Belkin WeMo Switch and Motion Home automation and smartphones are a natural fit. As such, we’re seeing the proliferation of systems that let you turn lights on and off, brew coffee, monitor security cameras and control other things around the home from anywhere, just by tapping on your phone’s screen. The WeMo Switch + Motion is a $100 kit from Belkin that acts as a simple home automation system. Plug the self-contained unit into an electrical outlet, connect a light or an appliance, then pair the WeMo your smartphone over Wi-Fi. Once everything’s hooked up, you gain the ability to switch lights (or whatever) on and off without leaving the comfort of your bed. Activating the included motion sensor will give you a truly automated setup, but if all you need is the Switch, it’s available on its own for $40.

Belkin WeMo Switch and Motion

Home automation and smartphones are a natural fit. As such, we’re seeing the proliferation of systems that let you turn lights on and off, brew coffee, monitor security cameras and control other things around the home from anywhere, just by tapping on your phone’s screen.

The WeMo Switch + Motion is a $100 kit from Belkin that acts as a simple home automation system. Plug the self-contained unit into an electrical outlet, connect a light or an appliance, then pair the WeMo your smartphone over Wi-Fi. Once everything’s hooked up, you gain the ability to switch lights (or whatever) on and off without leaving the comfort of your bed. Activating the included motion sensor will give you a truly automated setup, but if all you need is the Switch, it’s available on its own for $40.

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Cambridge Consultants develops indoor tech to pick up where GPS drops off Indoor navigation isn’t a new concept, but it often requires wireless signals or custom infrastructure, neither of which are entirely reliable. Cambridge Consultants has come up with an as-yet-unnamed technology that purports to solve the issue by utilizing low-power sensors along with a custom formula that don’t require an existing framework. According to the Cambridge, UK-based company, all you need are its special Bayesian algorithm and run-of-the-mill smartphone components like accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers to do the job. It has already built a concept chipset (seen above) that could be embedded in existing devices — you can either map your location directly on it or send that info off to a remote system. The firm says the technology will be useful for firefighters and hospital workers, though we wouldn’t complain if it’s implemented in trade shows either. For more information on the tech, check the press release after the break.

Cambridge Consultants develops indoor tech to pick up where GPS drops off

Indoor navigation isn’t a new concept, but it often requires wireless signals or custom infrastructure, neither of which are entirely reliable. Cambridge Consultants has come up with an as-yet-unnamed technology that purports to solve the issue by utilizing low-power sensors along with a custom formula that don’t require an existing framework. According to the Cambridge, UK-based company, all you need are its special Bayesian algorithm and run-of-the-mill smartphone components like accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers to do the job. It has already built a concept chipset (seen above) that could be embedded in existing devices — you can either map your location directly on it or send that info off to a remote system. The firm says the technology will be useful for firefighters and hospital workers, though we wouldn’t complain if it’s implemented in trade shows either. For more information on the tech, check the press release after the break.

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 Microchip Markets RFID Technology that Transmits via the Human Body - RFID Journal Several companies are currently beta-testing a radio frequency identification system from Microchip Technology that uses the human body as a conduit for transmissions between an interrogator and a tag. Microchip’s platform, known as BodyCom, can be utilized to control access to a building, or to control the usage of a device, such as a computer or a weapon. The companies, located in various parts of the world, are testing ways in which to integrate the technology into their own solutions, such as keyless vehicle-entry systems. While traditional RFID systems transmit data through the air, simply requiring a tag or a receiving unit to come within transmission range of an interrogator, the BodyCom solution requires that both tag and interrogator be within close proximity to a person’s body. By leveraging the body to transmit a signal, BodyCom does not need as much power, nor does it require a conventional RFID reader antenna, according to Edward Dias, the embedded-security business-development manager of Microchip’s MCU8 (8-bit microcontroller) division. This would mean the battery life of a device such as a remote control or an ID tag would be longer, he explains, and that the transmission itself would be more secure, since there would be no over-the-air RF signals that could be intercepted.

 Microchip Markets RFID Technology that Transmits via the Human Body - RFID Journal

Several companies are currently beta-testing a radio frequency identification system from Microchip Technology that uses the human body as a conduit for transmissions between an interrogator and a tag. Microchip’s platform, known as BodyCom, can be utilized to control access to a building, or to control the usage of a device, such as a computer or a weapon. The companies, located in various parts of the world, are testing ways in which to integrate the technology into their own solutions, such as keyless vehicle-entry systems.

While traditional RFID systems transmit data through the air, simply requiring a tag or a receiving unit to come within transmission range of an interrogator, the BodyCom solution requires that both tag and interrogator be within close proximity to a person’s body. By leveraging the body to transmit a signal, BodyCom does not need as much power, nor does it require a conventional RFID reader antenna, according to Edward Dias, the embedded-security business-development manager of Microchip’s MCU8 (8-bit microcontroller) division. This would mean the battery life of a device such as a remote control or an ID tag would be longer, he explains, and that the transmission itself would be more secure, since there would be no over-the-air RF signals that could be intercepted.

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Something Clever This Way Comes: Living with the Internet of Things | Business 2 Community

When XBOX first announced its pending release of the Kinect in 2009, they did so under the codename “Project Natal,” and a lot of people completely freaked out. Part of the panic was due to the functionality of the device — the motion-sensing, webcam-enabled peripheral for the more traditional 360 was one (large) step beyond the Wii. But mostly, it was Milo.

Milo is Project Natal’s brainchild. Or really, just child: an artificially intelligent, virtual boy with the ability to recognize people, voices, and even emotions, and the capacity to respond accordingly. Now, he hasn’t made it into our living rooms yet, but people couldn’t help but stare warily at their computers after seeing Milo. Yet, four years later, we have refrigerators that tweet and the potential to save billions of tons of carbon not just through smarter use of technology, but through technology that’s smart.

It’s called the IoT: the internet of things.

The Basics: Getting Our Devices to Communicate

The concept of IoT is certainly not a new one. Comic book artists and sci-fi enthusiasts have been dreaming of worlds saturated with intercommunicating devices for decades. We’re not quite to the point where an iPhone can comb through work emails to inherently generate reminders, but we’re on the way.

Let’s take the Kinect example a little further: the device works by using infrared technology to map out rooms, objects and people in those rooms, and the movements they make. It reacts to pre-set voice commands and can even tell which person is standing in front of it — as long as they’ve already scanned themselves into the system. In order to then take all of that information and translate it into an interactive image on a television screen, it communicates with both the game console and the TV set. And it does it in real time, with no outside interference or direction from the user. Pretty cool, right? What’s really cool about this particular technology is that it’s available to the masses, unlike Bill Gates’ mood-affected paintings. Or personal nanobots (we still want the nanobots, Science).

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Steve Mann: My “Augmediated” Life - IEEE Spectrum Steve Mann, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto, has been designing and wearing computerized eyewear for decades, the gear increasing markedly in sophistication over time.

Steve Mann: My “Augmediated” Life - IEEE Spectrum

Steve Mann, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto, has been designing and wearing computerized eyewear for decades, the gear increasing markedly in sophistication over time.

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Internet of things Podcast – Almond ’s nutty idea: Making sensor connectivity a snap

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Today’s podcast features the CEO of Secuifi where we’ll talk about how to connect your home and why. We’ll also talk about the standards battle making it hard for consumers to jump into the connected home.

What do you need for the Internet of things? It’s not entirely clear yet, but what we do know is that right now there are several ways to connect devices to the home network but a consumer doesn’t really want to have to wonder how to connect a Zigbee thermostat to their home Wi-Fi network. That’s why router startup Securifi has produced the Almond+ router that aims to build a home network-capable router that will include Wi-Fi, Zigbee and Z-Wave controlled by a touch screen. The goal is to automatically connect sensors into your home network much like you can bring in a Wi-Fi capable device and have it just work when you bring it onto the network.

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Breezing: Portable Metabolism Tracker | Indiegogo

Meet Breezing.

For the first time ever, a metabolism tracker that syncs with your smartphone. Brought to you by a team of dedicated researchers and engineers, Breezing combines innovative design with proven science.

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Y Combinator-Backed Thalmic Labs Introduces MYO, A $149 Armband For Gesture Control | TechCrunch

myo_1

As stuff like Google Glass becomes mainstream, we’re going to see a lot more wearable computing devices around. But one thing that isn’t clear is how we’ll control them. One idea is to use gesture control, which would enable users to communicate with wearable computers without having to use a whole separate smartphone or other device to do so.

But so far, gesture control for most devices — like the Xbox Kinect, for instance — has depended upon cameras watching user movement. That means remaining in a fixed space and using pre-programmed gestures that are not exactly natural, but can be picked up by cameras. As a result, today’s gesture control technologies are far from perfect. In fact, most to date are just downright bad.

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The Next Decade Is The Internet Of Things | Arctic Startup

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Since 1980‘s and 1990‘s we were constantly talking about world globalization and how interconnected we have become, partially thanks to the internet. In todays world, I think we need to coin a new term “internetiolization”, if we can pronounce it that is.

You might think that you live in the world of the internet, where everything is connected. But in truth, you have no idea how interconnected its about to get. Thanks to companies such as Sensinode out of Oulu, Finland, every little device is going to be able to communicate to every other little device and be connected to the global “Internet of Things”.

imageJust imagine for a second that every light switch, device (TV, Fridge) and door lock in your house being connected to each other and the internet. So that you can adjust the overall brigthness of your living room to your preferred level of lumens. Now imagine that you can do that from anywhere in the world, through your mobile phone? Cool, right? 

Well, it gets better. All of these devices could theoretically be connected to a wider grid, containing for example street lights. The system could then measure the amount of light that your house emits, couple it together with the amount of light needed on the street and power the street lights accordingly. If you connect light sensors and motion sensors to the grid, you can have the lights follow your car on a highway and not have any lights anywhere where it is not needed. This interconnectedness is what machine to machine communications could become. This new internet can and will be an order of magnitude bigger than what we currently have.

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screengeek:

This Ford Evos Concept video shows how your car will use the cloud to personalize your driving experience. From talking with your alarm clock, to checking on what you were watching or listening to on devices in the home - the goal of the future car is to make your ride catered to you.

Some great examples of how the internet of things is impacting the automobile industry.

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$25 Model A Raspberry Pi Microcomputer Goes On Sale In Europe — Available To Rest Of World “Very Soon” | TechCrunch

The affordable Raspberry Pi microcomputer just got even more affordable: the slated $25 Model A Raspberry Pi board has now gone on sale in Europe. The Raspberry Pi Foundation, which created the Pi on a mission to get more kids learning to code, announced the Model A’s arrival and said sales are being restricted to Europe initially but will be opened up to the rest of the world “very soon”.

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PressureNet App Feeds Scientists Atmospheric Data from Thousands of Smartphones | MIT Technology Review

An Android app that measures atmospheric pressure is now feeding that distributed data to scientists working on better ways to predict the weather.

The app, called PressureNet, highlights the potential of distributed sensing using mobile devices and shows how the sophisticated sensors found in modern smartphones could be harnessed for research. It was launched in late 2011 By Jacob Sheehy, a software developer for Flighthub.com, and Phil Jones, an independent Web designer, who became friends while studying at Concordia University in Montreal.

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The IPSO IoT Innovation Contest « Wireless Sensor Networks Blog

The IPSO Alliance is announcing the Internet of Things 2013 Innovation Contest that invites people and companies from around the world to submit new Internet Protocol enabled Smart Objects that demonstrate the power of the Internet of Things. The goal of this contest is to bring forth exciting new concepts and devices that use the Internet Protocol in interconnecting embedded sensor and control solutions in areas of home control, smart building, healthcare, lighting control, smart energy, or consumer entertainment.

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The entries will be judged by a panel of experts and the top designs will be brought to and demonstrated at Sensors Expo June 4-6 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL.  The finalists will receive the opportunity to meet with the judges and present their device to the attendees of the show.  The winning submission will receive a $10,000 prize.

Details and rules of the contest will be published on the IPSO Alliance website at the beginning of February.

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What Is the Industrial Internet? | MIT Technology Review What is the industrial Internet? As good a place as any to find the answer is at General Electric’s newest U.S. factory, a $170 million plant it opened in Schenectady, New York, last July to produce advanced sodium-nickel batteries for uses that include powering cell-phone towers (see “GE’s Novel Battery to Bolster the Grid,” “Inside GE’s New Battery Factory,” and “Can We Build Tomorrow’s Breakthroughs?”). The factory has more than 10,000 sensors spread across 180,000 square feet of manufacturing space, all connected to a high-speed internal Ethernet. They monitor things like which batches of powder are being used to form the ceramics at the heart of the batteries, how high a temperature is being used to bake them, how much energy is required to make each battery, and even the local air pressure. On the plant floor, employees with iPads can pull up all the data from Wi-Fi nodes set up around the factory.

What Is the Industrial Internet? | MIT Technology Review

What is the industrial Internet?

As good a place as any to find the answer is at General Electric’s newest U.S. factory, a $170 million plant it opened in Schenectady, New York, last July to produce advanced sodium-nickel batteries for uses that include powering cell-phone towers (see “GE’s Novel Battery to Bolster the Grid,” “Inside GE’s New Battery Factory,” and “Can We Build Tomorrow’s Breakthroughs?”).

The factory has more than 10,000 sensors spread across 180,000 square feet of manufacturing space, all connected to a high-speed internal Ethernet. They monitor things like which batches of powder are being used to form the ceramics at the heart of the batteries, how high a temperature is being used to bake them, how much energy is required to make each battery, and even the local air pressure. On the plant floor, employees with iPads can pull up all the data from Wi-Fi nodes set up around the factory.

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