WSN Update

Smart Appliances Are One Step Closer

2008-08-01T11:36:00.003-05:00

Researchers have long been promising that wireless sensor networks will bring a new wave of smart appliances that can communicate with each other, and with central servers when they need attention. The technology for these appliances has existed for some time now. However, the commercial availability of such products has been slow to market for one primary reason - the lack of structured business model.

All that is about to change now thanks to Verizon Wireless's Open Development initiative. The mobile phone network provider has created a new business model for themselves by opening up their network to allow third party devices to be "certified" (they promise quickly and easily, but who knows what that means) for use on the Verizon Wireless Network. With access to the the mobile network, it will now be possible for devices other than your cell phone to communicate. For example, your HVAC can call you when its about to fail or your fridge can call you when you are running low on milk. These examples might not be the most realistic, but the potential for general machine-to-machine (M2M) applications just got a lot more exciting.

Verizon announced certification of the first device under the Open Development initiative this month. Surprisingly, it is a device that has a sensor that dips into a large container (holding the likes food shortening, etc. ) and automatically sends a text message when the contents are low. I guess the examples above were realistic after all.

Beet.tv has a nice interview with Verizon's VP of Open Development, Anthony Lewis.

Cars To Form One Huge Sensor Network

2008-07-09T09:48:00.002-05:00

Who said Wireless Sensor Networks had to be small personal area networks? According to Network World, researchers at Penn State University are developing a sensor that would be attached to cars that would allow it to talk to other cars, forming a large area sensor network.

The original concept being developed at Penn State is for the purpose of preventing car theft. It is geared towards parking lots and apartment buildings that might offer the additional anti-theft protection as an added perk. When a user parks their car, the tiny sensor would notify other cars around it that it is there and "joining the network". Periodically, the sensor will broadcast a message to other cars saying "I'm here and I'm safe". When the person unlocks their car to leave, the sensor would notify other cars in the network that it is leaving. If the car were to leave the network without issuing this "goodbye message", in the case of a theft for example, the other cars in the network would notice the car is missing and will notify the network controller to call the police.

The sensors are inexpensive and will eventually be about the size of a grain of rice, making them difficult for a would-be car thief to locate and disable. Even if they were able to tamper with the sensor, the other cars in the network would notice the missing "I'm safe" broadcasts and notify the base station that there is a problem. The wireless network approach will not only make anti-theft protection more affordable, but also more effective.

This concept is a perfect use of Wireless Sensor Technology. Why does it have to be limited to parking lots though? The biggest challenge for wireless sensors is their long term need of power. Cars have plenty of power! Why not put a sensor in every car? Think about what a selling point this could be for Ford or GM? Cars can form a huge wide area network over a large area, routing their information through other cars, until it reaches a controller strategically placed throughout the city. Now it doesn't matter if you car is in a parking lot, parked on the street, or being taken for a joy ride by some punk. A query can be sent through the network to find the exact location of the car, allowing the police to apprehend the thief in minutes.

As with most technological advances, the privacy advocates will have a field day with this one. But I personally believe the benefit would outweigh the potential for concern.

DC Police Plan Largest Deployment of Gunshot Sensors

2008-07-07T09:41:00.005-05:00

The Baltimore Examiner reported over the weekend that Washington DC is planning to expand its network of wireless gunshot sensors to cover more high crime neighborhoods in the city. By September of this year, police expect 16 of the city's 68 square miles to be covered by the ShotSpotter technology that pinpoints the exact locations of gunshots.

Once the network is deployed, DC will have one of the largest wireless gunshot networks in the country. According to the Washington Post, the technology has guided police to three homicides in Southeast Washington, and in one case officers got there rapidly enough to make an arrest.

Interestingly, the ShotSpotter website states that US Department of Defense has requested that they limit discussion on the how the gunshot detection technology works.

I don't know why they bother as this is no big secret. The basic idea is simple: using the arrival times of the acoustic events at different sensor locations, the shooter position can be accurately calculated using the speed of sound and the location of the sensors. Vanderbilt University was successful in using this technique to pinpoint a gunshot to an area less than 1 meter, which is supposedly more accurate than the ShotSpotter products.

Regardless of it accuracy, the ShotSpotter is an excellent example of a company that is USING the technology to solve a SPECIFIC problem. As we have mentioned here in the past, it will take a lot more APPLICATIONS of the technology before the market really takes of. It is great to see that ball starting to roll.

Sensors Inspired by Biology Get Huge EU Funding

2008-06-27T10:25:00.002-05:00

In my last post, I explained how the lack of adoption of Wireless Sensor Network technology was due to the limited amount of money being invested in actual applications of the technology.

It was refreshing to see this article today from the European Commission Research Information Centre. The EU is investing EUR 2.44 million in the WINSOC project which is developing innovative sensor networks that mimic biological systems. With these new sensors, the project partners hope to detect imminent catastrophes in time for action to be taken.

WINSOC, or Wireless Sensor Networks with Self-Organization Capabilities for Critical and Emergency Applications, is a technical science project that is inspired by living organisms around us. The sensors being developed by the project aim to address three areas in environmental monitoring:

detection or prediction of landslides

detection of gas leakage to prevent hazard situations or simply avoid unnecessary wastes of energetic resources

monitoring of temperature fields as a way to detect fires or, even better, to predict the risk of a potential fire in a given area.

I commend the EU for taking the lead in funding these types of projects. This type of technology can have a huge positive impact on our everyday lives, allowing us to be safer, use less energy, and understand more about our environment.

Full Article...

Wireless Sensor Networks Looking for "Killer App"

2008-06-23T13:27:00.003-05:00

This blog has been touting the promises of Wireless Sensor Networks since February of 2005. It was predicted back then that WSN would be a disruptive technology that changed the way we viewed the world. Today, market research still predicts that the WSN revolution is "just around the corner". The reality is that the technology is no closer to commercial adoption that it was over three years ago when this blog began. EETimes.com had an interesting article today that sheds some light as to why - just like every other new technology, it needs a "killer app".

The article discusses a UK study that concluded that commercial adoption has been slow. It is the traditional sensing applications that are currently commercially exploiting the advantages of wirelessly networked sensors. There have been very few new uses of the technology. The report goes on to suggest that now that the major system integrators are getting involved, the new expertise in the field will drive further adoption. I am not sure I really agree with that.

Having been in the WSN field for nearly 4 years, I have learned that there is a much bigger problem - MONEY. No one wants to pay for the development of the "Killer App". Integrators will learn the technology, but will only integrate it when they are paid to do so. For the most part they don't develop commercial applications. The traditional sensing markets are very stuck in their ways. They have wired sensors and SCADA systems that work and are reliable. Often these systems monitor critical systems where saftey is a huge concern. So why would they add risk by adopting something new with unproven reliablily?

WSN is a great technology, but that's just it. Its another technology. The technology alone doesn't do anything, it needs to be applied. And for most of the things that it can be applied to, there is often a cheaper, lower-tech, more reliable method.

I still believe the technology has the potential to be disruptive, but its going to take a lot of money and a big leap of faith to develop that Killer App. Until then, everyone is stuck waiting on the sidelines for the game to begin. If Google or Apple are not pushing it, it might be a long time before the technology really takes off.

Eeny, Meeny, Miney MOTE - Choosing the Right WSN Protocol

2008-06-11T08:35:00.003-05:00

Embedded.com has a good article today that is Part III in their series of choosing the right low power wireless sensor network. This article shifts away to the general criteria discussion of parts 1 and 2, and dives into the technical details by comparing TI's proprietary SimpliciTI wireless network with Zigbee.

In a nut shell, the article shows how the need for standardized reliability and security implementation as well as an interoperability requirement would make Zigbee the protocol of choice. Relax or remove these requirements and the optimum network would be a general or proprietary 802.15.4 network.

Full Article...

Ensuring low power in wireless mesh sensor networks

2008-04-30T14:10:00.002-05:00

For those who are into the low level electronics of Wireless Sensor Networking, EE Times has a good article today on the importance of ensuring low power in wireless mesh sensor networks.

The article discusses how current consumption is not the only factor to be addressed in order to achieve low power in wireless sensor applications. Also important are managing the peak power conditions, graceful power failures, and acheiving low-power mesh routing.

Full Article...

WiFi Enabled Sensors Can Change the Sensor Networking Landscape

2008-01-17T20:40:00.000-05:00

According to a recent article by ABI Research wireless sensors can now connect to 802.11 WiFi networks. Up until now, this was not considered possible for wireless sensors because of the large power requirements of WiFi. A normal battery that typically powers a sensor node would be exhausted in hours powering a WiFi radio. But now, thanks to new products from Gain Span, WiFi sensor nodes can achieve years of life with a typical battery. Gain Span develops highly a integrated system on chip that provides years of life and intelligent power management for battery operated sensor devices.

The impact of this is significant. Development of Wireless Sensor applications can be drastically simplified leading to quicker time to market and lower development costs. Instead of learning complicated mesh networking protocols, applications can connect to wireless sensors via TCP using your normal everyday wireless network.

It will definitely be interesting to see what kind of impact this has on proprietary sensor network companies like Dust and Crossbow. If you ask me, now that the power problem has been solved, its a no brainer - WiFi all the way.

Full Article...

Wireless is everywhere; ignore it at your peril

2008-01-08T16:18:00.000-05:00

EETimes.com has a nice article today about how Wireless is, without question, going to be the next explosive technology boom - similar to what happened with PCs.

This definitely seems to be the trend because wireless is becoming so pervasive. It is becoming a critical component of our everyday lives. It is found so many product - phones, PDAs, video games. And it will continue to show up in new and exciting ways - like industrial, manufacturing, and medical monitoring and control applications.

Full Article...

New generation of sensors poised to revolutionize predictive maintenance

2007-12-28T10:50:00.000-05:00

A pioneering use of wireless sensor technology is in the field of Predictive Maintenance. This type of maintenance offers significant cost savings in the maintenance of industrial equipment and large assets. The use of wireless sensors and analytical software allows equipment engineers to perform maintenance only when needed, reducing the cost of regular maintenance and routine inspection.

PlantServices.com has a great article on the use of wireless sensor technology to address this emerging market.

Full Article...

Wireless Sensor Adoption Expected to Grow Tenfold

2007-09-26T09:14:00.000-05:00

RFID Journal has a nice summary of ON World's recent report, "WSN for Smart Industries". Here are some of the main points:

Currently 1 in 3 industrial companies are using wireless sensor & control technologies
Nearly HALF intend on doing so over the next 18 months
The market will reach $4.6 Billion by 2011, up from $500 Million today
40% are using the technology for machine health

The article also discusses the three emerging standards - Zigbee, WirelessHART, and ISA 100.

Full Article...

Single Chip Wireless Sensor

2007-09-22T10:49:00.000-05:00

ChipSensors, an Irish start-up fabless semiconductor company, has developed a wireless sensor that is contained within a single chip. The chip includes fully integrated signal conditioning, microcontroller, memory and RF transceiver functions, while the surface of the chip can sense information about the environment, such as light, temperature, humidity or gases.

This is a big step forward towards miniaturizing wireless sensor nodes, ultimately driving towards true (still somewhat fictional) "smart dust".

Full Article...

Prepare for the Sensor Revolution

2007-07-23T08:39:00.000-05:00

According to the folks at Measurement Specialties the sensor revolution is here. Businesses need to adjust their resources to embrance wireless sensor technology to optimize their business processes.

I wouldn't quite say the revolution is here, but I do belive that it is certainly starting. It is good to see WSN technology starting to move out of the universities and R&D, and into businesses and commercial products. The actual adoption rate of the technology by end users, however, remains slow. We will remain on the bring of a technology revolution until businesses begin to adopt and embrace the technology and realize the value of new information about their assets and environment.

Full Article...

Location Detection SoC for ZigBee Wireless Sensor Networking

2007-07-16T08:15:00.000-05:00

Another article on Texas Instrument's upcoming release of its CC2431 System on a Chip (SoC) with Location Detection capability for Zigbee networks. This article by Wireless Design and Development Asia states that volume production is currently scheduled for 3Q of 2007.

The release of this chip is likely to lead to a new wave of asset monitoring applications. It may also significantly impact the proprietary Active RFID tag market which has provided location detection capabilites for some time. If the success of this chip's predecesor CC2420 is any indication, this product will be huge for TI.

Full Article...

'Thirsty Crop' Sensors Save Water

2007-07-10T08:37:00.000-05:00

Discovery Channel News has an interesting article today about a new sensor that can detect when crops actually need water. This can result in saving 30 to 40 percent of water used during irrigation. Eventually the sensor will utilize RFID technology so the data can be transfered wirelessly without the need for a battery or other power source.

Full Article...

Moteiv: Better than Fairy Dust

2007-06-26T08:13:00.000-05:00

Wi-Fi Planet has a great article on Moteiv Corp., a San Francisco based wireless sensor network company. Their latest product, the TMote Mini, is smaller and less expensive than any other mote (wireless sensor nodes) on the market. The TMote Minies even have a miniSD slot that can fit into a smart phone or PDA, allowing for a limitless number of creative application deployments.

Full Article...

Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Nodes

2007-06-22T08:33:00.000-05:00

Microstrain has a line of Energy Harvesting wireless sensor nodes that can operate indefinitely without the use of batteries. They are designed to run at low levels of DC power that is generated using piezoelectric materials and solar panels.

Products such as this will make the prediction of truly umbiquitous computing a reality in years to come. Not having to change the batteries is a huge step in this direction.

Microstrain has a nice white paper on the subject here.

Full Article...

World's Largest Internet Enabled, Wireless Mesh Sensor Network for Agriculture

2007-06-20T08:04:00.000-05:00

Grape Networks has announced that the Company has deployed the World's largest Wireless Sensor Network for agriculture in the Central Valley of California.

Now that wireless sensor technology is starting to catch on commercially, it will be exiting to see how many other large scale deployments get publicized - and how soon someone will be able to top Grape's feat of 200 sensor nodes over 50 acres.

Full Article...

Octave Technology Launches OCTAVEX Wireless Sensor Framework

2006-10-31T09:06:00.000-05:00

Octave Technology announced today the launch of its flagship product, the OCTAVEX Wireless Sensor Framework version 1.0. The OCTAVEX Framework is a software platform designed to assist end users, systems integrators, software developers and OEMS in the deployment and management of wireless sensor networks. The product addresses a growing need for companies to properly manage the large amount of data provided by wireless sensors while leveraging the IT infrastructure and applications currently in place.

The OCTAVEX Framework can simultaneously support any number of sensor points for different types of wireless protocols including mesh networks [zigbee or proprietary platforms], active RFID tags, point to point RF sensors, and other types of smart sensors. The incoming data is delivered in a common XML-based message to the Core Services where the data can be stored, aggregated and integrated into other enterprise applications using the software APIs.

The OCTAVEX Framework is targeted towards software developers, systems integrators, end users, and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to allow for the development and deployment of end-to-end wireless sensor solutions in a hardware and standards agnostic manner.

Full Article...

New alliance plans to explore the effectiveness of wireless sensors

2006-10-16T08:34:00.000-05:00

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have recently begun working as part of a newly formed group of international scientists, known as the International Technology Alliance (ITA). Its goal is to rethink network computing and communications across urban environments.

The program will look to explore more advanced and effective wireless sensor networks in urban areas. It will study network theory, network security for highly mobile ad hoc networks, sensor and information fusion, and distributed coalition planning and decision making.

The ITA is led by IBM and consists of top researchers in industry, academia, and government. The project will span 10 years and has a budget of $138 million.

Full Article...

Wireless Sensor Systems Market Expected to Grow Rapidly Over the Next 5 - 10 Years

2006-09-28T08:42:00.000-05:00

More and more market research firms are coming out with studies predicting the market opportunity for wireless sensor network systems. This new one from Research and Markets states that the market for wireless sensing systems will grow rapidly over the next 5-10 years, reaching $5 to $7 billion in sales.

The report also touches on the growing trend of machine-to-machine (M2M) data communication. It states that WSN technology is one aspect of a revolution that is occurring in data communication that eliminates the need for human involvement and allows truly pervasive computing.

Full Article...

Sensicast Ships SensiNet(R) 3.0

2006-09-22T08:24:00.000-05:00

Sensicast Systems (www.sensicast.com) announced Thursday that it is shipping SensiNet 3.0(R)--the industry's first end-to-end, wireless mesh sensor network solution that can be tailored to specific applications using a self-configuring building block approach.

SensiNet 3.0 is based on a building block deployment approach for fast installation and scalability (from small networks to very large/multi-facility networks of hundreds of sensors). SensiNet's patented wireless mesh network technology enables end-user customers such as plant and building managers to quickly install and operate comprehensive, yet tailor-made systems to wirelessly track conditions and processes in their facilities.

This is another step closer towards industry adoption of WSN technology. The easier the technology can tie into back end systems, the quicker wide scale adoption will occur.

Full Article...

ZigBee Monitors Building and Ambient Air Quality

2006-09-20T08:48:00.000-05:00

A new real-time monitoring system from Hitachi WirelessInfo is helping companies create controlled environments where temperature, humidity and airborne particles can be managed to maintain ideal working conditions. The new Hitachi AirSense(TM) system, based on Ember's ZigBee wireless networking technology, will be a boon to food production plants, healthcare facilities, warehouses and other buildings where precise air and ambient control is critical to operations.

This is an exciting use of ZigBee technology. It would be nice to see more consumer products like this become available in the coming months.

Full Article...

Tendril Secures $5.25 Million in Venture Funding

2006-08-15T08:17:00.000-05:00

Tendril announced today that the company has secured $5.25 million in Series B funding to continue its growth as the leading provider of network operations platform software for developing and deploying Wireless Sensor and Control Networks.

This is an exciting development in the low powered wireless network market. The adoption rate of wireless sensor networking has been fairly low, with most projects consisting of small R&D pilot projects. Interest in the venture captial community will hopefully accelerate the use of this promising technology in full scale industrial deployments.

Full Article...

Berkeley Inventors of TinyOS Found Arch Rock to Scale Wireless Sensor Networks as the Next Tier of the Internet

2006-03-27T20:25:00.000-05:00

Arch Rock, a company founded in mid 2005 to develop products that enable wide adoption of wireless sensor networks within the broader context of Internet technology, announced today that it secured a $5 million Series A investment from New Enterprise Associates, Shasta Ventures and Intel Capital.

The Arch Rock management team is comprised of renowned experts in the fields of wireless sensor networks and embedded systems, Internet networking, and enterprise software. Among the team members is Dr. David Culler, one of the original creators of the TinyOS open source embedded operating system for wireless sensor networks.

Full Article...