IoT set for takeoff…

Nantes, France. I’m here to pick up a friend from the airport. There is a great view of the runway, and I’ve seen his plane land, a beautiful Airbus A320 flying Air France colors. This is a domestic flight, and ten minutes later, he is off the plane and has his luggage.

We talk about his business trip, and how it went. He’s a technical recruiter, and has been working on a project in the south of France. He tells me just some of the details. We clear the terminal and walk towards the parking lot. On the other side of a fence, an A320 is being looked over by a crew of technicians. After a quick refuel, it will be ready to take off and fly to another destination.

– You know, they keep on talking about IoT, but I can’t see any solid examples yet.

I smile. He stops dead in his tracks.

– You have an example?

I do. You just flew it.

He has a blank expression on his face.

Look, it is right over there.

I point to the A320.

Source: Aviation Photos – Airbus A320

– What do you mean IoT? The airplane is IoT?

Well, not exactly. IoT is the Internet of Things, devices that communicate. This plane has an onboard system called ACARS, and it communicates with the ground throughout the flight. Hundreds of parameters are monitored and sent to the ground crews.

Source: Rockwell Collins – Global ACARS Infrastructure

Source: Aviation Knowledge Wiki – ACARS

– But why?

Modern aircraft are highly reliable, comfortable and silent. All this comes at a price, and a modern aircraft can cost a small fortune. Even worse, an airplane will only make money when it is flying, if it stays on the ground, the company doesn’t make any money at all. In order to maximize revenue, companies need to keep their fleet flying, but not at the cost of safety. On board systems monitor the flight, and inform ground crews of any problems. It monitors critical systems, but it also monitors other systems; if the in-flight coffee machine stops working, it alerts the ground. If there is a malfunction with the toilet, again, the ground will be alerted.

– Why?

Imagine an international flight. Halfway over the Atlantic, one of the ovens stops working. Of course, the flight crew will have a problem getting all the food ready for the passengers, but it can still be done. It is a nuisance, but it doesn’t force the airplane to make an emergency landing. Imagine arriving at Paris, and telling the ground crew that there is a problem. They only have an hour to find a replacement, and get it installed. That probably won’t happen, so the plane will take off with a defective oven, which will be replaced at a later date. Now, imagine that the airline’s center is notified as soon as there is a problem. The flight is scheduled to land in 6 hours, to the airline notifies the ground crew at the destination that there is a defective component, they have a few hours to find replacement parts, and when the airplane touches down, they will already be there, waiting, prepared to replace everything necessary.

– That seems like a lot of effort to change an oven.

Maybe. The oven isn’t the best example, I’ll grant you that. Think about this, then. The engines. Aircraft engines are an incredible feat of engineering, and are some of the most reliable mechanical systems ever built, but they are still mechanical, and things can go wrong. Engines do fail from time to time, even if it is extremely rare. Luckily, an A320 can perform very well with a single engine, but it still requires action. An emergency landing at another airport, having to take the engine off the wing, inspect it, find the fault, and then replace the components, before putting the engine back on. This can take a very long time, and can be horrendously expensive. What if the engine itself could communicate with the ground team?

– They can do that?

Some of them can, yes. Engines are monitored, and hundreds of parameters are analyzed. The engine in your car doesn’t fail without a reason, and simply taking your car to the garage from time to time saves costly repairs. Jet engines are even more advanced. Failures rarely “just happen”; they can often be predicted by looking at variables; oil pressure, temperature, vibration, etc. Instead of waiting for a failure to occur, they can be prevented with close monitoring, changing elements as required. It saves on cost by replacing small parts before big parts fail. It saves cost by replacing elements quickly, putting the aircraft back into service as soon as possible. That is one of the reasons for IoT; cost saving. Being aware of all the parameters means the best choice can be made. Airlines know when to change components, thermostats know when to turn the heat on, greenhouses know when to open the windows.

– I never knew that panes could do that;

One of the things that makes IoT so good is the fact that it isn’t visible. There is no point in adding a screen to a thermostat to display “Calculating ideal temperature”, or “contacting server”. We expect things like that with the programs that we have had on our computers, but that is about to end. People want simple devices that work, and IoT is all about that. Just walking through the airport, you probably didn’t notice the wireless equipment used to broadcast Wi-Fi and to power the wireless telephones used by the airport staff.

Imagine walking through a beautiful garden, completely unaware that there are hundreds of sensors, monitoring soil humidity, temperature, plant growth and other parameters that sets off the sprinkler system only when needed. The world has limited resources, we are painfully aware of that, and this is the technology that could save us. It will make calculations far better than man could, and create data far more precise than we can imagine. All of this can be powered by a solar panel, making it even more eco-friendly.

He remains silent as we walk to the parking lot. Behind us, passengers are getting ready to board their plane, unaware that their trip is made easier and cheaper with IoT. The plane will soon be ready to depart, a trip monitored by processors and microcontrollers like Atmel’s SAM D21.

Linduino is a USB-isolated Arduino

My pals over at Linear Technology have developed the Linduino board to drive their ADCs (analog to digital converters) and DACs (digital to analog converters) as well as temp sensors and other devices. The board is not a clone of an Arduino, that would be pointless for them. Linear Tech sells analog chips, not Maker boards.

The Linear Technology Linduino board uses the same Atmel chip as a Arduino Uno, but has isoalted USB and more dc power.

So the first and most essential difference is that in addition to the normal shield headers on an Arduino, there is a header that Linear Tech has used for years to drive their demo boards. This computer interface function used to be done with their DC590 interface board. Indeed, the firmware that comes shipped with the Linduino emulates that board, so you can run the original Linear Tech interface program on your PC, and it can’t tell if its the old board or a Linduino.

The Linduino board will accept all the Shield mezzanine boards for Arduino, but has this extra header to control Linear Tech demo boards as well.

But wait, there is more. So much more. Linear tech also used one of their USB isolators on the Linduino board. This means that the board and what you plug into it are galvanically isolated from the computer you have the USB plugged into. This means you can measure things off a car or an audio system without worrying about ground loops polluting the measurement. Its as handy as a hand-held DVM (digital voltmeter). My former employer Analog Devices also makes bidirectional USB isolators and there may be others that have come to market. You might make your own isolator, but the great thing about the Linduino is that all the system engineering is done for you and the firmware works.

The Linduino has a LMT2884Y-USB isolator module on it so your PC is not electrically connected to the Linuduino or its Shields or Linear Tech demo boards.

Since Linear Tech is also a power supply chip company, they beefed up the power supply on the board, using a switching regulator to replace the linear regulator on the Arduino. This means you can get 750mA out of the power system. Since a USB can’t supply this much power, that means you have to feed the board with an external wall wart. Now you have the power to drive actuators or other heavy loads.

Linear Tech also beefed up the power system with a 750mA switching regulator that will not get hot even at full load while dropping for a high input voltage.

Dan Eddelman worked on the Linduino as did Mark Thoren, my pal from Linear Tech. Tomorrow I will plug in the beast and  show how to get it working. I did have a few glitches the first time.

Mark Thoren, shown here giving his daughter some STEM instruction at the Silicon Valley eFlea, helped develop the Linduino.

Just like Atmel’s demo boards, Linear Tech is selling the Linduino pretty much at cost. This can give you a great foundation to build an isolated data acquisition and control system for cheap. And don’t forget, all the Arduino shields plug into the board and work with the existing libraries and firmware and available open source code. Linear Tech used the same Atmel chip as the Arduino, so this is not just “shield compatible,” is is truly compatible with an Arduino.

Report: Drivers ready for connected cars

According to a new report from mobile operator Telefónica, consumer awareness of connected car products and services around the globe is growing.

In its annual study of buying behavior and attitudes, the telco found that 70% of drivers were either interested in using, or already were using, connected car services, while 80% of consumers expected that they would ultimately be have the access to the same connected experience in their vehicle as they would in their home via a mobile device.

“Through looking at the connected car from a driver’s perspective, it’s clear that the demand for connected services in cars is unquestionable. Even though we’re just moving off of the starting line, people are ready for it and know what they want. But challenges to widespread roll-out remain,” explained Pavan Mathew, Global Head of Connected Car at Telefónica.

In fact, around half of consumers now consider connected features, such as built-in connectivity and the ability to plug-in a smartphone, a key part of their next car purchase. Other features, including increased safety, early warning systems and smarter navigation, are cited as the most popular with nearly three-quarters (73%) of drivers listing safety and diagnostics components as the most important.

“I also think vehicle-to-vehicle communication is going to grow very quickly in the next five years. The beauty of that technology is that the communication protocol can be used for a host of other services beyond vehicle communication, so it benefits the wider infrastructure too,” said Kia Motors CTO Henry Bzeih.

Other key findings from the report include:

• Usage-based insurance models are also very popular, with 54% of UK drivers choosing it one of the connected car features they would be most interested in.
• On average 35% of drivers expect not to own their own car by 2034, and instead predict they will be using alternative options such as car sharing services.
• The dashboard is the favored way for accessing connected services, particularly for safety, navigation and vehicle diagnostics, with more than 60% of respondents across all markets preferring to access features in this way.
• Drivers in various countries will prefer to pay for connected services in different ways. Most Spanish drivers would prefer a one-off payment (49%) while those in America, Germany and the UK would favour basic connectivity with the option to choose additional services. Brazilians are split between the latter and a full-on PAYG model, suggesting a degree of flexibility not seen in other countries.

GM Director of Product Strategy and Infotainment Greg Ross explained, “For us it comes down to the things that make the car a better vehicle. When we talk to customers about connectivity they say well it’s a car and so what I need it to do are the things I bought a car for. They want it to be safer, more intelligent and more economical. Connectivity is a chance for OEMs to look at how we can help to reduce costs for customers and make cost of ownership lower by giving advice on how to drive more fuel efficiently, or helping you find the lowest cost source of fuel or the most efficient route.”

Additionally, another report from Infonetics Research has revealed that in the connected car market is expected to rise to nearly $8 billion in 2015 and reach $16.9 billion come 2018. This an increase from 2013, where the market valued at close to $6 billion. The firm states that some service providers are seeing as much as 90% of their M2M revenue generated from the connected car segment. According to the study, North America is the foundation of the global connected car business, accounting for 37% of global service revenue in 2013; Europe and Asia will be fast-growing regions. With sizeable auto markets and large land areas, countries like the U.S. and China are ideal for connected vehicle services.

As previously discussed in Bits & Pieces, automotive electronics are currently centered around people (infotainment and communications) and the machine itself (to run the car and provide safety and convenience). However, a third element is emerging; namely, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications.

You can read the entire “Connected Car Industry Report“ here.

The Microcosm of IoT and connected cars in Formula 1 (Part 2)

…Continued from The Microcosm of IoT in Formula 1 (Part 1)

The typical F1 racing car embodies the sophisticated engineering — designed to win and only but win. The racing platform itself (both team, driver, and car) executes every deductive decision vetted against one pillar called “performance.”

Here’s the quantified car and driver. At 1.5 gigabytes of data wirelessly transmitted per connected car during a race, the ECU (electronic control unit) generates 2-4 megabytes per second of data from the F1 cars’ 120+ various sensors, which also include the drivers’ heartbeat and vitals.  Now let’s add the upgraded network fiber deployed across each race of the year set forth to ensure every turn and tunnel can stream and broadcast this telemetry and data.

Source: ESPN Formula 1 News Computers, Software, and BI [Visualization and Data]

These embedded systems comprise of technology not limited to neither automotive nor Formula 1; embedded systems are used in the aero industry, marine, medical, emergency, industrial, and in the larger home entertainment industry. Therefore, advanced technology, little by little take place in the devices that we use every day. There are many useful products that are used in the industry — even though they first surfaced — as an application in F1 racing [the proven, moving lab].

F1 electronic devices used may be generally regarded in groups [using embedded systems] by the following:

Source – nph / Dieter Mathis/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

Here is an example Formula 1 steering wheel. It’s the embedded electronic enchilada, serving information [resulting from actuators and sensors] to a driver [on a need to know basis]. The driver coincides his race style and plan [tire management, performance plan, passing maneuvers, aggressive tactic] to every bit of data and resulted in a formatted display. These are literally at his fingers.

What are some of the F1 connected car implications?

Drivers in Formula 1 have access to functionality through their race platforms, which helps improve speed and increase passing opportunities. The DRS (Drag Reduction System) helps control and manage moveable rear wing. For a driver, in conjunction with Pirelli tires and KERS, it has proven successful in its pursuit of increasing overtaking which is all good for the fan base and competitive sport. The DRS moves an aerodynamic wing on a Formula 1 race car. When activated via the driver’s steering wheel, the DRS system alters the wing profile shape and direction, greatly reducing the drag on the wing by minimizing down force [flattening of the wing and reduce drag by 23%.]. Well, now coupled with the reduction in drag, this enables faster acceleration and a higher top speed while also changes variably the driving characteristics and style for over-taking. These are called driver and protocol adjustable body works.

How it works? Like all movable components of an F1 pure breed, the system relies on hydraulic lines tied to embedded control units, and actuators to control the flap. Managed by a cluster of servo valves manufactured by Moog, the Moog valves are interfaced via an electronic unit receiving a secure signal from the cockpit. Of course, this all happens under certain circumstances. When two or more cars pass over timing loops in the surface of the track, if a following car is measured at less than one second behind a leading car it will be sent a secure signal [encrypted then transmitted via RF] that will allow its driver to deploy the car’s active rear wing. Since the timing loops will be sited after corners, drivers will only be able to deploy the active rear wing as a car goes down a specific straight paths in many tracks.  In essence, the modern day Formula 1 car is a connected platform dynamically enabled to produce a stronger driver, appealing more to both driver performance and fan engagement.

Moveable aerodynamic components are nothing new. But still, for an Airbus A320 or even a modern UAV or fighter jet, there is a huge amount of space to work in. On a grand prix car, it’s quite different. This is also achieved in a very hyper fast, mobile, and logistically drained environment of Formula 1, where performance, equipment, and configuration are a demanded at all times. Next we’ll summarize how this relates to the broader connected car concept…

F1 showcases the finer elements of connected cars, making it possible

Just discussed, cars in general are going to become literally the larger mobile device. They will be connected to all sorts of use-cases and applications. Most importantly, we are the drivers, and we will become connected drivers. Both driver and connected car will become more seamless.

The next phase where smart mobility is going to change how we do and behave after we before or after we reach our destination. In Wired Magazine’s column named Forget the Internet of Things: Here Comes the ‘Internet of Cars’, Thilo Koslowski discusses the improvements and why connected cars are inevitably near. Thilo, a leading expert on the evolution of the automotive industry and the connected vehicle says, ““Connected vehicles” are cars that access, consume, create, enrich, direct, and share digital information between businesses, people, organizations, infrastructures, and things. Those ‘things’ include other vehicles, which is where the Internet of Things becomes the Internet of Cars.”

Yes, for the connected car, there still exist a number of technology challenges and legislative issues to build out a successful broader impact. Like Formula 1, we attribute many of its tech surfacing into main stream markets [previously discussed in part 1]. This next automotive revolution stems on current and related industry trends such as the convergence of digital lifestyles, the emergence of new mobility solutions, demographic shifts, and the rise of smartphones and the mobile internet.Thilo further claims “As these vehicles become increasingly connected, they become self-aware, contextual, and eventually, autonomous. Those of you reading this will probably experience self-driving cars in your lifetime — though maybe not all three of its evolutionary phases: from automated to autonomous to unmanned.”

Actually, a consumer shift is happening. Consumers now expect to access relevant information ranging from geo location, integration of social data, way points, destination, sites of interest, recommendations, ones digital foot print integrated into the “connected car” experience. The driver will become connected with all the various other touch points in his/her digital life. Moreover, this will happen wherever they go — including in the automobile. Thilo even goes to as far as claiming, “At the same time, these technologies are making new mobility solutions – such as peer-to-peer car sharing – more widespread and attractive. This is especially important since vehicle ownership in urban areas is expensive and consumers, especially younger ones, don’t show the same desire for vehicle ownership as older generations do.

To be successful, connected vehicles will draw on the leading technologies in sensors, displays, on-board and off-board computing, in-vehicle operating systems, wireless and in-vehicle data communication, machine learning, analytics, speech recognition, and content management. (That’s just to name a few.) “

All together, the build out of the connected car, [aspects proven in F1], contributes considerable business benefits and opportunities:

•  Lowered emissions & extended utility of EVs — remote Battery swap stations, cars as (Internet as a service), peer to peer car sharing, cars with payment capabilities, subscription of energy, vehicles as power plants back to the grid, KERS, and other alternative fuel savings displaced with electrical motors and emerging consumer conscience accountability to clean energy
• New entertainment options — countless integration opportunities with mobile (M2M and IoT) ecosystem of value added connected Apps and mobile services (i.e. Uber disrupted an old traditional market)
• New marketing and commerce experiences — countless use-cases in increasing the engagement and point of arrival offerings
• Reduced accident rates — albeit found in crash avoidance systems, location based services, driver monitoring, emergency response automation, early warning automation, telemetry to lower insurance cost, or advanced assisted driving
• Increased productivity — gains achieved via efficiencies/time management towards more sustainable commutes
• Improved traffic flow — efficient system merging various datasets to advance navigation to minimize and balance capacity or re-route traffic

Like all technology, old ideas will progress, evolve to newer platforms to bring new functionality that can adapt to the latest popular ecosystem [simply being mobile & connected]. Connected cars will expand automotive business models augmenting new services and products to many industries — retail, financial services, media, IT, and consumer electronics. The traditional automotive business model can be significantly transformed for the betterment of the consumer experience. Today, emphasis is placed much purely on the  output, sale, and maintenance of a vehicles.  Later on, once connected cars reach market maturity with wide adoption, companies will focus on the sum of business opportunities [value add chain ecosystem] leveraged from the connected vehicles and the connected driver.

Are you a product maestro or someone with domain expertise for your company seeking to improve processes or developing value added services to build IoT enabled products? Perhaps, you are in a vertical intended to accelerate business and customer satisfaction? With all this business creation stirring up, it’s quite clear the connected car platform will open new customer connected services or product enhanced offerings.

That all being said, we are already in this moment of the future with Formula 1. Connected cars will eventually come. It’s just a matter of time…

(Interested in reading more? Don’t forget to check out Part 1.)

Home, smart home

By Taylor Alexander, Co-Founder of Flutter Wireless

As founder of Flutter Wireless, a company that is building new hardware for the internet of things and connected devices movement, I spend a lot of time thinking about how this new technology will affect our lives. Right now computers are all relatively separate workstations, with tasks isolated to one individual machine. We may check email on our phone and on our desktop, but only recently have companies begun making it fluid to switch between the two. As our software advances and connectivity becomes more widespread and robust, we will begin to see programs that run across multiple machines simultaneously. I’d love to open an app on my phone and stream music to every device with speakers in my house, for example, rather than needing to buy a “home speaker system”. Ultimately, I see our home networks evolving into a single computing entity with many access points. A common home or cloud access point could provide services across multiple devices simultaneously. I could send one stream simultaneously to my living room TV and my kitchen tablet, for example, so I can catch up on a TV show while preparing dinner. As our homes become more connected, we will have increasing freedom with how we use computing to improve our lives, and entirely new possibilities will come out of these new use cases. Below is a story I wrote imagining a time maybe a decade from now, when the connected home is perhaps as commonplace as self-driving cars.

I hope you enjoy it, and that it prompts you to dream of what else a connected home can do for you.

I live in a connected home. Every electronic thing in my house is controlled by the home system. Not toasters or blenders or the fridge — not things that only sensibly need physical access. Those things have their own local user interface, though some may report back to the home. The microwave, for example, communicates photos of food to the server for analysis, but you can only turn it on from its front panel. The interface panel is just a touch-oled with images for its interface controlled by the home. In default mode it just has 3 buttons, and they change based on what I put in. Put in my favorite mug with a clear liquid and you just get a big “hot water” button. The house interface on my phone shows graphs that prove that the cook time it chose is optimal based on my use of this cup in this microwave every morning since I started my new job, but honestly… I never look at it, since it never fails. Usually when I’m using the house interface on my phone, it’s to control the music or change the channel.

I took a YouTube class in the living room last month, and the inductive charging in my new coffee table means that I could leave the interface open for the whole hour of class without draining its battery. The home has a local content stream it can serve to any audio or video device with a speaker box or cheap HDMI streamer. The audio channel let’s me do things like play music, talk with my friends, or control the lights and temperature.

I also have interface pads in the rooms. Interface pads are like the interface on the microwave – they have a touch-oled and an audio system for voice interaction. Four microphones mean it can pick up quiet conversation even with the fan on, and it blocks out other sounds like the TV like they aren’t there. This makes it feel like the system is in my head. I’ll mutter to myself “I wonder if I turned off the coffee pot”, and the system sometimes butts in and tells me. Usually I have to address the house to get it to listen, but I’m running some software that let’s me play back my ramblings when I am deep in thought, so right now it’s live all the time. This lets it answer questions without having to repeat myself. If I think out loud, sometimes the house is a pretty good assistant.

We call ours Hiro, and while he can’t tell me everything without a manual query at a terminal, he’s pretty good at answering basic questions about the world. Anything with a clear answer like… how deep is the English channel, how much money did I spend last month, or who won the gaming competition last week… those questions Hiro answers well. Of course he’s also great for taking notes for me and reading them back so I can edit them. He’ll read anything I want. He’s been reading me Steinbeck and Plato lately, and in the mornings I’ll usually have him read the news. Last night I streamed live ocean sounds from a beach in Madagascar as I slept.

In the mornings I read my emails on the terminal in the kitchen while I stir my coffee. I keep work emails out of the morning routine, but read what my mom is up to over a bagel and eggs. I fill my foodbox once a week and it serves up a hot bagel and fresh eggs every morning. It only fits a few types of meals but it’s enough for all my breakfast and lunch for a week, and using it beats rummaging through cold storage for all the pieces. It will slice bagels and fruit, even core an apple, and it has refrigerated dispensers for eggs, cream cheese, peanut butter and jelly, even mustard and mayonnaise. It has a small compartment for fresh meat and cheese, so I make sandwiches for lunch. The machine prepares the bread and washes itself, just like it does with my morning bagel, egg, and yogurt. It tracks the age of each perishable, and the deliveryman brings by fresh food weekly for things like meat and eggs. It even breaks the eggs and cooks them, and stores the shells in an oxygen free environment with the apple cores, until I empty the canister.

I charge a tablet on the kitchen table, and use it to watch last night’s news footage. I use the house interface app, which shows me stuff I probably want to watch. Anything I don’t want to watch on the tablet screen I can throw to any TV too. I am studying be a paramedic, so I’ll usually stream class to both displays at night when I’m cooking and cleaning. There are so many times where I need my hands for one thing but can use my mind and voice for another. The tablet was pretty good for that before, but with Hiro I don’t need to bring anything with me. I can wander to the other room mid voice chat without ever losing my train of thought. When I talk to friends, its like they’re in the same room and follow me around. With Hiro’s chat interface I can log into voice chat rooms with friends. Its like we’re sitting in a room together, either quietly working, having a meeting, or just watching the news together. I feel like I always have my friends with me.

A computer block and a storage block that I keep in the office control the whole system. All my home computers store data on the storage block, and the computer block runs Hiro’s software. We have phone and tablet apps along with interface panels, and cheap HDMI dongles on the TV. Voice is usually handled by the interface panel most rooms have. But there is a voice-only interface panel that is the cheapest. It skips the touch display on the large interface for a four-button fob and voice control. You can plug headphones and speakers into that one for a custom speaker setup, but by default the internal speaker is pretty good. It still has four microphones so we usually don’t use an external for that, just output.

It cost about a two grand for the whole system, but that’s the lights, computer, audio tactile pucks and 4tb storage brick. I saved up for one summer when I was in college and got this system. Its been around for a few years so the CPU takes longer to recognize my food scans from the microwave than the new models, but its a few milliseconds difference – 250 maybe – I don’t worry about stuff like that.

All in all, my connected home system was the best purchase I made since switching to a self-driving car.

 

5 challenges of IoT connectivity

At last month’s MIT Technology Review Digital Summit, PubNub CEO Todd Greene discussed the importance of connecting Internet of Things embedded devices on a reliable and secure realtime network. CPU, battery, and bandwidth consumption, as well as security are all paramount considerations that need to be taken into account when connecting low-powered embedded devices.

You’ll find that when developing and networking Internet of Things devices in the lab, connectivity is fairly seamless. You may have a few embedded devices connected to a backend server, so latency isn’t an issue.

However, deploying that IoT app on a global scale, to thousands or even millions of users simultaneously, is a whole other ball game. Unfortunately, the Internet isn’t just one big network, but rather is composed of an infinite amount of heterogeneous networks, including proxy servers, firewalls, cell towers, and WiFi networks, all slower and faster than one another.

As a result, there are 5 major challenges when it comes to Internet of Things connectivity. Keep scrolling down to see them, or watch the video below:

At PubNub, we think a lot about IoT connectivity and how we can make it as reliable, secure, and fast as possible. So to make PubNub the best network for connecting and signaling between Internet of Things devices, we first had to understand the challenges of doing so. Presenting the 5 challenges of IoT connectivity:

1. Signaling

When connecting IoT embedded devices, you need to start with bidirectional signaling to collect and route data between devices. Whether it’s embedded devices talking to a server to collect data, or devices signaling one another, you need to stream IoT signals and data quickly and reliably. You need to be 100% sure that that stream of data or signal is going to arrive at its destination every time.

2. Security

Security is a huge umbrella, but it’s paramount in Internet of Things connectivity and should be forethought, not an afterthought. For example, what good is a smart home if anyone can open your garage door? Here are three considerations for IoT security:

• Authorization: When publishing or subscribing to stream of data or IoT signal, it’s essential to make sure that the IoT device or server has proper authorization to send or receive that stream of data.
• Encryption: You need end-to-end encryption between devices and servers.
• Open ports: An IoT device is dangerously vulnerable when it’s sitting and listening to an open port out to the Internet. You need birectional communication, but you don’t want to have open ports out to the Internet.

3. Presence Detection

Who’s there, (or in terms of IoT, what device is there)? It’s important to immediately know when an IoT device drops off the network and goes offline. And when that device comes back online, you need to know that as well.

Presence detection of IoT devices gives an exact, up to the second state of all devices on a network. This gives you the ability to monitor your IoT devices and fix any problems that may arise with your network.

4. Power consumption

IoT embedded devices are small and expensive, so CPU and power consumption need to be considered. When you have hundreds or even thousands of devices sending data and signaling one another, it takes a toll on power and CPU consumption. You need to maximize efficiency while minimizing power and CPU drain.

5. Bandwidth

In addition to power and CPU, bandwidth consumption is another challenge for IoT connectivity. Bandwidth on a cellular network is expensive, especially with hundreds of thousands of IoT devices on a network sending request/response signals to your server.

That’s a huge server issue and a requires a large scale server farm handling all this data. You need a lightweight network that can seamlessly transfer data between devices and servers.

Connecting IoT Devices with PubNub

Connecting devices in the lab is one thing, but once they’re out in the wild, it’s a whole new ballgame. So where do you start? Having a scalable IoT network to connect embedded devices and servers is especially critical for IoT applications with a large user base.

These are the types of Internet of Things challenges we’ve solved at PubNub. With over two hundred million connected devices connected to our global realtime network in fourteen data centers, we average 50 to 60 thousand transactions per second, peaking at over 3 million. PubNub is used to stream data and signal for hundreds of different IoT uses cases including:

• Automotive: Connected cars need a realtime communication layer to stream data and signal between their fleet, dispatch, and the consumer on the app. Examples: Sidecar, Lyft, Easy Taxi, Gett, Zoomy
• Home Automation: A realtime network can be used to signal and trigger actions for smart devices and home automation solutions. Examples: Insteon, Revolv, Vivint
• Wearables: IoT wearables require a low latent, lightweight network to stream data between the device and a server. Battery, CPU, and bandwidth consumption are all important considerations that must be taken into account. Examples: 3rd Eye

By 2020, it’s estimated that there will be between 20 and 30 billion connected devices on the Earth. As a result, how we connect those devices should take precedence as the IoT field grows exponentially.

The Microcosm of IoT and connected cars in Formula 1 (Part 1)

Aerodynamics has always been a primary factor in decision-making and competitiveness in motor sports. For a racer, understanding the car platforms racing characteristics helps tune a competitive racing plan, yielding the advantages and disadvantages to the competitive car. The racer delivers the maximum window of opportunity to gain advantage in a fierce duel [passing], managing wheel tactics, or sharpening telemetry to aggressive drive fitted to the contours of each unique track characteristics.

Source: Yas Marina Circuit Abu Dhabi

The cutting-edge, technology-showcase-of-sports scene found in Formula 1 has dubbed the apex-racing category for motor sports. Inside the renowned world of Formula 1, this motor sport generates worldwide acclaim and accolade for their engineering prowess and technical astute packaged into these aggressively fast-engineered machines. Smartly made machines — but dependent — not to mention keen athletic training and talents bestowed in these rare class of trim, zippy, and binocular vision drivers.

Source: Red Bull Racing Forum

It’s really a wrestle between man and machine. Though, a racer learns early on not to wrestle with the machine, he loses time. Instead, it’s a careful calculative balance of split decisions and engineering, combined with whim. Cut slices toward the fractions of time — take on technology — trigger the right moments to enhance split second timing and on-demand performance. Accumulate these gains over the duration of the race. Enhance these car-passing opportunities with certain speed and handling enhancing technology.

Source: Formula 1 Mclaren Racing

Looking across the grid, there is talent laden in all areas and discipline found across each team, coupled with engineers from all categories including aerodynamic specialist to embedded designers and systems engineers. Quite arguably, some even conjure the idea that the top performers in Formula 1 are overweighed by the countless engineering feats and advantage any team may have between each other. Ideally, it’s really a competitive game of the team’s engineering diligence and driver configuration cleverness that brings about the result of any race (70-80 laps) to the finish. Like in many sports these days, there’s technology all intertwined and designed to ensure maximum results and increase the capacity for performance, achieve the end goal.

In fact, drawn forth purely by engineering or design perspective, one can find parallels to how the Spitfire engines helped win the battle of Britain when the successor aspirating Rolls Royce dual supercharged engines had stronger performance at high altitudes as well as inclined accent and descent during the Battle of Britain where the air defense weighed the tipping point to the turnout of the war countering swarms of ME109s in this western theatre. In every aspect of Formula 1, there is a lot of computing involved. The computing casts are inter-dependent—serve different purposes—but also combined in a beautiful orchestration of “man-machine-driver-media-fans.”

On the one hand, there’s the horsepower required to compute different airspeed dynamics and telemetry over the car’s form, while on the other hand there are massive parallel computing used to analyze the streams of data transmitted by the cars in real time. No doubt, look no further, Formula 1 is thrives with tech and talent, ranging from electronics, electric motors, gas, passion, and atheletic know-how… Even to the point of real-time broadcast, there are the vast amounts of profiled data and video selectively transmitted to individual, teams, and media [airlifted via special 747s from race to race].

MCUs and MPUs help process, decide on game changing speed

Well, let’s fast forward through the world of the F-A-S-T and furious Formula 1. Not only in the motor racing sports, but automotive industry is captivating a growing share of embedded (electronic) devices encompassing a wide range of localized computing, sensors, actuators, and connected devices for telemetry. The sensors streamline real-time—in the case of Formula 1, data to the team’s pit crew garage—transmit to the computer/remote computer—which in turn is primarily based on the received data managed by mechanical or digital processes through actuators. In today’s market, more newly unveiled cars are moving closer to adopting electronic and connected capabilities; ranging from self parking, guidance sensors, auto radar, advance collision avoidance, hybrid powertrain (ERS), advance assisted drive, telemetry reporting, navigation, emergency, recharging, HUDs, brake by wire, skid control, safety, KERS, instant power assist systems, electric drive system, electronic shifters, air induction, turbo, ABS, etc… In fact, many of these are originally given birth in race engineering, evolved out from these pinnacle circuits to mainstream consumer application and vehicle platforms.

The concept of actuators and their influence in IoT nodes

In the embedded world, actuators are like sensors. An actuator is the mechanism, a control system that acts upon an environment. The control system can be simple, a fixed mechanical or electronic system, software-based (e.g. a 3D printer driver, robot control system, security system, electric [EV] motors, manufacturing line automation, medical linear applications), a human, or any other input. Now, let’s think of them in the language of Industrial Internet or Internet of Things — actuators can be digital — labeled as presence sensors, augmented HMI sensors, or filter reality sensors measuring certain keynotes to the external world (accelerometers, magnetometers, gravimeters, gyroscope, tilt, environment, force, thermal, chemical, gases, flow, gravimeter, etc). The computer has become an essential part of the modern car, which certainly makes a huge improvement, but it also requires trained personnel for their service. Of course, this is all coming along now with the next era of the connected car as things move closer to this reality. Let’s consider how we got there: historically to cars today to cars tomorrow — where could we possibly go?

Can the typical family car be perceived as a transformative vehicle platform?

It’s all driving this direction. Very soon, the connected car may very well be the most advance platform for any household.  The connected car is a highly efficient vehicle platform, connected to the grid and cloud, while also acting as an energy generating platform, as discussed by James O’Brien. “An industry standard for cars will do the same for autos as the USB cable has done for the computer world,” claims Jake Sigal, CEO at Livio, a company acquired by Ford Motors to help position the automobile platform to facilitate the connected car. Even now, there is much anticipation and support from Formula 1 drivers voicing their support for the connected car. Formula 1 drivers Nico Rosberg, Giedo van der Garde, Timo Glock and Jérôme d’Ambrosio offer their support for connected car technologies. They call it eCall and eco-driving. This common camaraderie demands maturation of this automotive trajectory supports alignment of safe, efficient and connected mobility.

Source: FIA Region @Vimeo Formula One drivers voice support for the connected car

Automotive computing is different. The embedded systems themselves must be adequately protected from extreme vibrations, energy, dust, heat, water, ice, and moisture (all types). Hence, they are truly different inheriting environments that are not even close to the typical personal computer. Embedded computing devices built into the cars must be technologically advanced at high levels and tough standards. Still there are more sophisticated ways to use embedded devices in the car. This sophistication is most evident in the design and construction of racing cars, most notably witnessed in Formula 1…

(Continued in Part 2)

BI Intelligence details IoT enterprise apps

Writing for Business Insider, Emily Adler notes that the Internet of Things (IoT) — a world comprised of ordinary objects connected to the web and accessible from mobile devices — will soon emerge as a huge market, “dwarfing all other consumer electronics categories.”

Just how large are we talking? BI Intelligence reveals that 1.9 billion once-inert everyday and enterprise devices are already connected to the Internet — from parking meters to home thermostats — while that number is expected to rise to 9 billion come 2018. “That’s roughly equal to the number of smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, wearable computers, and PCs combined,” Adler emphasized.  

“There are already clear signs that the biggest tech companies — and even smaller players — are trying to get out front of the race to dominate the IoT. Google has acquired Nest. Apple has unveiled its HomeKit platform. Even Staples and Honeywell — not typically companies thought of as tech leaders — are putting out new IoT-related products.”

It doesn’t stop there either, thanks in part to the budding Maker Movement. According to Gartner’s Jim Tully, by 2018, 50% of the Internet of Things solutions will be provided by startups which are less than 3 years old — this a clear result of DIY culture continuing to spur innovation throughout both the B2B and consumer space.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, BI Intelligence recently listed the 6 primary attributes that’ll help make “things” a part of the rapidly evolving IoT set to connect over 30 billion devices over the next six years.

As uptake among consumers and businesses ticks up, BI Intelligence has unveiled in one of its latest reports that the IoT market “will drive trillions in economic value as it permeates consumer and business life. Soon, it will be perfectly normal to have a refrigerator that talks to you and a garage door you open with your smartphone.”

According to Reza Kazerounian, Senior VP and GM of the Microcontroller Business Unit at Atmel, the IoT is a combination of multiple market segments, tens of thousands of OEMs and hundreds of thousands of products. “It is seen by many as the next wave of dramatic market growth for semiconductors. If you look at the different estimates made by market analysts, the IoT market will be worth trillions of dollars to a variety of industries from the consumer to financial, industrial, white goods and other market segments,” he told EEWeb in February.

Adler notes just some of the most important enterprise applications that are already being developed today:

• Connected advertising and marketing: Cisco believes that this category (think Internet-connected billboards) will be one of the top three IoT categories, along with smart factories and telecommuting support systems.
• Intelligent traffic management systems: Machina Research, in a paper prepared for the GSMA, sees $100 billion in revenue by 2020 for applications such as toll-taking and congestion penalties. A related revenue source will be smart parking-space management, expected to drive $30 billion in revenue.
• Waste management systems: In Cincinnati, residential waste volume fell 17% and recycling volume grew by 49% through use of a “pay as you throw” program that used IoT technology to monitor those who exceed waste limits.
• Smart electricity grids that adjust rates for peak energy usage:These will represent savings of $200 billion to $500 billion per year by 2025, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.
• Smart water systems and meters: The cities of Doha, São Paulo, and Beijing have reduced leaks by 40 to 50% by putting sensors on pumps and other water infrastructure.
• Industrial uses: This includes Internet-managed assembly lines, connected factories, and warehouses, etc.

Earlier this month, Atmel teamed up with fellow industry leaders Broadcom, Dell, Intel, Samsung and Wind River to drive seamless device-to-device connectivity. The Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) aims to define IoT requirements to ensure the interoperability of these billions upon billions of devices projected to come online by 2020.

“Atmel is excited about our participation in OIC to establish an open source framework that goes beyond the digital home and supports services for multiple verticals including consumer, industrial and automotive markets,” explained Kaivan Karimi, Vice President and General Manager of Wireless MCUs at Atmel.

In order to help deliver the platform for a growing demand of intelligent, connected devices, Atmel recently announced the launch of Atmel® | SMART™, the new brand of ARM®-based microcontrollers and has expanded its SMART portfolio with new SmartConnect SAM W23 modules, enabling Wi-Fi connectivity and the best of high performance and low power technology for IoT applications.

Interested in learning more about the IoT? You can access the entire BI Intelligence report here or read through our extensive Bits & Pieces IoT article archive.

4 in 10 smartphones will have flexible displays by 2018

According to market research firm DisplaySearch, the share of flexible smartphones in the overall smartphone market is expected to reach 40% in 2018, up from merely 0.2% last year. This should come with little surprise following recent analyst forecasts projecting the flexible display market to cross the $3.89 billion threshold by 2020 – growing at an impressively high CAGR from 2014 to 2020.

It should also be noted that Jennifer Colegrove, who owns Touch Display Research in Santa Clara, California, says the potential market for XSense and similar technologies will increase from $200 million in 2013 to $4 billion by 2020, primarily for tablet computers and other larger mobile devices.

So far, tech giants Samsung and LG have jumped into the curved smartphone waters as seen during last October’s unveilings of both the Galaxy Round and LG G-Flex, respectively.

“Touchscreens that are thin, light, responsive, sleek and flexible create a multitude of possibilities for the future of design beyond familiar industrial and consumer applications, including wearables, mobile devices, automotive infotainment and other curved surfaces,” explained Jalil Shaikh, Atmel’s Vice President and GM.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel’s XSense continues to play a role in the rapidly evolving flexible display market. Essentially, XSense is a high-performance, highly flexible touch sensor which allows engineers to design devices with curved surfaces and even add functionality along product edges. This offers manufacturers the capability to build light-weight, sleek, edgeless smartphones, tablets and other touch-enabled devices.

Last month, EDN China selected XSense as a “Top 10 Most Influential Technologies for the Future.”

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s XSense? Head on over to Bits & Pieces article archive on the subject here or check out what some Makers are envisioning a future of flexible displays.

Maker creates uncrackable DIY mixtape

Maker David Huerta, co-organizer of Art Hack Day and Cryptoparty, recently devised a DIY encrypted mixtape using an Atmel based Arduino and a transparent acrylic case. The device was created as a “soundtrack for the modern surveillance state and is designed to be enjoyed only by people I have consented it to be listened to.”

Originally, Huerta wanted to make a traditional mixtape and share it with friends and co-workers. But according to Motherboard, he didn’t get very far without a cassette recorder. “That’s when his DIY hacker artist instincts kicked in, and he started building the encrypted mixtape at NYC Resistor.”

This device was created using open hardware, machinery that can be trusted not to spy on you because of the disclosure of its design, schematics and bill of materials to anyone who wishes to inspect, build, or build upon the device.

“I made my own version of a mixtape with an Arduino and wave shield sandwiched in between two laser-etched pieces of transparent acrylic.” The use of transparent acrylic was to symbolically give transparency to the device you were using, Huerta revealed in his blog post.

“This open hardware device would not be a black box, figuratively or literally.”

“I used encryption (AES/Whirlpool for the hash algorithm) to make my mix tape unplayable without the passphrase needed to unlock the private key that would decrypt the SD card where the music is stored. The list of music used was kept offline and only available in a printed paper form for the aforementioned staff art show. I created special transparent red acrylic pieces to indicate this one was the encrypted version and mailed the device with the encrypted SD card to the NSA’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, which apparently has a special mailing address for unsolicited packages like this.”