Internet of Things |

IoT Is Here to Stay

The Internet of Things connects every device with a mother-app

It seems that the IoT is here to stay, at least that’s the first impression that Paris’ Connected Conference created. The event featured a home filled with interconnected gizmos. Some seemed incredibly useful for the modern, tech enthusiasts, while others were more suited for Global Sensing than everyday use.

The Internet of Things is an innovative concept with a poorly chosen name. Even though the hype about IoT started months ago and it seemed that everybody was informed about the subject, there are still plenty of people who confuse the actual Internet with the IoT, not being able to make the difference between the two.

We all know what the Internet is, we surf it on our mobile and desktop devices, we use it to stream movies and TV-shows, connect to social media websites, and plenty of other activities. However, the Internet of Things is another concept.

Imagine a house filled with standard appliances and accessories that are all connected to a master hosting app. You can set your alarm clock, start your coffee filter, make toast, turn on the AC, turn on the shower, the TV, open the garage door, and even start your toothbrush from the press of a few buttons.

That’s exactly what the Connected Conference presented. Attendees were able to browse the high-tech home that was equipped with smart everything from the now-known Echo, Nest, Dropcam, and smart lock to the new concepts of “smart” speakers, shutters, boiler, heater, mirror, umbrella, shower, toothbrush, bed, and, the surprise of the convention, an alarm clock driven by scent.

While some seem to be things that could make an individual’s life considerably easier, others are built with Wi-Fi technology just so that they could be monitored.

It may sound very Orwellian, but the concept will help people when they are in trouble, and nobody else is there to help. The makers argue that individuals who are prone to suicide, or those who suffer from acute disorders could be reached in time in case of an emergency, as opposed to the regular system.

Echo is, for the moment, the only app that allows people to toggle the entire array of recently-developed smart devices. And since the IoT is here to stay, the company can enjoy the monopoly, at least for now.

Image source: Pixabay

A “Look Inside” Intel and Its Itseez Acquisition

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A “Look Inside” Intel and Its Itseez Acquisition

Intel just bought Russian startup Itseez to reach another stepping stone in the Internet of Things market and dive into connected markets like the automotive and its autonomous driving applications.

The San Francisco-based company Itseez is a machine learning and a computer vision firm that makes vision algorithms and software. Founded in 2005, Itseez creates implementations for embedded and specialized computer hardware and will help Intel optimize navigation for autonomous cars.

The computer vision technology is a system through which images from the real world are acquired and processed to make automated actions.

Among its products, Itseez has a line of algorithms called “advanced driver assistance systems,” that makes car hardware detect pedestrians and traffic signs and warn the driver. Itseez also produces code for robotics, smartphones, surveillance and sports analytics.

Although the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, the price of Intel’s “restructuring” is high, the company laying off around eleven percent or 12,000 of its employees (a process started in April).

This deal announcement comes one month after the acquisition of Yogitech, an IoT-related business. Through the help of this functional safety for semiconductors specializing company, Intel sees that its technology will ensure the security of the chips powering the self-driving vehicles.

The Santa Clara Company also improved its software and chips production with the purchase of chips making for smart objects company Lantiq.

Global financial services firm, Morgan Stanley, evaluates a $507 billion gains in productivity from self-driving cars, with Americans alone spending annually around 75 billion hours driving.

Doug Davis, senior vice president, said in the Intel announcement that key ingredient firm, Itseez, will improve their “IoT roadmap” and their services offered for self-driving technology, digital security and surveillance, and much more.

To achieve business impact, experts believe you need an integrated approach, both hardware and software, and with this new software deal, Intel passes through the gates of the autonomous vehicles arena.

Intel’s transaction moves are strategic shifts from being a computer chip maker to powering the cloud computing, the IoT and data analytics offered by these devices. The cloud computing and Internet of Things deals already make 40 percent of the company’s total profit (a $2.2 billion in revenue last year alone, to be specific).

Image source: Wikimedia

Smart Paper – Wireless Battery-Free Paper Interface

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"Smart Paper with Wireless Battery-Free Paper Interface "

Conductive ink and colored pencil for smart paper

This smart paper or PaperID technology is a fresh, brand new tech product able to connect with the IoT (Internet of Things) environment.

The Disney Research, the Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Washington have united their researching powers to create a way in which to give regular paper technological capabilities by using sensors.

The sensors on the paper respond to gesture and can connect to other digital settings.

The technology works with RFID, a radio frequency tag, drawn, printed or stuck on a piece of paper.

Giving tag sensors a gesture command, the smart paper can then interact with other interfaces than might control music, visuals or even student live tests or polling.

University of Washington doctoral student and lead author of the research, Hanchuan Li, says: “If RFID tags can make interfaces as simple, flexible and cheap as paper, it makes good sense to deploy those tags anywhere.”

What is so exciting about the smart paper or the PaperID technology is that this mechanism uses inexpensive RFID tags that work without a battery and can be detected by a reader device located in the same room.

Individual tags have unique identification (ID) marks which make the antenna able to detect a particular tag amongst infinite other tags.

The price of one such chip is somewhere around 10 cents. Or, alternatively, the antenna can pick markers drawn to paper with conductive ink.

Hand touching, swiping, covering the tag or simply waving in front of the chips create disturbances in the signal. Algorithms can be coded to recognize the patterns of the signal disturbance and classify it as an absolute command.

Tags drawn side by side in a circle or an array on a regular piece of paper can work as sliders or levers while sticker tags work best for on/off commands.

There are many possible uses to give to the smart paper, such as prototyping interactive systems without building the hardware, tracking the speed of moving objects (like a wand used by music conductors), educational and personal use.

The low cost the battery-less wireless technology needed for the smart paper to function makes it a fantastic material to be extended to other usage scenarios.

Image courtesy of Eric Rosenbaum

Continental Hires Seval Oz as Head of Intelligent Transportation Unit

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There are various chips being implanted in numerous devices in the last period to offer them increased functionality. But one category that will never have enough of them is the transport industry. The advent of the Internet of Things is the motor industry can only be welcomed. The main advantage of having sensors recording the states of the vehicle and communicating with other systems is the increased safety for all traffic members. This is why Continental hires Seval Oz from Google’s driverless car project in the company’s new business unit.

Recently, SKully Systems released the Skully AR-1 smart helmet for motorcyclists. The helmet will provide futuristic information on the visor, but without disturbing the normal view. As such, the driver will have both increased safety due to the live images provided by the rear-view camera, and other benefits as GPS routes.

On Monday, the Obama administration announced that it will provide regulation according to which cars will have to be equipped with basic communication systems. The administration hopes rightfully, we may add, that deadly accidents, as well as repair and hospitalization costs will be avoided as soon as the system is widely adopted. Each car will have to get a standard system installed. The government thinks that initial costs will be around $300 per car, but will decrease rapidly.

There are already a couple of companies working on similar systems. Perhaps Google is the most widely known company, but others are involved in the domain as well. Among them, Continental attempts to be one of the early adopters of the new technology.

Continental hires Seval Oz to implement the ‘Internet of Everything’

Continental decided to assemble an international team which will focus on the newly established division called Continental Intelligent Transportation Systems, based in Silicon Valley. To get a good start, Continental decided to lure a Google employee into the new project. Seval Oz worked for Google in the driverless car project. The 53 years old expert in vehicle networking and automation will head the new Continental team.

“This step is an excellent example of our strategy to make the car an integral part of the ‘Internet of Everything.’ Our key objectives include eliminating road accidents, minimizing energy consumption, maximizing comfort and usability of vehicles, and enabling them to exchange information with each other in real-time,” said Dr. Elmar Degenhart, CEO of Continental. Continental hires Seval Oz from Google to gain a competitive advantage ahead of similar companies such as Bosch and Delphi.

Sproutling Baby Monitor Reduces Parents Stress

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New parents fear that they might not be able to take care of their newly-born child. Because they do not have experience, they tend to overstress about everything the baby does. (Un)fortunately, parents cannot spend their whole day around the baby’s crib. Baby monitors are widely available, you can have sound or video, or even both. But very soon, your baby and you might sleep a bit better, because there is a new exciting gadget about to be sold on the market.

Sproutling Baby Monitor is the solution found by the new dads to many of their new problems. New parents do not understand the signals sent by their babies and they overstress. The Sproutling Baby Monitor keeps an eye on the most important characteristics of your baby’s status.

We now live in the Internet of Things age, so a simple monitor is not an exciting and useful gadget. Sproutling Baby Monitor is not just a regular monitor, it learns the behavior and makes intuitive knowledgeable predictions.

The Sproutling Baby Monitor sounds very good. Maybe used in combination with Timeful, the new time management app, it will help you do many things you think having a baby might prevent you to do.

Sproutling Baby Monitor comes with a wireless charges acting as thermostat

The monitor can be strapped onto the baby’s ankle and communicates with two partners, a nearby base and your smartphone, through a dedicated app. The smart sensor records multiple variables. The baby’s Skin temperature, heart rate, motion, and position are stored and sent to you on your smartphone by Sproutling Baby Monitor.

You will be able to find out if the baby rolled on his stomach or he has a fever. The app displays a green background if everything is ok. If anything is out of the ordinary, it turns red and if the sensor is somehow removed by the baby, it turns yellow.

The messages are simple. Instead of showing parents crude numbers like heartbeat rate, the sensor says that the heartbeat or temperature are at unusually high levels.

Sproutling Baby Monitor comes with a wireless charger. Besides the awesomeness and usefulness of having a wireless charger, the device has a couple of extra features. The smart charger analyzes your baby’s environment and adjusts lighting, sound, humidity and temperature levels. You will be notified, for example, if you are making too much noise in the other room and risk waking the baby up.

Nonprofit Thread Group Comprising Samsung, Arm, Google Establishes Internet of Things Standard

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The nonprofit Thread Group has been created to tackle the basic problem of finding a common ground to develop the future Internet of Things platform. Probably never again in high-tech history the big companies have been so concerned about compatibility. Lessons have been learned in the hard way by tech companies and regular users struggled with myriads of devices while trying to perform computing basic functions. Two other alliances, Open Interconnect Consortium and AllSeen Alliance gathered most of the big players in the Internet of Things market. Samsung plays on two fields at once, since it already is a member of the first group.

Samsung, Nest and ARM, under Google’s leadership are the core of the nonprofit Thread Group. We cannot really benefit from the upcoming Internet of Things without having interoperable devices. The whole point of the Internet of Things concept is to have a fully working ecosystem of wireless devices. Nonprofit Thread Group was established with this goal in mind.

Nonprofit Thread Group will focus on developing low energy mesh networking

The main principle strategy behind the new alliance is based on mesh networking. The idea is to have the widest wireless network possible without installing new hardware. Mesh networking implies using a mobile device with wi-fi capabilities as a router. As such, the range of Wi-Fi can be increased at no cost. The nonprofit Thread Group will work towards obtaining such a capability with low energy costs. The 6LoWPAN low-power Wi-Fi standard will be at the heart of the new platform. Nest products already feature it. The communication standard will be reliable, and, most importantly, encrypted, thus offering a high degree of security.

The great big news is that for devices to access the new standard of wireless communication, there is no need for hardware upgrading. A software upgrade will enable the devices’ access in the network. Smartphones are highly capable devices, soon to outrun average desktop performance. There is a downside to that, as we all know. Fully charged smartphones’ batteries only offer on-screen experiences for less than a full work day. Until the problem is solved, the main goal of the nonprofit Thread Group is to establish a low energy wireless communication standard. Thread uses the new IPv6, so all the devices will be able to connect to the new type of Internet of Things ecosystem for a long time from now on.

Samsung, Intel, Dell Form Internet of Things Platform

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Tech companies work hard to erect ecosystem empires, like Google is doing right now with its Android Wear. Internet of Things is just around the corner now that Samsung, Intel, Dell form Internet of Things platform. Do you remember how excited we all were when we were first offered the possibility to listen to MP3s on our mobile devices? The joy was soon overwhelmed by frustration. Why was this gift offered to us if we could not enjoy it with proper headphones? It was all because the companies decided to go for proprietary connections. Myriads of different headphones invaded the stores, it was a mess. Now finally we can enjoy using a basic function because virtually all producers adopted the 3.5 mm standard audio jack.

One would think that the industry has learned a valuable lesson from this and many other similar stories. But history might be repeated because the industry will soon adopt a new standard. The Internet of Things (IoT) will conquer our homes in just a couple of years. The main problem right now is what standard will the producers adopt? IoT will comprise a vast array of interconnected devices. The list can start with the common refrigerator, washing machine, laptop, TV, and end up with the thermostat and illumination devices. Having a fully automated home is not a new idea. Homes with electronically adjustable centralized functions were a thing in the 80s. The systems were rigid, though. IoT will offer many more options. Besides, we expect every future generation of devices to be fully compatible with the ecosystem.

Samsung, Intel, Dell form Internet of Things platform after other megaproducers joined a different group

This is where the main battle is taking place – establishing the common ground on your own terms as a producer. We are on the verge of witnessing one of the largest clashes between tech giants, because the IoT will be the biggest market in the next several decades.

We have on the one side the AllSeen Alliance with Qualcomm at its base. Other companies who joined this camp are LG, Sharp, Panasonic, Cisco, HTC, and, as of last week, Microsoft. More than 50 members joined AllSeen Alliance so far and their common starting ground will be around a Qualcomm software platform.

On the other side, the founding members of Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) are Broadcom, Dell, Intel, Samsung, Atmel, and Intel-subsidiary Wind River. This group proposes a Linux based open source software platform. OIC plans to recruit new members by the end of the year.

You might wonder where Google and Apple are. The mega producers decided to each go its own way towards the IoT. Apple announced Home Kit in June already.

Because Samsung, Intel, Dell form Internet of Things platform, the new age of automated homes will be a bit more complicated than desired.

The New Tizen – Powered Samsung Z Opens the Gate to the Future

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We have been waiting for the new Tizen – powered Samsung Z for quite some time, and here we are, witnessing a historical moment: Samsung rolled out its new smartphone on Tuesday, making thus a first step in the process of breaking up with Android, and Google for that matter.

As we said before, it is hard to understand the collaboration between the two tech giants, as they are still working together to some extent, and the rivalry between them, which, without a doubt, pushed Samsung to deliver the world’s first Tizen – powered smartphone.

The phone per se is not much of a spectacular gadget. Actually, few people talk about it, as it is still a Samsung phone similar to other Samsung phones. It’s mid – range and Galaxy – inspired. But, if you are interested in more detailed specs, Fierce Wireless gives us some clues about the technicalities:

The Z itself has a 4.8-inch 720p display, a 2.3 GHz quad-core processor and an 8-megapixel camera. Also, like Samsung’s Android-based Galaxy S5, the gadget includes a fingerprint sensor and an “Ultra Power Saving Mode” that Samsung claims lets the phone stay operational even at minimal battery levels.

As you see, nothing out of the ordinary, so far. What is indeed out of the ordinary is the bold moves the South Korean company makes in order to step away from the Android and come up with its own operating system. The things is, Tizen is not likely to become a worthy opponent to Android or iOS, not to mention that Windows Phone is still playing the competition game. However, with the new Tizen – powered Samsung Z, the company hopes to open a new gate to the future. And the future has one name: “The Internet of Things”.

According to analysts,

Samsung touted Tizen as a platform not just for phones, but for a range of connected devices from home appliances to door locks and watches which may communicate with one another in the future. It showed off a line of Tizen-powered devices ranging from Tizen-Android cameras to its freshly announced smartphone powered entirely by the South Korean technology firm’s open-source operating system. Samsung even teased a prototype smart television that connects to rich online content using Tizen.

One upon a time, tech behemoths were fighting for supremacy waving their smartphones, wearable gadgets, virtual reality headsets, even drones and robots. Truth be told, they are still fighting with these weapons today. But the “Internet of Things” is perhaps the new Eldorado of the tech world, and seeing how things evolve, the competition will be fierce.