According to Intel IoT is expected to be a multi-trillion-dollar market, with 50 billion devices creating 44 zettabytes (or 44 trillion gigabytes) of data annually by 2020. But that widely cited 50 billion IoT devices in 2020 number is clearly not correct! Forecast of 50 Billion Devices by 2020 Is Outdated. In 2017 we should be talking about about some sensible numbers. The current count is somewhere between Gartner’s estimate of 6.4 billion (which doesn’t include smartphones, tablets, and computers), International Data Corporation’s estimate of 9 billion (which also excludes those devices), and IHS’s estimate of 17.6 billion (with all such devices included). Both Ericsson and Evans have lowered their expectations from 50 billion for 2020: Evans, who is now CTO of Stringify, says he expects to see 30 billion connected devices by then, while Ericsson figures on 28 billion by 2021.
Connectivity and security will be key features for Internet of Things processors in 2017. Microcontroller (MCU) makers will continue to target their products at the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2017 by giving more focus on battery life, more connectivity of various types, and greater security. The new architectures are almost sure to spawn a multitude of IoT MCUs in 2017 from manufacturers who adopt ARM’s core designs.
ARM will be big. Last year, ARM’s partners shipped 15 billion chips based on its architectures. The trend toward IoT processors will go well beyond ARM licensees. Intel rolled out the Intel Atom E3900 Series for IoT applications. And do not forget MIPS an RISC-V.
FPGA manufacturers are pushing their products to IoT market. They promise that FPGAs solve challenges at the core of IoT implementation: making IoT devices power efficient, handling incompatible interfaces, and providing a processing growth path to handle the inevitable increase in device performance requirement.
Energy harvesting field will become interesting in 2017 as it is more broadly adopted. Energy harvesting is becoming the way forward to help supplement battery power or lose the need for it altogether. Generally researchers are eyeing energy-harvesting to power ultra-low-power devices, wearable technology, and other things that don’t need a lot of power or don’t come in a battery-friendly form factor.
Low power wide area networks (LPWA) networks (also known as NarrowBand IoT) will be hot in 2017. There is hope that f LPWA nets will act as a catalyst, changing the nature of the embedded and machine-to-machine markets as NB-IoT focuses specifically on indoor coverage, low cost, long battery life, and enabling a large number of connected devices. The markets will become a kind of do-it-yourselfers paradise of modules and services, blurring the lines between vendors, users and partners. At the same time for years to come, the market for low power wide area networks (LPWA) will be as fragmented and is already in a race to the bottom (Sigfox, said to be promising costs approaching $1 per node per year). Competing technologies include Sigfox, LoRa Alliance, LTE Cat 1, LTE Cat M1 (eMTC), LTE Cat NB1 (NB-IoT) and other sub-gigahertz options almost too numerous to enumerate.
We are starting to see a battle between different IoT technologies, and in few years to come we will see which are winners and which technologies will be lost in the fight. Sigfox and Lora are currently starting well, but telecom operators with mobile networks NB-IoT will try hit the race heavily in 2017. Vendors prep Cat M1, NB1 for 2017: The Cat M1 standard delivers up to 380 Kbits/second over a 1.4 MHz channel. NB-1 handles up to 40 Kbits/s over 200 kHz channels. Vendors hope the 7-billion-unit installed base of cellular M2M modules expands. It’s too early to tell which technologies will be mainstream and which niche. It could be that cellular NB-IOT was too late, it will fail in the short term, it can win in the long term, and the industry will struggle to make any money from it. At $2 a year, 20 billion devices will contribute around 4% of current global mobile subscription revenues.
New versions of communication standards will be taken into use in 2017. For example Bluetooth 5 that adds more speed and IoT functionality. In 2017, we will see an increase in the number of devices with the new Bluetooth 5 standard.
Industrial IoT to gain traction in 2017. Industrial applications ultimately have the greater transformative potential than consumer products, offering users real returns on investment (ROI) rather than just enhanced convenience or “cool factor”. But the industrial sector is conservative and has been slow to embrace an industrial IoT (IIoT), but is seems that they are getting interested now. During the past year there has been considerable progress in removing many of the barriers to IIoT adoption. A global wide implementation of an IIoT is many years away, of course. The issues of standards and interoperability will most likely remain unresolved for several years to come, but progress is being made. The Industrial Internet Consortium released a framework to support development of standards and best practices for IIoT security.
The IIoT market is certainly poised to grow. A Genpact research study, for instance, indicates that more than 80% of large companies believe that the IIoT will be essential to their future success. In a recent market analysis by Industry ARC, for instance, the projected value of the IIoT market will reach more than $120 billion by 2021. Research firm Markets and Markets is even more optimistic, pegging IIoT growth at a CAGR of 8% to more than $150 billion by 2020. And the benefits will follow. By GE’s estimate, the IIoT will stimulate an increase in the global GDP of $10 to $15 trillion over the next 20 years.
Systems integrators are seeking a quick way to enter the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market. So expect to see many plug and play IoT sensor systems unveiled. There were many releses in 2016, and expect to see more in 2017. Expect to see device, connectivity and cloud service to be marketed as one packet.
IoT analytics will be talked a lot in 2017. Many companies will promise to turn Big Data insights into bigger solutions. For industrial customers Big Data analytics is promised to drive operational efficiencies, cut costs, boosting production, and improving worker productivity. There are many IIoT analytic solution and platform suppliers already on the market and a growing number of companies are now addressing industrial analytics use.
In 2016 it was all bout getting the IoT devices connected to cloud. In 2017 we will see increased talk about fog computing. Fog computing is new IoT trend pushed by Cisco and many other companies. As the Internet of Things (IoT) evolves, decentralized, distributed-intelligence concepts such as “fog computing” are taking hold to address the need for lower latencies, improved security, lower power consumption, and higher reliability. The basic premise of fog computing is classic decentralization whereby some processing and storage functions are better performed locally instead of sending data all the way from the sensor, to the cloud, and back again to an actuator. This demands smarter sensors and new wireless sensor network architectures. Groups such as the Open Fog Consortium have formed to define how it should best be done. You might start to want to be able to run the same code in cloud and your IoT device.
The situation in IoT security in 2016 was already Hacking the IoT: As Bad As I Feared It’d Be and there is nothing that would indicate that the situation will not get any better in 2017. A veritable army of Internet-connected equipment has been circumvented of late, due to vulnerabilities in its hardware, software or both … “smart” TVs, set-top boxes and PVRs, along with IP cameras, routers, DSL, fiber and cable modems, printers and standalone print servers, NASs, cellular hot spots, and probably plenty of other gear. IoT world at the moment is full of vulnerable devices, and it will take years to get then replaces with more secure devices. Those vulnerable devices can be used to make huge DDoS attacks against Internet services. The 2016 October 21 cyberattacks on Dyn brought to light how easily many IoT devices can be compromised. I expect that kind of incidents will happen more in 2017 as DDoS botnets are pretty easy to build with tools available on-line. There’s no question that everyone in the chain – manufacturers, retailers and consumers – have to do a better job securing connected devices.When it comes to IoT, more security is needed.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Voice and Gesture Based Wheelchair Using AVR and Android
https://www.eeweb.com/project/voice-and-gesture-based-wheelchair-using-avr-and-android
Here is implemented a home navigation system, which comprises of a wheelchair which works on the inputs such as gesture and voice commands via an android phone and navigates according to command. It can be used by an elderly or physically challenged person to move inside the home without any difficulty. By making use of HNS, elderly and the physically challenged can move to different locations in the particular house just by pronouncing the direction name or by making the movement of the android phone they will be provided with.
The hardware consists of various components such as AVR ATmega32, a Bluetooth device, motor driver which is L293D, IC ULN2803, external device such as torch, two dc motors of 5 rpm each, MAX232 for serial communication between AVR and Bluetooth, four sensors for temperature, smoke, obstacle distance and light along with an android phone and a remote computer
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open cloud platform for connecting equipment, critical plant systems
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/open-cloud-platform-for-connecting-equipment-critical-plant-systems/913824771bf20e973ab540d3fe08bdc2.html
Fluke’s Accelix is an open cloud platform that connects maintenance software, equipment and critical plant systems and is designed to help maintenance teams access the benefit of connected equipment, tools, measurement data and software systems.
Accelix integrates Fluke’s portfolio of wireless tools and condition monitoring sensors to eMaint, Fluke’s software as a service (SaaS) computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and shares information with enterprise solutions.
Fluke Accelix platform ushers in new era of connected tools and maintenance productivity
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fluke-accelix-platform-ushers-in-new-era-of-connected-tools-and-maintenance-productivity-300452763.html
Fluke Accelix™ (Accelix) is an open, cloud platform that connects maintenance software, equipment and critical plant systems. Accelix integrates Fluke’s portfolio of wireless tools and condition monitoring sensors to eMaint, Fluke’s leading SaaS CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System), and shares information with enterprise solutions of choice.
“Maintenance managers are constantly looking for opportunities to improve productivity, lower costs, and save time. This is increasingly important as teams have fewer resources to do the same job, and they need better insights into resource allocation and asset health,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Networking used to improve superconducting magnet
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/networking-used-to-improve-superconducting-magnet/20e306e5118ce2fcd869894bd8718214.html
The world’s largest and most powerful particle smasher large hadron collider (LHC) at CERN has restarted circulating beams of protons and it uses a lot of CANopen networks to control the high-energy physical experiments.
After a longer winter sleep than usual, the large hadron collider (LHC) has been restarted. The superconducting magnet of the LHC has been substituted and a new beam dump has been installed in the super proton synchrotron (SPS). Additionally, the researcher removed and exchanged some cables.
All the controls for the accelerator, its services, and technical infrastructure are housed under one roof at the CERN control center. From here, the beams inside the LHC are made to collide at four locations around the accelerator ring, corresponding to the positions of four particle detectors—Atlas, CMS, Alice, and LHC.
The CERN engineers are using CANopen-networked modules to control and monitor the power supplies. These embedded local monitoring board (ELMB) modules are multi-function devices that are focused on providing analog inputs/outputs (I/Os), digital inputs/outputs, SPI connectivity, and custom functionality. They are installed in the Atlas, CMS, LHC, Alice, and Totem experiments. The units are based on Atmel’s Atmega 128 micro-controllers with on-chip CAN controllers featuring 128 KiB of flash-memory and a 4-KiB SRAM. The PCA82C250 transceiver chips are produced by NXP. The modules are plugged into ELMB or application-specific motherboards.
In some applications, Ethernet-to-CAN gateways are used. These gateways are designed to offer an alternative to PCI and USB interface boards connecting the CANopen networks to the CERN control system.
Restart with an improved superconducting magnet
Published 2017-05-29
https://can-newsletter.org/engineering/applications/170529_large-hadron-collider-restart-with-an-improved-superconducting-magnet_cern/
The world’s largest and most powerful particle smasher Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has restarted circulating beams of protons. It uses a lot of CANopen networks to control the high-energy physical experiments.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital developments, cloud platform help with IIoT, robotics, automation, electrical products, and power grid
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/digital-developments-cloud-platform-help-with-iiot-robotics-automation-electrical-products-and-power-grid/33b019e561624cfafd0795ffecac0cac.html
New digital products based on an integrated cloud platform aim to help with opportunities from the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and digitalization, according to ABB, which has formed new departments for robotics and motion control, industrial automation, electrical products, and power grids, according to Control Engineering China.
A new generation of ABB digital solutions based on an integrated cloud platform enabled with Microsoft cooperation is helping with Internet of Things and digitalization opportunities, announced ABB in October 2016. ABB also announced the establishment of four market-oriented business departments this past January: robotics and motion control, industrial automation, electrical products, and power grids. Control Engineering China interviewed Zhang Jun, ABB director of strategic markets and business development of the industrial automation business department, about ABB’s role in automation.
Jun’s current department replaced the former ABB process automation business department and integrated products including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and heavy duty rectifiers previously affiliated with the business department of discrete automation and motion control.
Applying Big Data
In Jun’s opinion, the key to digital development lies in proper application of Big Data. At present, ABB has integrated the previously scattered data under the framework of Industrie 4.0 and builds an algorithm model to improve trend analysis.
“The application of Big Data also lies in the intensification of real-time data connections. ABB has made attempts on this, and accumulated rich experience in the field of robotics, shipping, and electric vehicles. We wish that these successful experiences can be expanded to more customer domains and segmented markets.”
Jun outlined ABB’s advantages in the shipping industry, since ships tend to operate relatively far from ports, especially in the development of deep-sea resources, and the external environment exerts substantial impact on shipping operations.
Offshore weather and hydrologic situations affect work efficiency and ship safety. Ship operations urgently need “safer and more reliable data analysis to help them carry out operations in a more high-efficiency and safer way,” Jun said.
With the promotion of Industrie 4.0, more product value will be developed. For example, Octopus is ABB’s intelligent analysis sea transportation software designed for shipping. More than 400 ships globally use the system.
“Digitalization is not unreachable. We are making efforts to upgrade a conventional electrical product to an intelligent product through these convenient and fast products or systems, and make customers feel the value brought by digitalization,” Jun said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ODVA members collaborate on critical elements for the push toward industrial automation, wireless communications, and technology
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/odva-members-collaborate-on-critical-elements-for-the-push-toward-industrial-automation-wireless-communications-and-technology/cf78d7b1b65481e65bbfe843643741ba.html
Cybersecurity, enabling technologies for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and cloud computing, industrial Ethernet, and wireless communications are among areas of attention for ODVA members.
ODVA, a standards development and trade organization for information and communication technologies used in industrial automation, convened its 2017 Industry Conference & 18th Annual Meeting in Palm Harbor, Florida, in February. The multi-day event included presentations of numerous technical papers on the latest developments in communication technology and standards that create challenges, yet many opportunities, for the industry.
Control Engineering (CE): Security was a big topic covered throughout the conference as it relates to ODVA’s Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) and EtherNet/IP industrial Ethernet network. What would you say are the challenges and best practices to ensure that data is secure?
Wilcox: As alluded to in the question, a big step to secure data is to secure the network. Each end user has its own tolerance for risk when it comes to security, so there is no definitive answer, which is the biggest challenge. A best practice is to adopt a defense-in-depth approach to security to address both internal and external security threats to the system, of which data is a critical part. Levels of protection include:
Education and awareness programs – training of OT personnel on industrial security policies and procedures, including how to respond to a security incident
Physical – limit physical access to authorized personnel: control room, cells/areas, control panels, industrial automation and control system (IACS) devices (such as locks, gates, biometrics)
Network – restrictive access, hardening, traffic inspection
Computer hardening – patch management, antiX (an open-source Linux) software, white listing, removal of unused applications/protocols/services, closing unnecessary logical ports, protecting physical ports
Application – restrictive access, hardening, monitoring
Device hardening – trusted communications, change management, data encryption, restrictive access.
Doggett: There are a lot of challenges around security, one of which is the scope of the topic. There are legacy devices/systems to secure, legacy protocols to evolve, a flood of standards/certifications/regulations on the horizon across multiple countries and segments, the need to generate business cases at end users’ sites, although this is becoming less of a challenge, and the evolution in the skills of the attackers which is expanding the scope of security into areas like the supply chain versus just the running plant. As a best practice there is a need to start efforts to secure solutions versus waiting for everything to be fully defined, then there are some well-known steps like analyzing what you have, selecting a framework to guide you, selecting key items to focus protection on, segmentation of the systems, etc.
Tracy: The two biggest challenges for securing industrial Ethernet and IP networks are to 1) educate the staff that works with, and maintains, these networks on cybersecurity and evolving threats. 2) Adopt and enforce policies that allow data to be used in new ways, while maintaining security. Best practices are to adopt a network architecture that isolates and segments zones, and closely regulates access between zones. Pay attention to ICS-CERT alerts and advisories.
CE: It was said that, “The business value of cloud computing is an opportunity space.” Would you agree that the overall industry agrees with this statement or is not quite there yet due to cybersecurity and other concerns?
Wilcox: Every indication is that the industry believes there is value in “the cloud.” A solid stance by the users on their security requirements, risk tolerance, and the ability of cloud application and infrastructure providers to deliver secure solutions is simply “table stakes.”
Doggett: Cloud computing is clearly an opportunity space for industrial automation. Taking advantage of new technologies allows companies to affordably increase capabilities and provide better insight to users. Thanks to analytics, secondary sensing, predictive algorithms, and cloud hosted applications, the users can increase their efficiency by reducing travel needs and prevent issues before they occur. Cybersecurity will be critical to the success of applications.
Tracy: I think that most everyone sees cloud computing as an opportunity, but adoption has been slowed by a number of factors, not just security. There are issues of data access and even ownership. T
Tomi Engdahl says:
Six benefits of Industrie 4.0 for businesses
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/six-benefits-of-industrie-40-for-businesses/8d92d2576473d4450d56f27b7d4e1445.html
Industrie 4.0 can provide manufacturers many benefits such as improved efficiency, lower costs, higher revenues, and increased innovation.
ndustrie 4.0 is designed to change all that by providing benefits in six specific categories:
1. Efficiency
With fewer people and more automation, companies can make decisions more rapidly and keep efficiency high. Automation also tends to keep quality high, and that’s an area that further boosts efficiency.
2. Agility
With a focus on high mix, small lots, and even one-off manufacturing, Industrie 4.0 brings agility to the next level. When products know their own specifications, it accelerates processes throughout production processes.
3. Innovation
Since Industrie 4.0 production lines are made to accommodate high mix and low volumes, they are ideally suited to new product introduction and experimentation in design.
4. Customer experience
The responsiveness and deep information availability available with Industry 4.0 mean manufacturers can give customers better service.
5. Costs
While Industrie 4.0 will require initial investments, once the intelligence is built into products and processes, the costs will plummet. Fewer quality problems lead to less material waste, lower personnel and operating costs.
6. Revenues
With better quality, lower costs, higher mix, and the ability to serve customers well, Industrie 4.0 puts manufacturers on a path to be a preferred supplier to current customers. It also opens up ways to serve larger markets, offer customized and thus higher-margin products, and with intelligent products and operations to offer services to accompany the products.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Eight things to avoid in control system automation projects
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/eight-things-to-avoid-in-control-system-automation-projects/a1d36483ec877cbbe1a8499025a3555b.html
Identifying missteps such as not building a cross-functional team and not defining responsibilities early in a project can help ensure that a control system automation project is successful.
The eight elements listed below have proven to continually cause challenges for a project. The key is to recognize these missteps early and collaborate in a joint effort between parties to ensure the project stays balanced on the tightrope to success.
1. Not building a cross-functional team
2. Making assumptions when defining “success”
3. Develop a plan with a functional design specification (FDS)
4. Not following the process and cutting corners
5. Not defining responsibilities
6. Not accounting for contingency
7. Not defining a test plan
8. Failing to communicate well
Keys to success
Implementing a control system automation project can be difficult to manage if key aspects are not thoroughly planned out. Building a strong, cross-functional team is essential to fully delivering on project responsibilities. Defining success keeps everyone on track and motivated. Executing such a project based on a known and proven processes enables all team members to plan and fully define the detail tasks required to meet the overall objectives. Taking shortcuts or not allowing for due diligence of the project process can introduce unforeseen issues that are not easily overcome. As project leaders, it is our responsibility to remove as much risk as possible. This is accomplished by defining the unknown elements by executing a FDS prior to implementing the project to identify key areas of concerns and define solutions to minimize the risk.
Overlapping responsibilities are not always a bad thing, but the scope boundaries between all the disciplines involved must be fully examined to ensure that no gaps exist. Contingency planning is essential because issues will arise and experienced project leaders account for those issues. Another method to help mitigate risk is defining a thorough test plan. Every automation project should have a clear and precise plan to control quality, and the only way to do so is to fully test the system after development and prior to shipping, as well as during implementation.
Communication is the essential glue that helps keep the project moving forward. This must be continually assessed and managed across all levels to ensure team members have a full understanding of what is truly needed. All of the aspects listed above are key elements to control system automation projects. These projects are always challenging but also rewarding, and following each of these elements thoroughly will help the project be successful.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fighting for holistic IT, OT security
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/fighting-for-holistic-it-ot-security/77302b428b8487b5f6024df8004adce1.html
Integrated cybersecurity solutions are still a long way off because of a lack of expertise and a lack of solutions that don’t address the integration between information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) departments.
Skills shortage
Cybersecurity for industrial processes suffer partly due to a skills shortage and a lack of integrated information technology/operations technology (IT/OT) solutions. The reason for the cybersecurity deficiency is largely attributed to a general expertise shortage of skilled workforce. There were more than 209,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. in 2016, up 75% from 2015, according to an article in Forbes. From a global perspective, the number is greater than one million. With the huge demand for cybersecurity professionals, even the world’s largest banks, energy companies, and governments can’t seem to find them.
Forbes also found despite the high unmet demand for cybersecurity talent, the market for cybersecurity solutions is expected to continue its growth from $75 billion in 2015 to $170 billion by 2020. All sectors of the economy will have to find innovative ways to scale the expertise of their limited workforces to bring security to extensively connected systems, operations and networks. Innovative cyber tools must lead the way by automating learning of baseline behaviors, network monitoring, and cybersecurity management so few may do the work of many, for corporate and industrial control system (ICS) security.
Siloed security
While the staggering number of unfilled jobs mentioned in the Forbes article speak for themselves, technology is partially to blame for the cybersecurity deficiency companies and governments face today. This is especially true in non-enterprise sectors such as utilities, oil and gas, and industrial manufacturing.
From an industrial and enterprise networking view, cybersecurity ended up addressed from two diverse perspectives. From either direction, cybersecurity has been shortsighted by an approach that limits the focus to the reach of each group’s network domains. The reason for this shortcoming is the industrial automation space (OT) and the enterprise software space (IT) are being forced to connect with one another in terms of solutions delivery, operations management and customer outreach, but security integration has not always followed suit.
Automation, integration keys
As the backbone of critical infrastructure, ICSs are ubiquitous in all industries including transportation, water/wastewater, energy to name a few.
Threat management also needs to scale to endpoints throughout the industrial network—such as sensors, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), data loggers and human-machine interfaces (HMIs). Furthermore, as the use of desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones have come into play, the reach of the ICS domain has grown rapidly. A solution that combines automated anomalous detection of ICS security issues, along with proactive threat remediation and containment, is required if security is to scale beyond the OT/IT divide.
When it comes to cybersecurity, less attention needs to be paid to the categorization of OT vs. IT, and more on holistic integration between the two. Leaving ICS without highly-scalable, automated, real-time cybersecurity visibility means our largest industries and government services will continue to be vulnerable to cyber threats.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fire alarms migrate to the network and IoT time
In October this year, Schneider Electric will launch a new Esmi Sense FDP Light Notification Center with features and functionalities that will enable the network connection to be utilized also in the fire sector. Along with the EcoStruxure Fire Expert of Schneider Electric, the Esmi Sense fire alarm system is the first real-world fire detection solution.
Fire Expert allows users to monitor and control fire detection systems from their computer, smartphone, or tablet anytime, anywhere.
There are three different models available in the Esmi Sense fire control panel that are suitable for both small and large systems. The Esmi Sense FDP fire alarm system can be fitted with a wide range of Esmi fire detectors. All fire detectors are certified and have a compatibility test in accordance with EN54-13.
The Esmi navigation wheel makes selecting a function quick and easy. Installing Esmi Sense FDP fire alarm panels is quick and easy. Deployment can save you time and money when one installer can make changes while on the tablet as it circulates in the detection tests in the site.
- Esmi Sense FDP is the world’s first real online fire detection system. 2016 launched the cloud-based EcoStruxure Fire Expert browser interface and the Esmi Sense FDP fire alarm system, allowing users a better snapshot, significantly accelerating installation and deployment, and providing a new type of service for proactive maintenance and maintenance of fire detection systems,
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/6485-palohalytykset-siirtyvat-verkkoon-ja-iot-aikaan
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tosibox monitors power generation
Volter Oy, a Finnish manufacturer of electricity and heat production facilities, has brought its customer experience to a whole new level with the Oulu-based Tosibox. Tosibox remote monitoring technology is now an integral part of Volter’s production facilities management and is installed in all the company’s facilities.
- Tosibox is at the same time easy, fast and secure remote access, making it suitable for all our production facilities. The plant can be set up anywhere in the world and immediately after commissioning it can be connected to reliable and secure remote management. Tosibox Mobile Client, for its part, allows remote management and monitoring regardless of the terminal equipment and data security, says Volter Automation Engineer Iikka Korva
“Monitoring the production system on a mobile device is definitely this day,” says Tero Lepistö, Managing Director of Tosibox..
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/6482-tosibox-valvoo-sahkontuotantoa
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Take on the Binary Clock
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/15/new-take-on-the-binary-clock/
By now it might seem like there’s no new way to build a binary clock. It’s one of the first projects many build to try out their first soldering irons, so it’s a well-traveled path. Every now and then, however, there’s a binary clock that takes a different approach, much like [Stephen]’s latest project which he calls the byte clock.
Additionally, since we’re in the Internet age, the clock has built-in WiFi courtesy of a small version of Python called WiPy which runs on its own microcontroller. A real-time clock rounds out the build and makes sure the clock is as accurate as possible. Of course an RTC might not have the accuracy as some other clocks, but for this application it certainly gets the job done.
Byte Clock Prototype
https://lithostech.com/2017/05/byte-clock-prototype/
The recent explosion in the number of low-cost WiFi enabled development platforms was the driving force behind why I finally started on this project. Previous systems were either too bulky, power hungry and expensive, or would have required a lot more effort on my part.
In order to avoid implementing a system for manually setting the current time on this clock, I wanted a platform that included easy internet connectivity so the clock could set itself using NTP. For me, WiFi was part of this requirement along with all the nice network interface features we’ve come to know and love like DHCP support and a working TCP stack and preferably HTTPS support in case I want to get really fancy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon Echo Show
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/15/amazon-echo-show/
Back in May, Amazon announced the Echo Show, its new version of Alexa with a 7 inch touchscreen. The Echo Show is an interesting device, but will the great unwashed masses pony up $229 to buy the show? That’s $50 more than the original Echo, or $180 more than the Echo Dot. With 5.2 million units sold in 2016, Echo has been a resounding success. This has been in part due to Amazon’s open approach to the API. Anyone can build an Alexa compatible device using a Raspberry Pi. Google has (finally) followed suit with their Home device.
It’s not just the hardware that is accessible. Skills Kit, the programmer interface for extending Echo’s functionality, is also open. At CES this year, Alexa was the belle of the ball. Third party devices are being introduced from all corners, all of them connecting to Amazon’s cloud and responding to the “Alexa” keyword.
The Echo Show takes the family in a new direction. Adding a touch screen gives the user a window on the the world not available with voice interactions. Echo Show also includes a camera, which opens up a whole new set of privacy and security questions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet of Hungry Hungry Things
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/15/internet-of-hungry-hungry-things/
The Hippopotamus is the most dangerous large animal in Africa. The Internet of Things will kill us all. What do you get when you combine the two? Hungry hungry. [Mike] took the classic game Hungry Hungry Hippos and turned it into an amazing and amusing Internet of Things device with voice recognition and machine vision.
[Mike] automated this game with four servos connected to these levers, with each servo controlled by a W65C265SXB single board computer. Yes, this project has code written in 6502 assembly.
W65C265SXB 8/16-bit MCU SOC
http://wdc65xx.com/boards/w65c265sxb-engineering-development-system/
The W65C265SXB is an 8/16–bit Single Board Computer (SBC) built around the W65C265S System-On-a-Chip (SOC) microcomputer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FarmCorder: Crop nutrition deficiency sensor
https://hackaday.io/project/25155-farmcorder-crop-nutrition-deficiency-sensor
The low cost (35$) GSM,GPS enabled clip-sensor device to measure leaf chlorophyll
content, fluorescence and detect nutrition deficiency.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Sense router, developed by F-Secure, will be on sale this week. Elisa says she is the first carrier partner to put the device on sale.
Sense is a wlan router that uses advanced security and cloud-based security to secure all home smart devices, F-Secure promises.
The device will enter the market later. All in all, it was delayed for about one and a half years, Tekniikka & Talous told reporters earlier .
“In addition to the security of computers and smartphones, we also want to offer our customers all the devices connected to the home network a protection network, such as the home network, the home network, the home network, threats, “says Elisa’s business director Matias Castrén.
“Sense is a missing piece of networked home that secures all devices in the wireless network.”
Source. http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/f-securen-ihmelaite-tulee-myyntiin-huomenna-kotien-puuttuva-palanen-6657743
Tomi Engdahl says:
FarmCorder: Crop nutrition deficiency sensor
https://hackaday.io/project/25155-farmcorder-crop-nutrition-deficiency-sensor
The low cost (35$) GSM,GPS enabled clip-sensor device to measure leaf chlorophyll
content, fluorescence and detect nutrition deficiency.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Key Takeaways from Ponemon’s 2017 Study on Mobile and Internet of Things Application Security
https://www.checkmarx.com/2017/03/01/key-takeaways-ponemons-2017-study-mobile-internet-things-application-security/
Mar 01, 2017 By Arden Rubens
Today, organizations are developing and releasing mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) devices and apps at a rapid speed. According to recent research, it is estimated that around 50B IoT devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020 while 2017 started with a record 2.2M downloadable apps in the App Store.
Worry over mobile and IoT application security in the workplace expands across the board
Organizations are having an increasingly difficult time securing used IoT apps in the workplace, and are more concerned over potential attacks. The fear of potential hacks through IoT applications (58%) is higher than potential hacks through mobile applications (53%) but both percentages are high. Yet, despite the concern, a significantly low number of organizations are prepared to face these threats. To be precise, 11% of participants were dubious whether their organizations were taking measures to prevent such attacks, and 44% of participants within organizations said they had taken no steps to protect from and prevent such attacks.
Malware is considered to be a larger threat to mobile apps than to IoT apps
84% of participants are worried about the threat of malware to mobile apps, while 66% of participants are worried about the same threat to IoT apps.
Organizations’ stance of security is threatened by mobile and IoT applications
79% of respondents said that the use of mobile apps increases the security risk drastically, while, slightly less (75%) marked that IoT apps had the same effect on the organization’s security posture.
Fear of potential attacks and new regulations lead to the growth of application security budgets
A low percentage of respondents (30%) said that their organization assigns an ample budget dedicated to application security (both mobile and IoT).
The primary reason mobile and IoT apps contain vulnerable code is due to quick releases
Based on responses, 69% of participants blame the pressure placed on development teams as the main reason why mobile applications are released with vulnerable code, in comparison to the 75% pointing to the same issue as the cause of vulnerable code in IoT devices. According to 65% of responses, unforeseen or accidental coding flaws result in vulnerable code, and a general lacking of internal policies which clarify the security requirements may negatively impact application security.
Despite the known risks, organizations lack the urgency when addressing threats
While the lack of urgency may be due to an organization’s failure in taking the necessary steps to protect data or due to low application security budgets, a significantly low percentage of respondents (32%) state that their organization urgently works to secure mobile apps, while 42% similarly work to secure IoT apps.
Application security testing usually happens during production
The answers of 58% of participants show that organizations tends to wait until their IoT applications are in production before proceeding with application security testing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT, encryption, and AI lead top security trends for 2017
A new Forrester report identified the top 14 cybersecurity trends for enterprises to watch in 2017.
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/iot-encryption-and-ai-lead-top-security-trends-for-2017/
The Internet of Things (IoT), encryption, and artificial intelligence (AI) top the list of cybersecurity trends that vendors are trying to help enterprises address, according to a Forrester report released Wednesday.
As more and more breaches hit headlines, CXOs can find a flood of new cybersecurity startups and solutions on the market. More than 600 exhibitors attended RSA 2017—up 56% from 2014, Forrester noted, with a waiting list rumored to be several hundred vendors long. And more than 300 of these companies self-identify as data security solutions, up 50% from just a year ago.
“You realize that finding the optimal security solution for your organization is becoming more and more challenging,” the report stated.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Developer Trends 2017 Edition
https://ianskerrett.wordpress.com/2017/04/19/iot-developer-trends-2017-edition/
Key Trends from 2017 Survey
1. Expanding Industry Adoption of IoT
The 2017 survey participants appear to be involved in a more diverse set of industries. IoT Platform and Home Automation industries continue to lead but industries such as Industrial Automation, Smart Cities, Energy Management experience significant growth between 2016 to 2017.
2. Security is the key concern but….
Security continues to be the main concern IoT developers with 46.7% respondents indicating it was a concern. Interoperability (24.4%) and Connectivity (21.4%) are the next most popular concerns mentioned. It would appear that Interoperability is on a downward trend for 2015 (30.7%) and 2016 (29.4%) potentially indicating the work on standards and IoT middleware are lessening this concern.
3. Top IoT Programming Language Depends…
Java and C are the primary IoT programming languages, along with significant usage of C++, Python and JavaScript. New this year we asked in the survey, language usage by IoT categories: Constrained Devices, IoT Gateway and IoT Cloud Platform. Broken down by these categories it is apparent that language usage depends on the target destination for the developed software:
On constrained devices, C (56.4%) and C++ (38.3%) and the dominant languages being used. Java (21.2%) and Python (20.8%) have some usage but JavaScript (10.3%) is minimal.
On IoT Gateways, the language of choice is more diverse, Java (40.8%), C (30.4%), Python (29.9%) and C++ (28.1%) are all being used. JavaScript and Node.js have some use.
On IoT Cloud Platforms, Java (46.3%) emerges as the dominant language. JavaScript (33.6%), Node.js (26.3%) and Python (26.2%) have some usage. Not surprisingly, C (7.3%) and C++ (11.6%) usage drops off significantly.
4. Linux is key OS; Raspbian and Ubuntu top IoT Linux distros
Linux continues to be the main operating system for IoT. This year we asked to identify OS by the categories: Constrained Device and IoT Gateway. On Constrained Devices, Linux (44.1%) is the most popular OS but the second most popular is No OS/ Bar Metal (27.6%). On IoT Gateway, Linux (66.9%) becomes even more popular and Windows (20.5%) becomes the second choice.
The survey also asked which Linux distro is being used. Raspbian (45.5%) and Ubuntu (44.%) are the two top distros for IoT.
5. Amazon, MS and Google Top IoT Cloud Platforms
Amazon (42.7%) continues to be the leading IoT Cloud Platform followed by MS Azure (26.7%) and Google Cloud Platform (20.4%). A significant change this year has been the drop of Private / On-premise cloud usage, from 34.9% in 2016 to 18.4% in 2017. This might be an indication that IoT Cloud Platforms are now more mature and developers are ready to embrace them.
6. Bluetooth, LPWAN protocols and 6LowPAN trending up; Thread sees little adoption
For the last 3 years we have asked what connectivity protocols developers use for IoT solutions. The main response has been TCP/IP and Wi-Fi. However, there are a number of connectivity standards and technologies that are being developed for IoT so it has been interesting to track their adoption within the IoT developer community. Based on the 2017 data, it would appear Bluetooth/Bluetooth Smart (48.2%), LPWAN technologies (ex LoRa, Sigfox, LTE-M) (22.4%) and 6LoWPAN (21.4%) are being adopted by the IoT developer community. However, it would appear Thread (6.4%) is still having limited success with developer adoption.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Heading for Mass Adoption by 2019 Driven by Better-Than-Expected Business Results
http://news.arubanetworks.com/press-release/arubanetworks/iot-heading-mass-adoption-2019-driven-better-expected-business-results
International study reveals IoT adopters are seeing strong gains in innovation and business efficiency, yet security remains a key concern with 84% reporting an IoT-related security breach
A new global study ‘ The Internet of Things: Today and Tomorrow ’ published by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE:HPE), reveals that IoT will soon be widespread as 85% of businesses plan to implement IoT by 2019, driven by a need for innovation and business efficiency. While the analysis confirms the clear business benefits from investments in IoT, Aruba’s report cautions that connecting thousands of things to existing business networks has already resulted in security breaches for the majority of organizations.
In his new eBook ‘ Making Sense of IoT ’, commissioned by Aruba, technology visionary Kevin Ashton—who coined the term ‘Internet of Things’— presents the following definition:
“The ‘Internet of Things’ means sensors connected to the Internet and behaving in an Internet-like way by making open, ad hoc connections, sharing data freely and allowing unexpected applications, so computers can understand the world around them and become humanity’s nervous system.”
The Expectations Dividend
When examining the business benefits of IoT, Ashton discovered that the real-world benefits gained from IoT exceeded even the original expectations. This ‘expectations dividend’ is evident in two key performance areas: business efficiency and profitability.
As an example, only 16% of business leaders projected a large profit gain from their IoT investment, yet post-adoption, 32% of executives realized profit increases. Similarly, only 29% of executives expected their IoT strategies to result in business efficiency improvements, whereas actual results show that 46% experienced efficiency gains.
How Global Organizations are Using IoT
Aruba’s research reveals varying levels of IoT maturity across different industry sectors.
- Enterprises create a smart workplace for productivity and efficiency
- The industrial sector increases business efficiency and visibility through IoT-enabled monitoring and maintenance
- Healthcare introduces IoT to improve patient monitoring, reduce cost and foster innovation
- Retailers engage with customers and boost sales using indoor location technology
- Governments lag in IoT adoption, struggle with legacy technology but still reduce costs
The Data Context and Security Challenge
Alongside these positive returns, the study also uncovers a number of obstacles that IT leaders feel are preventing IoT from delivering greater business impact. In particular, the cost of implementation (50%), maintenance (44%) and integration of legacy technology (43%) were highlighted as key issues.
Most notably, security flaws were found across many IoT deployments. The study found that 84% of organizations have experienced an IoT-related security breach. More than half of respondents declared that external attacks are a key barrier to embracing and adopting an IoT strategy. This confirms that a holistic IoT security strategy, built on strong network access control and policy management, will not only protect enterprises but also simplify the security approach for IT.
Kozup comments, “While IoT grows in deployment, scale and complexity, proper security methodologies to protect the network and devices, and more importantly, the data and insights they extract, must also keep pace.”
Ashton concludes: “Since its inception in 1999, the Internet of Things has been ridiculed, criticized, and misunderstood. And yet here we are, less than two decades later, in a world where tens of thousands of organizations are saving and making hundreds of millions of dollars from the Internet of Things, using cars that drive themselves, subway stations that sense passengers, algorithms that diagnose deadly diseases using phones, and many other once apparently-impossible technologies. The future promises far more amazing things. The most important decision you can make now is how to be a part of it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Internet of Things platforms help industries to cut costs and increase revenues
https://www.iot-now.com/2017/05/26/62422-internet-things-platforms-help-industries-cut-costs-increase-revenues/
Billions of devices around the globe are being connected to each other, communicating with each other, working as a certainty, every day! How fascinating is that? The benefit of this gigantic network can be classified in many terms.
However, in the end, the only thing that matters is the growth of a business. A business model makes sure not only a positive outcome but also enough savings to be used in growing the hub wider. Competition is on, says Yash Mehta.
Microsoft Azure IoT, IBM Watson, and many such Internet of Things platforms are working well in improving overall growth of a business, saving costs, and increasing revenues as well. Let’s get some insight on how these Internet of Things (IoT) are helping industries for making a better progress in this era of digits.
Industrial Internet of Things – Saving costs and increasing Rrevenue
1: Predictive maintenance
2: Improving safety and security
3: Tracking and analysing equipment
4: Big Data analytics saves production cost
Summing up – Increased productivity and improvement in cost saving
Growing productivity plays a big role in the growth of any business. With the help of Industrial IoT, training employees, improving labour efficiency, and reducing skills mismatches are all done. It’s the same with boosting organisational productivities as well as reducing the production cost.
To measure the overall profit from these factors, addition won’t be precise but multiplication is. Definitely, Internet of Things platforms help industries to save costs and increase revenues.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Oath unveils Bullet, an open source general-purpose query engine for streaming data
https://siliconangle.com/blog/2017/06/15/yahoo-unloads-bullet-querying-streaming-data-real-time/
Yahoo Inc. probably hasn’t been given enough credit for its contributions to the open-source software community over the last couple of decades. The company, which famously developed the Apache Hadoop software that’s at the heart of most big data projects today, is an active participant in numerous popular open-source projects.
Today, Oath Inc., the new Verizon Communications Inc. parent company of Yahoo and AOL, is unveiling Yahoo’s latest contribution to open-source, and it could potentially be a very important one: Bullet, a new general-purpose query engine for streaming data.
For the uninitiated, there are two kinds of data: streaming, which is data that arrives in a computer system in real time, and batch, which refers to information that’s been batched together over regular time intervals, for example hourly or daily. Batch data is usually quite easy to run queries against because it’s stored in a data warehouse where it can be accessed via commonly used SQL interfaces or business intelligence tools such as Tableau, Looker or Superset. But running queries on streaming data has always been much more challenging.
Bullet is aimed at changing that.
Bullet is a “forward-looking” query engine that queries only the data that passes through the system, after the query has been made. It does not query any older data that has already passed through the system, making it “as real-time as real-time gets,” in the words of Yahoo’s team.
The company suggests a number of use cases for Bullet, including being able to quickly look at a range of metrics, check on assumptions, iterate on queries, check statuses and more
Yahoo has already put Bullet into production on a number of projects.
https://yahoo.github.io/bullet-docs/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Connectivity’s value is almost erased by the costs it can impose
The internet made information flow on the cheap, but making it anti-fragile will cost plenty
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/13/mark_pesce_column/
The great advantage of a browser-based programming environment is that nothing gets lost – it’s all saved to the cloud as you type it in. But what happens when the link dies, or the cloud chokes?
Which got me thinking about the increasingly fragile nature of our connected culture.
Twenty-five years ago almost nothing was connected to the Internet. Today, many things are – at least some of the time – and it’s only when connected that they realise their full capacity. A smartphone shorn of network access cannot be an object of fascination. The network activates, piping intelligence into our toys, making them irresistible.
That intelligence comes with some costs; the most obvious is our increasing dependency on that connection. People get lost on hikes as they fall out of mobile range and lose the mapping apps that keep them oriented. We’ve come to expect intelligence with us all the time. Losing connectivity is coming to feel like losing a bit of our mind.
Another cost – and the bigger worry – is that this connected intelligence isn’t entirely benevolent. Every connection is a way into a device that may have something of value – credit card numbers, or passwords, or Bitcoins. The same intelligence that activates can also try to harvest that information, or even poison those devices, turning them against their owners.
We’ve reached a very delicate point, where the value of connected intelligence is almost entirely countered by the costs it can impose. If things become just a little more hostile out there (with four billion people using the Internet, that’s pretty much assured) the scales could tip in favour of disconnection, isolation, and a descent into a kind of stupidity we haven’t seen in many years.
There’s no easy answers for any of this. It’s unreasonable to expect that businesses will turn the clock back on the productivity gains made from connectivity, but it’s equally unreasonable to assume any of those businesses are prepared for an onslaught of connected hostility.
In this sort of high-pressure environment, where the wrong decision quickly becomes a fatal one, we have no choice but to evolve our responses, rapidly. It feels as though we got the benefits of connected intelligence for free; it’s only just now that we can see that bill is being presented – and it’s a whopper. We have to learn, keep learning, share what we’ve learned while putting it to work, learn from what others have shared, and keep doing this at an ever-increasing rate, forever.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Firm Responsible For Mirai-Infected Webcams Hires Software Firm To Make Its Products More Secure
https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/06/16/2151221/firm-responsible-for-mirai-infected-webcams-hires-software-firm-to-make-its-products-more-secure
After seeding the globe with hackable DVRs and webcams, Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. of Hangzhou, China will be working with the U.S. firm Synopsys to “enhance the security of its Internet of Things (IoT) devices and solutions.” Dahua, based in Hangzhou, China said it will with Mountain View based Synopsys to “enhance the security of its Internet of Things (IoT) devices and solutions.” In a joint statement, the companies said Dahua will be adopting secure “software development life cycle (SDLC) and supply chain” practices using Synopsys technologies in an effort to reduce the number of “vulnerabilities that can jeopardize our products,”
Firm That Made Mirai-Infected Webcams Gets Security Religion
https://securityledger.com/2017/06/firm-that-made-mirai-infected-webcams-gets-security-religion/
In-brief: After seeding the globe with hackable DVRs and webcams, Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. of Hangzhou, China will be working with the U.S. firm Synopsys to “enhance the security of its Internet of Things (IoT) devices and solutions.”
The surveillance camera maker whose name became synonymous with insecure, connected devices after its cameras formed the backbone of the Mirai botnet has hired a top secure software development and testing firm to makes its products less prone to hacking.
Dahua’s cameras and digital video recorders (DVRs) figured prominently in the Mirai botnet, which launched massive denial of service attacks against websites in Europe and the U.S., including the French web hosting firm OVH, security news site Krebsonsecurity.com and the New Hampshire based managed DNS provider Dyn. Cybercriminals behind the botnet apparently exploited an overflow vulnerability in the web interface for cameras and DVRs to gain access to the underlying Linux operating system and install the Mirai software, according to research by the firm Level3.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Creating an IoT Server with Home Assistant and MQTT
https://www.hackster.io/Richa1/creating-an-iot-server-with-home-assistant-and-mqtt-3d874d?ref=explore&ref_id=recent___&offset=6
Home Assistant is one of the most versatile and powerful home automation platforms and it is complacently open source. Once set up, it can be accessed from any web browser and allows your to create complex automation that put services like IFTTT to shame.
One of the things that I like most about Home Assistant is that it all works on my local network. No more remote APIs or giving your data to other people all while slowing down your internet. You control your data including what stays local and what can be accessed remotely.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Steve Dent / Engadget:
Qualcomm unveils reference design for smart speakers with support for Alexa and Google Assistant, also announces new chips for wireless audio products — The smart speaker trend started with Amazon’s Echo, and now includes Google Home and Apple HomePod, but it could get a lot more crowded thanks to Qualcomm.
Qualcomm’s new chips will give rise to more smart speakers
The reference design will give OEMs a head-start on voice recognition tech.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/14/qualcomm-s-new-chips-will-give-rise-to-more-smart-speakers/
The smart speaker trend started with Amazon’s Echo, and now includes Google Home and Apple HomePod, but it could get a lot more crowded thanks to Qualcomm. It has just unveiled a reference “smart audio” design, including microphone, speaker and voice recognition tech that OEMs can use to build their own products without starting from scratch. What’s more, it includes support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so OEMs will be able to add those voice assistants to a wider variety of audio products.
On top of the “smart” aspect of smart audio, Qualcomm is also taking care of the “audio” part. It showed off new DDFA audio amplifier tech and an audio development kit (ADK) that will help companies build wireless Bluetooth speakers, headphones and other products. The aim is to get manufacturers building smarter speakers or headphones “without significantly increasing integration time or cost,” Qualcomm’s Senior VP Anthony Murray said in a statement.
The tech is powered by Linux and Android Things and includes “far field” multi-microphone technology that allows for wake words like “OK Google,” beamforming and echo cancellation.
Qualcomm Announces Highly Flexible Smart Speaker Platform with Unique Combination of Support for Voice Assistants and Multi-Room Streaming Audio Capability
https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2017/06/14/qualcomm-announces-highly-flexible-smart-speaker-platform-unique
Qualcomm Smart Audio Platform Combines Premium Audio Solutions, Advanced Far-Field Voice Capture, Wake-Word Detection, Qualcomm AllPlay Multi-Room Audio Technology, and Support for Voice Assistants to Help Innovative Voice Interactions
The flexible solution offers two Qualcomm® SoC options based on APQ8009 and APQ8017
The integrated high-quality performance voice solution is designed to deliver advanced multi-mic far-field voice capability with highly responsive voice activation and beamforming technologies. The platform’s voice software also incorporates echo-cancellation, noise suppression and “barge-in” capability, supporting a reliable voice interface in loud or noisy environments even when users are far from the smart speaker.
“The Qualcomm Smart Audio Platform combines high-performance processing power, world-class Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, advanced far-field voice capture and wake-word detection, AllPlay multi-room audio streaming technology, and support for major voice ecosystems in a single solution”
Key software features:
Far Field Voice multi-microphone technology including:
voice activation, beamforming and echo cancellation
barge-in and voice capture in highly noisy environments
software supporting virtual assistants
support for high-quality hands-free voice calls over both VoIP and HFP
Support for Amazon Alexa Voice Service (AVS) (available later this year)
Support for the Google Assistant (available later this year)
Support for Android Things along with Google Cast for Audio (available later this year)
AllPlay networked audio solution, comprehensively interoperable with existing and future AllPlay ecosystem products
High-performance Bluetooth audio encode and decode with aptX and aptX HD
Audio playback from a wide range of industry audio codecs including MP3, AAC, OggVorbis, FLAC, AIFF, WAV, PCM, ALAC
Qualcomm® Hexagon™ DSP SDK
Key Bluetooth profiles including HFP/AG, PBAP, PANU and NAP, A2DP, AVRCP
High-performance Bluetooth/Wi-Fi coexistence for optimal audio performance
To help reduce development time and overheads there are a number of system-on-module solutions and reference designs available now from ODMs including but not limited to Wistron, Compal, Quanta and Pegatron. Comprehensive Developer Platforms for APQ8009 and APQ8017 is expected to be available from Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. for customers who prefer more development flexibility.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft:
Animated guide to the internet of things — Everything you need to know about IoT in under 4 minutes.
https://news.microsoft.com/stories/explanimators/internet-of-things/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Week In Review: IoT
IDC revises IoT forecast; Qualcomm-NXP merger clears a hurdle; Dahua selects Synopsys.
https://semiengineering.com/week-review-iot-3/
International Data Corp. updated its Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide, forecasting global IoT spending will increase 16.7% this year to more than $800 billion. The market research firm says the market will grow to almost $1.4 trillion by 2021. Manufacturing, smart grid technologies, freight monitoring, production asset management, and smart building technologies are the leading IoT uses in 2017, according to IDC. Hardware, dominated by modules and sensors, will lead IoT spending over the next three years before being overtaken by services; software expenditures will largely go toward applications software, IDC says.
MarketsandMarkets predicts the IoT node and gateway market will see 17.18 billion units shipped by 2023 for a compound annual growth rate of 30.9% between 2017 and 2023.
Research and Markets forecasts the worldwide IoT market will grow from $170.57 billion in 2017 to $561.04 billion by 2022 for a CAGR of 26.9%.
Worldwide Spending on the Internet of Things Forecast to Reach Nearly $1.4 Trillion in 2021, According to New IDC Spending Guide
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS42799917
Tomi Engdahl says:
Garage Door Opener Logs to Google Drive
https://hackaday.com/2017/01/15/garage-door-opener-logs-to-google-drive/
A garage door opener is a pretty classic hack around these parts. IR, Bluetooth, WiFi, smartphone controlled, web interfaces — we’ve seen it all. But if you want to keep track of people going in and out, you need some way of logging what’s happening. You could go ahead and roll up your own SQL based solution, tied into a custom web page. But there’s an easier way; you can build a garage door opener that logs events to Google Drive.
[WhiskeyTangoHotel] was looking for an ESP8266 project, and a garage door opener seemed just the ticket. It’s simple enough to code up, and control over WiFi comes in handy. Interfacing with the garage door was simple enough — the existing opener uses a simple push button, which is easily controlled by wiring up a relay to do the job. Logging is as simple as having the ESP8266 send requests to IFTTT which is set up to make posts to a Google Sheet with status updates.
The project is fairly basic, but there’s room for expansion. By using separate Maker Channel triggers on IFTTT, different users of the garage door could be tracked.
ESP8266 WiFi Garage Door Opener from any Web Browser
http://www.whiskeytangohotel.com/2017/01/esp8266-wifi-garage-door-opener-from.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Controlling a Robot Over the Internet Grows Up
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/17/controlling-a-robot-over-the-internet-grows-up/
Since the beginning of the Internet people have been controlling robots over it, peering at grainy gifs of faraway rec rooms as the robot trundles around. RunMyRobot.com has taken that idea and brought it fully into the teens. These robots use wifi or mobile connections, are 3D printed, and run Python.
The site aims to provide everything to anyone who wants to participate. If you’re just an anonymous visitor, you can still play with the robots, but anyone can also play with the same one, and sometimes a whole bunch of visitors create a cacophony of commands that makes it not fun—but you can always move to a different robot. Logged-in members of the site have the option to take over a robot and not allow anyone else to use it.
http://runmyrobot.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Discontinues Joule, Galileo, And Edison Product Lines
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/19/intel-discontinues-joule-galileo-and-edison-product-lines/
Sometimes the end of a product’s production run is surrounded by publicity, a mix of a party atmosphere celebrating its impact either good or bad, and perhaps a tinge of regret at its passing.
Then again, there are the products that die with a whimper, their passing marked only by a barely visible press release in an obscure corner of the Internet. Such as this week’s discontinuances from Intel, in a series of PDFs lodged on a document management server announcing the end of their Galileo (PDF), Joule (PDF), and Edison (PDF) lines. The documents in turn set out a timetable for each of the boards, for now they are still available but the last will have shipped by the end of 2017.
It’s important to remember that this does not mark the end of the semiconductor giant’s forray into the world of IoT development boards, there is no announcement of the demise of their Curie chip, as found in the Arduino 101. But it does mark an ignominious end to their efforts over the past few years in bringing the full power of their x86 platforms to this particular market, the Curie is an extremely limited device in comparison to those being discontinued.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Comcast Shares IoT, LoRa Insights
Thin expertise in big, fragmented markets
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331907
Six months into leading a new Internet of Things initiative for Comcast, Alex Khorram is trying to get his arms around an opportunity he is convinced will be huge. Like others attacking IoT, the general manager of the MachineQ service finds the market complex and diverse.
Comcast announced in October it will use the LoRa unlicensed narrowband network to address a dozen broad business opportunities from asset tracking and smart parking to waste management. So far it has a network up in Philadelphia where it has tens of field trials with small and large customers and plans to deploy nets in Chicago and San Francisco later this year.
Khorram found many companies are interested in IoT but few have the breadth of technical expertise to easily deploy a large project. “You can get to a prototype quickly, but it’s tough to find hardware, network and software engineering resources all in the same company,” he said.
“The top of the funnel is huge where people are interested in creating proof-of-concepts, but [the trouble is in] getting to the next 10,000 [units]—the industry is working on foundry or OEM partnerships, [but deployments] are very individualized,” he said.
While systems integrators may play a role filling the gaps, new business models are still opening up for companies that enable IoT. Thus Khorram is still investigating what roles Comcast will play with its MachineQ service.
Unlike its much smaller rival Senet, Comcast does not aim to create a national LoRa network. Instead it will focus on regional and metro use cases where it has an existing footprint that covers about half the U.S. population.
Some of the initial use cases that look promising include infrastructure metering, asset tracking and monitoring temperature for products required to stay cold. Long term, Comcast even has hopes of serving IoT in agriculture.
Comcast is one of the largest of about 30 service providers that have joined the LoRa Alliance including Orange, SK Telecom and Softbank. The group is approaching 500 members, about four dozen certified products and a board that now includes Khorram of Comcast along with representatives of Cisco, IBM and ZTE.
“The ecosystem is big…I think the alliance has reached critical mass,” Khorram said.
“We were very happy with propagation in rural, suburban and urban settings at 12-20 Kbits/s for up or down links, and in harsh environments it performed as expected,”
Now that pre-IoT concept has a name with a class of so-called LPWA (low power wide area) networks such as LoRa, Sigfox and Ingenu as well as up-and-coming cellular rivals. But just how it will play out remains to be seen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Global IoT Growing Rapidly in Aerospace and Defense
http://www.mwrf.com/defense/global-iot-growing-rapidly-aerospace-and-defense?NL=MWRF-001&Issue=MWRF-001_20170620_MWRF-001_55&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=11663&utm_medium=email&elq2=133ed91204f14136a81454bcf9b54e36
A research report projects strong growth for IoT devices in global military and aerospace markets in 2017 and through 2022.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is often thought of as an application aimed at increasing the efficiency of warehouses and homes, but the technology is also being put to work in a large number of aerospace and defense applications. According to a recent 133-page study by Visiongain, IoT technology is being used to connect aircraft, machines, systems, and people in aerospace and defense systems for improved performance and lower total operating costs.
The report, titled “IoT in Aerospace & Defense,” projects that $22.6 billion will be spent during 2017 on IoT devices for aerospace and defense applications, with steady growth in IoT defense spending during the period from 2017 through 2022. The IoT devices will be applied towards production processes, operational management, and system control to streamline processes and cut operating costs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making a Wearable NFC Bus Pass
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/20/making-a-wearable-nfc-bus-pass/
he dissolved his SF Transit Clipper Card in acetone to get at the NFC tag embedded inside. The tag consists of a tiny chip attached to an antenna the size of the card itself. It took about three days (video below the break) for the layers to separate and [Stephen] was able to extricate the tag.
One supposes the transit pass idea might save you a little time, but what would really simplify your life would be having a single wearable tag that unlocked a bunch of things.
Transform the SF Clipper Card Into a Wearable
http://www.instructables.com/id/Transform-the-SF-Clipper-Card-Into-a-Wearable/
Tired of bulking up your wallet with several different credit cards, id cards, and transit cards?
We found out a way to extract the key functional components from the Clipper Card, and mold it into a variety of wearable devices, including a small rubber plate, a waterproof aspirin band, and a breadboard bracelet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Practical IoT Cryptography on the Espressif ESP8266
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/20/practical-iot-cryptography-on-the-espressif-esp8266/
The Espressif ESP8266 chipset makes three-dollar ‘Internet of Things’ development boards an economic reality. According to the popular automatic firmware-building site nodeMCU-builds, in the last 60 days there have been 13,341 custom firmware builds for that platform. Of those, only 19% have SSL support, and 10% include the cryptography module.
We’re often critical of the lack of security in the IoT sector, and frequently cover botnets and other attacks, but will we hold our projects to the same standards we demand? Will we stop at identifying the problem, or can we be part of the solution?
This article will focus on applying AES encryption and hash authorization functions to the MQTT protocol using the popular ESP8266 chip running NodeMCU firmware. Our purpose is not to provide a copy/paste panacea, but to go through the process step by step, identifying challenges and solutions along the way.
MQTT is a lightweight messaging protocol that runs on top of TCP/IP and is frequently used for IoT projects. Client devices subscribe or publish to topics (e.g. sensors/temperature/kitchen), and these messages are relayed by an MQTT broker.
The MQTT protocol doesn’t have any built-in security features beyond username/password authentication, so it’s common to encrypt and authenticate across a network with SSL. However, SSL can be rather demanding for the ESP8266 and when enabled, you’re left with much less memory for your application. As a lightweight alternative, you can encrypt only the data payload being sent, and use a session ID and hash function for authentication.
A straightforward way to do this is using Lua and the NodeMCU Crypto module, which includes support for the AES algorithm in CBC mode as well as the HMAC hash function. Using AES encryption correctly requires three things to produce ciphertext: a message, a key, and an initialization vector (IV). Messages and keys are straightforward concepts, but the initialization vector is worth some discussion.
IVs make pattern analysis more difficult. An IV is a piece of data sent along with the key that modifies the end ciphertext result. As the name suggests, it initializes the state of the encryption algorithm before the data enters. The IV needs to be different for each message sent so that repeated data encrypts into different ciphertext
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart Home: Security Leads, Convenience Gains
http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2017/06/smart-home-security-leads-convenience-gains.html
Home In the Home Smart Home Smart Home: Security Leads, Convenience Gains
Smart Home: Security Leads, Convenience Gains
June 20, 2017
By Monta Monaco Hernon
Contributing Writer
Security is the leading value proposition for the smart home, but in a recent survey, Parks Associates found that 40-50% of consumers who participated in the study find energy monitoring services appealing. Specifically, 54% of U.S. broadband households are interested in a monitoring solution that identifies problems with any major appliance, and 50% want a solution that identifies ways of improving energy efficiency.
For Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), which has Xfinity Home, security is indeed a primary driver, but overall consumers want peace of mind and features that make their life easier and eliminate simple chores, said Neil Foster, VP of product management, Xfinity Home. The app allows customers to arm and disarm their security system, but it also allows them to automate tasks such as having the air conditioning and front door lights turn on at a specific time. Both lighting and thermostat control are desired features of Xfinity Home customers, Foster said.
“The majority of our Xfinity Home customers want to add cameras so they can remotely see if a package arrived, if their children are in the kitchen or out in the backyard,” Foster added.
Recently Comcast announced a partnership with Philips Lighting, which allows Xfinity Home customers to manage and control Philips Hue connected lighting systems through the Xfinity Home mobile app. They can create automated commands that synchronize their lights with home security and other smart home functions.
Parks also learned that 55% of U.S. broadband households want to use voice to control not only for their entertainment but also for their smart home devices. They want to be able to access their smart home capabilities through their entertainment devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LattePanda with Microsoft Azure – Getting Started
This topic shows you how to setup Microsoft Azure IoT environment on LattePanda!
https://hackaday.io/project/25555-lattepanda-with-microsoft-azure-getting-started
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mikko Hyppönen is not afraid of the Internet of Things
F-Secure’s research director Mikko Hyppönen was one of the key speakers at the Reboot event today at Nokia’s premises in Espoo. Hyppönen reminded that the Internet of Things (IoT) is already another revolution that we are experiencing in our lifetime. Nor should you be afraid.
The first revolution is of course the Internet.
According to Hyppönen, the online evocation contained many risks, the mapping of which was actually his main job for a short time of 25 years. – It is clear that the Internet has brought more benefits than disadvantages. The business has moved to the net, as well as entertainment. In Finland, before the Internet, there was no need for worry about cybercriminals in Brazil. The Internet, however, removed borders and geography. Now cybercriminals are looking for victims everywhere.
Now the next revolution is in the face. With the Internet of Things (IoT), everyone else moves to the net. – The same risks emerge in this revolution as well, but you are optimistic. After ten years we can say that the benefits of IoT were far greater than the disadvantages, Hyppönen said.
Hyppönen believes that many of us live through three major revolutions. After the net and the IoT, there is a revolution in the AI, that is, the making of artificial intelligence everywhere.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/6504-mikko-hypponen-ei-pelkaa-esineiden-internetia
Tomi Engdahl says:
F-Secure Hyppönen speaks of “the hellish scary revolution”: If we do it wrong, follow Terminator 2
“The first revolution was on the internet, and now is the iot revolution, and if we are lucky enough to see the Third Revolution: an AI, if the first two are scary, the Third Revolution is hellish scary, the most fearsome is that we only have one chance to do it. That’s right, good! If we do it wrong, follow Terminator 2, “Hyppönen told reporters.
Hyppönen, meanwhile, said he was optimistic about the development of technology, despite the fact that he constantly runs into the darker side of the Internet.
“Despite the disadvantages of the Internet, I can see the beauty on the Internet, which is the best thing that has been happening for me.” I love the Internet, “Hyppönen said.
“Many people say that they will never buy iot devices, and that they will not be able to do so, and soon they will be selling iot devices,” she says. “The toasters are also online, but the consumer may not even know it.”
“If all devices are computers, they have to be maintained and systems need to be repaired, how long will we get upgrades to cars, what about equipment if companies do not pay their AWS bills, and the background system crashes?”
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/f-securen-hypponen-puhuu-helvetin-pelottavasta-vallankumouksesta-jos-teemme-sen-vaarin-seuraa-terminator-2-6658835
Tomi Engdahl says:
First Thoughts on the mangOH Red
https://blog.hackster.io/first-thoughts-on-the-mangoh-red-5b604365593d
Announced last week, the new mangOH Red board from Sierra Wireless is an open source, and open hardware, development board intended to serve as a prototyping platform for the Internet of Things.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Petasense emerges from stealth to help companies monitor machine health
https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/21/petasense-emerges-from-stealth-to-help-companies-monitor-machine-health/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
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Petasense emerges from stealth to help companies monitor machine health
Posted 12 minutes ago by Ron Miller (@ron_miller)
Industrial IoT startup Petasense emerged from stealth today, officially announcing $1.8 million in seed funding and a hardware/software solution designed to help industrial customers understand when equipment needs maintenance by “listening” to its vibrations.
As it turns out, machines vibrate at a certain frequency when they are operating smoothly, but as parts begin to wear down, the vibration sound changes in a way that can be measured. Petasense offers a vibration sensor for each machine, which feeds data about the vibrations wirelessly to the cloud, analyzes it, and presents it to users in a way that even employees who don’t have expertise in vibration science can understand.
But sensing the vibrations is just part of the story. The solution also uses machine learning to “understand” what falls in the realm of normal behavior for that machine. As it gathers data over time, it can reduce false positives and false negatives,
Tomi Engdahl says:
Liam Tung / ZDNet:
Intel discontinues compute modules Edison, Joule, and Galileo, plus Recon Jet Pro Plus eyewear for enterprise, the Recon Jet Pro, and Recon Jet
Raspberry Pi rivals Galileo, Joule, Edison axed by Intel, plus Recon Jet smart glasses
http://www.zdnet.com/article/raspberry-pi-rivals-galileo-joule-edison-axed-by-intel-plus-recon-jet-smart-glasses/
Intel has killed off several Internet of Things products it once hoped would keep it in the race for connected devices.
Chip giant Intel’s spring cleaning efforts have swept out three of its compute modules for the Internet of Things and several Recon Jet smart glasses products.
Affected compute modules include Raspberry Pi challenger developer board, Galileo (PDF), as well as the Joule (PDF) and Edison (PDF) compute modules.
Intel launched the Galileo board in 2013 under a partnership with Arduino, targeting the growing community of developers building systems with ARM-based devices like Raspberry Pi.
Edison launched a year later with the aim of seeing the Intel-based compute modules powering wearables and home-based IoT devices, such as smart speakers.
Only last year it introduced the new high-powered Joule, for more advanced applications like robotics. The higher-end 570x model featured an Atom processor, 4GB RAM, 16GB storage, 4K video, built-in Wi-Fi and integration with Intel’s face-tracking and natural-language processing technology.
Together, the lineup of IoT compute modules were designed to help Intel avoid missing the next wave of innovation after it failed to keep pace with smartphone chip rivals and missed the mobile boom.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mentor’s John McMillan looks into the unique form-factors and components influencing IoT PCB designs.
Designing PCB’s for IoT – Part 3: IoT Design Form, Fit and Function
https://www.pads.com/blog/post/designing-pcb-s-for-iot-part-3-iot-design-form-fit-and-function-63d70c0f-9991-48d8-b91b-db852a8e82a6?cmpid=10168
In part 2 of this blog series I discussed some the complexities of IoT designs specifically regarding mixed-technology design domains. IoT product PCBs can be quite complex and they must be prototyped to ensure that the technology works as designed. You’ll need to know whether all of the required components meet the product’s form, fit, and function requirements or, perhaps, whether you’ll need to invest in a custom chip design that consolidates components.
A key driving requirement for the design of many mass-consumer IoT devices, particularly those with a human interface, are the form, fit, and function. These “3-F’s” for IoT design are not the typical “3-F’s” of engineering.
Form – Size matters. In fact, the shape and appearance of the product, including its weight, size, color, density, orientation, and dimensions all matter.
Fit – The fit of the product in the market, the price point, the timing, and the competitive landscape can all be deal breakers in the fast-paced market of IoT products. Even a great idea that can’t be produced economically or is overpriced may never take off.
Function – Most simply, it’s what the product is meant to do. Does it solve a problem? Perhaps it’s a new product category altogether.
7 Design Aspects of IoT PCB Designs
https://www.pads.com/resources/overview/7-design-aspects-of-iot-pcb-designs-96400e16-084a-4516-8c2f-3a46680dcec2?cmpid=9049
Tomi Engdahl says:
Comcast Shares IoT, LoRa Insights
Thin expertise in big, fragmented markets
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331907
Six months into leading a new Internet of Things initiative for Comcast, Alex Khorram is trying to get his arms around an opportunity he is convinced will be huge. Like others attacking IoT, the general manager of the MachineQ service finds the market complex and diverse.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Twenty IoT Builds That Just Won $1000 in the Hackaday Prize
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/19/twenty-iot-builds-that-just-won-1000-in-the-hackaday-prize/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Practical IoT Cryptography on the Espressif ESP8266
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/20/practical-iot-cryptography-on-the-espressif-esp8266/
The Espressif ESP8266 chipset makes three-dollar ‘Internet of Things’ development boards an economic reality. According to the popular automatic firmware-building site nodeMCU-builds, in the last 60 days there have been 13,341 custom firmware builds for that platform. Of those, only 19% have SSL support, and 10% include the cryptography module.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Long Range Wireless Internet
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/20/long-range-wireless-internet/
While most of you reading this have broadband in your home, there are still vast areas with little access to the Internet. Ham radio operator [emmynet] found himself in just such a situation recently, and needed to get a wireless connection over 1 km from his home. WiFi wouldn’t get the job done, so he turned to a 433 MHz serial link instead.
[emmynet] used an inexpensive telemetry kit that operates in a frequency that travels long distances much more easily than WiFi can travel. The key here isn’t in the hardware, however, but in the software. He went old-school, implemending peer-to-peer TCP/IP connection using SLIP — serial line Internet protocol.
With higher gain antennas than came with the telemetry kit, a range much greater than 1 km could be achieved as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: 3D Printed Linear Actuator Does 2kg+
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/20/hackaday-prize-entry-3d-printed-linear-actuator-does-2kg/
The rabbit hole of features and clever hacks in [chiprobot]’s NEMA17 3D Printed Linear Actuator is pretty deep. Not only can it lift 2kg+ of mass easily, it is mostly 3D printed, and uses commonplace hardware like a NEMA 17 stepper motor and a RAMPS board for motion control.
Nema17 3D printed Linear Actuator & ESP32 WebGui
https://hackaday.io/project/21883-nema17-3d-printed-linear-actuator-esp32-webgui
Nema17 Stepper motor 3D printed Linear Actuator (250mm+ stroke 2Kg+ dead weight lift) with Ramps driver & ESP32/ESP8266 WebGui.
This is 3D printed Linear Actuator using a generic Nema17 Stepper motor .
It gives 250mm+ (or longer if wished) stroke and is comfortable able to lift 2Kg+ dead weight vertically) .
The stepper is controlled with Ramps stepper driver & user interface is via a WIFI link using ESP32/ESP8266 WebGui.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Power of IoT Devices
http://www.electronicdesign.com/power/power-iot-devices?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20170621_ED-003_479&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=11689&utm_medium=email&elq2=c917795a4b024200ade4e553d0b9fecd
Multiple function integration in power management integrated circuits is maximizing the battery life of Internet of Things devices.
According to IC Insights total semiconductor sales for Internet of Things (IoT) systems are expected to reach $31.1 billion in 2020, with the IoT semiconductor market for wearable systems expected to show a CAGR of 17.1%. This proliferation of devices is also creating future growth in the power management IC (PMIC) market.
Designers of IoT solutions are relying on power management solutions to efficiently handle the power needed to energize a wide range of IoT devices, as maintenance and battery replacement are not cost-effective approaches. There are many power management solutions currently in the market, and depending of their characteristics, one power management solution can work better for a specific application depending on power conversion and power control options.
PMICs can now reduce power consumption of the batteries prolonging the power in IoT devices while also minimizing PCB size. PMICs are now achieving lower quiescent currents that helps to increase battery life. Maxim Integrated’s new MAX20310, for instance, is a power management solution that operates with battery voltages down to 0.7V for use with single-cell zinc air, silver oxide, and alkaline batteries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon to control 70 percent of the voice-controlled speaker market this year
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/08/amazon-to-control-70-percent-of-the-voice-controlled-speaker-market-this-year/
Amazon is dominating the voice-controlled speaker market, according to a new forecast from eMarketer out this morning. The maker of the Echo-branded speakers will have 70.6 percent of all voice-enabled speaker users in the U.S. this year – well ahead of Google Home’s 23.8 percent and other, smaller players like Lenovo, LG, Harmon Kardon, and Mattel, who combined only account for 5.6 percent of users.
While the market itself is not expected to be a winner-take-all scenario, competitors like Amazon and Google will win entire homes, as most consumers have said they wouldn’t consider buying a competing device once they already own one voice-controlled speaker.
Amazon will lead the market for the “foreseeable future.”
This year, 35.6 million Americans will use a voice-activated device at least once per month, the firm estimates
However, the wider voice assistant market – which includes Siri, Alexa, Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana operating on any device – is expected to grow 23.1 percent this year, eMarketer says. In 2017, 60.5 million U.S. users will use one of these assistants at least once per month. That’s over a quarter (27.5%) of smartphone users, or nearly one in five Americans, the report notes.
Older millennials are the core users of virtual assistants, mainly due to their demand for functionality over entertainment