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:
Security vs. Convenience
http://www.deskeng.com/de/security-vs-convenience/
Security Isn’t Easy
Technology may be easier to use than ever, but that’s a detriment to security. Manufacturers want to make it easy for people to use their products, not burden or scare them with layers of security. That can mean default passwords with no requirement to change them and logging in via unprotected sites. If the goal is to a make a high-tech product easy enough for a kid to use, what does that mean for security? Headlines calling out security lapses
How can companies design products that are easy to use and secure? It will require bringing even more expertise into the product development pipeline.
Designing Systems, Not Just Products
The good news is, like my family with their technology issues, there is somewhere to turn for help. In addition to security firms and security focused technology vendors, a number of organizations are taking on the challenge of IoT security.
For example, the Internet of Things Security Foundation (IOTSF) describes itself as a non-profit, international initiative with the goal of helping to secure the IoT. In its “Insecurity in the Internet of Things” report, it writes: “The concept of security by design must be given a higher priority in order to avoid security flaws being compounded as the IoT matures … The IoT will be a transformational, disruptive technological movement, but carries a spectrum of risks that affect more than just the IT department.”
The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has released a reference architecture intended to provide a common language for the elements of Industrial Internet systems and the relationships between them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Security Foundation
https://www.iotsecurityfoundation.org/
The economic impact of the Internet of Things will be measured in $trillions.
The number of connected devices will be measured in billions.
The resultant benefits of a connected society are significant, disruptive and transformational.
Yet, along with the opportunity, there are fears and concerns about the security of IoT systems.
The international IoT Security Foundation (IoTSF) has been established as a response to those concerns.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Establishing Principles for Internet of Things Security
https://iotsecurityfoundation.org/establishing-principles-for-internet-of-things-security/
Security is an important part of almost every IoT deployment yet is often neglected in the development of systems. This blog series looks at questions that need to be considered when designing an IoT device, system or network. A common theme throughout is that investment in security at the design phase can save a lot of time, effort and potential embarrassment at a later date.
There is no single “best” IoT design, the devices will be different and how they are used will be different. Security needs to be considered in the context of how the device will be used. It is important to understand that a device alone will not provide complete security isolation; it needs to be supported by a good architecture and good expectation of what the device is capable of achieving.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Maciej Ceglowski / Pinboard Blog:
Pinboard founder says IFTTT’s platform migration imposes onerous terms on service providers, and recommends alternatives like Zapier or Botize — My Heroic and Lazy Stand Against IFTTT … © Nine Fives Software. Problems or questions? Contact
My Heroic and Lazy Stand Against IFTTT
http://blog.pinboard.in/2016/03/my_heroic_and_lazy_stand_against_ifttt/
Imagine if your sewer pipe started demanding that you make major changes in your diet.
Now imagine that it got a lawyer and started asking you to sign things.
You would feel surprised.
This is the position I find myself in today with IFTTT, a form of Internet plumbing that has been connecting peaceably to my backend for the past five years, but which has recently started sending scary emails.
A lot of Pinboard people use IFTTT. Yesterday, they received the following form letter
In a nutshell:
1. IFTTT wants me to do their job for them for free
2. They have really squirrely terms of service
1. Working for Free
A service like IFTTT writes “shim code” that makes it possible to connect online services together like Legos. Everything slots into everything else. This is thankless, detailed work (like developing TurboTax or Dropbox) that when done right, creates a lot of value.
IFTTT has already written all this shim code. They did it when they were small and had no money, so it’s difficult to believe they have to throw it away now that they have lots of staff and thirty million dollars.
Instead, sites that want to work with IFTTT will have to implement a private API that can change without warning.
This is a perfectly reasonable business decision. It is always smart to make other people do all the work.
2. Squirrely Terms of Service
The developer terms of service don’t seem to be available by a public URL
To begin with, IFTTT wants me to promise never to compete with them
Pinboard is in some ways already a direct competitor to IFTTT.
I’m sorry your IFTTT/Pinboard recipes are going to stop working.
It’s entirely IFTTT’s decision to drop support for Pinboard (along with a bunch of other sites).
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Onion Omega Carputer Can be Controlled via WiFi
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/28/the-onion-omega-carputer-can-be-controlled-via-wifi/
The Onion Omega, a curiously named ultra-tiny linux-based WiFi board, is a useful little device for everything Internet of Things related. [Daniel] decided to use it to connect his car to the internet.
He’s doing this with an Onion Omega, a general purpose router based dev board with 18 GIPO, and wireless 802.11 b/g/n connectivity. Using an app he wrote for his phone, he can now remote start his vehicle, read car signals, control the interior lights, and of course, lock and unlock the doors.
Onion Omega Carputer
Automation and WiFi Interface for a car using Onion Omega
https://hackaday.io/project/10382-onion-omega-carputer
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Art Frame using OpenFrame
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/28/raspberry-pi-art-frame-using-openframe/
Digital picture frames were a fad awhile back, and you can still pick them up at the local big box store. [Ishac Bertran] and [Jonathan Wohl] decided to go open source with digital frames and create the openframe project. The open-source project uses a Raspberry Pi with WiFi and either an HDMI monitor or a monitor that the Pi can drive (e.g., a VGA with an HDMI adapter).
You are probably thinking: Why not just let the Pi display images? The benefit of openframe is you can remotely manage your frames at the openframe.io site. You can push images, websites (like Hackaday.com) or shaders out to any of your frames. You can also draw on public streams of artwork posted by other users.
A frame for Openframe
http://www.instructables.com/id/A-Frame-for-Openframe/
openframe alpha 0.2 is a platform for displaying digital art
http://openframe.io/
Openframe is an open source platform for artists, curators and art enthusiasts to share, discover and display digital art.
Openframe is free. Anyone can set up a frame using an HDMI display and a Raspberry Pi.
Openframe is a collaborative, on-going project. The platform consists of an API, a web app, and software for the RPi that currently supports images, web-based artwork, and shaders. Our goal is to create a system that is accessible and extensible, allowing artists to easily add support for new digital formats.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Turn Your RPi 3 Into a BLE Beacon
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/27/turn-your-rpi-3-into-a-ble-beacon/
With the launch of the Raspberry Pi 3, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is now at our disposal. With BLE, there are a few technologies for implementing one-way beacons that broadcast data. Apple has been pushing iBeacon since 2013, and Google just launched their Eddystone solution last year.
If you’re looking to target Google’s Eddystone on your RPi 3, [Yamir] has you covered. He’s put together a guide on setting up an Eddystone-URL beacon within Raspbian. This type of beacon just broadcasts a URL. Users within range will get a notification that the URL is available, and can navigate through to it. Eddystone-URL works on both iOS and Android.
Raspberry Pi 3 as an Eddystone URL beacon
Turn your Raspberry Pi 3 into an Eddystone URL beacon
https://hackaday.io/project/10314-raspberry-pi-3-as-an-eddystone-url-beacon
Tomi Engdahl says:
M2.COM delivers IoT sensor platform specs
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/sensor-ee-perception/4441705/M2-COM-delivers-IoT-sensor-platform-specs?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160329&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160329&elqTrackId=fb0c52a112d64632b0be6e4f208c192d&elq=1b2811b958064289a8358457e5615069&elqaid=31530&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27556
In the lead-up to last month’s Embedded World event in Germany, ARM, Advantech, Bosch Sensortec, Sensirion, and Texas Instruments teased a new Internet of Things (IoT) sensor platform called M2.COM, and now the group has delivered the specifications as promised.
The genesis of M2.COM is the burning need to standardize, in some way, how data-gathering devices are architected. This will save developers from constantly having to reinvent the wheel given that the true value of IoT is not so much in the hardware, but in the data that the hardware gathers. The easier it is to deploy the data gatherers, the sooner the IoT will achieve its potential, or so the thinking goes.
To that end, the six companies kicked off the M2.COM launch in February with its new platform that adopts the popular M.2 form factor. The module combines general wireless connectivity with an MCU, specifically, TI’s SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3200 wireless MCU. Around that, ARM ads its mbed OS support, Bosch adds its MEMS and sensor technologies, Sensirion brings its own wide range of sensors to the party, while Advantech adds its embedded systems design expertise.
While SimpleLink is Wi-Fi based, the module is intended to support the other wireless standards, including ZigBee and Bluetooth for short range, as well as LTE and sub-1-GHz standards for longer range.
t the heart of the platform is an ARM Cortex M-class core, on top of which is the mbed OS. Between mbed and the IoT Agent are the sensor communication and security protocols (MQTT, CoAP, TLS/DTLS) and the sensor hub software. On the hardware interface side are an SPI and I2C port, as well as a UART
The type 2230 M.2 form factor upon which the module is based measures only 30×22 mm and has a 75-position host interface connector, sufficient to support all the I/O features inside the M2.COM multi-function module.
M2.COM A new open standard is born…
http://www.m2com-standard.org/
To enable a diversity of IoT applications, an open standard for sensors and sensor nodes is needed; it’s important and beneficial to IoT development when sensor makers and module makers work together to standardize the platforms and technologies.
M2.COM is a brand new platform form factor for sensors. It adopts the standardized, frequently used M.2 form factor and is defined as an evolutionary module that combines general wireless connectivity with additional built-in computing ability powered by MCU.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Eclipse tackles Java API for IoT
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4441640/Eclipse-tackles-Java-API-for-IoT?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160324&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160324&elqTrackId=edc95b01744f4c47a2a49095d90ffae0&elq=b7f356127460453c9e14b347d510fe95&elqaid=31479&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27508
The Eclipse Edje Open Source IoT Project, announced at EclipseCon last week, will define a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) for resource-constrained devices that provide the basic services essential to IoT applications. It aims to deliver a standard library that forms a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) for key microcontroller functions such as GPIO, PWMs, LCDs, UARTs, and the like. The project will initially utilize code contributions from MicroEJ but welcomes and encourages new contributors to work through the Eclipse Foundation.
Edje
https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/iot.edje
The edge devices connected to the Cloud that constitute the Internet of Things (IoT) require support for building blocks, standards and frameworks like those provided by the Eclipse Foundation projects: Californium, Paho, Leshan, Kura, Mihini, etc.
Because of the large deployment of Java technology in the Cloud, on the PC, mobile and server sides, most projects above are implemented in Java technology.
Deploying these technologies on embedded devices requires a scalable IoT software platform that can support the hardware foundations of the IoT: microcontrollers (MCU). MCU delivered by companies like STMicroelectronics, NXP+Freescale, Renesas, Atmel, Microchip, etc. are small low-cost low-power 32-bit processors designed for running software in resource-constraint environments: low memory (typically KB), flash (typically MB) and frequency (typically MHz).
The goal of the Edje project is to define a standard high-level Java API called Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for accessing hardware features delivered by microcontrollers such as GPIO, DAC, ADC, PWM, MEMS, UART, CAN, Network, LCD, etc. that can directly connect to native libraries, drivers and board support packages provided by silicon vendors with their evaluation kits.
Tomi Engdahl says:
You Speak, Your Scope Obeys
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/29/you-speak-your-scope-obeys/
[Patrick Sébastien Coulombe] clearly has both of his hands on his oscilloscope probes. That’s why he developed Speech2SCPI, a quick mash-up of voice recognition and an oscilloscope control protocol. It combines the Julius open-source speech recognizer project with the Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments (SCPI) syntax to make his scope obey his every command. You’ve got to watch the video below the break to believe how well it works. It even handles his French accent.
Better still, it does it all on his computer without sending stuff off into the cloud, so he can tailor the system to fit his needs. (The Julius system takes advantage of a known grammar and a limited set of words to increase its accuracy.) [Patrick]’s setup does use an Amazon service for optional text-to-speech responses, but that could be easily replaced with Festival or any other open text-to-speech engine if you wanted. Everything is in Python and decently documented on [Patrick]’s GitHub.
http://www.workinprogress.ca/software/speech2scpi/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Start developing with
IBM Watson IoT Platform
http://www.ibm.com/internet-of-things/trial.html?cm_mmc=display-aspencore-_-latestdesign324-_-eewebnewsletter-_-ww-wiot-mkt-oww
Create your Internet of Things application for free
Experience the IBM Watson IoT Platform
Device management, connectivity, real-time analytics, cognitive services and storage of data derived from the IoT.
Connection capabilities: Connect in minutes, register, control and manage IoT devices.
Analytics and cognitive services: Add cognition to systems of record and enrich with additional data sources—such as social sentiment and environment.
Risk management capabilities: Extend security and privacy to IoT solutions from the device through the network to the cloud and beyond.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet of Things (IoT) – Show me the money!! / Petri Seppänen
http://blogit.sonera.fi/2015/08/internet-of-things-iot-show-me-the-money
IoT Business significance:
1. IoT overall business significance is counted in millions-of-millions (trillions), e.g.
McKinsey: total potential impact $3.9-11.1 trillions per year in 2025 (cost savings & new business)
IMD & Cisco: $19 trillions value at stake from 2013-2022 (bottom line value created or migrating among companies/industries)
2. 2/3 of IoT value will come from B2B applications (regardless of rather consumer biased hype)
3. 4 out of 10 leading companies in each industry will disappear/ be replaced in the next 5 years
4. When looking across different settings/contexts, biggest value potential identified in Factories (operations and equipment optimization), Human (health), Cities (public health & transportation) and Retail (e.g. automated check-out).
Structures for more concrete levels of IoT value potential:
5. Liked the McKinsey structure of 9 IoT value potential settings (Human/Home/Offices/Factories/Cities/ Vehicles/Retail env/ Worksites/Outside) and the attempt to look more closely at each to identify where the value is coming from
6. The TATA report divided IoT business usage into four categories:
Premises monitoring / Product Monitoring / Customer monitoring / Supply chain monitoring
IoT actions today:
7. Overall, there is a clear shift towards “rolling up the sleeves” and getting into action of deploying IoT
8. Four out of five companies surveyed had IoT initiatives in place today
9. Industrial manufacturers are far ahead of other industries in already gaining benefits from IoT
10. Yet: 45% of companies do not consider digital disruption a board level concern (wild guess that these will be the ones that will feed my observation #3 above)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > Brian’s Brain
Home automation control on the go
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4441723/Home-automation-control-on-the-go?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160330&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160330&elqTrackId=e798586437d44f1cbf1b9aff6364ca6f&elq=29f33448b3fe490295eb34fb82c79c41&elqaid=31596&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27569
I recently tore down a Belkin WeMo Wi-Fi-connected outlet switch for EDN, which I thankfully (and rarely) was able to reassemble afterward in a functionally and cosmetically intact state.
More generally, however, as someone with existing extensive experience using INSTEON equipment, I was curious to see how well a competitive (and more modern) alternative home automation technology might work out for me.
The first two switches I acquired were advertised as being brand new, but this ended up not being the case; I needed to do a factory reset on them before I could connect them to the 2.4 GHz band of my 802.11n network. As with other gear that I’ve recently discussed, such as Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s own Dash Button, the WeMo Switch doesn’t embed a wired Ethernet port (for example) that would provide an alternative means of initially getting wireless network configuration data to it. Instead, it initially broadcasts its own unique SSID, to which you connect your smartphone or tablet in order to provide the switch with the necessary LAN credentials.
Another important note: WeMo is fundamentally a cloud-based scheme. Third-party WeMo servers and associated client apps do exist, but they’re Belkin-unsanctioned, having been developed via protocol reverse engineering. They also can’t handle initial device setup, which seems to still require Belkin server interaction.
Here’s a cool feature: after the switches are successfully connected to the Internet, and every time you launch the app thereafter, it automatically checks for available firmware updates and prompts you to upgrade if it finds them.
Regular checks for firmware upgrades are highly recommended; they’ve squashed at least one notable security vulnerability to date.
And in addition to direct WeMo Switch control via the Amazon Echo, broader control via IFTTT (If This Then That)-aware devices and software services is also possible
The switches are a bit pricey, at ~$40 each. And they don’t have advanced features that “power users” might yearn for. But their ease of use is certainly appealing to the masses … the simple fact that I didn’t need to bother creating a firewall “hole” in order to access them from the WAN is indicative of this attractiveness.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lazy Bluetooth: Build with BLE, Don’t Reinvent It
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/30/lazy-bluetooth/
It is a good bet that you have at least one Bluetooth device hanging around. Headsets, mice, keyboards, and speakers have become increasingly common. Bluetooth forms a short range wireless network and can also perform file transfers and create virtual serial ports.
If you have ever had to stop listening to music to recharge a Bluetooth headphone, you know Bluetooth won’t run long on batteries. In 2006, Nokia introduced Wibree, which would later become Bluetooth Low Energy (or BLE).
Modern Bluetooth devices can implement “classic” Bluetooth, BLE, or both. As you might expect, BLE is very power efficient and should run for months or years on a simple button cell battery. It is also supposed to be small and inexpensive.
Range is usually somewhere less than 30 meters.
To conserve power, BLE devices don’t transmit very much. Bluetooth devices use profiles that describe what data and services they offer. All BLE devices use profiles derived from the Generic Attribute Profile (GATT).
Servers are devices that have data like fitness bands, embedded thermostats, or beacons (BLE devices that send an ID and possibly a small amount of other data). Most devices will offer multiple services
As part of the power conservation scheme, servers have data and spend most of their time asleep. For example, a BLE temperature sensor would act as a server. The client is the cell phone, tablet, or desktop computer that wants to read the data.
Servers periodically advertise the services they have using a very short message. As part of the advertisement, the server can include a small amount of data or it can tell others that it will not accept connections
Tomi Engdahl says:
Atmel’s Smart Connect modules need to receive data in less than four milliampere. Transmission requires less than three milliamperes current 3.6 V supply voltage.
Most of IoT applications Bluetooth radio is mostly asleep, so sleep mode current consumption is a very important figure. Smart Connect modules it drops to less than 1.2 microamps. Atmel, this extended modules operate time of the battery power available on the market three times longer than other solutions.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4196:bluetoothia-muutamilla-mikroampeereilla&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pay attention: Industrie 4.0 and ICS cyber security
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/pay-attention-industrie-40-and-ics-cyber-security/6c925223d4d92e29f0cd22464adca7bb.html
Industrie 4.0 is propelling organizations and their production and service delivery capabilities far beyond steam power and factory electrification, and industrial control systems (ICSs) can provide a vital layer of protection to keep networks safe.
Greater attention to industrial control system (ICS) cyber security is required with greater connectivity and information flow in manufacturing and in process plants. The Internet of Things (IoT), perhaps the most popular buzzword to hit the tech mainstream since “tweeting,” refers to the billions of smart connected devices that range from simple sensors to complex machines that affect business on a local, regional, and global scale, and personal behavior. So many devices are connecting, that International Data Corp. (IDC) predicts the worldwide IoT market will grow from $655.8 billion in 2014 to $1.7 trillion in 2020.
While most people currently associate the IoT with connected consumer devices such as fitness trackers, smart thermostats, and feature-rich light bulbs, much of the same communications capabilities in these products are being used in more specialized devices that run critical infrastructure systems such as those in the energy, water, transportation, and chemical sectors that serve the needs of citizens and countries alike. In fact, 35% of manufacturers already use devices categorized as smart sensors in their process and manufacturing operations, and an estimated 5.4 million IoT devices will be used on oil and gas extraction sites around the world by 2020. Likewise, energy companies will be installing 1 billion smart meters on homes, businesses, and factories by 2020.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the Industrie 4.0 movement is characterized by the increasing digitization and interconnection of products, value chains, and business models. It is the industrial sector’s version of IoT-aptly named the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). This modern technology that is blanketing industry enables even greater amounts of automation and remote management of system assets. It also is providing visibility into operations designed to help system owners and operators improve productivity and facilitate healthier returns on investment for the products and services their systems provide.
Most manufacturing and process systems, such as an oil pipeline, power plant, water treatment facility, transportation network, and even building automation systems (BAS), are undergoing the same transformation where old, simple assets are replaced with smarter, more connected devices. With these new devices come new network infrastructures designed to create even greater connectivity and data interactions between the devices and previously disparate systems.
Usually, it’s not until an incident occurs, such as a loss of communication, failed device, product misconfiguration, or a security breach, that an industrial network is brought into focus. Events like these quickly lead to safety impacts, expensive downtime, lost production, and potentially far-reaching financial impacts. While such consequences are no secret to asset owners and operators, investments made to counteract them are often limited and often overlook a key opportunity to further reduce latent risks. One glaring omission often seen in many of the most progressive industrial control systems is the absence of a clear view and understanding of what critical network communications actually look like inside these mission-critical systems.
Many popular control system configuration and monitoring tools only provide a window to program and configure parameters and logic control, to monitor status, or provide operators with status of the process control system itself.
ICSs have evolved to become connected with business information systems and often include remote management capabilities. They are no longer isolated independent systems, which were previously thought of as islands of automation.
This level of connectivity and accessibility goes to show that the IIoT is not a future state for industry. If anything, the IIoT is in many ways already here, and if all of the new device and system connectivity aren’t properly built and maintained, most every cyber-physical systems will be vulnerable to threats that could have grave consequences.
The IIoT and Industrie 4.0 platforms are comprised of cyber-physical systems with connected devices that collectively make up the Smart Factory-a facility or operation with the technical advantages of self-prediction and self-awareness in the processes used to make and move products and services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Library: Diffie and Hellman’s Public-Key Cryptography Wins ACM
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=31&doc_id=1329236&
The battle between Washington and Silicon Valley over encryption and intelligence gathering wasn’t always the conspicuous battle it has become.
Snowden and NSA’s constitutional abuses set the stage for the current standoff between industry and government. But back in the early days of Silicon Valley big government contractors like Lockheed were the tech behemoths of the day—giants that defined the industry and helped create, via U.S. government programs, the electronics technology—and the computer industry—Silicon Valley is still known for today.
Eventually, all things merge into one, save for one technology: encryption. It is neither transistors nor code, but speech. Hence today’s epic legal battle between Washington and the Great Wall of Technology over who will control the tools of cryptography. It will make a great film someday, the outcome of the current battle notwithstanding.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Ups The Dev Board Ante With The Quark D2000
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/31/intel-ups-the-dev-board-ante-with-the-quark-d2000/
Intel have a developer board that is new to the market, based on their Quark (formerly “Mint Valley”) D2000 low-power x86 microcontroller. This is a micropower 32-bit processor running at 32MHz, and with 32kB of Flash and 8kB of RAM. It’s roughly equivalent to a Pentium-class processor without the x87 FPU, and it has the usual impressive array of built-in microcontroller peripherals and I/O choices.
The board has an Arduino-compatible shield footprint, an FTDI chip for USB connectivity, a compass, acceleration, and temperature sensor chip, and a coin cell holder with micropower switching regulator. Intel provide their own System Studio For Microcontrollers dev environment, based around the familiar Eclipse IDE.
Best of all is the price, under $15 from an assortment of the usual large electronics wholesalers.
This board joins a throng of others in the low-cost microcontroller development board space, each of which will have attributes that its manufacturers will hope make it stand out.
Intel® Quark™ Microcontroller D2000
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/embedded/products/quark/mcu/d2000/overview.html
Formerly Mint Valley
The Intel® Quark™ microcontroller D2000, is a low power, battery-operated, 32-bit microcontroller with a more robust instruction set than other entry-level microcontrollers. The first x86-based Intel® Quark™ microcontroller, Intel® Quark™ microcontroller D2000 also increases input/output options over other entry-level microcontrollers. Within its small footprint, the Intel® Quark™ microcontroller D2000 includes an Intel® Quark™ ultra-low-power core running at 32 MHz, with 32 KB integrated flash and 8 KB SRAM.
Intel® System Studio for Microcontrollers
https://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-system-studio-microcontrollers
Development Environment for Intel® Quark™ Microcontroller Software Developers
Intel® System Studio for Microcontrollers, an Eclipse*-integrated software suite, is designed specifically to empower Intel® Quark™ microcontroller developers to create fast, intelligent things.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the big growth wave in tech—from smart cities, homes, and classrooms to energy management, wearable devices, and much more. The Intel Quark microcontroller family extends intelligent computing to a new spectrum of devices requiring low power consumption for sensor input and data actuation applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Swiss Open-Source Processor Core Ready For IoT
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329327&
Researchers at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich) and the University of Bologna have developed PULPino, an open-source processor optimized for low power consumption and application in wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Open-source and collaborative development is now standard practise in the software world – Linux being an example. While there have been hardware efforts, such as OpenRISC and Opencores, open-source hardware has gained the most traction at the board level. Examples include Arduino and Raspberry Pi, for which the PCB designs are publicly available. However, the chips on which those boards are based have remained proprietary.
Now a team led by ETH Professor Luca Benini, has put into the public domain the full design of one of their microprocessor systems, a derivative of the PULP (Parallel ultra low power) project.
The 32-bit PULPino is designed for battery-powered devices with extremely low energy consumption. The arithmetic instructions are also open source: the scientists made the processor compatible with an open-source instruction set – RISC-V – developed at the University of California in Berkeley
PULPino is a simplified version of the more general PULP, in that it has a single processing element rather than a cluster of four processing elements and has simplified instruction and data RAMs and was implemented in FPGA in 2015.
According to presentation materials (downloadable from http://www.pulp-platform.org) the PULPino core is called RI5CY and is a four-stage in-order pipeline implementation of RISC-V.
The core which is compared to a Cortex-M4 from ARM, has an instructions per cycle figure close to 1, support for the base integer instruction set (RV32I), compressed instructions (RV32C) and partial support for the multiplication instruction set extension (RV32M).
The PULP quad-core IC was subject of a tape-out in 28nm from Globalfoundries in November 2015 while the first PULPino implementation (called Imperio) taped out in January 2016 in 65nm CMOS from UMC.
We are happy to share our FREE and OPEN-SOURCE microprocessor system PULPino!
http://www.pulp-platform.org/
You can download the entire source code, test programs, programming environment and even the bitstream for the popular ZEDboard, completely for free under the Solderpad license.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PJON, Fancy One Wire Arduino Communications Protocol For Home Automation
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/31/pjon-fancy-one-wire-arduino-communications-protocol-for-home-automation/
PJON, pronounced like the iridescent sky rats found in every city, is a cool one wire protocol designed by [gioblu].
“Padded Jittering Operative Network,” comes in. It can support up to 255 Arduinos on one bus and its error handling is apparently good enough that you can hold an Arudino in one hand and see the signals transmitted through your body on the other. The fact that a ground and a signal wire is all you need to run a bus supporting 255 devices and they’ll play nice is pretty cool, even if the bandwidth isn’t the most extreme.
PJON
https://github.com/gioblu/PJON/wiki
One wire multimaster communication bus system for Arduino and IOT
https://github.com/gioblu/PJON
PJON (Padded Jittering Operative Network) is an Arduino compatible single wire, multi-master communication bus system implemented in 270 lines of C++ and Wiring (not considering comments). It is designed as an alternative to i2c, 1-Wire, Serial and other Arduino compatible protocols.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT requires intelligent testing
It can be said that the Nest Thermostat was the Internet of Things IoT: the first manifestation of the original target, but we all know that it was our last. Gartner estimates that the network-connected devices will soon be more than the people, and by 2022 every household has more than 500 network-connected device. At the same time when society will reap the benefits of the devices connected to the network, freeing people to do more productive things like adjusting the thermostat, automated testing is becoming increasingly challenging to do economically.
Traditional automated test equipment (ATE) was optimized to test the technology, which was developed in the spirit of Moore’s Law: it was mostly digital circuits, with the number of transistors increased continuously silicon chip shrinks.
IoT development has provided test engineers the task of verification of mixed-signal systems, which include both digital signals and analog signals from sensors future, RF antennas, and much more. Everything should be tested in consumer device volumes as cheaply as possible. in front of the next day’s testing challenges traditional ATE test fails. Test engineers need a more intelligent testing IoT’s intelligent devices.
The software ensures that the tester takes time
Federal Aviation Administration FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) decided to give air passengers authorize the use of the terminal, as long as they are in flight mode. This does not require that each would be sent smartphone device update. Software Repair rite. Tesla Motors, in turn, found that the cars went a little too close to the road surface at high speeds. Tesla did not call their cars back, but sent them over the air software update OTA (over-the-air), which jäykensi car suspension tougher speeds. In the past, users were forced to buy a new device in order to get access to new features. Smart phones, TVs, computers and even cars now make use of a reprogrammable firmware technology to expand or improve the functionality of the device afterwards.
As markets develop and become more complex, we will have to adapt to change and to wait for the unexpected. In the same way as new smart devices add to the situation depends on his intelligence through software updates, test equipment should operate. Software-based testing enables organizations to invest in the substrate, which corresponds to the day of testing challenges, but also adapts to new requirements while reducing capital investment. Modular hardware is obviously an important role in this approach, but the software is the one that ties it all together based platform, the Intelligent ATE solution.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4193
Tomi Engdahl says:
Eva Dou / Wall Street Journal:
Xiaomi hopes products that aren’t smartphones, TVs, or routers, including a newly announced high-end smart rice cooker, will reach $1.5B in sales this year
Xiaomi Goes Against the Grain With New Smartphone-Controlled Rice Cooker
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2016/03/29/against-the-grain-xiaomi-unveils-new-smartphone-controlled-rice-cooker/
Xiaomi Corp. anticipates the jokes about its ever-broadening range of offerings, which includes offbeat items like power strips, Segways and now – rice cookers.
Xiaomi hopes that its ecosystem products — which refers to devices other than smartphones, TVs and Internet routers — will reach 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in sales this year, doubling from more than 5 billion yuan last year
The sub-brand is called “Mi Ecosystem” in English.
the company decided to invest heavily in smart home products in 2013 due to Mr. Lei’s belief that they could get ahead of a big trend.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The inside story of how Amazon created Echo, the next billion-dollar business no one saw coming
http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-inside-story-of-how-amazon-created-echo-2016-4?op=1?r=US&IR=T
When Amazon executive Dave Limp first saw the pitch for the product that would become Echo in 2011, his main reaction was doubt.
“This is going to be hard,” Limp recalls thinking. “It foretold a magical experience. But it would require a lot of inventions.”
The reaction was understandable given the lofty goals outlined in the Echo’s original plan: It envisioned an intelligent, voice-controlled household appliance that could play music, read the news aloud and order groceries — all by simply letting users talk to it from anywhere in the house.
Since that time, the Echo has emerged as Amazon’s sleeper hit, a hot-selling gadget that’s being hailed as the standard-bearer for an entirely new computing paradigm in which Amazon suddenly has an edge on rivals such as Apple and Google.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rob Price / Business Insider:
Nest is disabling the Revolv home-automation service on May 15, effectively bricking Revolv home hub hardware, after acquiring the startup in 2014
Google’s parent company is deliberately disabling some of its customers’ old smart-home devices
http://uk.businessinsider.com/googles-nest-closing-smart-home-company-revolv-bricking-devices-2016-4?op=1?r=US&IR=T
Nest, a smart-home company owned by Google’s holding company Alphabet, is dropping support for a line of products — and will make customers’ existing devices completely useless.
It’s a move that has infuriated some customers, and raises worrying questions about the rights of consumers in the ever-more connected future.
In October 2014, Nest acquired Revolv, a smart-home device maker, nine months after it was itself bought by Google.
Revolv’s team was to work on “Work with Nest,” Nest’s API program, but customers’ existing Revolv products continued to be supported — until recently.
Just over a month ago, Revolv updated its website to announce that it is closing down completely, pulling the plug on its existing products in May
the $300 devices and accompanying apps will stop working completely
Gilbert questions the grounds on which Nest can disable devices altogether. “When software and hardware are intertwined, does a warranty mean you stop supporting the hardware or does it mean that the manufacturer can intentionally disable it without consequence?”
The spokesperson declined to say how many customers would be affected, although it may not be huge.
But the case raises broader questions about the extent of ownership in the digital age and whether this could set a precedent for other devices going forwards.
“Which hardware will Google choose to intentionally brick next?” asks Arlo Gilbert.
Nest has been criticised by activists for this decision. Jim Killock, executive director of UK-based digital rights organisation Open Rights Group, said the shut down was “a pretty appalling way to treat customers.”
He told Business Insider: “It raises significant questions about the transparency of products that bundle services with hardware, which is an increasingly common arrangement. If hardware may cease to be functional beyond a certain date, this needs to be clear at the time of purchase. Relying on a warranty provision to disable a product would seem to be an unclear and rather dishonest approach.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Backs Sigfox Cloud on IoT
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329344&
IoT network infrastructure provider Sigfox announced it will integrate the Sigfox Cloud with Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, enabling its customers to use data for real-time analytics.
Currently operating in 14 countries, including the U.S., and registering over 7 million devices in its network, Sigfox provides subscription-based low-power, wide-area (LPWA) communications dedicated to the Internet of Things.
Under the new partnership, Sigfox’s cloud-to-cloud integration which will be available to both Sigfox and Microsoft customers, will allow users to use both Sigfox’s low-power, wide-area network and the power of advanced analytics and storage on Microsoft Azure to collect, analyze and visualize large quantities of operational data produced by their connected devices and applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“I understand the industry is under economic stress and changes but we are on the edge of a wave that will change the world again…The opportunity to make everything smart is huge and will change the world,” he said.
He quipped that IoT could stand for Immensely Optimistic Thinking, because “it’s insufficient to drive semiconductor volumes, but great for connecting us to physical attributes of the real world.” Nevertheless, “if we can deliver another 10-100x advances in performance over power it will have enormous ramifications that are unpredictable,” he added.
Source: http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329333&page_number=3
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux is not suitable for sensors
The Internet of Things is expected to big business, but the platform on which these all come from billions of devices and Sensor nodes work? Certainly not linux, if you ask Linus Torvalds evening. – If you doing something really small like sensors, no need not to run Linux, he says in an interview with ZDNet.
Linux currently has a very important role in embedded devices. Wi-Fi routers and many other everyday devices work mostly with Linux
Internet of things does not seem to him very much even interesting.
– I’ve never been interested in small operating systems. I always think of hardware, but if there is no memory to the processing unit, I’m not interested, he says in an interview.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4215:linux-ei-sovi-antureihin&catid=13&Itemid=101
More:
Linux founder Torvalds on the Internet of Things: Security plays second fiddle
http://www.zdnet.com/article/linuxs-founder-linus-torvalds-on-the-internet-of-things/
For the first time, Linux Torvalds speaks at an embedded Linux conference: “Many changes have been invisible. Even I don’t see all the uses of Linux.”
It’s not that embedded Linux hasn’t been important before. Your DVRs and Wi-Fi routers almost certainly run Linux. What has changed is that the Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming embedded Linux from being a topic only programmers could love to one everyone will be using soon.
This development caught Torvald, Linux’s founder, by surprise — 15 years ago. “I never see the entire chain running Linux. Twenty five years ago I started Linux wanting a workstation. From that to a server wasn’t a surprise. There was no single point where I was surprised, but 15 years ago I started seeing these odd, embedded systems. The first one that really caught my eye was a gas pump running Linux.”
Today, Torvalds continued, “Many changes have been invisible. Even I don’t see all the uses of Linux.”
Of course, Linux isn’t the right operating system for all embedded devices. After all, the Linux kernel keeps growing. Therefore, Torvalds said, “If you’re doing something really tiny, like sensors, you don’t need Linux.”
But that still leaves a lot of room for big embedded Linux devices. In particular, Torvalds sees Linux playing a large role in the IoT because “you also need smart devices. The stupid devices talk different standards. Maybe you won’t see Linux on the leaf nodes, but you’ll see Linux in the hubs.”
Personally, Torvalds added, “I’m never been very interested in very small OSs. I liked working with hardware. But, if it doesn’t have a memory management unit, I don’t find it that interesting.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Makerville Knit: Industrial-Strength WiFi Breakout
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/05/makerville-knit-industrial-strength-wifi-breakout/
If you need an industrial-strength IoT product, you need an industrial-strength WiFi chipset. For our own household hacks, we’re totally happy with the ESP8266 chip. But if you need to connect to the big, scary Internet you’ll probably want state-of-the-art encryption. In particular, Amazon insists on TLS 1.2 for their Web Services (AWS), and we don’t know how to get that working on the ESP.
[Anuj] designed a breakout board called the knit which includes a Marvell MW300 WiFi SOC. This chip has an onboard ARM Cortex M4F running at 200 MHz, which means you’ve got a lot of everything to play with: flash memory, RAM, a floating-point unit, you name it. And Marvell’s got an SDK for using AWS that includes things like an operating system and peripheral support and other niceties. TLS 1.2 is included.
Makerville Knit is a breakout board to build WiFi enabled things.
https://makerville.io/knit/
Marvell’s Starter SDK for AWS IoT Service
https://github.com/marvell-iot/aws_starter_sdk/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Make Your Mailman Nervous With a Wifi Enabled Mailbox
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/05/make-your-mailman-nervous-with-a-wifi-enabled-mailbox/
“It’s not a bomb,” the mailman whispered to himself as he reached for [atxguitarist]’s mailbox, giving a nervous glance at the small black box stuck to the side. “This is THAT house, it’s not a bomb. I’m sure it’s not a bomb,”
The mailbox enhancement in question is a hacked Amazon Dash Button in a project box. When the door of the mailbox is opened, a magnetic reed switch simulates a button press on the Dash. The Dash transmodulates the signal into WiFi pixies which are received by a Raspberry Pi. The Pi’s sole purpose in life is to run a 24-line Python script that plays the famous sound from AOL’s mail software and sends a notification to his phone.
Comments:
My mailbox runs a Esp8266-01 with reed switch+dht11. I run it from a tc4056 li-on charger and solar panel. I use the junky plastic enclosure at menards. I’d like to add a camera but the esp only has so much bandwidth sadly XD
there are solutions that will last you a while … http://lowpowerlab.com/motion/ In that design the PIR sensor burns most of the power. If you can do with a reed sensor, then you could get many years of life.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Keeping The Power On with Watson IoT
https://www.eeweb.com/company-news/ibm/keeping-the-power-on-with-watson-iot
IBM’s Watson Internet of Things (IoT) technology has been selected by Fingrid, Finland’s main electricity transmission grid operator, to manage its 14,000 km electricity grid network and ensure uninterrupted service to customers.
Keeping the power flowing through Fingrid’s 14,000 km electricity grid is a daunting task that requires a holistic understanding of grid operations, maintenance and safety issues. As a global leader in electricity transmission management, Fingrid wanted to push the boundaries and find new ways of boosting reliability, controlling costs and supporting better investment decisions.
“Today’s power systems are getting more and more complex. At the same time as there is a growing requirement that power must be available all the time. We must therefore be able to do fast large-scale fault investigation thereby reducing the impact on people and businesses all over Finland,” says Marcus Stenstrand, grid manager at Fingrid Oyj. “We realized that we needed to combine near-real-time big data analytics with external factors such as weather to increase the reliability of the grid and ensure the highest levels of service for our customers.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nest’s Hub Shutdown Proves You’re Crazy to Buy Into the Internet of Things
http://www.wired.com/2016/04/nests-hub-shutdown-proves-youre-crazy-buy-internet-things/
If you were one of the people who shelled out $300 for Revolv’s smart home hub, you’ve probably already heard the bad news: the web service that powers the little gadget is shutting down next month, which will render the thing effectively useless.
Revolv was a smart home startup that was acquired by Google’s home automation company Nest in October 2014 (Nest is now, like Google, a part of the Alphabet conglomerate). The company sold a hub for controlling a wide range of different gadgets, from lights to coffee pots, via a single smartphone app. The catch is that the hub depends on a cloud-based service to communicate with your smartphone. Once that cloud service shuts down, you won’t be able to use the app to control anything.
Nest’s decision sends a pretty clear signal that you just can’t rely on ‘Internet of Things’ things.
Losing Connection
That’s a real shame because the Internet of Things is poised to help us save electricity and water, improve our health, and make our homes and cars safer. But few people are going to shell out hundreds of dollars to buy products that might simply stop working after just 18 months. Consumers are already losing interest in the idea of the Internet of Things, according to one report, and Nest’s shortsighted decision to pull the plug on the Revolv hub won’t inspire confidence in other products.
Asked whether we can expect a similar lifespan from other Nest products, such as its Nest protect smoke detectors, Dropcam cameras, and its flagship thermostats, a company spokesperson pointed out even its oldest thermostats from 2011 still receive software updates. That’s a cold comfort for Revolv customers who bought a device in September of 2014.
Going Cloudless
The solution is fairly simple: make it possible for the devices to work independently of their cloud services over WiFi or Bluetooth. We can understand that certain features just won’t work without the Internet, like some of the heavy data-crunching that a device like the Nest thermostat uses in order to make predictions about when to turn the heat up or down. But it’s absurd that you can’t use your phone to control a device like the Revolv hub without an Internet connection, even if the thing is sitting 10 feet away from you.
Consumer Demand for Connected Home Products Slows Dramatically in First Half of 2015 and Continues Rapid Drop Off
http://www.argusinsights.com/connected-home-release/
New report by Argus Insights reveals that of all Home Automation devices, security cameras are most talked about and despite investments in Nest and Dropcam by Google, and SmartThings by Samsung, consumer demand still lags
“Based on our review of consumer interest, the state of home automation in 2015 is not looking good for anyone who sells or makes these devices,” said John Feland, CEO and founder, Argus Insights. “Even though Google and Samsung made big purchases in this space by buying Nest thermostats, Dropcam and the suite of SmartThings products demand is stagnating. It is obvious that the early adopters have bought what they want and other consumers are expressing frustration that these products are complicated and difficult to set up and use.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel-men, start your engines! Chipzilla gets into the car silicon caper
Acquires Yogitech for its certification smarts
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/06/intel_adds_yogitech_to_iot_business/
Intel has acquired Internet of Things business Yogitech with an eye to the automotive segment.
Blogging about the acquisition, Chipzilla’s Ken Caviasca explains that the surging “advanced driver assistance systems” (ADAS) segment – stuff like assisted parking – needs what he calls “functional safety,” and that’s where Italian Yogitech comes in.
Companies like Infineon, CEVA, Arteris, and STMicroelectronics will be watching the acquisition carefully, The Register imagines, but Altera won’t be worried, since Intel digested it in December 2015.
Yogitech’s systems help chip designers get the industry certifications needed for markets like the auto business.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel-men, start your engines! Chipzilla gets into the car silicon caper
Acquires Yogitech for its certification smarts
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/06/intel_adds_yogitech_to_iot_business/
Intel has acquired Internet of Things business Yogitech with an eye to the automotive segment.
Blogging about the acquisition, Chipzilla’s Ken Caviasca explains that the surging “advanced driver assistance systems” (ADAS) segment – stuff like assisted parking – needs what he calls “functional safety,” and that’s where Italian Yogitech comes in.
Companies like Infineon, CEVA, Arteris, and STMicroelectronics will be watching the acquisition carefully, The Register imagines, but Altera won’t be worried, since Intel digested it in December 2015.
Yogitech’s systems help chip designers get the industry certifications needed for markets like the auto business.
Caviasca reckons the functional safety needed in the auto space will spread into other IoT segments like building and factory systems, and Intel estimates it’ll be a requirement for as much as 30 per cent of the IoT market by 2020.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Buys Yogitech, Aims To Improve Safety of Autonomous Cars and IoT Systems
https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/04/05/206228/intel-buys-yogitech-aims-to-improve-safety-of-autonomous-cars-and-iot-systems?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
Intel has acquired the Italian company Yogitech to improve upon Internet of Things (IoT) security and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. Yogitech’s flagship technology known as faultRobust is designed to keep circuits functional and prevent device failure. Since Intel provides chips for IoT devices, it makes sense for the company to be interested expanding that effort with Yogitech’s technology.
Intel eyes safety of self-driving cars, robots with IoT acquisition
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3052252/internet-of-things/intel-eyes-safety-of-self-driving-cars-robots-with-iot-acquisition.html
Intel acquired Yogitech, an Italian company that will provide circuits and tools to reduce faults in decisions made by self-driving cars or IoT devices.
Intel has its eyes on making self-driving cars, robots and industrial equipment safer with a new acquisition.
The chip maker has acquired Italian company Yogitech, which provides circuits and software tools for IoT devices to automate decision-making based on data patterns. Intel declined to comment how much it paid to buy the company.
Intel will put Yogitech’s technology to work in its IoT products, with an emphasis on safety for automated devices. The technology is designed to keep circuits functional and prevent device failure.
Yogitech’s circuitry will also provide straightforward verification mechanisms for safety decisions made by IoT devices.
Intel provides chips for IoT devices. Its Atom and Quark chips are used in IoT devices, and it bundles hardware- and software-based security and networking layers in with those chips.
Tomi Engdahl says:
To realize the potential of the IoT, programmers need tools that make it easier to create applications that combine devices and the cloud so to this end, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers are building tools and developing a framework that developers can use to easily perform data analytics over a multitude of devices.
Toward the Internet of Things
A framework for data analytics on digital device networks
http://www.insiderensselaer.com/internet-of-things/
The Internet of Things promises to improve our lives by connecting sensors in the objects that surround us—buildings, appliances, gadgets, and vehicles—and the data that they collect. But to realize that potential, programmers need tools that make it easier to create applications that combine devices and the cloud. With the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF), researcher Stacy Patterson is building those tools and developing a framework that developers can use to easily perform data analytics over a multitude of devices.
“Rather than developers designing custom algorithms for each network of devices, we’re going to build a framework of software that sits on all these devices and the cloud that will automatically manage communication between the devices and deal with device and network failures,” said Patterson, the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Computer Science. “Now the developer only needs to provide a little bit of code to say ‘this is how I want it to work,’ and this framework will take care of the rest.”
The project, “Toward a Machine Learning Framework for the Internet of Things,” is supported by a prestigious five-year $618,661 NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER).
http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1553340
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP8266 Amazon Web Service (AWS) API
http://internetofhomethings.com/homethings/?p=739
https://github.com/internetofhomethings/AWS-ESP8266-API
I could not find an API targeted for the ESP8266 in the AWS SDK. Yet the solution was right there….within the SDK. All that had to be done was to adapt one of the currently supported micro-controller APIs for use with the ESP8266. After reviewing the APIs offered, the one that had the most in common with the ESP8266 was the Spark Core API.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Flaming and Talking Pumpkin using AWS and ESP8266
https://www.hackster.io/Dlbates/iot-flaming-and-talking-pumpkin-using-aws-and-esp8266-49934f
Part 0: Getting started with IoT on AWS and Arduino (+ESP8266)
https://anwaarullah.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/getting-started-with-iot-on-aws-and-arduino-esp8266/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny BLE UART Makes Bluetooth Low Energy Simple
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/06/tiny-ble-uart-makes-bluetooth-low-energy-simple/
This time, I want to show you how I used the Hackaday special edition Tiny BLE (from Seeed Studios) and its mbed library to do a quick simple BLE project.
I wanted something simple for an example so you could build on it without having to remove much code. For that reason, I decided to allow my phone to control the state of a three-color LED via BLE. To do that, I’m going to use a virtual UART and some off-the-shelf phone software. The whole thing won’t take much code, but that’s the point: the abstraction makes BLE relatively simple.
The Tiny BLE board is about the size of a large rectangular postage stamp
The target board has an nRF51822 which is the CPU (an ARM Cortex-M0 at 16 MHz) and BLE interface. There’s also a 3 color LED, and button, and an MPU6050 which allows the CPU to use a 3D accelerometer and gyro to determine position and motion. The device has a processor on board which fuses the data and offloads the CPU. Not bad for about $30.
The Tiny BLE board uses the mbed online environment. Once you’ve logged in, click on Platforms, find the TinyBLE board and add it to your IDE using the provided button. That’s it. The toolchain is ready to go.
The idea of using a virtual UART sounds great on the embedded side, but you need software on your phone or other device, too, right? Luckily, the UART service works with the free nRF UART apps from Nordic Semiconductors, available for both iOS and Android.
The application is pretty bare-bones. However, it does let you send and receive with the embedded device. You can always figure out the host software yourself in more detail after you get your embedded code working.
http://store.hackaday.com/products/tiny-ble
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ry Crist / CNET:
Amazon adds Smart Home Skill API to Alexa Skills Kit so developers can easily add remote functionality
Amazon opens up the software for Alexa-controlled smart homes
http://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-opens-up-the-software-for-alexa-controlled-smart-homes/
New developer tools for the makers of third-party smart home gadgets will make it easier for lights, thermostats, switches and more to connect with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.
Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa has already grown into a viable platform for voice-activated smart home control. Now, Amazon is introducing new, open software that will make it easier for smart home gadgets to hop aboard that platform.
The software is a new addition to the Alexa Skills Kit called the Smart Home Skill API. Short for “application programming interface,” an API is a piece of software that provides building blocks developers can use to create a specific type of program for a specific purpose.
For now, Amazon’s API is limited specifically to thermostats, lights, switches and plugs. Makers of things like locks, garage doors, home entertainment setups and security systems will still need to craft custom Alexa Skills outside of the smart home-specific guidelines in the API — meaning you’ll still need to use those pesky invocation words to control them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UK Comms Regulator Pushes VHF Spectrum for IoT
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1329361&
UK communications regulator Ofcom is laying out formal plans and a regulatory framework for the Internet of Things.
After six months of consultation, UK communications regulator Ofcom has starting laying out formal plans, a regulatory framework and ambitions of how it sees the country benefiting from the Internet of Things.
As a first, and seemingly small step the organization—which governs and allocates the crucial spectrum that all things IoT, including smart homes, automated farms, machine to machine (M2M) communications and connected vehicles rely on—last week ruled that it will reserve a portion of the VHF radio spectrum for a variety of IoT applications, and that these frequencies could be accommodated without impacting existing spectrum users.
Specifically, it plans to allocate 10MHz of VHF spectrum in the 55-68MHz, 70.5-71.5MHz and 80.5-81.5 MHz bands, which the regulator suggests is ideal for long-range communications in rural parts of the country.
At the power level and frequencies being discussed, we are looking at low bandwidth applications such as using wirelessly connected sensors for ‘smart’ farming
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon Tap review: Alexa’s magic is gone
The Tap doesn’t capture the charm of Amazon’s other devices
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/6/11371814/amazon-tap-review-alexa-echo-bluetooth-speaker
If you own an Amazon Echo, or even if you’ve just seen Alec Baldwin’s commercials for it, you know that this gadget talks back when you address it by name. Alexa, what’s going on in the news? Alexa, play some relaxing music. Alexa, order more paper towels for me.
Last week, Amazon shipped a device that doesn’t answer to anyone, no matter what you call it. The $129.99 Amazon Tap is a standalone, portable Bluetooth speaker version of the Amazon Echo1. Except it only works when you reach out and tap a button on it before speaking — you don’t even have to bother saying “Alexa” out loud after you hit the button.
The Amazon Tap is a black cylinder that measures about the height of a large glass of water. It’s a little shorter than the $149.99 UE Boom 2 and noticeably smaller, all around, than the $179.99 Amazon Echo.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ry Crist / CNET:
Amazon adds Smart Home Skill API to Alexa Skills Kit so developers can easily add remote functionality
Amazon opens up the software for Alexa-controlled smart homes
http://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-opens-up-the-software-for-alexa-controlled-smart-homes/
New developer tools for the makers of third-party smart home gadgets will make it easier for lights, thermostats, switches and more to connect with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.
Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa has already grown into a viable platform for voice-activated smart home control. Now, Amazon is introducing new, open software that will make it easier for smart home gadgets to hop aboard that platform.
The software is a new addition to the Alexa Skills Kit called the Smart Home Skill API. Short for “application programming interface,” an API is a piece of software that provides building blocks developers can use to create a specific type of program for a specific purpose. Amazon’s API standardizes the process by which the makers of smart lights, smart thermostats and smart switches develop their Alexa Skills — essentially the downloadable apps that allow Alexa to control those gadgets when asked.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TIA Weak Artificial Intelligence IoT Assistant © MIT
https://www.hackster.io/AdamMiltonBarker/tia-weak-artificial-intelligence-iot-assistant-e440cf
IoT security/environment monitoring device with NFC & fingerprint authentication devices and a Weak Artificial Intelligence Assistant.
This project consists of three devices:
2 x Arduino Uno boards (AuthWayNFC & AuthWayFP)
1 x MKR1000 (DoorGuard1000)
1 x Windows Universal Application (TIA).
The two Arduino Uno boards are used for authentication to the Windows application and the MKR1000 is an IoT security device. The Arduino Uno boards communicate with the Windows Application using serial, the MKR1000 is a web server and the Windows Application controls it and reads sensor data via HTTP.
The Windows Universal application is a Weak Artificial Intelligence application using SIML – the Synthetic Intelligence Markup Language. The Windows application is programmed in C# and also uses speech recognition and speech synthesis.
The plan was to integrate Azure IoT Hub & Stream Analytics completely and be able to manage and monitor devices etc via the Windows Application but due to issues I came across with the Azure API’s and other work commitments I did not have enough time to do this but will be doing in the future. For now the DoorGuard1000 sends its data to Azure IoT Hub.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CarSmart © CC BY-NC-SA
https://www.hackster.io/pilgrimbill/carsmart-88164a
Smart cloud-based vehicle OBD-II diagnostics logging and analysis using Azure IoTHub, Stream Analytics, and Machine Learning.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Weather Station V 2.0 © MIT
https://www.hackster.io/windows-iot/weather-station-v-2-0-8abe16
Measure temperature, pressure and humidity in your room.
In this project we will use the Adafruit Starter Pack for Windows 10 IoT Core on Raspberry Pi 2 kit components to create a project that uses a sensor to read the temperature, pressure, humidity and altitude.
You can download the code starting project from https://github.com/ms-iot/adafruitsample and we will lead you through the addition of the code needed to talk to the web service and get your pin on the map.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung’s SmartThings
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/samsungs-smartthings
If you pick up a Samsung Smart TV this year, you’ll be certain to find “Linux Inside” in many ways. Samsung continues to build on its Tizen-powered Smart TV UI, which this year it will enhance with integrated SmartThings IoT hub technology, enabling the TV as the control center for a smart home. Samsung’s SUHD TVs for 2016 will enable users to connect with, control and monitor hundreds of other compatible devices including lights, locks, thermostats, cameras, speakers, appliances, sensors and the like.
This world of devices is enabled via the SmartThings Extend USB adapter, which plugs directly in to the TV, enabling the monitoring and controlling of ZigBee and Z-Wave devices.
https://www.smartthings.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Implementing Bluetooth Smart modules in industrial IoT applications
http://www.edn.com/design/wireless-networking/4441780/Implementing-Bluetooth-Smart-modules-in-industrial-IoT-applications?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160407&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160407&elqTrackId=eccb6218808949d5a2b81d9a4c77820d&elq=e91eb49413a54074a6bd57f514c14c81&elqaid=31705&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27694
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept of wirelessly connecting physical objects to the network or cloud so they can collect and exchange data. There is increasing demand for these connected devices, and Bluetooth Smart technology is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to implement IoT. This article will present key design considerations for using Bluetooth Smart modules to develop industrial IoT products and devices.
Bluetooth technology is already embedded in peoples’ everyday lives, and it will continue to have an impact to make “Things” smarter. Instrumentation can become smarter with wireless data capture. Wireless data reporting, or capturing, offers convenience and efficiency to many different industries.
In the medical field, doctors can quickly monitor patients’ status from a mobile device instead of walking from room to room. Consumers can enjoy music from their wireless Bluetooth headphones and track their heartbeat and progress from a wearable, Bluetooth-connected device while running. House doors can be unlocked and lights can be turned on or off by simply touching your smartphone. Even industrial machines can be monitored and controlled by a Bluetooth-connected device to determine their status or predictive maintenance needs.
While it sounds interesting and promising how Bluetooth Smart can benefit our world, it is not always easy to implement the technology because there are many technical requirements to consider.
Using Bluetooth ICs that have an operating temperature range from −40ºC to +85ºC can usually cover most temperature requirements.
The typical Bluetooth Smart communication range is around 30 meters, but this can be affected by the antenna and the surroundings.
After considering the hardware technical requirements, engineers should then decide on the firmware and software. Some module manufacturers provide firmware-embedded modules, which can make the development process much easier because the module control functions are built in and can be implemented using simple text commands. This greatly reduces development time and costs, however, an external processor is required to control the Bluetooth Smart module.
Engineers who want to embed their control programs in the Bluetooth Smart module, developing their own unique application codes, can always use a blank module. Blank modules provide the basic layers and Bluetooth stack, on top of which a user builds their application profiles. So for our water tank monitor, the engineer may need to develop the firmware and software app for the smartphone. Using a firmware embedded module will make the process easier, but a blank module will offer more freedom to develop different functions and eliminate one processor.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny BLE UART Makes Bluetooth Low Energy Simple
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/06/tiny-ble-uart-makes-bluetooth-low-energy-simple/
Last time I talked about the internals of how Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) handles data. I mentioned that the way it is set up is meant to conserve power and also to support common BLE devices like heart rate monitors. On the other hand, I also mentioned that you often didn’t need to deal with that because you’d use an abstraction layer.
This time, I want to show you how I used the Hackaday special edition Tiny BLE (from Seeed Studios) and its mbed library to do a quick simple BLE project.
http://store.hackaday.com/products/tiny-ble
Tomi Engdahl says:
Red bricks: Alphabet to turn off Revolv’s lights
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/07/alphabet-to-turn-off-revolvs-lights/
Revolv, the bright red smart home hub famous for its abundance of radio modules, has finally been declared dead by its founders. After a series of acquisitions, Google’s parent company Alphabet has gained control over Revolv’s cloud service – and they are shutting it down.
We did not expect this sudden death of a well-engineered hardware platform
Each Revolv hub was purchased with a “lifetime subscription” to their online service.
Nest now offers individual solutions to Revolv owners, possibly partial refunds or discounts on Nest products, but Revolv customers will have a hard time figuring out what to do with their hardware. Many of those supposedly bricked hubs – packed with radios like Z-Wave, Insteon, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, 900 MHz, 433 MHz, and 915 MHz – may eventually end up on eBay for hackers to obtain for a fraction of their initial price tag of $299.
Tomi Engdahl says:
An XBee wireless modem
https://learn.adafruit.com/xbee-radios
XBee modems are one of the easiest ways to create a wireless point-to-point or mesh network. They have error correction, are configured with AT commands, come in multiple flavors and can create a wireless serial link out of the box! I wanted to make a wireless Arduino project but all the adapter boards on the market made me unhappy. So I designed what I think is an excellent low-cost adapter board.
Yes it can act as a breakout board, but it also has…
Onboard 3.3V regulator to cleanly power your XBee, up to 250mA
Level shifting circuitry means that its trivial to connect it to 5V circuitry such as an Arduino without risk of damage
Two LEDs, one for activity (RSSI), the other for power (Associate)
10-pin 2mm sockets included to protect the modem and allow easy swapping, upgrading or recycling
All the commonly used pins are brought out along the edge, making it easy to breadboard or wire up
For use with any XBee/Pro pin-compatible module (check your module datasheet to verify power needs) Works with XBee series 1 and 2!