That puts a lot of pressure on chip architects to continue finding ways to make processing more efficient at every level, including the sensor.
“We have moved from connecting computers to connecting people, which is what’s happening today,” said Lanza. “At a certain point, we are going to be connecting things and we will need a set of rules to find which things are good things and what security is needed based on what we think is the right way to do things. We will have a lot of work to make a society of things consistent.”
This is a massive job, and it affects how data is collected and shared and what is ultimately done with that data.
“The proliferation of sensors and the growth rate of data will be enormous,” said Steven Woo, vice president of enterprise solutions technology and distinguished inventor at Rambus. “This is more data than can be moved back to the data center, though. It will require more edge computing, where there will be filters or pre-processing. So you basically can have simple processing to get to more meaningful data.”
“In the old days, Intel said what its next processor would be and the rest of the industry followed,” said Kilopass’ Hsu. “In the future, people will define technology, not the high-tech companies. IoT is the next big thing, and we will find more and more applications that will need high tech. But IoT is also difficult to unify, so it will be very difficult for today’s dominant players to fill that market.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mumai
Use the power of your muscles to interact with the world
https://hackaday.io/project/10411-mumai
Mumai is an open-source muscle-machine interface that connects your body to any kind of electronic or mechanic device through the myoelectric (EMG) signals generated by your muscles.
The uses of this interface are limited only by your imagination. It can be used to control assistive robotic devices such as prostheses or exoskeletons. Alongside some of the freely available machine learning libraries (Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, Dlib…) it can be used to implement a gesture recognition controller to interact with electronic devices such as computers or smartphones. In the sports field, it can be used to optimize the level of exercising. At a university level, it can be used in biosignal processing courses, working as a biomedical instrumentation device. How this device will be used depends on you.
Electromyography, or EMG, is a technique from the medical field that comprises the recording and the study of the electric signals generated when a muscle contracts. EMG is widely used in clinical applications: kinesiological studies, medical diagnosis or rehabilitation, among others. Also, EMG is the preferred method to control robotic prosthesis or exoskeletons, since using the user’s cognitive processes is a natural and intuitive way of interacting with such devices. Besides these applications, EMG can also be used in hands-free computer control, physical training optimization, interactive art…
The aim of this project is to develop an affordable and open-source wearable wireless network of EMG sensors that can be placed on any muscle.
Each EMG sensor is connected to a ESP8266 module, forming a Mumai node. The nodes send the EMG data through WiFi to a computer, smartphone or other devices, such as a robot or a home automation system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet-of-Things Power Meter
https://hackaday.io/project/6938-internet-of-things-power-meter
Simple, cheap, easy to build and deploy, the IoT Power Meter provides accurate statistics on household power consumption.
The Internet-of-Things Power Meter (IPM) is a device fixed on top of the regular household power meter that provides detailed information about the electricity usage. Modern power meters have a LED blinking every time a watt-hour is used, the IPM detects these flashes using a light sensor, counts them, saves the values to an SD card. Later the data is stored to the cloud.
Usually power companies provide very rough electricity usage data, the IPM provides data with a minute resolution. Knowing the household electricity usage allows to extrapolate statistics and can give precise numbers about the costs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Estimote improves its Proximity Beacons with programmable NFC
http://www.slashgear.com/estimote-improves-its-proximity-beacons-with-programmable-nfc-07447465/
Today Estimote has announced a rather significant update to its wireless Proximity Beacons. The Google Eddystone-compatible beacons, which aim to give users contextual experiences on smartphones and bridge the gap between the real world and mobile devices, have been updated to include programmable NFC chips. NFC seems to be a huge addition that will help Estimote’s beacons stand out from the crowd.
That’s because the addition of NFC brings the potential for specific interactions between Proximity Beacons and smartphones. Whether that’s doing something like confirming mobile payments or linking to an app page on the Google Play store, Estimote is leaving that up to its customers by making the NFC chips fully programmable.
Google Eddystone open-source Bluetooth beacons revealed
http://www.slashgear.com/google-eddystone-open-source-bluetooth-beacons-revealed-14392889/
Google has launched Eddystone, a new open-source Bluetooth LE beacon platform which plays nicely with iOS, Android, and other OSes. Aiming to power a new age of location-based services, as well as give those responsible for managing a flock of Bluetooth beacons the tools to make sure they’re working properly, Eddystone arrives with two main features: telling mobile devices exactly where they are and what’s nearby, and linking a physical location with online data.
Key to that are two new APIs. First off there’s the Nearby API, available for Android and iOS: it will allow apps to spot nearby beacons and figure out some sort of environmental context, whether that be what bus stop is close by, or which store you’re walking past.
The second, Google’s Proximity Beacon API, will connect a semantic location – a place in physical space – with related data stored in the cloud. Google says that its own, existing location APIs – such as the Places API – will be progressively upgraded to integrate the Proximity Beacon API.
We’ve already begun to see some of Google’s services infiltrated with hyper-location-awareness courtesy of beacon technology.
What Google won’t be doing is selling a single dongle to work with Eddystone. Instead, multiple manufacturers will have compatible hardware, and eventually Google plans a certification program. Estimote, Signal 360, Bluvision, and more are already offering low-power Bluetooth LE hardware that will work.
Each beacon will broadcast its identity so as to be recognized by other Bluetooth Smart devices. However, for security, Google also cooked up something it’s calling Ephemeral Identifiers (EIDs): frequently-changed IDs which can only be decoded by authorized devices.
Using an EID, for instance, could allow a Bluetooth beacon on your keychain to only signal your phone, while not giving out its location to anybody else.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Avoiding Exercise with an ESP8266 and Blynk
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/11/avoiding-exercise-with-an-esp8266-and-blynk/
[Mike Diamond] was tired of climbing down (and back up) 40 stairs to check his mailbox. He decided to create a mailbox alert using the ESP8266 to connect to his WiFi. The idea was simple: have the ESP8266 monitor when the mailbox flap opened using a magnet and a reed switch. As always, though, the devil is in the details. [Mike] got things working with a little help and shares not only the finished design but how he got there.
To handle the sending of e-mail, [Mike] used the Blynk app. You often think of Blynk as a way to build user interfaces on an Android or iOS device that can control an Arduino. In this case, though, [Mike] used the library with the ESP8266 and had it send e-mail on his behalf.
ESP 8266 Mailbox Notifier using DeepSleep and Blynk
http://www.whatimade.today/esp-8266-mailbox-notifier-using-deepsleep-and-blynk/
22 June 2016 on ESP8266, Battery, reed Switch, 18650, blynk, deepSleep, mailbox, antenna, U.FL to SMA cable, laptop, low-power, ESP8266-07, notifier, Normally Open, Normally Closed, arduino IDE, BC557 PNP Transistor, IOT
My problem is that I need to descend about 40 steps to get to the mailbox and like so many others obsessed with cheap Chinese electronics, this means constantly running up and down to see if my latest acquisitions have arrived.
Assessing the scenario, he nodded wisely. “It shouldn’t be complicated,” he confirmed. Such words coming from an expert were very encouraging – but didn’t take me far towards my goal. He assured me he’d be on hand if I got stuck.
Blynk
One day, while fiddling, I read about Blynk. Apparently, smart programmers had done the work for me, and all I needed was to:
download the blynk libraries to the Arduino IDE
put the app on my phone
set my board
add a few buttons
get an authentication key from the blynk app
flash the ESP
Even for the non-professional it was very easy, and by the evening’s end, I was controlling an ESP-connected LED from my phone.
My mailbox has a metal flap. The postman opens it, drops the mail inside and walks away.
I thought of using a motion sensor, and even a light sensor, but neither seemed as sensible as a simple magnetic switch (reed switch) that would sense when the flap moved. Such switches are very common in burglar alarms, usually attached to a door or window.
A couple of evenings later I had my first prototype built. I used the ESP 01, attaching the reed switch to GPIO 02. The only other component was a 10k pulldown resistor. My very simple Sketch was taken from the ESP8266 Standalone example in the Arduino (ESP) Blynk library.
The sketch waits for activity on GPIO 2. If it senses something, Blynk sends me an email. It’s that simple.
This very simple setup worked perfectly. Each time I moved the reed switch, Blynk sent me an email.
Why it’s not practical
The problem was, to make it work, the ESP needed to be powered at all times, and it was constantly attached to my WiFi. This meant it needed a substantial power supply (the ESP’s WiFi consumes a relatively large current), and it could never be disconnected.
Explaining my problem to a friend, he told me the ESP can be put to sleep. In theory, I could install the apparatus in the mailbox and it would remain dormant, consuming almost no current. It would only wake up when the switch was activated, and only for the time taken to log on to my WiFi and send the email. As soon as it had done this (about 10 seconds – even less with a static IP), it would go back to sleep.
I played around with this, and to my delight, I managed to put my ESP to sleep.
For my mailbox alert, I didn’t need the ESP to go to sleep for a specified time. Instead I needed it to go to sleep and wake at the “flick of a switch.”
This, it turned out, was more complicated than I thought
My Normally Open reed switch – which was generally closed because of the magnet’s proximity – would trigger the ESP from its dormant state. It would then fire up, connect to my WiFi, send me an email, then go back to sleep. It would then wait for the next occurrence. Thanks to Amir, the circuit and Sketch are build so that even if the mailbox flap doesn’t return to its place, the ESP will go to sleep. It will only be triggered again by the re-opening of the reed switch.
In addition to sending an email, using the ESP’s analog port, a couple of resistors, and a nifty bit of code, the email received also includes the battery voltage – a very significant addition if you’re using unregulated 18560 Lithium-Ion batteries (see below) that mustn’t fall much below 3v.
Connecting the battery through two resistors, (32K,10K) and between them connect the Analog input of the ESP.
Blynk
http://www.blynk.cc/
First drag-n-drop IoT app builder for Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ESP8266, SparkFun boards, and others
Blynk is a Platform with iOS and Android apps to control Arduino, Raspberry Pi and the likes over the Internet.
It’s a digital dashboard where you can build a graphic interface for your project by simply dragging and dropping widgets.
It’s really simple to set everything up and you’ll start tinkering in less than 5 mins.
Blynk is not tied to some specific board or shield. Instead, it’s supporting hardware of your choice. Whether your Arduino or Raspberry Pi is linked to the Internet over Wi-Fi, Ethernet or this new ESP8266 chip, Blynk will get you online and ready for the Internet Of Your Things.
http://www.blynk.cc/getting-started
Emergency Button for 7$, Arduino, WIFI and ESP8266
http://www.instructables.com/id/Emergency-Button/
Deep sleep and wake up using interrupt
https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/issues/1488
Tomi Engdahl says:
Baby Monitor Rebuild is also ESP8266 Audio Streaming How-To
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/15/baby-monitor-rebuild-is-also-esp8266-audio-streaming-how-to/
[Sven337]’s rebuild of a cheap and terrible baby monitor isn’t super visual, but it has so much more going on than it first seems. It’s also a how-to for streaming audio via UDP over WiFi with a pair of ESP8266 units, and includes a frank sharing of things that went wrong in the process and how they were addressed. [Sven337] even experimented with a couple of different methods for real-time compression of the transmitted audio data, for no other reason than the sake of doing things as well as they can reasonably be done without adding parts or spending extra money.
ESP8266-based DIY wifi baby monitor
https://perso.aquilenet.fr/~sven337/english/2016/07/14/DIY-wifi-baby-monitor.html
The objective is, of course, to be able to listen to the sounds of the baby remotely. There are two devices: the transmitter and the receiver.
The transmitter must:
capture sound in the room it is in
decide if that sound is loud enough to wake up the receiver
transmit sound data over wifi to the receiver
The receiver must:
receive sound over wifi
amplify it and play it on speaker
have a button to force sound transmission
In addition, both devices must be cheap, and “wife-proof”, that is, look good enough for her not to even notice that it is not a commercial product, so she doesn’t get the slightest opportunity to complain about yet another duct-tape project (scroll down to the pictures to see the irony).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Two Great Radios Taste Great Together
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/15/two-great-radios-taste-great-together/
[Johan Kanflo] sent us his latest recipe: a blend of one part RFM69 sub-gigahertz radio transceiver with one part ESP8266 module. The resulting dish looks absolutely delicious!
We’re all charmed with the ease of use that the ESP8266 brings to the table — plug it in and you’re talking to your existing WiFi network — but we hate the power consumption for battery-powered applications. WiFi is a power hog. And although ISM-band radio modules make point-to-point communications cheap and power-saving, getting them to talk with your computer takes an adapter.
So [Johan] combined the two radios and made a sweet ISM-radio-to-WiFi bridge. His demo application takes whatever data is sent over the ISM band and pushes it to an MQTT broker on his WiFi network. Hardware and firmware are up on GitHub.
https://github.com/kanflo/espism/tree/master/hardware/v2
https://github.com/kanflo/espism/tree/master/mqtt_sniffer
Bridging ISM radio and wifi for lunch money
http://johan.kanflo.com/bridging-ism-radio-and-wifi-for-lunch-money/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Obsolescence as a Service
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/16/obsolescence-as-a-service/
Yet another Internet of Things service has left its customers in the lurch. IoT devices (mostly lightbulbs) made by Greenwave Systems stopped talking to the outside world on July 1. More specifically, the server to which they all connected (ahem, “the cloud”) has been turned off, which rules out using the bulbs with Internet-based services like IFTTT, which was a major selling point of the Things in the first place.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen IoT companies renege on their promises to provide service, and it’s surely not going to be the last. We’re preaching to the choir here, but when even Google is willing to take the PR hit to effectively brick your devices, the only protection that you’ve got against obsolescence is an open protocol.
At least the users of Greenwave’s devices will continue to be able to control them from within the home.
Boo to shady IoT companies!
http://www.connectedbytcp.co.uk/faqs/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Colin Gibbs / FierceWireless:
AT&T and IBM to combine their cloud and IoT platforms in an effort to provide developers with easier tools to build and implement IoT offerings
AT&T, IBM combine IoT tools for businesses
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-ibm-combine-iot-tools-businesses/2016-07-13
AT&T (NYSE: T) and IBM are targeting the enterprise with a new IoT initiative.
The companies said today they will combine their cloud and IoT platforms to create tools based on open standards in an effort to help developers build and implement IoT offerings.
“Open standards-based tools allow developers to improve their skills and avoid the churn of learning new tools, which helps protect the investments businesses have made in IoT solution development,” AT&T and IBM said in a press release. “As demand for IoT solutions grows, so does the demand for skilled IoT developers… As businesses discover the need to more efficiently develop and bring IoT solutions to market, they must invest in developers to stay competitive.”
While forecasts for the worldwide IoT market vary greatly, analysts agree the burgeoning space is teeming with potential. Gartner predicted in November that 6.4 billion connected devices will be in use by the end of this year, with 20.8 billion such gadgets coming online by 2020. And an IDC forecast pegs the worldwide IoT market at $1.3 trillion in 2019.
AT&T said it is also working with IBM to create a new starter kit to help developers build IoT offerings. The project will enable customers to buy the combined AT&T and IBM technologies in a single bundle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pips Help Everyone Around the House
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/21/pips-help-everyone-around-the-house/
Sometimes you start a project with every intention of using it in a specific way, or maybe your plan is to have a very well-defined set of features. Often, though, our projects go in a completely different direction than we might have intended. That seems to be the case with [Dave] and his Pips. These tiny devices were originally intended to be used by people with disabilities, but it turns out that they’re a perfect platform for this “Internet of Things” thing that we’ve been hearing so much about.
Built around the Bright Blue Bean microcontroller platform to take advantage of its low energy requirements, the Pips were originally intended to be placed around the house where they would light up to remind the user to perform some task.
How to: Build your own smart IoT buttons
http://www.nominet.uk/researchblog/how-to-build-your-own-smart-iot-buttons/
We’ve been working on a project to build configurable connected buttons and we’re excited to announce that we’re making the code and instructions for building “Pips” publicly available and open source.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Onion Omega2: The Latest Router Dev Board
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/21/the-onion-omega2-the-latest-router-dev-board/
A few years ago, the best way to put a device or project online was by hacking a router. With an inconspicuous Linksys WRT54G held onto a project with baling wire, anything can connect to the Internet. A lot has changed in a few years, and now those routers are development boards themselves. The latest of these is the Onion Omega2, a follow-up crowdfunding campaign to the very popular original Omega. Now, this tiny dev board is faster, more capable, and now it’s giving the Raspberry Pi Zero a run for its money.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/onion/omega2-5-iot-computer-with-wi-fi-powered-by-linux/description
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: An Internet Of Things Microscope
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/20/hackaday-prize-entry-an-internet-of-things-microscope/
For their entry into the Citizen Scientist portion of the Hackaday Prize, the folks at Arch Reactor, the St. Louis hackerspace, are building a microscope. Not just any microscope – this one is low-cost, digital, and has a surprisingly high magnification and pretty good optics. It’s the Internet of Things Microscope, and like all good apparatus for Citizen Scientist, it’s a remarkable tool for classrooms and developing countries.
The Internet of Things Microscope includes a scanning stage that moves across the specimen on the X and Y axes, stitching digital images together to create a very large image. That’s a killer feature for a cheap digital microscope, and the folks at Arch Reactor are doing this with a few cheap stepper motors and stepper motor drivers.
Internet of Things Microscope
https://hackaday.io/project/11429-internet-of-things-microscope
We are updating the microscope using open source materials to make microscopy accessible globally
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bending The New Amazon Dash Button To Your Will
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/26/bending-the-new-amazon-dash-button-to-your-will/
Most Hackaday readers are familiar with the Amazon Dash button even if it has not yet made an appearance in their country or region. A WiFi enabled button emblazoned with a product logo, that triggers an Amazon order for that product when you press it. Stick it on your washing machine, press the button when you run out of laundry soap, and as if by magic some laundry soap appears. You still have to get out of your armchair to collect the soap from the delivery guy, but maybe they’re working on that problem too.
Of course the embedded computer concealed within the Dash button has been the subject of much interest within our community, and quite a few creative uses have been made of repurposed and reverse engineered examples.
Earlier this year a new Dash button model appeared. Largely similar on the outside, but sporting a comprehensive hardware update internally. Gone is the STM32 processor to be replaced by an Atmel part, and unfortunately since they also made changes to its communication protocol, gone also are most of the hacks for the device.
[Evan Allen] writes to us with his work on bending the new Dash button to his will. He goes into detail on the subject of retrieving their MAC addresses, and modifications to existing hacks to allow the buttons to be intercepted/redirected to trigger his MQTT server.
Amazon Dash Button Re-Hack!
https://abzman2k.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/amazon-dash-button-re-hack/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Root on the Philips Hue IoT Bridge
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/26/root-on-the-philips-hue-iot-bridge/
Building on the work of others (as is always the case!) [pepe2k] managed to get root access on the Philips Hue Bridge v2 IoT light controller. There’s nothing unusual here, really. Connect to the device over serial, interrupt the boot process, boot up open firmware, dump the existing firmware, and work the hacker magic from there.
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=66346
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Augmented Reality For Firefighters
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/24/hackaday-prize-entry-augmented-reality-for-firefighters/
The core of the build is a Particle Photon, a WiFi-enabled microcontroller that also gives this helmet the ability to relay data back to a base station, ostensibly one that’s not on fire. To this, [vijayvictory] has added an accelerometer, gas sensor, and a beautiful OLED display mounted just behind a prism. This display overlays the relevant data to the firefighter without obstructing their field of vision.
By expanding this system to include a FLIR thermal imaging sensor, this augmented reality helmet will have the ability to see through smoke.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Smart Home Device Means No More Fumbling in the Dark
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/27/diy-smart-home-device-means-no-more-fumbling-in-the-dark/
Smart home tech is on the rise, but cost or lack of specific functionality may give pause to prospective buyers. [Whiskey Tango Hotel] opted to design their own system using a Raspberry Pi and Bluetooth device connectivity. Combining two ubiquitous technologies provides a reliable proximity activation of handy functions upon one’s arrival home.
Home Automation via Bluetooth Proximity Awareness
http://www.whiskeytangohotel.com/2016/07/home-automation-via-bluetooth-proximity.html
Bluetooth devices are everywhere and so are Raspberry PI computers. Here we show how to combine the two for some home automation.
If you are not interested in duplicating the build maybe this summary of what the rig does will change your mind: Basically this allows any discoverable Bluetooth device (cell phone, smart watch, automobile, tablet, PC, etc.) to control GPIO outputs on the Raspberry PI.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Automation equipment and systems develops and produces Omron says it had clearly increases the productivity of its own production plant in Kusatsu in Japan a solution that can be used to monitor the flow of product through the entire production process, and a visualization helped to identify potential areas for improvement.
- We introduced the Sysmac NJ Series Integrated Machine Automation Controllers, and we used them in a new way. Models with SQL Client service with the device or the system can record the data directly to the server databases without intermediate software or computer
The solution uses Microsoft SQL Server and Excel harmonization of logs. Log data collected from the production line equipment, combined with similar products and added to the database, so that logs can be monitored in real-time.
Sysmac & SQL Direct Connect Solution, a combination Sysmac and SQL Server in real time. Log data is collected from all devices included in the process and combined with similar products traveling on the production line.
the log data can be converted to run on a portal site Real-Time Charts for Microsoft SharePoint Server. Data can be exported to Microsoft Excel PowerPivot for Excel utility, which is an Excel add-on to SQL Server.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4743:omronin-ratkaisu-objektiivisella-tiedolla-eroon-pullonkauloista&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anyone can program a Bluetooth beacon
Nordic Semiconductor has launched a Kickstarter campaign on where one can obtain an open platform based on a Bluetooth beacon circuit solution. According to the company of its programming is made so easy that it, anyone can.
The beacon is the name of Kiekko or Puck. It is based on Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832-system circuit, which supports low power bluetooth technology for ble.
Programming via the Web site of either the graphic editor or JavaScript. In the past, bluetooth beacon coding is required the C or C ++ – programming languages.
The disc is fully open platform and supports both iBeacon- the Eddystone formats.
The disc is circular and has a diameter of 35 millimeters in width.
powered by a CR2032 coin-cell
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4757:kuka-tahansa-voi-ohjelmoida-bluetooth-majakan&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sato put to tenants IoT locks
Sato takes a leap in the direction of intelligent homes, the Helsinki Jätkäsaari completed Finland’s first keyless rental apartment building. Locking is carried out in Espoo Rollockin NFC-lock and in the future will also be tested mobile authentication.
Close-reading technology (Near Field Communication, NFC) based smart locking has already been tested in high-rise housing, but Sato’s purpose is to test NFC technology in addition to mobile authentication with Securitas.
Unlocking deliver Sato in Espoo Rollock, which has received IoT lukkoratkaisullaan numerous innovation awards. The company is funded by venture capital investors
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/07/28/sato-laittoi-vuokralaisille-iot-lukot/
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Chip Alert: RTL8710, A Cheaper ESP8266 Competitor
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/28/new-chip-alert-rtl8710-a-cheaper-esp8266-competitor/
Almost exactly two years ago, shocking news thundered across the electronics blogosphere. There was a new WiFi module on the block. It was called the ESP8266, a simple serial device capable of taking care of an 802.11 network and a WiFi stack, giving any project with a microcontroller access to the Internet. Earlier modules to connect microcontrollers were sufficient for the task, but nothing could beat the ESP8266 on price.
Now, there’s a new module that’s even cheaper and more powerful than the ESP8266, and just like all of our favorite parts from China, it inexplicably shows up on eBay and AliExpress before anywhere else. It’s the Realtek RTL8710, available on eBay, on AliExpress, and elsewhere around the web for about $1.50 per device.
As you would expect, there is zero English-language data available about the RTL8710, everything is in Chinese. There is a forum of sorts
The RTL8710 features an ARM processor clocked at 166MHz. Stock, this module is running FreeRTOS. There’s 1MB of Flash, 48k of RAM available to the user, up to 21 GPIOs, 3 I2C, 4 PWM pins, and 2 PCM. This module also comes with an FCC logo, but I can’t find anything on the FCC website about this module.
If anything, the Realtek RTL8710 isn’t meant to be a competitor to the ESP8266. While extremely popular and still very useful, the ‘next gen’ ESP32 is due to be released in a month or so, and with the exception of Bluetooth on the ESP32, this Realtek module should match its capabilities quite well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Squirrel Café To Predict The Weather From Customer Data
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/28/squirrel-cafe-to-predict-the-weather-from-customer-data/
http://www.thesquirrelcafe.com/
I proposed the thesis that:
The amount of nuts taken by red squirrels from a squirrel feeder correlates with upcoming winter weather conditions significantly.
A basic prerequisite for verification is the availability of “nut consumption by squirrels” data.
Thus, I have to gather the necessary data on my own and the “IoT Squirrel Feeder” project came into existence.
Raspberry Pi Micro Computer and the sensors
Tomi Engdahl says:
ITU explained: Sweden roller on the Internet of Things
Finland has a lot of catching up to do, if we are going to Sweden to catch the development of the Internet of Things, reveals the International Telecommunication Union ITU report
Sweden is by far the most advanced in the development of IoT, survives the International Telecommunications Union, ITU’s recent ICT report, Kauppalehti reported on. The report IoT space is measured from one machine (M2M) the number of subscriptions in proportion to the number of mobile phone subscriptions.
Sweden M2M / IoT interfaces according to the report almost half as common as a mobile phone
In Finland, there are only about 13 of M2M / IoT interface for every 100 mobile phone subscriptions.
Globally, mobile phone subscriptions is estimated that about 22 times more than the Internet of Things IoT / M2M subscriptions.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/07/27/itu-selvitti-ruotsi-jyraa-esineiden-internetissa/
More: http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2016.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wi-Servo: Wi-fi browser controlled servomotors (with Arduino + ESP8266)
http://www.instructables.com/id/Wi-Servo-Wi-fi-Browser-Controlled-Servomotors-with/
This instructable shows how to control some servomotors remotely in a wi-fi network, using an ordinary internet browser (Firefox, for instance). This might be used in several applications: toys, robots, drones, camera pan/tilt, etc.
The motors were attached to an Arduino Uno, which connects the wi-fi network through a ESP-8266 module. The control interface was designed with HTML and jQuery.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Omron launched 600 products – help IoT technology
Japan digit Omron has introduced the implementation of the control centers in 600 different industrial automation products. New arrivals have a common platform and push-in Plus connections.
A machine controller Omron launched high-speed connections to databases IoT solutions.
in the manufacture of the control center wiring is almost always the most time consuming and expensive phase. combining the parts required a lot of control lines.
Parts Information Omron’s products are available on the Omron website online library. The library data can be imported directly into the software packages on the market. Since January of this year, Omron is a new service offered optimized control centers in parts lists.
Control centers In addition, Omron has developed a machine control solutions to support large data (Big Data) and IoT: the exploitation of. Omron year ago the public what NJ1 and NJ5 machine controls can work with different databases without the need for any separate between the equipment.
For example, databases can be used in recipes, product search, optimization of production processes and the traceability of products.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/07/28/omron-toi-600-uutuutta-apua-iot-tekniikasta/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bruce Schneier / Motherboard:
How the rise of the Internet of Things threatens to make it much easier for cyberattacks to cause damage in the real world
The Internet of Things Will Turn Large-Scale Hacks into Real World Disasters
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-internet-of-things-will-cause-the-first-ever-large-scale-internet-disaster
Disaster stories involving the Internet of Things are all the rage. They feature cars (both driven and driverless), the power grid, dams, and tunnel ventilation systems. A particularly vivid and realistic one, near-future fiction published last month in New York Magazine, described a cyberattack on New York that involved hacking of cars, the water system, hospitals, elevators, and the power grid. In these stories, thousands of people die. Chaos ensues. While some of these scenarios overhype the mass destruction, the individual risks are all real. And traditional computer and network security isn’t prepared to deal with them.
Classic information security is a triad: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. You’ll see it called “CIA,” which admittedly is confusing in the context of national security. But basically, the three things I can do with your data are steal it (confidentiality), modify it (integrity), or prevent you from getting it (availability).
The next president will probably be forced to deal with a large-scale internet disaster that kills multiple people.
So far, internet threats have largely been about confidentiality. These can be expensive; one survey estimated that data breaches cost an average of $3.8 million each. T
On the Internet of Things, integrity and availability threats are much worse than confidentiality threats. It’s one thing if your smart door lock can be eavesdropped upon to know who is home.
With the advent of the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems in general, we’ve given the internet hands and feet: the ability to directly affect the physical world. What used to be attacks against data and information have become attacks against flesh, steel, and concrete.
The increased risks come from three things: software control of systems, interconnections between systems, and automatic or autonomous systems. Let’s look at them in turn:
Software Control. The Internet of Things is a result of everything turning into a computer. This gives us enormous power and flexibility, but it brings insecurities with it as well.
Interconnections. As these systems become interconnected, vulnerabilities in one lead to attacks against others.
Autonomy. Increasingly, our computer systems are autonomous.
The Internet of Things will allow for attacks we can’t even imagine.
We’re building systems that are increasingly powerful, and increasingly useful. The necessary side effect is that they are increasingly dangerous. A single vulnerability forced Chrysler to recall 1.4 million vehicles in 2015.
We’re used to computers being attacked at scale—think of the large-scale virus infections from the last decade—but we’re not prepared for this happening to everything else in our world.
With the advent of the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems in general, we’ve given the internet hands and feet: the ability to directly affect the physical world.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Smart USB Hub And IoT Power Meter
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/02/hackaday-prize-entry-smart-usb-hub-and-iot-power-meter/
[Aleksejs Mirnijs] needed a tool to accurately measure the power consumption of his Raspberry Pi and Arduino projects, which is an important parameter for dimensioning adequate power supplies and battery packs. Since most SBC projects require a USB hub anyway, he designed a smart, WiFi-enabled 4-port USB hub that is also a power meter – his entry for this year’s Hackaday Prize.
Smart USB/4 port hub/Power meter with LCD
Need power up your’s USB devices and monitor consumption? Yes!
https://hackaday.io/project/11178-smart-usb4-port-hubpower-meter-with-lcd
6 port USB power meter with 2.2″ LCD display will monitor every USB port and show real time used current (A) and power (W) maesuring up to 3AMPS and batterys charging (mAh).
With added 4xUSB 2.0 hub to it you can use it with your’s Raspberry Pi or PC for connecting external USB flash or HDD, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth dongles and others devices, like USB port extension and USB PSU/charger. It will help you to project any USB device and control it’s consumption.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Garage Door Opener
An ESP8266-based garage door opening device
https://hackaday.io/project/12482-garage-door-opener
The garage door at my house doesn’t have a switch in the garage, so you need the fob. I hate carrying my fob.
So, I could just wire up a simple doorbell switch to the garage door controller, but where is the fun in that?
I plan to build a ESP8266 device, that talks to my home assistant machine via MQTT.
The project has the following requirements:
1) The configuration system (web based) should be user friendly;
2) It should be secure
3) It should still allow the garage door to be opened and closed if the system goes down.
How can I make this secure?
One of the design goals for this project was a secure system – this device can open my garage, and I don’t really want just any person to be able to do that!
The most obvious way to interface with the controller was to setup some sort of server that a controller (eg an iPhone app) talks to. The problem with this is that an open network port is an attack vector – if a good guy can connect to a network port, so can a bad guy. While I could set up a username or password, having a port open potentially means buffer overflows
After some research, I found this paper (PDF) talking about the use of the publish/subscriber pattern (AKA pub/sub), where a device connects to as server and subscribes to event notifications. This means there is no port open on the device, so even if an attacker found it’s IP address, there is no way for them to connect to it. It seems MQTT is the IOT pub/sub system of choice (it drives a lot of public IOT platforms).
This of course is not without other issues (not exhaustive – please suggest more if you can think of others):
1. Problem: If an attacker got on the network, they could just connect to the MQTT server and send a “open” command.
Solution: Access control lists (ACL): Only allow certain MQTT clients send certain commands. We would need some way for the server to verify who the client is…
2. Problem: What if an attacker managed to spoof the IP or MAC address (perhaps through ARP poisoning) they could become a legitimate MQTT server, allowing them to send an open command.
Solution: Verify the identity of the server. TLS certificates can help with that. Using a certificate signed by a custom Certificate Authority (CA) means we can guarantee the server is who it says it is. This also fixes the client verification problem from point 1.
After a quick search, I found the mosquitto project – an open source MQTT server which looked pretty easy to setup, supports ACLs and TLS.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your Laundry Is Done!
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/01/your-laundry-is-done/
Have you ever put a load of dirty clothing in the washing machine and set the cycle running, only to forget all about it and discover a mouldering congealed mass in the machine a few days later? [Xose Pérez] has more than once, and to stop it happening again he’s got a project that monitors the machine in his basement and notifies him when his wash is done.
At the centre of his washing machine monitor is an ITead Sonoff IoT mains on-off switch. This device contains a 10A mains relay, an ESP8266 chip to control it, and a small mains switch-mode power supply. The Sonoff doesn’t use the ESP’s ADC pins, so he’s broken one of them out on a lead to a current transformer which captures the power level being consumed by the washing machine.
The Sonoff is one of those IoT devices that relies on a proprietary cloud service and doesn’t have its own API, so [Xose] has created his own firmware for it incorporating an ESP port of an Arduino current sensing library. To round off the project and because he could, he’s added an ambient humidity sensor to the device.
The resulting boxed-up unit returns minute-by-minute current readings for the entire wash cycle. To spot when the cycle has finished, he waits for a moment when it has been using no power for more than five minutes, at which point his Node-RED system sends him a notification via Pushover.
http://tinkerman.cat/your-laundry-is-done/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sniffing Bluetooth Devices With A Raspberry Pi
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/01/sniffing-bluetooth-devices-with-a-raspberry-pi/
[Jeff] of reelyActive stopped by the booth and showed off what his team has been working on. It’s a software platform that turns all your wireless mice, Fitbits, and phones into a smart sensor platform using off the shelf hardware and a connection to the Internet.
[Jeff]’s demo unit (shown above) is simply a Raspberry Pi 3 with WiFi and Bluetooth, and an SD card loaded up with reelyActive’s software. Connect the Pi to the Internet, and you have a smart space that listens for local Bluetooth devices and relays the identity and MAC address of all Bluetooth devices in range up to the Internet.
The ability to set up a hub and detect Bluetooth devices solves the problem Bluetooth beacons solves — identifying when people enter a space, leave a space, and with a little bit of logic where people are located in a space — simply by using what they’re already wearing.
http://context.reelyactive.com/technology.html
http://reelyactive.github.io/make-a-pi-hub.html
http://smartspac.es/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home Automation Is Hung Up On Software
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/02/home-automation-is-hung-up-on-software/
Home automation is a favorite in sci-fi, from Tony Stark’s Jarvis, to Rosie the robotic maid on the Jetsons, and even the sliding doors pulled by a stagehand Star Trek. In fact, most people have a favorite technology that should be just about ready to make an appearance in their own home. So where are these things? We asked you a few weeks ago and the overwhelming answer was that the software just isn’t there yet.
Human Interface
Home Automation boils down to adding an automated layer between the people in the house and the human interfaces that control the house. This is actually a pretty hard sell. Do you lights need to be automated? Isn’t it just lazy that you can’t get up and press a light switch that works instantly without need of anything other than reliable mains power?
That’s a tough question. Is your dishwasher a symbol of your laziness?
A Tale of Two Switches
The WeMo controls my porch light which I want it to turn on at dusk and turn off at 11pm. For six years I used a switch with a programmable display that was a huge pain to set and reset as the length of days and time offset changed. It finally died (which a switch should never do) and I bought this one that has WiFi but the software is horrible and as much of a pain as the old switch. After the stock setup didn’t work I was thankfully able to get reliable service by switching to IFTTT to control it and haven’t touched it since. After that experience I don’t want to.
A think the WeMo switch hardware is excellent. But considering the two switches, I love the Lutron and have a bad opinion of the WeMo for no other reason than a bad software setup experience. This is the core of the problem with Home Automation: the user can’t separate a bad software experience from the hardware, and since they pay good money for the hardware they are likely to be turned off to any further automation adventures.
We’ve Solved This Before
Look to the PC industry. You can run the same program on a Dell, Acer, Asus, or Toshiba laptop. You can even change the operating system you run on those machines, and for that matter, software companies can make their products work on Macs. It’s because there are standards
We Need a Software Champion
We need to separate hardware from software so the hardware companies can do what they’re best at — build affordable devices that work reliably year in and year out. I don’t think this can happen until a clear software champion (or group of champions) appears. This means an intuitive interface that your average human can understand, configure, and intuitively operate at the same level you can operate a light switch.
This is a really hard problem. How do you think it should be approached?
Comments:
chronoglass says:
August 2, 2016 at 11:51 am
near as I can tell, currently at least. The glue to hold everything together does exist, it’s android/ios and *gasp* the cloud.. each of these islands of automation are islands in the same ocean of the internet and the smart phone (or alexa in amazon’s case, because they can’t make a phone to save their lives) is the method to communicate between them.
I was thinking about this very thing the other day.. I always wanted an all in one automation solution myself.. but I don’t want to write and rewrite the code for the firmware/security/updates/upgrades.. i want it to exist already for me to tinker with. which is pretty much (barring some closed systems out there.. kwikset*cough*) what we have today.
i feel what we need is some form of industry standard for the “internet of crap” that says, if service x goes buh-bye, firmware/hardware is open sourced.. basically saying, if you fail at an idea, let the next guy take a crack at it.. while also saying.. hey buy my stuff, because even if we fail, you are still good mr joe consumer. THAT i think is the only thing REALLY missing.
eternityforest says:
August 2, 2016 at 11:58 am
The idea of the cloud controlling my physical devices is an unpleasant thought. Also, there has been things like X10 for decades. To me the value of automation is being able to do unusual/artistic things that might well be best done with code.
So I build my own open source automation system based on “events” that say “if this line ever evaluates true do this”, where both the trigger and action are python code.
For UI there’s simple HTML from mako templates with a library to handle creating widgets like sliders to control things in realtime.
And all of this can be edited through the web interface via https.
The advantage here is that the system supports literally anything python does because it’s basically a python/html web IDE.
bl says:
August 2, 2016 at 12:12 pm
IoT is 99% run by marketing guys who want to data mine.
once you realize that, everything becomes a bit more clearer.
not any more desireable, of course. but the intention is more clear. just like when you are the product to google. once you understand your place in the ecosystem, you can make more informed choices (like, choosing not to play.)
DaveW says:
August 2, 2016 at 12:47 pm
I have been working for some time on a “massively distributed” IOT approach where there is not a huge sucking sound as all your data is vacuumed up into the cloud for others to make money from. The problem is that everyone and their dog are getting on the bandwagon with cloud based IOT systems as that is where the money is. What is needed is an open, distributed system with full interoperability but there is little incentive for hardware manufacturers to do that. They want hardware and software lock in.
My approach is to work with large businesses that will lose out substantially if, as can be expected, a small number of companies end up controlling the IOT cloud. It is a rare case where what is good for individuals, is good for a lot of businesses also.
From a technical point of view, the approach makes IOT objects “self aware” such that they know who owns them, This uses crypo technology. Then the owners of the objects get to say who can see the data and who can access and control the objects. Local hubs under control of the object owners (you) communicate directly with your devices, such as smart phones without any intervening cloud servers. The cloud only provides services, such as, say, the weather forecast.. There is much more to it than that, but that gives a flavor. I am mainly using CoAP and MQTT at the lower levels (within my house) and I am working on the semantic model for communications.
nospam says:
August 3, 2016 at 11:40 am
IoT != Home Automation
I have no interest in IoT but I am interested in network enabled devices that I can control. Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Nest, etc are just data and bandwidth thieves masquarading as home automation devices.
Tom Salwach says:
August 2, 2016 at 3:39 pm
You’re right from my experience.
My home automation logic is written in PHP.
Little raspberry with apache and PHP is that umbrella where it all combines.
All devices are polling in intervals defined by server.
“I don’t need a bunch of crazy new radio-waves flying through the house.”
Sometimes You need them – wifi is power hungry, but now BLE can be new standard, it is getting cheaper every day.
Tim says:
August 2, 2016 at 5:25 pm
Wi-Fi has limitations (I say WeNo (WeMo joke)) for HA devices. Limited number of IP addresses on a subnet, and sub-GHz signals travel better through walls and mesh-networks are superior for reliability. So even using something proprietary like Z-Wave is a better choice for HA than WiFi since it uses 908.42 MHz.
Jan Ciger (@janoc200) says:
August 2, 2016 at 5:44 pm
Well, you won’t have light next night until you walk up to the switch and flip it on again. Big effin’ deal. The smart switch would not read your mind neither, at best you will be able to fish out your phone and turn the thing on remotely instead of walking the few meters to the button. How did we survive without these gizmos until now …
This is the entire problem with this IoT stuff – it is designed for an obscure use case that you need once in a blue moon and can well live without otherwise. Unfortunately that extra complexity cannot be enabled only when you need it – it is always there.
This isn’t about being a Luddite, this is about poor engineering – an overcomplicated solution requiring complex setup, IoT gateway, some sort of cloud service and a phone (or a computer) just to make the light go on and off. And it *still* performs worse than the LDR, because the Sun doesn’t set and rise at the same time every day. So you need a service to look up the times, correct for geographical location, etc. That’s not really any progress, that’s technology for the sake of technology, IMO.
Oh and if you want to avoid the entire problem, use a $2 PIR sensor – most of these porch lights come with these already.
Devesh Batra says:
August 2, 2016 at 12:20 pm
running into the same issue with multiple devices that dont talk to each other or need multiple hubs (hue, wink, Smarthings).. The key is to select devices that will be hub independent (like most Zwave and some zigbee devices), so if the hub co goes belly up (like Revo) or just does not work properly (Staples connect) you can move to another hub and still retain most of your HA investment. Think of HA similar to your PC and plan to upgrade every few years (yes its a pain to replace the in wall switches so stick with the common zwave ones)
nineteen says:
August 2, 2016 at 12:33 pm
Standard, Protocol, API however you want to call it. As long as maker of IoT keep their protocol hidden and force me to use hideous App then I’ll never be able to address those device from my own code/script, let alone integrate all of them in a software master hub that will make them work in concert.
Nyanman says:
August 2, 2016 at 12:40 pm
Home automation has been around since the 80’s easily. Unity Systems is still around from then, Elan G is an option, Lutron is an option, and for those who want a bit more than a “oh look my lights turn on and off” there is Crestron.
No IoT and all those vulnerabilities, no smartphone and python apps by a company that won’t support it in a year; instead these are actual professional level systems.
Neil Cherry says:
August 2, 2016 at 3:15 pm
At professional level prices. Typically these systems cost 10% of the home’s price and they tend to be in the $1M+ homes. Definitely not for the DIY’r and a lot of times the installers/maintainers consider the whole system their proprietary information that they won’t share with the home owner. Talk about locking.
Tim says:
August 2, 2016 at 5:18 pm
All of the Top Level systems installations I have seen from Savant, Crestron, Lutron and Control4 are never really implemented with any “automation” unless you count lighting scenes or being able to press Watch TV button and have several actions execute on different devices. Real Home Automation is being tested, achieved, and lived by the DIY crowd. I think mainly because to have to live with it to really discover valid use-cases, and then you work to find a way to make it happen reliably.
I am guessing their AV guys don’t want to offer geo-fencing or proximity triggers due to the liability concerns for a $12-30 mill estate. Older PC-based systems I have seen still in use offer ways of tracking occupants around a large home using occupancy sensors, but they didn’t turn on the hallway lights based on movement or anything. Being able to talk to your house (Amazon Echo or other) is completely worth the price of admission but you don’t see the Top Level systems doing it yet. They just want to sell you their over priced touchscreens and have you pay a programmer weekend-rated when your system chokes the night of your big party. The real benefit of Jarvis was that Tony Stark could fix it himself.
huggy_d1 says:
August 2, 2016 at 12:42 pm
HomeSeer is that glue between the various technologies and end user choices.
It has been around since before the turn of the century.
Tim says:
August 2, 2016 at 5:31 pm
Home Control is “do stuff with your smartphone”, while Home Automation is your curtains closing automatically to reduce heat gain and faded carpet and furniture based on the astronomical position of the sun in relation to your house.
Drone says:
August 2, 2016 at 1:05 pm
“Home Automation” is hung-up on Commercial “Solutions” that are not only insecure, but share your (and your family’s) privacy with not only the “Service Provider”, but (more and more these days) Big Government.
If you don’t “Subscribe” to a Home Automation “Licensed and/or Regulated” Solution Provider that is Government Approved, and installed only by Unionized Installers, then your Homeowner’s Insurance is NULL AND VOID.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MIT researchers develop a low-cost device to monitor home power consumption
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/01/home-power/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity_1462_8043715913418486213
A team of researchers at MIT has developed a device designed to give home owners a better picture of how much power their individual appliances are eating up. The gadget, which was outlined in a paper published in a recent edition of the IEEE Sensors Journal, offers a simple installation process that involves securing it over a power line with a zip tie.
The stamp-size sensor self-calibrates and is capable of monitoring individual appliances courtesy of software developed by the team, even going so far as isolating time segments, like when a refrigerator goes into defrost mode. It also relies only minimally on cloud-based servers,
MIT estimates a commercial cost of between $25 and $30 for the sensor
What’s wasting power at home? Ask your app!
New system from MIT can identify how much power is being used by each device in a household.
http://news.mit.edu/2016/wasting-power-home-app-0801
If you want to save on your monthly electric bill and reduce your greenhouse gas emissions at the same time, you might buy a new, energy-efficient refrigerator. Or water heater. Or clothes dryer. But if you can only replace one of these, which will give you the biggest payback?
While many groups have worked on developing devices to monitor electricity use, the new MIT system has some key advantages over other approaches. First, it involves no complex installation: No wires need to be disconnected, and the placement of the postage-stamp-sized sensors over the incoming power line does not require any particular precision — the system is designed to be self-calibrating. Second, because it samples data very quickly, the sensors can pick up enough detailed information about spikes and patterns in the voltage and current that the system can, thanks to dedicated software, tell the difference between every different kind of light, motor, and other device in the home and show exactly which ones go on and off, at what times.
Own your own data
Perhaps most significantly, the system is designed so that all of the detailed information stays right inside the user’s own home, eliminating concerns about privacy that potential users may have when considering power-monitoring systems. The detailed analysis, including the potential for specialized analysis based on an individual user’s specific needs or interests, can be provided by customized apps that can be developed using the MIT team’s system.
Tests of the system have showed its potential to save energy and greenhouse emissions — and even to improve safety.
“For a long time, the premise has been that if we could get access to better information [about energy use], we would be able to create some significant savings,” Leeb says.
First was the ability to monitor changes in voltage and current without cutting the main incoming power line to a home or business (an expensive process requiring a licensed electrician) or plugging every appliance into a special monitoring device. Other groups have attempted to use wireless sensors to pick up the very faint magnetic and electric fields near a wire, but such systems have required a complex alignment process since the fields in some places can cancel each other out. The MIT team solved the problem by using an array of five sensors, each slightly offset from the others, and a calibration system that tracks the readings from each sensor and figures out which one is positioned to give the strongest signal.
every motor or device has distinctive characteristics as to exactly how fast and how much the voltage varies, or spikes, at the moment the device switches on, or as it operates.
Once the system is developed into a commercial product, Leeb says, it should cost only about $25 to $30 per home.
We’re trying to lower the barriers to installation,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://sense.com/
The Sense home energy monitor lets you understand what every appliance, light, and device in your house has to say. Be informed. Listen to your home.
http://neur.io/
There is money being wasted in your home. Let Neurio find it.
Neurio provides a smarter way to manage your home, allowing you to live more comfortably and securely, all the while saving your money each month. And with over 100,000 units sold in just over a year, homes everywhere are quickly seeing the benefits of what Neurio can offer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Linux Computer and 6LoWPAN Gateway
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/04/diy-linux-computer-and-6lowpan-gateway/
We toss together our own PCB designs, throwing in a microcontroller here or there. Anything more demanding than that, and we reach for a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone (or an old Linksys router). Why don’t we just whip together a PCB for a small Linux computer? Because we don’t know how…but [Jonas] apparently does. And when we asked him why he did it, he replied “because I can!”
His Ethernet-to-6LoWPAN gateway project is a small, OpenWRT-capable Linux computer in disguise. Rather than yet another Raspberry Pi project, he designed around an Atmel AT91SAM9G25 400 MHz CPU, and added some memory, Ethernet, and a CC2520 radio chip to handle the wireless side.
6lowpan Gateway
https://jopee.wordpress.com/6lowpan-gateway/
My attempt to home automation and wireless lightning. The goal is to get a similar function compared to the “Philips HUE” system but open source, using 6lowpan and allow for more than light’s to be connected. I’ve currently designed two boards; the gateway and a small LED-driver / 6lowpan device.
On this page I’ve published the design for the “Ethernet – to – 6lowpan” gateway.
The boards have been designed using kicad
Tomi Engdahl says:
DEFCON Thermometer
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/05/defcon-thermometer/
Redditor [mulishadan] — a fan of the movie WarGames — has created a singular thermostat in the form of a Defcon alert meter.
A Particle Photon board queries the Weather Underground API via Wi-Fi in five-minute intervals.
http://imgur.com/gallery/L4eUo
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacklet 118 – Infrared and Universal Remote Controls
http://hackaday.com/2016/07/30/hacklet-118-infrared-and-universal-remote-controls/
We start with [Harikrishna] and zmote. Zmote is an open source WiFi enabled, infrared, 360° remote control. That’s a mouthful. It might be easier to say it’s an ESP8266 and some IR LEDs. An ESP-01 module connects the device to WiFi and provides the 32-bit processor which runs the show. Learning functionality comes courtesy of a TSOP1738 modulated infrared receiver. The beauty of the Zmote is in the software. REST and MQTT connectivity are available. Everything is MIT licensed, and all the code is available on Github.
zmote
Wi-Fi Universal Remote using the ESP8266
https://hackaday.io/project/7858-zmote
zmote is the world’s simplest Wi-Fi Universal Remote. Hook it up to a USB power supply, place it anywhere in your living room, join it to your Wi-Fi network, and control all your gadgets from anywhere using any browser.
zmote uses ESP8266 Wi-Fi chip. More specifically, it uses the ESP-01 module.
Tomi Engdahl says:
JUST DO IoT
BBC Micro:Bit connected to LoRaWAN network
https://hackaday.io/project/12164-just-do-iot
The BBC Micro:Bit is an IOT microprocessor board based on the Nordic Semiconductor NRF51822 chip with an ARM Cortex M0 processor and bluetooth. For this project it was decided to program the board using the micropython development environment.
The LoRaWAN radio module used to connect to the TTN is the RN2483 from Microchip. This module connects to the Micro:Bit over a serial interface. A microcontroller integral to the RN2483 take care of all the processing for the radio and supports the LoRaWAN protocol layers. In this build the RN2483 module is mounted on a breakout board from Azzy’s Electronics Store on Tindie.
The Radio module is powered from the Micro:Bit using either USB or battery. Three data lines between the Micro:Bit and radio module carry a hardware reset line and serial transmit and receive data.
The python code initializes the radio over the serial connection and sends data packets over the radio channel. The antenna for the 868 MHz radio in this case is a short piece of wire of the correct length (82mm).
The Things Network (TTN) comprises a number of internet connected LoRaWAN gateways deployed by enthusiastic supporters in a growing number of areas around the world. If you don’t already have local coverage, then you can deploy your own gateway and connect it to TTN. While gateways are expensive at around $500 each, many local funding opportunities exist, and exploiting these makes the IOT opportunities more visible and pertinent to the local community.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jump In When The Water Is Just Right With A Wireless Swimming Pool Thermometer
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/07/jump-in-when-the-water-is-just-right-with-a-wireless-swimming-pool-thermometer/
[David]’s family acquired a swimming pool. While it’s not his favorite activity in the world, every now and then he’ll indulge in the blue plastic bin full of water occupying previously pristine land in his backyard.
As he says, cool beer is pleasant, but cool water tends to put a damper on the experience. Rather than do something pedestrian like touch the water himself to discover its temperature; he saw an opportunity for a fun little project in a wireless temperature monitor.
The heart of the device is a Telecom Design TD1208 which runs on the French SigFox network. For a small fee any device on the network can send up to 140 12byte packets of data a day. Not a lot, but certainly acceptable for the Microchip MCP9700 temperature sensor it uses. He got the board up and running, and even made his own custom helical coil antenna.
Swimming pool wireless temperature sensor
http://ioter.io/swimming-pool-temperature-sensor/
Requirements
Portable – it is a demo, I going to lend it (if I will not lost it in a sea during my holiday)
3D printed fixed enclosure
maintenance free
easy display of temperature on mobile phone
submerge detection – to send data only if it is in a water
Sigfox based
temperature reading every minute, sending average value each 30mins
firmware update over the air
μController and modem
I have used Telecom Design TD1208 Sigfox module on my custom break-out board because that module is very flexible and has quite good SDK so I don’t need external controller, module consist few ADC and GPIO ports and also supports update over the air (via proprietary protocol) which is important because device is sealed.
As temperature sensor is used MCP9700
As power supply I have used crappy li-ion 18650 battery from ebay claiming capacity 9800mA (LOL) and cheap 0,6W solar panel.
Water submerge sensing
The simplest solution using resistance of water has been used – just two electrodes + NPN transistor. Circuit is active just for fraction of second once per minute to avoid corroding of electrodes.
Over the air firmware upload
Telecom Design chips allows to upload firmware over the air from second module witch special firmware inside. It is done in bootloader so everything what is needed here is reset button
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigfox
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Amazon’s IoT Platform Controls Things Without Servers
https://sc5.io/posts/how-amazons-iot-platform-eliminates-servers-and-databases/
Amazon’s IoT platform is a framework for connecting smart devices to the cloud. It aims to make the basic processes of collecting data and controlling devices as simple as possible. AWS IoT is a fully managed service, which means the customer doesn’t have to worry about configuring servers or updating operating systems. The platform simply exposes a set of APIs and automatically scales from a single device to millions of devices.
The first step in most IoT projects is to register the devices (also called “things”) into a centrally managed database. AWS IoT provides this database for free and lets you add any number of devices in it. The registration is important, because each device also gets its own SSL/TLS certificate and private key, which are used for authentication and encryption. The devices can only be connected to AWS IoT by using their certificates and private keys.
The AWS IoT device registry also works as a simple asset management database.
In the home automation experiment, two devices were added to the registry: A wireless human presence detector and a Philips Hue light control bridge.
Almost any IoT scenario involves collecting device data. Amazon provides the AWS IoT Device SDK for connecting devices to the IoT platform. The SDK is typically used to develop a small application that runs on the device (or on a gateway connected to the device) and transmits data to the cloud.
There are two ways to deliver data to the AWS IoT platform. The first one is to send raw MQTT messages, which are usually small JSON objects. You can then setup AWS IoT rules to forward these messages to other Amazon cloud services for further processing.
The other way is to use Thing Shadows, which are built into the AWS IoT platform. Every registered device has a “shadow” which contains its latest reported state. The state is stored as a JSON document, which can contain 8 kilobytes worth of fields and values.
Thing Shadows cannot be used as a general-purpose database. You can only look up a single Thing Shadow at a time, and it will only contain the current state.
Since Amazon already offers a wide range of data analysis services, the AWS IoT platform itself doesn’t include any new tools for analyzing data. Existing analysis services include products like Redshift, Elastic MapReduce, Amazon Machine Learning and various others. Device data is typically collected into S3 buckets using Kinesis Firehose and then processed by these services.
Device data can also be forwarded to Amazon Lambda microservices for real-time decision making. A JavaScript function will be executed every time a data point is received. This is suitable for the home automation scenario
In addition to existing solutions, Amazon has announced an upcoming product called Kinesis Analytics. It will enable real-time analytics of streaming IoT data, similar to Apache Storm. This means that data can be analyzed on-the-fly without storing it in a database.
The AWS IoT platform can control devices in the same two ways it collects data. The first way is to send raw MQTT messages directly to devices. Devices will react to the messages when they receive them.
Thing Shadows provide a more reliable way to have devices enter a desired state. A Thing Shadow will remember the new desired state and keep retrying until the device has acknowledged it.
In the home automation scenario, when presence is detected, the desired state of a lamp is set to {“light”:true}. When the lamp receives this desired state, it turns on the light and reports its current state back to AWS IoT as {“light”:true}. Once the reported state is the same as the desired state, the Thing Shadow of the lamp is known to be in sync.
You may use the AWS IoT Console to manually control devices by modifying their desired state. The console will show the current state and update it on the screen as it changes. This is, of course, a very low-level way to control lighting since you need to log in as a cloud administrator and then manually edit the JSON documents.
a better way is to build a web application that integrates to AWS IoT and offers a friendly user interface for controlling things
Amazon API Gateway and Lambda are typically used to build a backend API that lets applications access IoT data. The data itself may be stored in a database like DynamoDB or Postgres. The access can be limited to authenticated users only using Amazon Cognito or a custom IAM solution.
AWS IoT is a fast and easy way to get started on the Internet of Things.
For small scale projects the operating costs are negligible. For larger scale projects, the costs will depend on the amount and frequency of the data being transferred. There are no fixed monthly or hourly fees, which makes personal experimentation at home very convenient.
https://aws.amazon.com/iot/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Quark™ D2000 Microcontroller (MCU)
http://www.mouser.fi/new/Intel/intel-quark-d2000-mcu/
Intel Quark™ D2000 Microcontroller is a low-power, battery-operated, 32-bit microcontroller with a more robust instruction set than other entry-level microcontrollers.
Within its small footprint, the Intel Quark microcontroller D2000 includes an ultra-low-power core running at 32MHz. It also includes 32k integrated flash, 8KB OTP memory, and 8KB SRAM.
It is interoperable with other Intel®-based systems—simplifying integration of edge products in end-to-end IoT architectures. More can be handled at the device level, reducing the need for more costly and potentially unnecessary gateways, depending on the application.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mistbox Makes Your AC Sweat Its Way to Better Efficiency
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=280858&cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20160712.tst004c
A new smart-home device takes inspiration from the human body’s ability to use perspiration and evaporation to cool down to help consumers get more efficiency out of their air conditioning (AC) units as well as save money on energy costs.
Called Mistbox, the device—attached to the outside part of a house’s AC system—works together with related tubing to create mist around an AC unit to keep the air around it cool.
This type of pre-cooling has been used commercially for decades, but residential AC users haven’t similar capability until now, according to the company, which was co-founded by CEO Josh Teekell and COO Andrew Parks.
Mistbox is solar powered, which means it doesn’t require batteries that need changing. The unit can harvest enough solar power if the AC unit to which it’s attached receives direct or indirect sunlight for at least some portion of the day, the company said.
Users control Mistbox via an accompanying smartphone app that allows them to set a temperature at which they would like the unit to start working.
To optimize how the device functions, Mistbox uses automatically functioning algorithms that choose the best time to mist the area around the AC unit.
Benefits of using the unit include a 20 percent to 30 percent savings on the monthly cost of cooling homes during the hot months of year, the company said.