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:
1,510 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon Dash Button Finds Your Phone
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/31/amazon-dash-button-finds-your-phone/
This scene replays quite often in our house: my wife has misplaced her cell phone so she asks me to call her. But where did I leave my cell phone? And the race is on! Who will find their phone first to call the other?
[Zapta] solves this problem with his Phone Finder. The system comes in two parts: a base station with WiFi that’s also connected to the house’s phone line, and an arbitrary number of Amazon Dash buttons that trigger dialing commands.
[Zapta] presses a Dash button, which connects over WiFi to the base station. The base station recognizes the MAC address of the button, looks up and dials the corresponding missing cell phone. This solves the need-a-phone-to-find-a-phone problem very neatly, and since Dash buttons are dirt cheap they can be scattered liberally around the house. They’re clearly marked “his” and “hers” suggesting a similar domestic dynamic.
https://github.com/zapta/arm/tree/master/phone-finder
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft’s beta language service gets C# dev kit
Yet another chatbot to train
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/31/microsofts_beta_language_service_gets_c_dev_kit/
Microsoft has pushed out a C# software development kit (SDK) for its in-beta language parsing API, LUIS.
LUIS – the Language Understanding Intelligent Service – is another chunk of the chatbot capability Redmond is so keen on.
It’s a model-making environment which Microsoft reckons helps developers teach existing apps to understand “book tickets to Paris”, “turn on the lights” and so on.
The idea is to relieve developers of as much effort as possible, with models built for Cortana and Bing doing the hard work.
“Turn on the lights” – the “intent” – needs only a simple response (“ok”), but as Microsoft explains, “I’d like to buy a black dress” needs a more nuanced response (“what size?”, for example).
Luis includes pre-built entities; the developer then trains the model, and finally publishes it to an HTTP endpoint as JSON.
Windows (.Net) SDK for the Microsoft Language Understanding Intelligent Service API, part of Congitive Services http://www.microsoft.com/cognitive-services/en-us/language-understanding-intelligent-service-luis
https://github.com/Microsoft/Cognitive-LUIS-Windows
Language Understanding Intelligent Service (LUIS)
LUIS lets your app understand language
https://www.luis.ai/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jarvis, Please Lock the Front Door
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/jarvis-please-lock-front-door
Years ago, we put out a request for articles on home automation. About the time Eureka came out on TV, people wanted to have their very own SARAH (Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat), and it seemed like the perfect time for nerds everywhere to make their houses smart. The problem was, although a few programs existed (MisterHouse for example), the hardware wasn’t really reliable or highly available. The X10 company was about the only game in town hardware-wise, and it tended to be glitchy without much advantage over traditional switches.
In recent years, a glut of products have been dumped onto the market, all toting options for automated lighting, wireless switches and so on. Unfortunately, most were very closed and proprietary, forcing users to stick to a specific brand. That probably was the goal, but it backfired, because the concept of branding my house with proprietary hardware and software was anathema. Thankfully, times are changing, and the product that made me jump into the home automation pool with both feet is a surprisingly proprietary one: Amazon Echo (but, more on that later).
Several brands of home automation devices use standard Wi-Fi (2.4GHz) to communicate. At first glance, that seems like a good idea. Unfortunately, the 2.4GHz frequency is so cluttered, adding more devices might be counterproductive.
Most home automation devices, regardless of brand, focus on the 900MHz spectrum. You might remember 900MHz from the days of cordless phones
For several reasons, 900MHz network devices have never really gone mainstream, which means the frequency isn’t oversaturated. It also penetrates walls better,
Unfortunately, everyone has been trying to become “the standard” in home automation, making the various brand names often incompatible with each other.
When I decided to start using home automation devices, I wanted something that was compatible with the most products. For me, that meant SmartThings from Samsung. It supports the very common Z-Wave protocol and the ZigBee protocol
Unfortunately again, even though SmartThings supports Z-Wave and ZigBee, that doesn’t mean it has native support for all devices that use Z-Wave or ZigBee.
Even though it doesn’t support all devices, it does have a very open development platform that allows users to write device drivers for any product the SmartThings hub can find.
For example, if SmartThings detects my front door opening (due to either detecting motion on the front porch via motion sensor, door opening via door sensor or lock unlocking via manual code entry on my Z-Wave deadbolt), it checks the current time of day and compares that to the sunrise/sunset. If it’s dark, it turns my entryway light on for five minutes, then turns it back off. That might seem like a fairly complicated event for a simple action, but that’s the beauty of programmatically dealing with mundane house activities. It requires no thought, and the house responds intelligently every time, without any interaction on my part.
If you’re not a programmer, that doesn’t mean you’re left out of the automation game. SmartThings (and in all fairness, several other platforms too) integrates with If This Then That for trigger-based actions that will interact with your home.
I mentioned earlier that the Amazon Echo is really what convinced me to start delving into the home automation world.
Interacting with SmartThings via Alexa can happen in two basic ways. First, there is direct integration with SmartThings. Unfortunately, the direct integration is limited to turning switches on and off. That sounds great, and it is, but there’s so much more I’d like Alexa to do. That’s where Alexa and IFTTT comes into play. In fact, I do just as much integration with Alexa and IFTTT as I do with SmartThings.
if you have a house full of people, or if the television is playing, Alexa often can’t hear what you’re saying clearly. In situations like that, it’s vitally important to have a plain-old switch on the wall to turn things on and off.
Thankfully, adding a smart switch in place of a traditional light switch often gives you the best of both worlds.
Getting Started
Rather than just telling you to go buy a specific product, it’s important to figure out what you want to accomplish with home automation. I eventually want every possible aspect of my house to be automatic, scriptable or voice-controlled. My wife would be just as happy with Alexa and a few smart light bulbs. When you stick to something basic, like an Amazon Alexa and some Phillips Hue lights, the integration is really simple.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Power-management Design Center > How To Article
Let’s clear the air: analog and power management of environmental sensor networks
http://www.edn.com/design/power-management/4442580/Let-s-clear-the-air–analog-and-power-management-of-environmental-sensor-networks?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160831&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160831&elqTrackId=898777a2d0c844ef8f96b3563df250c2&elq=da7b829cf3d846949884a3ef16792bce&elqaid=33640&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=29417
Air quality is deteriorating around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that in 2014 there were 3.7M deaths from ambient or outdoor air pollution and 4.3M deaths from indoor or household pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a good treatment of indoor air here.
In this article, I will be giving an overview of a typical environmental sensor network system design for analyzing outdoor air from the analog and power management design aspects that can be employed in a smart city or region. This type of system deployment can help raise awareness of the quality of air that one breathes during day-in and day-out activities. The goal will be a closed feedback system that includes sensors for the benefit of users as well as local authorities that can adjust and fine tune efforts to improve the air in a region with the goal of health improvement, lower medical costs, longevity and quality of life for the local population.
Air Quality Index
https://www3.epa.gov/airnow/aqi_brochure_02_14.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet Of Things Woodworking
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/31/internet-of-things-woodworking/
Woodworking is the fine art of building jigs. Even though we have Internet-connected toasters, thermostats, cars, and coffee makers, the Internet of Things hasn’t really appeared in the woodshop quite yet. That’s changing, though, and [Ben Brandt]’s Internet of Things box joint jig shows off exactly what cheap computers with a connection to the Internet can do. He’s fully automated the process of making box joints, all with the help of a stepper motor and a Raspberry Pi.
Programmable Box Joint Jig: First Run | Raspberry Pi 3 + Windows 10 IoT Core
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=399oHwYuAG8
Julkaistu 30.8.2016
As a budding woodworker I always wanted to try making box joints. My table saw however was not designed to handle a dado stack. If I could use a single blade accurately I could make wide finger joints, but that can get difficult and repetitive. If I could automate the process, then I could easily cut box joints of any size. After months of development, here is my first test run on the programmable box joint jig.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet of Things providing an edge for micro data centers
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/internet-of-things-providing-an-edge-for-micro-data-centers/15496431dc0755096057b6a18ccb3e79.html?OCVALIDATE&ocid=101781
New data capture and analytics techniques thrown up by the Internet of Things (IoT) are having a profound effect upon the way back office information technology (IT) shop engineering is developing and the data center is going through rapid changes.
The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has helped continue to drive the need for data center construction and development. The streams of data produced by the proliferating variety of devices has to reside somewhere and most typically it has to reside “in the cloud,” as the expression goes. That cloud is the cloud data center and the cloud data center houses the server racks that hold the IoT.
Advantages of “edge” computing
Cloud data centers do a great job if looking after IoT data, but one of their limitations is that they are not completely virtual i.e. they have to physically exist somewhere on planet Earth and this it turns out is their Achilles heel. Not just for reasons of compliance and governance, very often we want data to reside ‘on the edge’ i.e., close to its original source. This is precisely why we talk about so-called Edge Computing.
Wouldn’t it be great if the data center could be brought closer to the sensors, devices, and networks that are producing IoT data?
It’s a small world after all
Benefits of Web-scale techniques
Paul Phillips, regional senior director for Nutanix, thinks that the explosion of consumer devices requiring cloud based services presents an insurmountable challenge to the traditional three-tier architecture that the data center has relied upon for the past two decades. “Google, Facebook and the other new wave of cloud based companies recognized this early on and chose a different path with what is often referred to as web-scale technology,” Phillips said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet of things have the opportunity to EUR 10 000 billion
Internet of things is a huge opportunity for business and society. It can increase the gross domestic product of up to 10 000 billion globally.
“This reflects the change in the scale,” said Sonera’s starting soon Director of Technology and Aalto University Research Professor Jari Collin.
He wrote in one Industrial Internet Tivi supplier Ari Saarelainen the book, which was published on Friday. This is the first Finnish book on the subject.
Internet of things means a change that is generated when devices are installed sensors that collect data. The data will be analyzed and the results will be integrated into existing business. Equipment for changing smart.
“Within the framework of the book we will be lumping IOT-term products more consumer side, but we do not mean that its use should be prohibited in the business world,” says Saarelainen.
And Design on the Internet is the authors’ more a matter of a change in the business as the introduction of technology.
“If it comes to tinkering company’s own IT systems and to make a three or four-year projects, the train will pass.”
“Information is gathered from devices with sensors for a long time. The new thing is analytics, which enables the processing of data from many different sources. However, in addition to understanding the business is required in order to change information into business, “Ari Saarelainen says.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/teollinen-internet-on-10-000-miljardin-euron-mahdollisuus-6577344?utm_source=Tivi_Uutiskirje&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Tivi_Uutiskirje
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT-service development holy trinity: empathy, technology and intelligence
Internet service industrial development projects require a Project Manager for a special attention to the different areas of expertise, which is able to take most of it. All starts with an attractive concept for the working. At the very beginning of the project, it is important to meet and involve a number of potential end customers and channel them consulted needs. Therefore, the Internet industrial projects, each team should be involved in the service designer, whose task is to combine the lessons learned from the customer and internal company resources – and create a concept of service intact whole service through design.
The principal known service design tools, including service path (Customer Journey) and Service Description (Service Blueprint). Both are visual tools that are skillfully applying to ensure that the service process, the internal abilities of the service provider organization, the customer encounters as well as service specific touch points with the customer form a harmonious whole. Service Designer is already a role on behalf of a member of the project team’s emphatic – and the best team through the internal interpreter to allow for good customer service experience.
Good service designer’s deepest work values have a strong knowledge of empathy, which brings the internal project team needed a new perspective on the dynamics. G
The service may not be the sum of the trade-offs
Internet service industrial development projects are always complex, in principle, also technically. Architecture point of view is taken into account, what kind of physical product, sensors, network equipment, as well as the underlying IoT application architecture bouquet needed to produce formatted customer service, for example, remote condition monitoring of the engine system
service (Remote Condition Monitoring). The complex technical implementation will certainly hide, because the service must be perceived end-user simple and intuitive.
To maximize customer satisfaction is of paramount importance that the early stages of project development service design productions
The concept becomes an attractive concept feasible concept, the discovery of a technical way, which makes it possible to expect the customer value proposition and a great customer experience without compromising on service design.
Service design freedom to define the architecture does not mean, however, that the project should result in a violation of good architectural practice. Due to the complexity of the technical it is important to ensure that through the service architecture that developed the solution is implemented through and through information in a safe manner in accordance with best practices.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kumppanit/Sofigate/iot-palvelukehityksen-pyha-kolminaisuus-empatia-teknologia-ja-aly-6572433
Tomi Engdahl says:
The first Finnish operator to start the Internet of Things with Sigfox
In September, Finland opens specially designed for the Internet of Things Sigfox wireless network. Soon, half of the population are behind a comprehensive network operator business
Startup headquarters is a large room on the upper floor of the building Innopoli, The Ring’s arm in Espoo, Finland.
“There is a lot of talk about the fact that everything that can be connected to the Internet also connected. But it does not happen, if it costs a lot. We need technologies to the switching of billions of devices performing simple things done on the cheap, ”
This funding will allow the company has built a long-range radio network based on the French Sigfoxin technology, which already covers 40 per cent of the Finnish population. Commercial use Finnish Sigfox network is scheduled to open in the second half of September.
“We have ourselves witnessed in rural areas more than 200 kilometers of range. Radio modulation itself does not set limits, but the range is dependent on the height of the antenna and on how the built environment,”
Initially, the coverage area covers the largest concentrations in Southern Finland: Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Tampere, Turku, Lahti, Hämeenlinna, Porvoo, Kotka and Jyväskylä. The spring of next year the target is 85 per cent population coverage and the proliferation of many new city, such as Oulu and Kuopio.
Prices are still on the drawing board
Ten-year battery life
Sigfox equipped with a radio sensor device stacks up easily with just a battery for ten years.
The network operates license-free 868 MHz frequency range.
Sigfox suitable for transmitting small amounts of data. A single message to a maximum size of 12 bytes, and can be sent at intervals of no more than once in ten minutes.
suitable for different sensors, which you want to receive regular information, for example, temperature, humidity, or the meter reading
The world’s largest Sigfox client is Veri Sure Securitas Direct. It has over a million intrusion protection, where the network connection is Sigfoxin 3g and the combination of. The alarm is triggered through the Sigfox network, even if the intruder would use the mobile network jamming device.
Connected Finland now expect that the Finnish developers and companies to take up a new network opportunities.
“There is a ready-made modules, which make it easy to establish themselves Sigfox world”
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/suomen-ensimmainen-esineiden-internetin-operaattori-aloittaa-6578589
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT-dedicated networks beginning to rollout
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3007146/internet-of-things/iot-dedicated-networks-beginning-to-rollout.html#tk.drr_mlt
How the Wi-Fi industry is adapting to keep up with the IoT
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3016919/wi-fi/how-the-wi-fi-industry-is-adapting-to-keep-up-with-the-iot.html#tk.drr_mlt
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jordan Novet / VentureBeat:
Google’s OnHub router can now control Philips Hue lights, and its price drops $20 to $180
Google’s OnHub router can now control Philips Hue lights
http://venturebeat.com/2016/08/31/googles-onhub-router-can-now-control-philips-hue-lights/
Google today said that its OnHub internet router can now connect to and allow users to control Philips Hue lights.
They’re a common example of an Internet of Things (IoT) device, and now that OnHub can control it, the router is looking smarter.
“Now anyone connected to your OnHub can type ‘On.Here’ in a computer, tablet, or mobile browser and control the most popular features of your Philips Hue lights from there,” Google product manager Ben Brown wrote in a blog post.
Google first introduced the TP-LINK-made OnHub a year ago. An OnHub from Asus appeared in October. OnHub has since gotten support for the IFTTT app-connecting service. And Google has also enhanced it with the introduction of user-customizable shells for the router.
OnHub turns one today
https://googleblog.blogspot.fi/2016/08/onhub-turns-one-today.html
A year ago, we introduced OnHub — a router that’s easy to use, and built to be placed front and center in homes (where Wi-Fi works best). Since then, we’ve been busy delivering on our promise that OnHub keeps getting better. Today, we’re celebrating OnHub’s first birthday and announcing a new partnership with Philips Lighting, the first connected home device you can control directly with OnHub.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Everything is an application, said the famous Apple slogan a few years ago. Perhaps the applications is not required. Google’s wireless router through OnHub can now be controlled by a Philips Hue lamps directly from the browser, whether it is a laptop or mobile device.
It is possible, because the Internet of Things will all get their own internet address. Maybe Google Wireless LAN router looks like a model of where we are going.
At that time, the mobile phone applications were only envisages, many thought that the future belongs to the browser, HTML5 and other web technologies. This pattern has not been realized. Its realization is also not likely, at least in a tight schedule, as mobile applications has grown a huge business. For example, Apple makes the applications more money than Mac computers.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4966:eroon-sovelluksista-google-nayttaa-tieta-tulevaan&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Philips and Qualcomm to health IoT cooperation
Philips and Qualcomm health IoT cooperation
News
- 02/09/2016
Philips and mobile technologies developer Qualcomm leave the strategic cooperation in order to promote personalized health care services for remote control and monitoring. At the same time they are preparing for a new kind of industrial medicine to the Internet (the Internet of Things Medical).
For example, Qualcomm Life Pr 2 NEt Platform will work connectivity service for medical equipment Philips HealthSuite and other cloud services leverage the devices, applications, and digital health tools.
Philips will utilize Qualcomm’s Pr 2 NEt Platform, as well as his own the reunification of third party devices. At the same time it allows the user to create customized treatment programs to connect multiple devices and create a comprehensive patient profiles.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/09/02/philips-qualcomm-terveysalan-iot-yhteistyohon/
More: http://www.qualcommlife.com/connect/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Automation platform is highly configurable
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4442628/Automation-platform-is-highly-configurable?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160901&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160901&elqTrackId=c282f4c8f92f42e9aad039000d3b07d9&elq=058b5de1d20048d8a8ddca6955e70af7&elqaid=33661&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=29431
The Tibbo Project System (TPS) is an economical automation platform based on Tibbits—miniature blocks that implement specific I/O functions. This highly configurable system can be used for home, building, warehouse, and production-floor automation projects, as well as data collection, distributed control, industrial computing, and device connectivity applications.
Designs start with a Tibbo Project PCB
Tibbits are blocks of prepackaged I/O functions housed in brightly colored rectangular cases, as well as a variety of connector modules.
Motherboards come in two versions based on either Tibbo OS or Linux. TiOS devices are programmable in Tibbo Basic and Tibbo C. Application development is accomplished via the free Tibbo IDE software, which includes a networking cross-debugger.
If an enclosure is required, a Tibbo Project Box houses the assembly.
An online configurator simplifies the process of developing a custom Tibbo Project System.
Tibbo Project System (TPS)
http://tibbo.com/tps.html
Tibbo Project System (TPS) is a highly configurable and affordable automation platform. Its flexibility is based on Tibbits® – miniature blocks that implement specific I/O features.
Need a certain I/O function? Install the right Tibbit. Have no use for something? There is no need to have it in your device.
Tomi Engdahl says:
VoLTE, NB-IoT and IoT Gateway Capabilities at CTIA
https://www.eeweb.com/news/volte-nb-iot-and-iot-gateway-capabilities-at-ctia
u-blox will demonstrate VoLTE (Voice over LTE infrastructure) capability using its LTE Cat 1 module (TOBY-R202), as well as Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) technology and IoT sensor-to-gateway-to-cloud capabilities at the forthcoming CTIA conference and exhibition.
Aimed at smart home, automotive and connected health applications, the provision of voice over LTE through the LTE network can be achieved simultaneously with traditional data service. Supporting voice over LTE can eliminate the need for a separate 3G connection, reducing system cost and complexity. Using this approach, applications such as security systems, medical alert devices, and emergency/roadside assistance, all benefit from the additional functionality delivered by voice support, while operating in traditional data service mode. The u-blox TOBY-R202 has been designed for the needs of the North American market and can operate in LTE bands 2, 4, 5 and 12 with a fall back function to 3G bands 2 and 5.
“Using this approach, for example, in security systems, home automation panels and medical alert devices, voice control ensures monitoring from a 24/7 call center with the capacity to take action in the event of an alarm or with the possibility of direct notification to the local police department and 911 centers,” says Stefano Moioli, Director of Product Management Cellular at u-blox.
The NB-IoT demo consists of a “system solution” bringing together (pre-standard) SARA-N2, the world’s first NB-IoT module with u-blox short range sensors (Bluetooth low energy/Wi-Fi) and gateway technology, supported by an ARM mbed application environment and cloud based analytics
The IoT Gateway Dice Demo consists of a number of dice with embedded NINA-B1 stand-alone Bluetooth low energy modules. They are connected to a local netowrk via the IoT gateway module ODIN-W2 and then onwards to the cloud. A web app pulls the reported sensor data into a page with a rendered image of a set of dice on the screen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WI-FI Power Strip/Energy Monitor Reference Design
http://www.ti.com/tool/TIDC-WIFI-METER-READING
The TIDC-WIFI-METER-READING TI Design adds Wi-Fi® communications to the TIDM-3OUTSMTSTRP smart power strip design. Wi-Fi connectivity is provided by the SimpleLink™ Wi-Fi CC32000 wireless MCU. A remote user can monitor the electricity consumption of the loads plugged into each of the three outlets and control a relay to switch power on/off. Smart power strips require connectivity to maximize their role in improving energy efficiency for applications such as data centers. The TIDM-BLE-MTR-READING TI Design offers another connectivity option.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LIV PI
http://www.livpi.com/
A Raspberry Pi project
An open source project
Real Time Clock
Instant Message alerts and reports (Jabber/XMPP)
Email alerts and reports
Twitter alerts and reports
Intranet website
NEW! IFTTT Maker Channel ready
Expandable set of APIs
Supported IoT platforms: ThingSpeak, Xively, DeviceHive, Emoncms, data.sparkfun, analog.io.
Flexible Python development framework for adding new sensors and extending functionality
Raspberry Pi : push data to data.sparkfun.com
https://hackaday.io/project/7459-raspberry-pi-push-data-to-datasparkfuncom
data.sparkfun.com is an open source IoT platform. This is about pushing data from Raspberry Pi to data.sparkfun.com using Python.
Raspberry Pi : Push data from RPi to Xively
https://hackaday.io/project/7457-raspberry-pi-push-data-from-rpi-to-xively
Xively is an IoT platform. This is about pushing data from Raspberry Pi to Xively using Python.
Raspberry Pi: Python. Make your Raspberry Pi tweet
https://hackaday.io/project/10897-raspberry-pi-python-make-your-raspberry-pi-tweet
LiV Pi is an open source indoor air quality monitor. LiV Pi just learned to
Rasberry Pi : Push data from RPi to DeviceHive
https://hackaday.io/project/4851-rasberry-pi-push-data-from-rpi-to-devicehive
DeviceHive is an open source IoT platform. This is about pushing data from Raspberry Pi to devicehive using Python.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Beautiful, efficient, data-sucking Smart Cities: Why do you give us the creeps?
They need truckloads of networking kit. But… but…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/02/smart_cities_huawei/
Huawei Connect “Smart Cities” have been heavily promoted by tech giants like IBM, and the idea excites the pulse of fad-chasing technocrats and wonks.
Huawei has also heavily promoted the vision, and the commercial logic to do so is sound. It is clearly hoping to shift its high end network management gear into a market where the customers are poorer, but less fickle, than in the private sector. Huawei has a wide breadth technology – from SDNs to a lightweight, low latency open source OS for sensors.
Jo So, CTO of industry solutions at Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group, provided an update at the company’s Connect event in Shanghai this week. He said there were over 100 implementations under the Smart Cities programme. But what I was learned was that despite – or perhaps, because of – Smart Cities’ utopian intentions, the vision only really seems to being put into practice by authoritarian city-state strongmen.
There are 3,000 APIs in Huawei’s “smart cities” API, said Mr So, but no prescriptive platform. “It’s a concept, not solutions,” he said.
In the utopian bit comes from co-mingling data silos like er, … your personal medical information, and location data. Starting to feel creepy yet? You will.
Smart Cities involve the “Re-engineering of society’s operation by offering more services, lower cost, more inclusive public services, more convenient living, more efficient governance,” said Mr So.
But many of the examples were really just customer wins from the networking division. Better managed networks across a campus or city, where in some cases sensor data was being collected.
We noted that in Shanghai almost every bridge now records every passing cars number plate. The camera flashes as you go under it. The imperative of Smart Cities is pervasive data collection.
Perhaps Smart Cities aren’t happening because of the slow motion car crash of IoT, with its lousy security. Or perhaps people don’t care.
Alternatively, it could be just that it’s… Creepy. The perfectly functioning “Smart City” diminishes human autonomy: the perfect “Smart City Citizen” is a dutiful robot.
FACT SHEET: Administration Announces New “Smart Cities” Initiative to Help Communities Tackle Local Challenges and Improve City Services
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/14/fact-sheet-administration-announces-new-smart-cities-initiative-help
Tomi Engdahl says:
Plant Security: The Moving Threat, the Effective Response
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=281451&cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20160902.tst004c
As manufacturers take advantage of the efficiencies of connectivity, the expanded network opens up significant threats of cyber attack. Hacking criminals are getting more sophisticated as plants are becoming more vulnerable, a bad combination. Yet cybersecurity is advancing in its ability to ward off intrusions.
Much has changed since the days when a plant network was wired. The danger of hacking existed, but the entry points were defined and protection was less complicated. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has created significantly greater exposure. “The IIoT is a significant challenge. First you do have a much larger attack surface. There is a proliferation of connected devices. Every new device brought onto the network is a target for hackers,” said Grau. “Plus, many of these devices are deployed outside of the current IT security perimeter. This creates significant new security challenges.”
Embedded systems have made cybersecurity more complicated. For one, the usual IT security solutions are not as effective with embedded devices. Plus, the potential damage from an attack is greater. “Many of the IIoT devices are embedded systems that require new security solutions. Traditional IT and PC security approaches won’t work on these specialized devices,” said Grau. “If an IT system is hacked the consequence is data loss. If an IIoT system is hacked the power grid can go down, flights can be grounded, productions lines can be shut down, and real physical damage can be done. People can die.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Don’t Go Gangbusters’ on Your IoT Applications
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=281412&
Sensor deployment in automated factories should be done slowly and conservatively, otherwise engineers may face the loss of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, an Internet of Things (IoT) expert will tell attendees at the upcoming Design & Manufacturing Show in Minneapolis.
Bhide’s session, “Developments in Sensors for Automation & Inventory Control,” will focus on the idea of limiting automation mistakes by using sensors as an extra pair of eyes. It will examine the resulting advances in precision, as well as proper maintenance and best practices in real-time monitoring. It will also look at advancements in IoT devices designed for optimizing warehouse space and eliminating inventory.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bathroom Status Reporting Hack Eliminates Lines, Frustration
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/04/bathroom-status-reporting-hack-eliminates-lines-frustration/
[Chris] and [Daniel] came up with a solution for this issue, which also eliminates wait time for bathrooms in their office.
Their system is an automated bathroom status indicator that reports information about the bathroom’s use over WiFi.
Several Raspberry Pis form the nerves of the project. Custom sensors were attached to a variety of different door locks to detect status. Each Pi reports back over WiFi.
They also point out that they had to write very little code for this project since there are so many Unix and embedded hardware tools available to them.
Restroom Hacks
http://engineering.datadoghq.com/restroom-hacks/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hand Waving Unlocks Door
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/05/hand-waving-unlocks-door/
Who doesn’t like the user interface in the movie Minority Report where [Tom Cruise] manipulates a giant computer screen by just waving his hands in front of it? [AdhamN] wanted to unlock his door with hand gestures. While it isn’t as seamless as [Tom’s] Hollywood interface, it manages to do the job. You just have to hold on to your smartphone while you gesture.
The project uses an Arduino and a servo motor to move a bolt back and forth. The gesture part requires a 1sheeld board. This is a board that interfaces to a phone and allows you to use its capabilities (in this case, the accelerometer) from your Arduino program.
The 1sheeld reads the accelerometer data and when it sees the right gesture, it operates the servo.
Unlock your door with a hand gesture
http://www.instructables.com/id/Unlock-Your-Door-With-a-Hand-Gesture/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Maxim Integrated Products introduced the MAXREFDES143# IoT embedded security reference design for industrial IoT applications. It protects against counterfeit sensor data from transducer to the cloud, the company said, and features the DS2465 co-processor, which supports Arduino and ARM mbed platforms. The reference design is available for $75 from the Maxim website and selected franchise distributors.
Source: http://semiengineering.com/the-week-in-review-iot-16/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analysis
Cisco Systems and General Electric will be the main contenders in the industrial Internet of Things market, this analysis contends. Meanwhile, The New York Times analyzes GE’s big bet on the IoT and related software development to stay ahead of competing technology giants.
Qualcomm holds the most Internet of Things patents, leading Intel, ZTE, Nokia, and LG Electronics, this analysis notes. As growth slows in smartphone sales, the chip design company is looking forward to the next great growth opportunity in IoT, the analysis concludes.
Source: http://semiengineering.com/the-week-in-review-iot-16/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fitness Tracker Teardown is a Lesson In Design for Manufacture
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/05/fitness-tracker-teardown-is-a-lesson-in-design-for-manufacture/
Hardware Teardown: the Withings GO activity tracker
https://novemberfive.co/blog/hardware-teardown-withings-go/
Here at November Five, we like to know exactly how stuff works. That’s why we’re introducing a new recurring topic: the hardware teardown! Our first “victim”: the Withings GO.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Next year, the IoT penetrates the LTE networks. This is evidenced by recent publications modem modules. The first module for LTE network IoT connections: Swiss u-blox has already previously announced that it would launch LTE market: IoT version of the EU, namely to support the NB-IoT-modem connections. Most likely, the market gets even faster than the company’s LTE modem, which supports 3GPP specifications terminal class Cat M1. Its model designation is SARA-R4.
3GPP terminal classes are defined for IoT categories M1 and NB1. M1-modem maximum data rate of the terminal compared to one megabit per second, or four times the NB-IoT devices speed. Lane width is 1.08 MHz, and the transmission power is defined as 20/23 dBm.
The old, familiar, and safe for GSM remains by far the most widely used network technology links between machines in the world. Ovumin, the current situation will continue for another five years. Then, the number one place to LTE.
Research predicts that M2M connections in 2021 are already around 733 million. This means that 8.1 percent of all mobile subscriptions in M2M connections.
In 2021, M2M traffic has grown to a $ 67 billion business. The figure does not include data traffic, for example, NB-IoT connections, ie objects connected to the Internet devices.
Sources:
http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4984:ensimmainen-moduuli-lte-verkon-iot-yhteyksiin&catid=13&Itemid=101
http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4987:gsm-viela-pitkaan-koneyhteyksien-ykkostekniikka&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > Embedded Basics blog
Prototype to production: An industrial HVAC monitor using shields
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/embedded-basics/4442634/-Prototype-to-Production–an-industrial-HVAC-monitor-using-shields?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160906&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160906&elqTrackId=ada8a255f14e4b00bc9e5c204ed2c8d3&elq=e2e89628158e403eb4edaea993dc260b&elqaid=33706&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=29472
he quickest and easiest way to prove out a design idea is to utilize Arduino shields. Before we select the shields that we need to cobble together, though, it makes sense to scribble out a few basic design requirements out. These basic requirements should be a subset of the general requirements recommended in Prototype to Production – High level project requirements.
First, there are a few different potential maintenance and failures modes for a furnace that we should consider monitoring.
Second, the device should transmit the status for these measurements via the Ethernet to a server that can then perform cloud-based analytics and notifications. Third, a short range communication interface such as Bluetooth or USB should be used to setup and calibrate the device. Finally, the device will need to interact with the thermostat control lines to determine what state the furnace is being placed into, so that the device can properly determine whether the blower is in low or high mode or if it is in heat or cool mode.
Given these general requirements for the monitor, we can now develop a high level hardware block diagram that identifies the major components requiring considered when building a rapid prototype
Now for the fun part: selecting hardware shields to play with! Because a goal of this rapid prototyping project is to use Arduino and Micro Python, the Netduino Plus 2 makes the most sense for the microcontroller board. The specs for the Netduino include 5 volt tolerant pins and power and the board comes with USB and Ethernet, which saves a few additional shields.
When creating a rapid prototype, the idea is to find as much ready-made hardware as possible so that we can prove out that the concept (for monitoring a furnace, in this case) is actually viable.
Keep in mind that the block diagram has been left generic with regard to the actual communication interfaces required. It lists just about every common IoT radio that one might be interested in using, but for the proof-of-concept it’s not necessary to purchase hardware for each one. The best approach at this stage is to implement the only the major core features as cheaply and quickly as possible. If the idea fails, then we’ve successfully failed quickly with minimal investment and can move on to more hopeful and fruitful ideas.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BI Intelligence / Business Insider:
Verizon to begin rolling out LTE CAT-M network by end of 2016 to offer low-power connectivity for IoT devices; 700M IoT devices are estimated to use it by 2021
Verizon plans to roll out a low-power IoT network by the end of the year
http://www.businessinsider.com/verizon-plans-to-roll-out-a-low-power-iot-network-by-the-end-of-the-year-2016-9?op=1%3fr=US&IR=T&IR=T
Verizon will be introducing LTE CAT-M, a network application for IoT solutions, across its network by the end of 2016, according to SDX Central.
The network is primarily designed for connected healthcare devices and other low-power wearables, though it can also provide service to dashboards that require a browser, voice, or even video connectivity.
LTE CAT-M, which competes directly with ZigBee, Z-wave, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, has three primary benefits:
Less expensive modules compared with the standard 4G LTE modules.
Stronger coverage underground and within buildings, a major issue with hospital devices.
Longer battery life for the IoT devices that it connects.
The network application is likely to benefit companies such as Nokia, Gemalto, or Sierra Wireless, which are developing compatible chipsets but are waiting for network operators to signal that the infrastructure is built out first. LTE CAT-M has already been tested in San Francisco by AT&T, which plans to roll out the network application for commercial uses next year.
Although Wi-Fi and cellular networks can connect IoT devices to the internet, they have inherent characteristics that make them ill-suited to do so for small, low-power components like sensors, smart locks, and smart lights.
BI Intelligence expects that more than 24 billion IoT devices will be installed globally in 2020, and the vast majority of these will fall into the small, low-power category.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:
Low Power Wide Area Networks are specifically designed for connecting low-power devices like sensors over a very long range. This makes them well suited to a wide range of IoT use cases like smart agriculture and smart cities.
Low Power Wide Area Networks can connect these low-power devices at a cheaper cost than existing cellular networks. LPWANs have cheaper hardware costs and data subscription costs because they don’t need to provide the high data rates that cellular networks do.
BI Intelligence estimates that the total number of IoT devices connected over LPWANs will reach 700 million by 2021. This represents remarkable growth for such a new technology that has little present adoption.
A number of startups and new networking providers are launching LPWANs using standards that leverage unlicensed spectrum. These providers are trying to secure networking revenues from the billions of low-power IoT devices that will go online over the next few years.
Cellular network carriers are responding to this trend by developing their own standards for LPWANs that leverage their existing infrastructure that supports their 4G networks. This means they will be competing directly with some of the new providers mentioned above.
Different LPWAN standards are best suited for specific use cases, and business and government organizations will need to understand the benefits of the various standards to find the solution that fits their needs.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/verizon-plans-to-roll-out-a-low-power-iot-network-by-the-end-of-the-year-2016-9?op=1%3fr=US&IR=T&IR=T
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rita’s Dolls Probably Live Better Than You Do
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/06/ritas-dolls-probably-live-better-than-you-do/
If it wasn’t for the weird Dutch-Norwegian techno you’d presumably have to listen to forever, [Gianni B.]’s doll house for his daughter, [Rita] makes living in a Barbie World seem like a worthwhile endeavor. True to modern form, it’s got LED lighting. It’s got IoT. It’s got an app and an elevator. It even has a tiny, working, miniature television.
The brain of the home automation is a PIC micro with a Bluetooth module. He wrote some code for it, available
He also went an extra step and used MIT’s scratch to make an app interface for the dollhouse.
http://www.settorezero.com/wordpress/ritas-dolls-house-una-casa-delle-bambole-controllata-via-bluetooth-dal-tablet-o-dal-cellulare/
https://github.com/Cyb3rn0id/rita-s_dolls_house
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY5K_JaSVwc
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT in Healthcare: Facing the Biggest Hurdles
http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4440181/IoT-in-Healthcare—Facing-the-Biggest-Hurdless=NL_TOL_Edit_Subs_20160907_TechnicalPaper
As the medical industry evolves with more sophisticated and advanced techniques to cater to the human life span and ailments associated with it, concepts like IoT are having a profound impact on its comprehensive evolution. However, with the deepening impact of IoT coming forth, daunting challenges arise in implementing and integrating it with the core medical ecosystem. Medicine and healthcare is a big scattered puzzle and IoT finds effective usage in each block of the larger puzzle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How IoT is Making Security Imperative for All Embedded Software
http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4442325/How-IoT-is-Making-Security-Imperative-for-All-Embedded-Software=NL_TOL_Edit_Subs_20160907_TechnicalPaper
Many IoT products lack proper security due to outdated software development practices. Hackers and criminals are acutely aware that many of the security procedures and applications in use today were designed to defend against attacks in the PC era—not current IoT threat vectors. Security isn’t a product “add-on” or feature; it must be built in.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Narrowband Internet of Things
http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4442606/Narrowband-Internet-of-Things=NL_TOL_Edit_Subs_20160907_TechnicalPaper
3GPP has specified a new radio interface, the Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), optimized for machine type traffic. It is kept simple in order to reduce device costs and to minimize battery consumption. It is also adapted to work in difficult radio conditions, which is a frequent operational area for certain machine type communication devices. Although NB-IoT is an independent radio interface, it is tightly connected with LTE, which also shows up in its integration in the current LTE specifications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Component distributor financing IoT developers
Component Distributor Arrow Electronics and a number of finance-led by Indiegogo will open the Finns start-ups of new funding opportunities. The company developed a concept that allows for more than $ 20-50 million in funding for various projects.
operating in Finland Arrow Electronics and a number of financial co-operation from the beginning led by Indiegogo offer a new concept that opens for Finnish technology companies an opportunity to apply for certification Arrow’n innovation and compete with more than one million dollar financing with other companies over the past year.
“We hope to see a number of Finnish innovation among the applicants. We encourage technology-based companies and start-ups to seek certification and to compete for additional funding, “says Jouni Telio Arrow Finland.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/09/07/komponenttijakelijalta-rahoitusta-iot-kehittajille/
More: http://iotfinland.fi/
Tomi Engdahl says:
French Sequans says to introduce next week in Las Vegas at CTIA trade show operating the world’s first LTE network IoT modem live commercial base station connected. Sequans thus appears to be winning the internet an active race to the mobile phone network objects.
Currently, IoT networks are built on different network technologies. Popular Semtechin have been developed originally Lora, as well as the French Sigfoxin technolog
However, in the final functional 4G network IoT communication is in many ways a strong position. The network base station is ready, as long as the operator to upgrade its support new NB-IoT connections. IoT data passes virtually any other LTE traffic among a small band, so it’s not other client interfaces interfere with the operator.
Sequansin Monarch is a circuit platform that supports and class M1 and class NB1 terminal classes that allow data transfer device to the cloud IoT one megabit or 250 kilobits per second. Sequans chipset is a baseband circuit and an RF radio in addition to integrated power management and RAM. This 6.5 x 8.5 -millinen module is practically ready to use solution for IoT deployments of 4G network.
Sequans promises to the module operating on battery power for more than 10 years.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4989:nyt-alkaa-iot-rynnistys-4g-verkossa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Optimize Your Software Stack For IIoT Devices
http://semiengineering.com/optimize-your-software-stack-for-industrial-internet-of-things-devices/
How to get the best performance, reliability and device longevity with software in the data storage stack.
Mentor Graphics, Raima, and Datalight have collaborated to define and measure data management for IIoT edge devices. This paper examines the benefits that come from optimizing the software components of the data storage stack in terms of performance, reliability and device lifetime.
According to Accenture, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will help companies boost revenues by increasing production, driving innovation and transforming their workforce. Conservative estimates place spending on the IIoT worldwide at $500 billion by 2020. GE calculated the economic impact of just a 1 percent cost savings across industrial segments at $276 billion. What are the ingredients that will enable your company to secure a piece of this enormous pie? And how can you ensure you get your innovative products to market ahead of your competition?
https://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/resources/overview/optimize-your-software-stack-for-industrial-internet-of-things-devices-2cbed0e2-c165-4310-aa30-f2c5e65af9eb?cmpid=10171
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s Important For IoT—Power, Performance Or Integration?
http://semiengineering.com/whats-important-for-iot-power-performance-or-integration-2/
Experts at the table, part 2: Why it’s so hard to make the IoT secure, and different approaches for reducing power.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WiSci: Wireless Spectrometer
https://hackaday.io/project/13422-wisci-wireless-spectrometer
Portable Wireless Spectrometer that lets you explore the world around you.
We have build a portable, wireless spectrometer that talks to it’s companion android application via bluetooth and have used it for non-destructive testing of fruit ripeness
Now we want everyone to build this device and start exploring the world around them. We are open sourcing all the build instructions, codes and design files required to build the device.
Spectrometer is an instrument used for studying interaction between matter and electromagnetic radiation. Spectrometers operate over both optical and non-optical wavelengths like gamma rays and X-rays. In general any particular spectrometer will operate over a small portion of electromagnetic spectrum only because of the different techniques used to measure different portions of the spectrum. Mostly these instruments measure wavelengths and their respective intensities, which upon detailed study reveals various information of the material under study.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LTE IoT: Sequans Claims ‘Big Lead’ over Rivals
Qualcomm, Intel and Altair (Sony) Trail in M1, NB1
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330407
With the promise of growth in the cellular IoT market, Sequans (Paris, France) is coming to Las Vegas this week to unveil what the company calls “the world’s first purpose-built Cat M1/NB1 chip” at CTIA’s Super Mobility Week.
Specifically designed for narrowband IoT applications by Release 13 of the 3GPP LTE standard, Cat M1 and Cat NB1 are expected to bring better coverage and a longer battery life to wearable devices, industrial monitors and low-data, sensor-driven IoT networks.
Category M1, also known as LTE-M and Cat M, delivers about 1 Megabit per second (Mbps) maximum in a 1.4 MHz channel. Category NB1, also previously known as NB-IoT, delivers about 40 kilobit per second (kbps) in a 200 kHz channel.
Sam Lucero, senior principal analyst for IoT at IHS Markit Technology, observed that the barriers for cellular network operators [to enter the narrowband IoT] “are falling away rapidly, now that the Release 13 specification was frozen this past June 2016.”
While competitors such as Qualcomm, Intel and Altair (now owned by Sony) are still working on their Cat M1 and NB1 chips, Sequans CEO Georges Karam boasted that Sequans is the first in the industry to sample a Cat M1/NB1 chip, called “Monarch.”
Monarch chips are sampling now, and ready for mass production in the fourth quarter this year. Sequans is rolling out three versions — M1, NB1 and a dual-mode (enabled by software).
Aapo Markkanen, a principal analyst at Machina Research, described M1 and NB1 as bringing “substantial improvements” to both cellular carriers and designers of IoT devices. “In particular, it will be possible to develop devices that will cost less and will last multiple years on a single battery,” he noted. “Also the network coverage will improve, especially for deep indoors.”
Low power
In principle, by adopting Cat-M1, wearable devices such as smartwatches that previously required almost a daily charging routine could now last a month or two without charging, according to the Sequans CEO. Further, by embracing Cat-NB1 standard, sensor devices like smart meters “could live for 10 years on a single AA battery.”
Compared to today’s cellular IoT devices based on LTE Cat 1(designed for IoT devices that need up to 10Mbps data rate, running in a 20MHz channel), new devices using the new LTE CAT M1 standard can run at 1/10 the speed, using 1/10 processing power.
But with M1 and NB1 standards, even bigger power savings come from “the deep sleep mode,” designed into the newly developed narrowband IoT specs, explained Karam.
Both M1 and NB1 protocols are designed to allow IoT devices to stay in deep sleep most of the time. They wake them only sparingly, like once a day or once in several days, rather than forcing them to frequently wake up to check network status.
As far as data rate is concerned, such applications as an IoT temperature sensor will require only the smallest amount of throughput – 10s of kbps — as available with Cat NB1. But a health or fitness wearable device, transmitting more data, will demand the higher throughput of Cat M1. At the 1Mbps throughput maximum enabled by M1, “you might even be able to add video on a small screen, or voice recognition features,” said Karam.
Market size
According to ABI Research, cellular IoT connections will exceed 1 billion in the 2020/2021 timeframe with a large chunk of these connections from LTE Cat 1, Cat M1 and Cat M2 (NB-IoT).
Dan Shey, managing director and vice president at ABI Research, told us, “We believe that the standardization of LTE Cat M1 and Cat M2 and its adoption into various IoT use cases has added about 7% to the cellular IoT growth rate.”
IHS Markit has pegged the number of cellular IoT connections at year-end 2015 at 227.5 million. It expects an increase to 283.9 million this year.
Windows for LoRa, Sigfox Narrowing?
In the Sequans CEO’s opinion, the story of cellular IoT when compared to LoRa, Sigfox (non-cellular IoT networks using an unlicensed spectrum) is simple. “LoRa, for example, can be used for private, local applications, such as a campus-wide IoT service,” he explained. “But when it comes to more sophisticated, nation-wide, carrier-grade IoT services, you do need CAT-M1/NB-1 networks. The window of market opportunities for LoRa and Sigfox is narrowing.”
Asked about advantages of M1 and NB1, IHS’ Lucero said, “3GPP global ecosystem supply and support, rapidly expanding global coverage footprint, connectivity using secure, licensed spectrum.”
Lucero summarized the prospects for proprietary low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) vendors: “LoRa is immediately available for private network implementation (though Huawei has a solution coming to market for this using NB1 in unlicensed spectrum), for some specific applications. Sigfox may provide the absolute lowest power consumption/longest battery life.”
ABI’s Krishnan cautioned, “Licensed spectrum usage will mean the service will come at a higher cost in comparison to technologies such as LoRa and Sigfox using unlicensed spectrum.”
ABI’s Shey believes the biggest challenge for cellular network operators is what to charge for a LTE Cat M1 or NB1 connections. “The Ingenu’s, SigFox’s and other proprietary LPWA vendors overall have a very low network cost structure — basically only focused on thing connections — so can charge very low rates for a connection,” he argued.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT will shape our future
http://smart-industry.net/10_startups-next-big-thing/
Billions of things connected – from industrial machines to home appliances – open doors for new technological solutions, business models, and investments. Read about ten promising IoT/IoE-startups from five European countries!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Betting Big
http://smart-industry.net/amazon-aws-iot/
Amazon, already a heavyweight in Cloud service providing, is joining the IoT game with Amazon Web Services IoT platform (AWS IoT). What is their strategy and how will they stack up against major competitors?
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Pipes are Calling
http://smart-industry.net/pipe-dreams/
Not even one percent of the water on earth is available as fresh drinking water. Still, as the infrastructure of most water-distribution systems is aging, a lot of precious liquid is lost on the way to the customer. But modern sensor-technology can help put our water infrastructures into a better shape.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Strategic Management Society of Finland shared the strategy of man-made confession waste collection IoT latest sensor technology based Enevo. The other two finalists Girls in Tech, as well as coil was awarded an honorable mention.
Enevo digitalize the waste collection business with placing garbage in the collection logistics to facilitate the IoT sensors. The company was founded in 2010, net sales verging on the threshold of EUR 200 million.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/09/07/iot-ratkaisu-palkittiin-vuoden-strategiatekona/
Tomi Engdahl says:
LTE IoT: Sequans Claims ‘Big Lead’ over Rivals
Qualcomm, Intel and Altair (Sony) Trail in M1, NB1
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330407&
With the promise of growth in the cellular IoT market, Sequans (Paris, France) is coming to Las Vegas this week to unveil what the company calls “the world’s first purpose-built Cat M1/NB1 chip” at CTIA’s Super Mobility Week.
Specifically designed for narrowband IoT applications by Release 13 of the 3GPP LTE standard, Cat M1 and Cat NB1 are expected to bring better coverage and a longer battery life to wearable devices, industrial monitors and low-data, sensor-driven IoT networks.
Category M1, also known as LTE-M and Cat M, delivers about 1 Megabit per second (Mbps) maximum in a 1.4 MHz channel. Category NB1, also previously known as NB-IoT, delivers about 40 kilobit per second (kbps) in a 200 kHz channel.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BI Intelligence / Business Insider:
Verizon to begin rolling out LTE CAT-M network by end of 2016 to offer low-power connectivity for IoT devices; 700M IoT devices are estimated to use it by 2021
Verizon plans to roll out a low-power IoT network by the end of the year
http://www.businessinsider.com/verizon-plans-to-roll-out-a-low-power-iot-network-by-the-end-of-the-year-2016-9?op=1%3fr=US&IR=T&IR=T
Verizon will be introducing LTE CAT-M, a network application for IoT solutions, across its network by the end of 2016, according to SDX Central.
The network is primarily designed for connected healthcare devices and other low-power wearables, though it can also provide service to dashboards that require a browser, voice, or even video connectivity.
LTE CAT-M, which competes directly with ZigBee, Z-wave, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, has three primary benefits:
Less expensive modules compared with the standard 4G LTE modules.
Stronger coverage underground and within buildings, a major issue with hospital devices.
Longer battery life for the IoT devices that it connects.
The network application is likely to benefit companies such as Nokia, Gemalto, or Sierra Wireless, which are developing compatible chipsets but are waiting for network operators to signal that the infrastructure is built out first. LTE CAT-M has already been tested in San Francisco by AT&T, which plans to roll out the network application for commercial uses next year.
Although Wi-Fi and cellular networks can connect IoT devices to the internet, they have inherent characteristics that make them ill-suited to do so for small, low-power components like sensors, smart locks, and smart lights.
BI Intelligence expects that more than 24 billion IoT devices will be installed globally in 2020, and the vast majority of these will fall into the small, low-power category.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The new IoT technology has a range of superior
developed by the American Ingenua RPMA technology to insure properties.
RPMA (Random Phase Multiple Access) has been operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM radio frequency technology, which coverage can be significantly competing technologies built a smaller number of base station.
Ingenua the technology is not ready yet. The company has just agreed with the Swiss U-Bloxin that this produces will RPMA modules on the market. The first products are already becoming customers during the fourth quarter.
The only negative – and it is a big – will be proprietary technology.
Large-scale ecosystems are driven by standards (Lora and Sigfox) and a truly global standards (LTE networks NB-IoT).
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5000:uuden-iot-tekniikan-kantama-on-ylivoimainen&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless IoT connections are coming to consumer devices
The Internet of Things will facilitate consumers’ lives. Household appliances can be controlled more easily when designers bring them new sensors and uses. In this circuit manufacturer Microchip Jason Tollefson explains how micro-controllers and Bluetooth connectivity bring IoT-home technology.
Things on the Internet is likely to be more equipment than you currently are smartphones. That is why their design is necessary to reduce the power consumption, or at least keep it at its current level. To require the regulatory requirements.
due to the power savings IoT solutions are required with low power consumption microcontrollers, and Bluetooth Smart – radios. They enable household appliances to connect flexibly and cost-effectively to broader systems.
Internet of Things IoT and can be interpreted in many different ways, depending on the market segment in the work.
The Internet of Things will bring new services
embedded into appliances offer new possibilities for both device manufacturers and consumers alike.
Appliances can use the experience to manage a smartphone application that takes care of the communication between the machine and the environment. They are now equipped with Bluetooth Smart-enabled. Easy connectivity thanks to the smart phone provides a home computer fast internet connection.
Bluetooth Smart lighthouses (beacon) can report their presence on the smartphone, the IoT device is nearby.
Over Wi-Fi devices connecting to each other may need to press the switch router. The wireless router can also be located in a different room, as accompanied by home appliance.
Bluetooth Smart offers many low-power features, which makes it suitable for just appliances IoT solutions.
Speed and distance are not a problem in household appliances. Mobile data volumes are low and the speed is not the most important thing to transfer the data. The normal advantages over the version of the engines Bluetooth Smart in the rapid accession and low power consumption.
Bluetooth Smart is specially designed for the equipment connected IoT systems. According to Wikipedia’s definition of IoT device must also be identified, and Bluetooth Smart too we will bring a solution.
Unique identifier addition to Bluetooth Smart low-power radios need makes them particularly useful for the internet of objects connectable household appliances.
Means to reduce the power consumption
The micro-controller affect the power consumption as much as-radio. Power consumption depends mainly on the operating mode and the clock frequency. Many of the new microcontrollers of various active power consumption modes of operation.
Operating modes make it possible to change settings through the software. Typical examples are the normal operation (run), snooze (doze), idle (idle), the Sleep low-voltage (low voltage sleep) and deep sleep (deep sleep).
Connection of household appliances to the internet offers new features to consumers and the manufacturers. Also, the energy provisions of the authorities to meet the low power consumption of micro-controllers and a Bluetooth local radio techniques.
Data can be used to reduce the overall cost of the equipment and provides practical information about the development of the next generation of home appliances. The Internet of Things offers manufacturers the opportunity to, for example, additional business is a marketing value-added products.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/09/06/langattomat-iot-yhteydet-tulevat-kuluttajalaitteisiin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Betting Big
http://smart-industry.net/amazon-aws-iot/
Amazon, already a heavyweight in Cloud service providing, is joining the IoT game with Amazon Web Services IoT platform (AWS IoT). What is their strategy and how will they stack up against major competitors?
The ‘Bezos Napkin Diagram’, as it’s also known, summarizes how Amazon conceives of its business and the role that new developments, like the IoT, play. It started with a foundational question: what do our customers really want? They felt that the answer was ‘choice’ and ‘selection’ from one source. That drives customer experience, which drives usage and traffic. Then, back in 2000, they paused…
Those who recognize the value of being ecosystem enablers will be the winners
By sharing their “platform” with others, Amazon could also reduce their total cost structure over time, which could enable them to reduce their prices, which would drive customer experience, leading to more traffic, more merchants, more selection and so on. Werner Vogels told the analysts that since Amazon implemented this plan, it had become two businesses: an online retailer and a platform business, of which the retail part of the business was a customer in the same way as the 3rd party merchants.
Taking the concept further, Amazon realized that it could white-label its platform to other retailers and, more recently, make its advanced cloud platform (now called AWS) available to any enterprise.
Amazon is not alone in deploying this model. Alibaba, Apple, Google, Microsoft and 170 other powerful “digital native” organizations operate under the same business model and collectively are now worth over $4 trillion.
Companies in all sectors are looking to add digital services to their portfolios. In parallel, governments are looking to tackle the issues of urbanization, climate change, and lower productivity caused by aging populations. They need solutions to dramatically reduce costs and create more positive outcomes for their citizens in areas such as healthcare, traffic management, energy consumption, food security – to create “smart cities” which leverage data and the IoT.
So this is the market that Amazon is preparing for. Amazon Dash, Dash Buttons and the always-listening Echo device, are examples of experiments that it is undertaking to understand how special-purpose IoT devices can support not only their retail business but also their platform business.
AWS and its IoT elements provide the processing power to make their platform solutions and tools for enterprises more powerful: to enable lots of companies and product developers to design, build and operate IoTenabled services. The IoT device is the “tip of the iceberg” in creating an end-to-end solution. The IoT value chain also covers connectivity, big data, algorithms, and business processes. As more and more IoT Devices get introduced, a nore data is generated. These devices and services can take advantage of AWS’s infrastructure.
Back to the flywheel: the more demand for its infrastructure, the lower Amazon’s costs which, in turn, makes it more attractive to companies. AWS’s IoT-enabling products include AWS Redshift, AWS Kinesis, AWS Machine Learning and, last year they acquired 2lemetry, a cloud-based application-enabler platform in order to provide M2M capability. These products support the growing number of companies and developers looking to build IoT-based services. They support an AWS-IoT flywheel, which is the real motivator for Amazon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Pipes are Calling
http://smart-industry.net/pipe-dreams/
Not even one percent of the water on earth is available as fresh drinking water. Still, as the infrastructure of most water-distribution systems is aging, a lot of precious liquid is lost on the way to the customer. But modern sensor-technology can help put our water infrastructures into a better shape.
Especially in areas that are subject to regular bouts of drought, the loss of water due to leakages in the pipe-system can cause serious problems. But even where there is no real shortage of fresh water, the economic damage due to ineffective maintenance is often huge.
In the past, experts in the area of pipe-control have attempted to analyze the condition of the water main simply by listening to the sounds from the pipes and with the help of a tool similar to a doctor’s stethoscope. But even well trained employees are not always able to tell exactly where a crack has occurred by this method. This means high costs to dig up culverts to find leaks.
However, with the help of new technology and predictive maintenance methods, water suppliers in Europe and the U.S. are finally solving the seepage problem.
LeakFinderST
Existing equipment is unable to detect leaks in plastic water pipes with any accuracy or consistency. Severn Trent – a big water supplier in England – uses the LeakFinderST developed by the Canadian company Echologics to check for leakage.
LeakFinderST enables municipalities to locate “quiet” narrow band, low frequency leaks and leaks previously identified as background leakage on water mains, with materials such as plastic, concrete or cast Iron.
The system uses the correlation method to notice leakages and to locate them exactly
SebaLog
In Dortmund, Germany. 600.000 people rely on DEW21, the local water company, for their water supply. In 2014 they installed a system with fixed sensors at 109 measuring points in their water net which stretches over 350 kilometers. The sensors make recordings during nighttime, when noise disturbance is comparatively low. The data is transmitted wirelessly to the analysts at DEW21. If they can hear an increase of the lowest noise level, chances are that there is a leak. If no fixed sensors are available to detect the precise position of the leak, service teams with mobile loggers do a closer examination of the area.
Ramses
Water companies not only take care of the water supply; they also need to make sure that wastewater is being cleaned and returned in a natural cycle.
In Bordeaux, the French company Suez has installed a smart water remote-control center called RAMSES (Régulation de l’Assainissement par Mesures et Supervision des Equipements et Stations/Regulation of Sanitation by Measures and Supervision of Equipment and Treatment Plants) that utilizes data provided by the France weather forecast service, including rainfall measurements, RAMSES accurately determines the threat posed by heavy rain and thunderstorms in real time.
The ICeWaterproject
Municipalities are not always alone in their efforts to develop or aquire systems to increase the efficiency of their water distribution. In 2013 the ICeWaterproject was launched in Italy with funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme.
PRETESIC
In Spain, the Institute of Computer Technology (ITI) uses a system called PRETESIC that was developed in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and Telefonica Cathedra. It was recently deployed in the city of Valencia and monitors water quality by measuring a wide range of environmental parameters. The main advantage is the system’s ability to reduce the time needed to deploy a wireless sensor network.
LISA
It’s always good to know the status of your water-net, of course. But when the information has to trigger a reaction, time is at a premium. The Berliner Wasserbetriebe, the company that supplies water to the German capital, recently installed a system called LISA (“Leit- und Informationssystem Abwasser” = Guide- and Information System for waste water) that controls 300 pump stations, rainwater reservoirs and other facilities all over the city and the surrounding areas. Status information is gathered centrally.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet of Threats
http://smart-industry.net/making-world-safe/
Today more and more everyday devices are interconnected. While they are certainly making life easier, they have also created new attack vectors for hackers. As we begin to enter the world of IoT it is important to be aware of and understand the new and expanded security risks involved and how to combat them.
Now that we are going to connect everything to the Internet, new opportunities are arising for cybercrime. The IoT refers to any object or device which connects to the Internet to automatically send and/or receive data. These include automated devices which remotely or automatically adjust lighting or HVAC (heating-ventilationair-conditioning), security systems, such as security alarms or Wi-Fi cameras, including video monitors used in nursery and daycare settings, medical devices, such as wireless heart monitors or insulin dispensers, thermostats, wearables, such as fitness devices, modules which activate or deactivate lights, smart appliances, such as smart refrigerators and TVs, office equipment, such as printers, entertainment devices to control music or televisionfrom a mobile device, and fuel monitoring systems, just to name a few. As organizations and vendors rush to create a totally connected society, they are typically faced with two daunting questions.
The first: How to develop products quickly enough to gain a time-to-market advantage, with the markets and applicable regulators dictating requirements and thus the level of investment in product security by vendors. And the second: How to embed security throughout the lifecycle of IoT product development, as this will result in higher costs and slower time to market, albeit clearly adding value in the short, medium, and long term. Both are tough questions, but unless cyber-security is considered in every phase of IoT development, including requirement setting, product design and developmental, as well as deployment, the problems companies have encountered with embedded systems in the past will seem like child’s play.
A word of warning from the FBI
A public service announcement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation released last September details a number of specific IoT risks, and it warns companies and the general public to be aware of new vulnerabilities that cybercriminals could exploit. Specifically, the FBI worries that exploiting the Universal Plug and Play protocol (UPnP) widely used in many modern IoT devices will be a pathway of choice for many cybercriminals.
Other scenarios to Feds worry about are the possibility of compromising IoT device to cause physical harm, to overload them, thus rendering them inoperable, and to intercept and interfere with business transactions.
On the other hand security leaks could be used by intelligence services to get access to areas of interest.
In July 2015 Gartner published the fourth edition of the IoT Hype Cycle. IoT has the potential to transform industries and the way we live and work. This Hype Cycle helps enterprises assess the levels of risk, maturity and hype that are associated with a transformative trend.
Predicting security for IoT
Digital security is defined as a combination of current cybersecurity and risk practice with digital business practice to protect all digitalized assets of an organization, whether at the core of the enterprise or at its edge. It is the alignment of information security, IT security, operational technology security, IoT security and physical security to form cybersecurity solutions. An IoT business solution is a heterogeneous mix of several assets including IoT endpoints such as sensors, devices, multidevice systems, fleets, and actors, one (or more) IoT platform(s), and various nonIoT back-end systems which all have to be included into an overall security solution. An IoT platform is a software suite or cloud service (IoT PaaS) that facilitates operations involving IoT endpoints, cloud and enterprise resources. Looking for IoT platform offerings, the advice for CIOs, planners and architects not only should include device and its application software management, data aggregation, integration, transformation, storage and management, event processing, analysis and visualization, self-service user interface, but also security.
To protect hardware and firmware from compromising attacks and assist in the delivering integrity and confidentiality of the data those systems process it is recommended to implement embedded software and systems (ESS) security which is practice and technology designed for engineers and developers. The requirements of ESS are complex, because the devices have long field lives, are often accessible to attackers, andneed policies and mechanisms for provisioning and patching. Cybersecurity planners and architects must gain a full understanding of these issues.
Planning for IoT security
Internet-connected computing capabilities related to smart building, industrial control systems and medical applications were the most commonly cited concerns after consumer products. While these types of applications do not receive much IoT hype in the press, the use of embedded computing in those devices will cause major breakage in existing IT management and IT security visibility, vulnerability assessment, configuration management and intrusion prevention processes and controls.
Simultaneously, they need to address both existing as well as new technologies, seamlessly spanning both Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) as well as subsystems and processes without interfering with operational business processes.
The Industrial Data Space initiative which emerged from the research project Industrial Data Space (IDS) of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research aims at creating a secure data space that supports enterprises of different industries and different sizes in the autonomous management of data.
Cybersecurity for medical devices
According to a new market research report “IoT Healthcare Market by Components, Application, End-User – Global Forecast to 2020”, published by MarketsandMarkets, the global IoT in healthcare market is expected to grow from US$ 32.47 Billion in 2015 to US$ 163.24 Billion by 2020. Thus security threats to medical devices are a growing concern. The exploitation of cybersecurity vulnerabilities presents a potential risk to the safety and effectiveness of medical devices and thus represents also dangers for the human being. Just imagine what could happen if somebody tries to remote control your pacemaker.
In January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued draft guidance outlining important steps medical device manufacturers should take to continually address cybersecurity risks to keep patients safe and better protect public health. The draft guidance details in a separate chapter “Medical Device Cybersecurity Risk”