SensorLab-MihaS: januar 2011

31. jan. 2011

… ultralow power wireless sensor nodes + energy harvesting technology = completely autonomous systems (powered by local ambient energy instead of batteries) …

… effective energy harvesting system requires a clever power-management scheme to convert the miniscule levels of free energy into a form usable by the wireless sensor system …

… microprocessors and analog sensors that consume only microwatts of power and small, low cost, low power RF transceivers are widely available - the missing link in enabling practical energy harvesting has been a power converter/power management block that can operate from one or more of the common sources of free energy…

… LTC3108: thermal energy harvesting (powering wireless sensors from a thermoelectric generator - TEG) … TEG is attached to the machinery, with a heat sink on the cool (ambient) side …

Sense Networks

… Macrosense - platform for analyzing large amounts of mobile location data in real-time to drive relevant recommendation, personalization and discovery …

Connected Home at CES

… GE Nucleus - energy display (under development, expected in the third quarter of 2011), connected to a smart meter it shows real time or over time energy consumption, Nucleus acts as a networking hub with ZigBee to communicate with a smart meter …

… ThinkEco - additional plug which fits over ordinary power plugs and is equipped with a Zigbee radio, USB stick in a PC is used to see the energy usage and control …

… LG featured its array of smart appliances (washer, dryer, refrigerator, robot vacuum cleaner) (proprietary smart technology, Wi-Fi connection) …

Big data and smart cities

… LIVE Singapore! project @ MIT SENSEable City Lab - exploring the so what? aspect of WoT , which is how to actually build something useful on top of all these sensors (see also ) …

… have seen most IoT/WoT projects applied to smart buildings and home automation, and other mobile interaction scenarios, but it is worthwhile to consider how this fits the bigger picture and think of more meaningful scenarios … LIVE Singapore! project aims to build a scalable platform for real-time data processing and sharing …

… cities are a goldmine of data, and who can derive most meaningful information out of this mess of data, will be happy …

25. jan. 2011

ONE-NET

ONE-NET - open-source standard for low power wireless networking

http://www.one-net.info/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/one-net/

… optimized for very low power, very low cost and very good security …

… can be ported on variety of wireless transceivers and microcontrollers (including VSN) …

24. jan. 2011

Across my desk (2)

TI chip bridges ANT+ and Bluetooth

… CC2567 device is the first wireless, single-chip solution that enables direct short-range communication between ultra low-power, ANT+-enabled devices and commonly used mobile devices relying on Bluetooth® technology such as PCs, smartphones and tablets …

Low-energy DECT variant targets sensor networks

… DECT is more than just telephones … DECT ULE is an ultra-low-energy extension to DECT … its combination of range, high data rate and zero interference with the potential to run on batteries for years is unique … DECT Forum has established an international Lower Power Working Group to drive development within the DECT community and present an open standard proposal to ETSI …

… DECT ULE's low current consumption is achieved in the same way as in other low-power systems - by allowing the IC to operate in a sleep mode for most of the time … DECT operates in the 1880 to 1900 MHz frequency band (outside Europe the 1910-1930 MHz and 1900-1920 MHz bands are also used). This 20 MHz of radio spectrum is split into ten channels with a spacing of 1.728 MHz. In addition to this division by frequency (FDMA), DECT also splits up the available space into time slots (TDMA). In total, there are 24 time slots per frequency band (12 "down" and 12 "up") … WSN sleep (20 s), long range (250 mW), interference free (1.9 GHz band) …

Leaving the Lights on

Last Hurrah for Banned Bulbs

CES 2011 Wireless, Zigbee and 3D TV

… Atmel was showing off a range of technology including RF4CE remote controls …

… reenpeak's RF4CE remote control adds a "Find Me" feature. This uses the bidirectional 802.15.4 communication system underlying RF4CE …

… Bug Labs was showing off their latest kit (BUG 2.0 Modular Wireless Development Platform, watch) …

… Freescale was showing how 3D glasses could be controlled by ZigBee …

JWT: 100 Things to Watch in 2011 (video)

… No. 42: Home Energy Monitors (Belkin Conserve, GE Nucleus) …

… No. 56: Near Field Communication …

… No. 76: Self-Powering Devices …

… No. 78: Smart-Infrastructure Investment …

… No. 83: Social Objects (Stickybits) …

… No. 88: Tap-to-Pay …

17. jan. 2011

Across my desk (1)

Nordic Semiconductor and ANT Partner with Yellow Digital to Demonstrate eWellness Platform

… ultra low power (ULP) RF specialist Nordic Semiconductor ASA (OSE: NOD) and ANT Wireless announce their participation in an “eWellness” cycling performance monitoring exhibit with leading consumer electronics and technology companies today at CES …

… performance data, such as cadence, power, speed, and heart rate, is transmitted from the wireless sensors using ANT+ communication, to Pioneer’s ANT+-equipped “cyclocomputer” (cycling computer) that has 3G network capability. Cyclocomputer is equipped with map and other helpful applications for training and weight control, and displays real-time performance data from the network of ANT+ sensors on the bike …

ANT rides the Tour de France

… at the recent Tour de France, the world’s most prestigious cycling event, ANT+ formed a critical link in a system that enabled Internet users to track the performance of individual HTC Columbia riders in real time …

… ANT+’s interoperability between the SRM ANT+ sensors and HTC’s Android-based smartphones …

… HTC Columbia team cyclists used ANT+ (running on Nordic’s ANT chips), coin cell powered monitoring devices communicating with an HTC Legend phone carried beneath the bike’s seat …

… Android-powered smartphone runs a Google MyTracks application combining sensor data with GPS information and transmitting via the cellular network to the Internet …

TI: 2.4-GHz ZigBee network processor with ZigBee PRO stack

… CC2530ZNP provides a simple, off-the-shelf ZigBee solution without requiring designers to learn the complexities of a full ZigBee stack …

… CC2530ZNP supports TI’s Z-Stack software and SimpleAPI, which has only 10 calls to learn and communicates to host processor via an SPI or UART command interface …

… compatible devices from TI include the CC2590 and CC2591 2.4-GHz analog front ends (range extenders), MSP430 ultra-low-power microcontrollers and Stellaris ARM processors …

The Future of Motion-sensing Technology

… Microsoft Project Natal operates through a sensor bar, placed beneath or above the TV. But that’s where the similarities end. Project Natal combines an RGB camera, a depth sensor (consisting of an infrared projector combined with a monochrome CMOS sensor), and a multi-array microphone to enable full-body 3D motion capture, facial recognition, and voice recognition …

Inside Bluetooth low-energy technology

… classic Bluetooth technology is a "connection oriented" radio with a fixed connection interval ideal for high activity connections like mobile phones linking with wireless headsets. In contrast, Bluetooth low-energy technology employs a variable connection interval that can be set from a few milliseconds to several seconds depending on the application. In addition, because it features a very rapid connection, Bluetooth low-energy technology can normally be in a "not connected" state (saving power) where the two ends of a link are aware of each other, but only link up when absolutely necessary and then for as short a time as possible …

… three characteristics of Bluetooth low-energy technology that underlie its ULP performance: maximized standby time, fast connection, and low peak transmit/receive power … to minimize time on air it employs only three "advertising" channels to search for other devices or promote its own presence … radio switches between channels in a pseudo-random pattern using the Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) technology pioneered by Classic Bluetooth … another reason why Bluetooth low-energy technology spends minimal time on air is because it features a raw data bandwidth of 1Mbps – greater bandwidth allows more information to be sent in less time …

… Profiles optimize a generic Bluetooth low energy chip for a specific application such as Personal User Interface Devices (PUID) (such as watches), Remote Control, Proximity Alarm, Battery Status and Heart Rate Monitor. Other health and fitness monitoring profiles such as blood-glucose and -pressure, cycle cadence, and cycle crank power will follow …

The art of capacitive touch sensing

Smart management is the key to smart grid meter security

Qi-Certified Kit Reduces Development Time of Wireless Power Solutions

… bqTELSA development kit includes a single-channel transmitter, a direct-charge receiver and associated magnetics for applications requiring 5 watts of power or less …