Author Archives: Tecnalia

IOT applications for the Industry

Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 by Tecnalia| Leave a comment

Optimize operations, boost productivity and save in resources and costs.

Maintain & Repair

Sensors installed inside equipment will monitor if any parts have exceeded their designed thresholds, and will automatically send reports to owners and manufacturers if they have. Early predictions on equipment malfunctions can be made with parts and service maintenance can be automatically scheduled ahead of a an actual part failure.

Stop Guessing

Retailers can run real-world A/B tests using networked cameras and sensors like those in the Shopperception system to detect how customers are engaging with specific products and the store’s layout.

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Monitor

Smart Structures’ SmartPile technology is an example in action that uses wireless sensors embedded within concrete foundation piles to ensure the quality and integrity of a structure. These sensors can provide load and event monitoring for the projects construction both during and after its completion.

 

Keep track of your assets

The OnFarm solution combines real-time sensor data from soil moisture levels, weather forecasts, and pesticide usage from farming sites into a consolidated web dashboard. Farmers can use this data with advanced imaging and mapping information to spot crop issues and remotely monitor all of the farms assets and resource usage levels.

Safety First

Enguage offers an electronic system that notifies authorities when a fire extinguisher is blocked, missing from its designated location or when its pressure falls below safe operating levels. Alerts can be sent directly through an instant email, phone call or pager notification to proper agencies and supervisors.

 

Maintain quality & consistency

Using networked sensors, cameras, and lasers to analyze manufacturing processes like those from SightMachine you can determine if a part is good or bad based on its physical characteristics; identify if it is the right component for the job and monitor trends, variations, and relationships in the system over time.

 

Source: postscapes

Posted in Gadget, Sensors

Budweiser: The Buddy Cup

Posted on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 by Tecnalia| Leave a comment

Budweiser Brazil just launched The Buddy Cup, a cup integrated with Facebook. When two people toast with their cups, they become friends.

Soon you will also be able to make friends with just a toast in the Budzone of Budweiser major events.

Posted in Gadget, Microchips, Video

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IOT applications for your city

Posted on Monday, May 13, 2013 by Tecnalia| Leave a comment

Engage with the data exhaust produced from your city and neighborhood.

Keep streets clean

Products like the cellular communication enabled Smart Belly trash use real-time data collection and alerts to let municipal services know when a bin needs to be emptied. This information can drastically reduce the number of pick-ups required, and translates into fuel and financial savings for communities service departments.

Stop driving in circles

With the use of installed sensors, mobile apps, and real-time web applications like those provided in Streetline’s ParkSight service, cities can optimize revenue, parking space availability and enable citizens to reduce their environmental impact by helping them quickly find an open spot for their cars.

 

Receive pollution warnings

The DontFlushMe project by Leif Percifield is an example that combines sensors installed in Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) with alerts to local residents so they can avoid polluting local waterways with raw sewage by not flushing their toilets during overflow events.

 

Use electricity more efficiently

The SenseNET system uses battery-powered clamp sensors to quickly measure current on a line, calculate consumption levels, and send that data to a hosted application for analysis. Significant financial and energy resources are saved as the clamps can easily identify meter tampering issues, general malfunctions, and any installation issues in the system.

 

Light streets more effectively

This smart lighting system from Echelon allows a city to intelligently provide the right level of lighting needed by time of day, season, and weather conditions. Cities have shown a reduction in street lighting energy use by up to 30% using solutions like this.

 

Share your findings

AirCasting is a platform for recording, mapping, and sharing health and environmental data using your smartphone. Each AirCasting session lets you capture real-world measurements (Sound levels recorded by their phone microphone; Temperature, humidity, carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas concentrations), and share it via the CrowdMap with your community.

Source: postscapes

Posted in Cameras, Gadget, Sensors

IOT applications for your home

Posted on Monday, May 06, 2013 by Tecnalia| Leave a comment

Remotely monitor and manage your home and cut down on your monthly bills and resource usage.

Heat your home efficiently

Smart thermostats like the Nest use sensors, real-time weather forecasts, and the actual activity in your home during the day to reduce your monthly energy usage by up to 30%, keeping you more comfortable, and offering to save you money on your utility bills.

 

Make sure the oven is off

Smart outlets like the WeMo allow you to instantly turn on and off any plugged in device from across the world or just your living room. Save money and conserve energy over time by eliminating standby power, measure and record the power usage of any device, and increase its operating lifespan through more efficient use and scheduling.

 

Track down those lost keys

You can easily track down those lost keys or cell phone in your house using Bluetooth and other wireless technology devices like the Cobra Tag.

 
 

Light your home in new ways

Web enabled lights like the Phillip’s Hue can be used as an ambient data displays (Glow red when my bus is 5 minutes away). These multi-functional lights can also help you to reduce electricity use (automatically turn off the lights when no one is in a room) or help to secure your home while you are away by turning your lights on and off.

Avoid Disasters

Using a device like the Ninja Block and its range of add-on sensors you can track if a water pipe has burst in your basement, if there is motion inside your home while you are away, and have it automatically send you a notification by email or text message when it happens.

 

Keep your plants alive

Whether taking care of a small hydroponic system or a large backyard lawn, systems like HarvestGeek with their suite of sensors and web connectivity help save you time and resources by keeping plants fed based on their actual growing needs and conditions while automating much of the labor processes.

Source: postscapes

Posted in Cameras, Gadget, Sensors

IOT applications for controlling your body

Posted on Monday, April 29, 2013 by Tecnalia| Leave a comment

Sensors + Connectivity

Check on the baby

Aimed at helping to prevent SIDS, the Peeko pajamas by Rest Devices is a new kind of infant monitor that provides parents with real-time information about their baby’s breathing, skin temperature, body position, and activity level on their smartphones.

 
 
 

Remember to take your meds

GlowCaps fit prescription bottles and via a wireless chip provide services that help people stick with their prescription regimen; from reminder messages, all the way to refill and doctor coordination.

 
 
 
 

Track your activity levels

Using your smartphone’s range of sensors (Accelerometer, Gyro, Video, Proximity, Compass, GPS, etc) and connectivity options (Cell, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, etc) you have a well equipped Internet of Things device in your pocket that can automatically monitor your movements, location, and workouts throughout the day.

 

Get the most out of your medication

The Proteus ingestible pill sensor is powered by contact with your stomach fluid and communicates a signal that determines the timing of when you took your meds and the identity of the pill. This information is transferred to a patch worn on the skin to be logged for you and your doctor’s reference. Heart rate, body position and activity can also be detected.

 

Monitor an aging family member

Using a wearable alarm button and other discrete wireless sensors placed around the home, the BeClose system can track your loved one’s daily routine and give you peace of mind for their safety by alerting you to any serious disruptions detected in their normal schedule.

 
 

Stay out of the doctor’s office

Intended for individuals with cardiac arrhythmias the BodyGuardian is an FDA cleared wearable sensor system that can remotely read a patient’s biometrics (ECG, heart rate, respiration rate and activity Level), sending the data to the patients physician and allowing users to go about their daily lives outside of a clinical setting.

 
 
Source: postscapes

Posted in Clothes, Gadget, Sensors

Standards body targets Internet of Things protocol

Posted on Monday, April 22, 2013 by Tecnalia| Leave a comment

Standards body Oasis has set up a new technical committee to establish a standard protocol to connect a huge range of devices and sensors in the ‘internet of things’. This will use MQTT (Messaging Queue Telemetry Transport), a technology which originated at IBM and has been heavily supported by the IT giant, which is seeking a controlling role in IoT.

MQTT was designed as an “extremely lightweight publish/subscribe messaging transport” targeted at M2M applications or those requiring a tiny code footprint or low network bandwidth. Its supporters say it is well suited to mobile usage because of its low power and size and its “efficient distribution of information to one or many receivers”.

The MQTT specification is a method “by which sensors, control systems, embedded systems and mobile devices can publish and subscribe low level, technically orientated data”, said Oasis.

Oasis (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit consortium that drives standards in various areas such as web services, smart grid and security. The consortium has more than 5,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and boasts a lightweight standards process and transparent governance.

The new technical committee was proposed by Oasis members from, among others, IBM and Eurotech, the firms behind the original protocol, developed in 1999 by Andy Stanford-Clark and Arlen Nipper.

The new project will complement previous work by another Oasis committee, AMQP, which supports MQ-based messaging routing for enterprise applications. There is a “natural affinity to bridge MQTT with AMQP so as to connect telemetry with enterprise applications,” said Oasis. Both standards reflect the evolution from packet level routing to full message-based routing using technologies like XML and MQ.

Source: rethink wireless

Posted in Article, Protocols

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Armband Lets Wearer Control Devices With The Wave Of Their Hand

Posted on Monday, April 15, 2013 by Tecnalia| Leave a comment

MYO is a gesture control gadget that reads the electrical activity in the user’s muscles and translates this into commands.

MYO is an armband that lets you control computers, phones, and other devices with simple gestures. It aims to transform how people interact with the digital world.

Developed by Canadian startup Thalmic Labs, MYO enables the wearer to use the electrical activity in their muscles for wireless control. It can recognize around twenty different gestures, such as the tap of a finger, the wave of a hand, or the flick of a wrist.

It is able to measure the electrical activity instantly using embedded electrodes, and provides a seamless way to interact with technology. The armband monitors a user’s muscles as they contract or relax and transmits this information to software that translates the movements into specific commands.

New Scientist reports that MYO’s creators see it as an easy way to interact with web browsers, video games, small drones, and more. A limited number is due to be released later this year, at a price of $149. The armband will be accompanied by software that allows any Windows or Mac computer to recognise gestures such as a vertical swipe to scroll up and down a webpage or a pinch to zoom in. You can check out the video below to see MYO in action:

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Source: psfk

Posted in Clothes, Gadget, Interaction, Video

Tagged

Sensordrone: The 6th Sense of Your Smartphone…& Beyond!

Posted on Monday, April 08, 2013 by Tecnalia| Leave a comment

Run hundreds of new, previously impossible Apps! Includes several new sensors and bluetooth to make your smartphone smarter.

Sensordrone is a sensor computer. Just like a computer can run many different applications, Sensordrone can run many sensor applications. If you have a Sensordrone, you can run apps on your tablet or smartphone to monitor carbon monoxide and air quality, find gas leaks, measure your child’s temperature, log the weather, and much more.

For example, apps using the capacitance sensor can work as a stud finder, a proximity monitor, or a liquid level monitor.  Apps using the pressure sensor can work as a barometer, an altimeter, calculate elevation differences so you can measure the height of a building, be hooked up to a pressure cuff to work as a blood pressure monitor, and more. Humidity sensing is not just for weather, it determines comfort level for infants, finds the optimum conditions for storing foods, and could even help prevent mold from growing in your home.

Specs/Compatibility

Sensordrone will initially support Android 2.2 (Froyo) and later with shipments starting this Fall.  Bluetooth 2.1 and 4.0 will be supported for Android.  iOS support will be available for devices with Bluetooth 4.0, i.e. iPhone 4S & iPad (3rd Generation). Support for iPhone will trail Android by ~2 months.

Data Sharing Apps/Pachube Support

Sensordrone is an open platform for all kinds of sensor and bluetooth peripheral device apps. Every app shown in this project will be available for free. Many new apps are under development, like data sharing apps so you can combine sensor data with smartphone capabilities and share on Google+, Facebook, etc. Support will be available for data recording sites like Pachube.

Application examples:

  • Air quality
  • Breath alcohol
  • Color matching
  • Non-contact thermometer
  • Weather monitoring
  • Crowd sourced Sensor Data
  • Games (totally new concepts)
  • Flatulence (use gas sensors for both serious and not so serious measurements)
  • Totally new applications/Multi-sensor mayhem!

Included Sensors

  • Precision Electrochemical Gas Sensor – Calibrated for Carbon Monoxide (Also can be used for precision measurements of Alcohol, Hydrogen, and others)
  • Gas Sensor for Oxidizing Gases – MOS type for Chlorine, Ozone, Nitrogen Dioxide, etc.
  • Gas Sensor for Reducing Gases – (MOS type for methane, Propane, alcohols, other hydrocarbons, etc.)
  • Temperature – Simple resistance temperature sensor type
  • Humidity
  • Pressure – can be used for Barometer, Altimeter, Blood Pressure, etc.
  • Non-Contact Thermometer – Infrared sensor for scanning object temperature
  • Proximity Capacitance – fluid level, intrusion detection, stud finder & more applications
  • Red Color Intensity
  • Green Color Intensity
  • Blue Color Intensity
  • Illumination – combine RGB & illumination for color matching
  • Digital & Analog Interface - Expansion connector for connecting anything you want to your mobile device through the Sensordrone

Expansion Modules – Connect Anything to Sensordrone

Anybody can connect any device/hardware project to the Sensordrone via a standard 0.1” pitch header, supports digital (RS-232, I2C) and analog signals. This makes Sensordrone an “Easy Bluetooth Interface” for your project. First for Android, then for iOS and other platforms.  Some external expansion modules are being made that will connect to the expansion connector, e.g. a complete air quality monitor for precision measurements of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) & Ozone (O3).

Source: kickstarter

Posted in Gadget, Mobile application, Video

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Good Night Lamp

Posted on Monday, April 01, 2013 by Tecnalia| Leave a comment

Connecting to your loved ones around the world at the flick of a switch!

The Good Night Lamp is a family of internet-connected lamps. Turn the Big Lamp on and the Little Lamps turn on wherever they are.

Keeping in touch with people has gradually become more than being “always on, sometimes off”. We would like to think that people can share parts of their lives with their families & loved ones in more subtle ways with the flick of a switch. A physical social network.


 

Why is this useful?

Home alone. Ever wanted to keep an eye on a loved one who lives alone? Give them a Big Lamp and watch your Little Lamp turn on as they come home or go to bed.

Global families. Live abroad and can’t seem to call your family at the right time? Let them switch a Big Lamp on when they’re around and can be called and vice versa.

Global teams. Have a team working around the world and want to see if they’re around for that conference call? Turn your Big Lamp on when you’re ready. Collect your colleagues Little Lamps and watch everyone join the call.

Connecting worlds. Want to connect home and work, turn the Big Lamp off when you leave work so your family knows you’re on your way.

How is it packaged?

The Good Night Lamp comes as a Set of a Big Lamp and 1 Little Lamp.  You can add Little Lamps as you go. Each Little Lamp represents another loved one or friend.

Source: kickstarter

Posted in Gadget, Video

iPavement The Intelligent Pavement

Posted on Monday, March 25, 2013 by Tecnalia| Leave a comment

Sorry, this entry is only available in Español.

Posted in Microchips, Smart Cities