New products, Conferences, Books, Papers, Internet of Things

Archive for March, 2013

Libelium Brings New Smart Lighting Sensor Solution to Smart Cities

smart_lighting-0-400pxLibelium today announced the availability of a new Smart Lighting solution for Smart Cities deployments based on the modular Waspmote Plug & Sense! wireless sensor network platform. Measuring ambient light (luminosity) with a new set of directionable sensor probes, Libelium’s Smart Lighting device also includes temperature and humidity sensors and is capable of monitoring conditions inside buildings or in tunnels, and outside, in the streets.

Read more.

Call for Papers: The Fifth Workshop on Real-World Wireless Sensor Networks

19-20 September 2013, Como Lake, Italy

We are excited to announce that the fifth Workshop on Real-World Wireless Sensor will be held at the Como Lake, Italy in September 2013.

The purpose of the fifth Workshop on Real-World Wireless Sensor Networks (REALWSN) is to bring together researchers and practitioners working in the area of sensor networks, with focus on real-world experiments or deployments of wireless sensor networks. Included are also new forms of sensing such as those that leverage smart phones, Internet of Things, RFIDs, and robots.

When working with real-world experiments or deployments, many new issues arise: the network environment may be composed of a variety of different technologies, leading to very heterogeneous network structures; software development for large scale networks poses new types of problems; prototype networks may differ significantly from the deployed system; actual sensor network deployments may need a complex combination of autonomous and manual configuration. Furthermore, results obtained through simulation are typically not directly applicable to operational networks and it is therefore imperative for the community to produce results from experimental research.

Authors are invited to submit papers (12 pages, Springer format, 9 or 10 point font size) for presentation at the workshop. Papers will be selected based on originality, technical merit, and relevance.

All topics pertaining to real-world wireless sensor networks are of interest, including but not limited to:
* Experiences with real-world deployments
* Mining real-world WSN data
* Sensor systems leveraging smart phones (crowd sensing)
* Sensors systems involving Internet of Things (IoT), RFIDs, robots
* Experimental validation/refutation of previous simulation
results obtained by others
* Real-world performance of self-organization and self-management
* Debugging, testing, validation, and management
* Deployment and configuration
* Applications in medicine, industry, science, environmental monitoring
* Security and trust
* Scalability in practice
* Development and prototyping platforms
* Operating systems, sensor network programming paradigms, and languages
* Middleware for heterogeneous networks
* Real-time and dependability issues
* Hardware support for real-world sensor networks
* Robustness at all levels: communication, software, hardware
* Energy efficient protocols
* Hardware and software methods for energy measurement and profiling

Important dates:
* Electronic submissions due: June 21, 2013
* Notification of acceptance: August 8, 2013
* Camera-ready copy due: August 30, 2013
* Workshop: 19-20 September 2013

We will organize a poster and demo session as well. The deadline will be August 15 2013, notification August 22 2013.

More info here.

Cisco Says Its “Internet of Everything” Is Worth $14.4 Trillion. Really?

14.4trillionNetworking giant Cisco predicted Wednesday that as we move into a “fundamentally mobile and video” world, the “Internet of Everything” — which combines the so-called Internet of Things with the Internet used by people and their mobile devices — will create $14.4 trillion in value and boost overall corporate profits by 21%. All by 2022.

Those are some pretty big numbers, shared by Cisco executives at a press event in San Jose on Wednesday. But while the vision makes sense, quantifying the changes to be wrought by growth of the Internet of Everything seems, well, fairly abitrary. To say the least.

Rob Lloyd, Cisco President, Sales and Development, broke down the $14.4 trillion figure this way:

  • $2.5 trillion in better asset utilization
  • $2.5 trillion in employee productivity
  • $2.7 in supply chain logistics
  • $3.7 trillion in better customer experience.
  • $3 trillion in enabling new innovations.

Those may seem easier to grasp, but when you’re talking in trillions over decade-long time frames, it’s very hard to put much credence in calculations like these.

More info here.

 

ST and Thingsquare Team Up to Advance Easy-to-Use Internet of Things

Thingsquare, a pioneering provider of open-source software for the Internet of Things, and STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, have cooperated to bring Thingsquare Mist Internet-connectivity software to ST’s SPIRIT1 radio transceiver on the STM32L microcontroller platform.
Thingsquare Mist is a game-changing software system that brings true Internet-connectivity to the Internet of Things. Used in connected-home products, smart lighting systems, and smart city projects, Thingsquare Mist builds on well-known open-source components, has a small memory footprint, low computational requirements, is battle-proven, and works with multiple microcontrollers with a range of radios.

ST’s SPIRIT1 is a very low-power RF transceiver, intended for RF wireless-sensor node applications in the sub-1 GHz band, such as Automatic Meter Infrastructure, alarm and security systems, home and building automation, and industrial monitoring and control. The SPIRIT1 uses a very small number of discrete external components, integrates an embedded ‘listen-before-talk’ (CSMA/CA) engine and an AES 128-bit encryption co-processor for secure data transfer.

The SPIRIT1 transceiver works in tandem with ST’s ARM® Cortex™-M3-based STM32 L1 microcontroller series, which boasts ultra-low-power consumption with no compromise on performance. The microcontroller adds a wide range of integrated peripherals like USB, analog-to-digital converter and LCD controller that make it suitable for industrial, consumer, fitness, and healthcare applications.“Thingsquare Mist makes it possible for customers to quickly add Internet-connectivity to their products,” said Marcello San Biagio, High End Analog and RF Business Unit Director at STMicroelectronics. “The Thingsquare Mist ‘sleepy mesh’ technology is extremely efficient and helps increase reliability and range in wireless sensor networks without sacrificing battery life.”

More info here.

Tiny low-power Wi-Fi module enables Internet of Things

297474-econais_EC32WxxThe WiSmart EC32Wxx from Econais is an ultra-low-power embedded Wi-Fi platform that can fit in any existing or new electronic device. The module is based on the STM32F1x microcontroller and, according to the company, uses the lowest-power-consumption Wi-Fi chip on the market.

The device runs a tiny TCP/IP stack, with WPA/WPA2 support, leaving 115K (EC32W10)/243K (EC32W11)/371K (EC32W12) Flash Memory available for any third-party application that can make use of the well-defined API exported by the module. More flash is available in bigger versions of the MCU.

Key features (EC32W1x) include the following:

  • 3.3V supply
  • Operational modes as low as 1.1 uA current consumption
  • Rx power consumption (mA): (b/g/n) 48 / 50 / 51
  • Tx power consumption (mA): (b/g/n) 237@21dBm / 219@18 dBm / 214@17 dBm
  • 802.11 power save
  • IBSS and BSS mode
  • TCP/IP, Telnet, Web Server
  • Interfaces: SPI, UART, ADC, DAC, I2C, I2S, MCU JTAG, SDIO

The module includes an embedded PCB antenna with range up to 400m, but optionally an external antenna can be mounted on the board. The WiSmart EC32Wxx measures 27.5mm x 18.5mm x 1.5mm and is priced at less than $15 each in quantities greater than 1K. Samples are $20 per unit, and an available software development kit is $249.

More info here.

Fire the coach! 94Fifty Basketball Uses Sensors to Measure Basketball Skills

The 94Fifty basketball uses sensors to tell players how well they are playing.  All sorts of ball handling, including dribbling and shooting, is measured by the ball in real time for a precise analysis of a player’s skill.

InfoMotion Sports Technologies uses a suite of built-in sensors in the “94Fifty sensor basketball”.  Data from the ball is delivered through Bluetooth to an iOS or Android mobile app to show motion statistics like shot arc, shot speed, backspin, dribble intensity, and many other factors.

The inertial motion sensors and the digital signal processing hardware inside the 94Fifty basketball generate over 6,000 pieces of movement data per second.

A Digital Signal Processor inside the ball performs the complex analytics on the forces imparted by the players to derive consistent snapshots on how on player shoots, handles or moves with the ball.

The 94Fifty basketball makes extensive use of high-tech hardware components from Texas Instruments including the entire sensor array, Bluetooth/Bluetooth low energy dual-mode connectivity, a digital signal processor and a Qi-style wireless charging pad so it can be recharged without plugs or wires.

The new basketball is being released in early March through a KickStarter campaign. The company plans to make the product available via online sales only with estimated ship dates in the 3rd quarter of 2013.

More info here.

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