Muhammad Awais

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Muhammad Awais

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Wearable computing – the use of personal computers, displays and sensors worn on one’s person – gives us the potential for advancement in human-computer interaction compared to traditional personal computing – for example the ability to have constant access and interaction with a computer – and the Internet, whilst going about our daily activities.

This could be considered the ultimate in multitasking – the use of your computing device at any time without interrupting your other activities. For example, the ability to read an email or retrieve required information while walking or working on other tasks. Wearable computing potentially offers much greater consistency in human-computer interaction – constant access to the computer, constant connectivity, without a computing device being used in an on-and-off fashion in between other activities.

Once contemporary example of this is the new Google Glass, which represents an advanced, sleek, beautifully designed head-mounted wearable computer with a display suitable for augmented-reality applications – or just as an “ordinary” personal head-mounted display. Even before its public release, the frenzy surrounding Google Glass amongst technology enthusiasts demonstrates the potential level of market demand for wearable computers.

However, with a price of at least US$1500 price tag of Google Glass, (at least for its “Explorer Edition” beta version) this leads many to consider what potential might exist for the deployment of wearable computing and wearable sensor-network technologies – however at a lower cost.

One example is the category known as “Smart Watches” such as the Sony SmartWatch and Pebble Technology’s “Pebble” e-Paper watch – which both offer constant, on-the-go access to information from the Internet – and thus become a member of the Internet of Things – at a glance of the wrist. Text messages and email notifications are amongst the most simple, common examples of data that can be pushed to a smart watch, but the display of information from a multitude of other Internet-connected data streams is possible.

With the growing popularity and increasing hardware capabilities of smart phones, it is increasingly taken for granted that a smart phone carried on one’s person can act as a gateway between the Internet (connected via the cellular networks) and other smaller, lower-power wearable computer or sensor devices worn on the body and connected back to the smartphone via standard data links such as WiFi or Bluetooth. In using the smart phone as an Internet connection, the size, price and weight of the wearable device can be significantly reduced – which also leads to a considerable reduction in cost.

Furthermore, apart from providing mobile Internet connectivity, the smart phone can also provide a large display and an amount of storage capacity – which can be harnessed for the logging, visualisation and display of data collected from a network-connected sensor node wearable on one’s body, or a whole network of such sensor nodes distributed around different personal electronic devices carried on the person and different types of physical sensors around the body.

The increasing penetration of smart phones in the market and the increasing availability and decreasing cost of wireless radio-networked microcontroller system-on-chips, MEMS
sensors and energy efficient short-range wireless connectivity technologies such as Bluetooth 4.0 are among some of the factors responsible for increasing the capabilities of,
and decreasing the cost of, wearable computing and wearable Internet-of-Things and sensor platforms.

Speed and position loggers, GPS data loggers and smart pedometers intended for logging and monitoring athletic performance, such as the Internet-connected, GPS-enabled,
Nike+ system; along with biomedical instrumentation and sensor devices such as Polar’s Bluetooth-connected heart rate sensors are other prominent examples of wearable Internet-of-Things devices which are attracting increasing consumer interest on the market today.

Combined with display devices such as smart watches, smart phones and head-mounted displays such as Google Glass. these kinds of wearable sensors create a complete wearable machine-to-machine Internet-of-Things network that can be self-contained on one’s person. Which leads us to the next level of possibilities – what do your customers want a device to do? And how can it be accomplished? And do you have the resources or expertise to design, test and bring such a system to the market?

It isn’t easy – there’s a lot of technology to work with – however it can be done with the right technology parter. Here at the LX Group we have the experience and team to make things happen. With our experience with sensors, embedded and wireless hardware/software design, and ability to transfer ideas from the whiteboard to the white box – we can partner with you for your success.

We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

Contemporary transport networks in almost every town and city generally rely on disparate and largely unconnected information technology systems – from ticketing to electronic real-time route and timetable information displays for customers to central communications and operations and more. However over time expectations of both internal and external customers include the almost instant availability of data from every facet of the system. Due to various bureaucratic mismanagement, however, such information demands can’t usually be met.

The usual reasons given by those responsible is that of cost overruns from previous projects may be repeated again, employee resistance to change and other luddite-like responses. However with the growth of the Internet-of-Things concept and availability – more than ever such networks can be dragged into the 21st century for all those invested in it. Although there will be an expense in doing so, over time the efficiencies gained with more and relevant information along with customer satisfaction through empowerment via knowledge will repay the expense over many times.

But what can be done to make these changes? There are many changes, such as the following examples that can be introduced to find greater efficiencies and information relevance in the network.

For example, using a combination of IoT network technologies such as cellular and Wi-Fi in combination with traditional copper-wire networks, it is plausible to have network connectivity between all trains, buses and trams, their central control centres, the stations and stops – where commuters are provided with timely information updates via electronic displays, and Internet-based customer information services that are provided via the Web or smartphone applications. Considering the cost of a railway carriage, a new bus or tram – the additional hardware expense is negligible and can be retrofitted to existing stock.

It is also possible to keep maintenance contractors, security staff or emergency services “in the loop” as a part of this network of data – which is largely generated automatically by sensors, GPS receivers and user-interfaces across the network. This means that staff can be quickly and efficiently dispatched where and when attention is required, providing the greatest level of reliable maintenance or security where it is needed, in a highly efficient fashion with reduced labour intensity – and cost.

Vehicles such as trams can use on-board GPS receivers to report their position in real time to the central command centre via the tram’s data link to the network. This allows breakdowns or delays due to traffic disruption to be quickly identified. Real-time timetable updates can then be made available to passengers via intelligent displays at tram stops – or directly to commuters via apps on Internet-connected smart phones. This gives the external customers a much greater satisfaction as they are in control of their transport plans.

Furthermore with a variety of sensors one can consider trains and other vehicles recording and reporting information from the vehicle’s embedded electronics about faults and maintenance issues that require attention by operators – for example problems with HVAC systems or doors, as well as maintenance issues that require regularly scheduled attention after a certain numbers of hours or kilometres of operation. Thus a vehicle can offer real-time reports on itself for immediate or planned maintenance.

Due to the volume of data generated – useful information can be derived from correlating data from multiple sources. For example, customer fare payment data can be used to identify the most popular (and most congested) parts of the public transport network, or parts of the network that are experiencing a growth in consumer demand. Additional vehicles and more frequent services can then be assigned to the areas where they are most needed – or where they are likely to be most needed in the near future. Such predictions can also help with planning for future capital expenditure.

Although these and many other examples may relate to public transport systems – the ideas and solutions are transferable to any fleet-based transport system of almost any size. Understanding your fixed and mobile assets by receiving real-time information from them – instead of manually checking on periodic intervals – is the more intelligent and efficient method of maximising asset use while minimising expenses.

Creating such systems – or modifying existing isolated devices can be a challenge, and perhaps an insurmountable task. However by choosing the right partner to work through your requirements and offer a solution you can realise the efficiencies and savings mentioned. And here at the LX Group we have the experience and team to make things happen. Our goal is to find and implement the best system for our customers, and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success.

We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

Opinions held in the ethical debate surrounding the creation of artificial intelligence (AI) are as diverse as they are fiercely debated. Not only is there the question of whether or not we’ll be “playing god” by creating a true AI, but also the issue of how we install a set of human-friendly ethics within a sentient machine.

With humanity currently divided across numerous of different countries, religions and groups, the question of who gets to make the final call is a tricky one. It may well be left to whichever country gets there first, and the dominating opinion within their government and scientific community. After that, we may just have to let it run and hope for the best.

Is the Birth of Artificial Intelligence Inevitable?

Each week, scores of academic papers are released from universities the world over staunchly defending the various opinions. One interesting factor here is that it’s broadly accepted that this event will happen within the next few decades. After all, in 2011 Caltech created the first artificial neural network in a test tube, the first robot with “muscles” and “tendons” in now with us in the form of Ecci, and huge leaps forward are being made in just about every relevant scientific discipline.

It’s as exciting as it is incredible to consider that we may witness such an event. One paper by Nick Bostrom of Oxford University’s philosophy department stated that “there seems currently to be no good ground for assigning a negligible probability to the hypothesis that super-intelligence will be created within the lifespan of some people alive today”. This is a convoluted way of saying that the super-intelligent machines of sci-fi are a very probable future reality.

Roboethics and Machine Ethics

So, what ethics are in question here? Roboethics looks at the rights of the machines that we create in the same way as our own human rights. It’s something of a reality check to consider what rights a sentient robot would have, such as freedom of speech and self-expression.

Machine ethics is slightly different and applies to computers and other systems sometimes referred to as artificial moral agents (AMAs). A good example of this is in the military and the philosophical conundrum of where the responsibility would lie if somebody died in “friendly fire” from an artificially intelligent drone. How can you court-martial a machine?

In 1942, Isaac Asimov wrote a short story which defined his Three Laws of Robotics:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

This cleverly-devised trio of behaviour-governing rules appears infallible, but how would they fare in real life? Asimov’s series of stories on the subject hinted that no rules could adequately govern behaviour in an entirely failsafe way in all potential situations, and inspired the 2004 movie of the same name: “I, Robot”.

Who Gets to Call the Shots?

Other controversial areas of development such as bio technology also raise the question of whether or not we’re trying to play God. These are difficult questions, but it seems almost inevitable that scientific progress will thoroughly push the boundaries over coming decades. The potent combination of our endless curiosity and possible commercial applications will inevitably keep moving things forward.

So where does this place artificial intelligence technology? Surely, the power potentially commanded by an artificial super-intelligence, the technology it could create, and the devastation it could wreak if it got out of control, puts it in a whole different ballpark to artificially creating algae to harness the energy of sunlight?

Japan is arguably the current front runner for robotics systems, and with a shrinking population comprised of an increasing percentage of elderly people in need of pensions and healthcare funded by limited numbers of working taxpayers, it seems unlikely that Japan will suddenly hold back due to the ethical debate.

As interesting as it is to consider the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, it’s easy to overlook the fact that this is a global, human race issue rather than a country-specific issue. It’s not like landing on the moon where countries can be pitted against one another in a space race scenario. But perhaps with the increasing effect of the Internet meshing us all together, some decisions will be made in the global fashion that they deserve.

At the LX Group we have a wealth of experience and expertise in the IoT field, and can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

Recently an increasing number of networked devices are finding their way into consumer, industrial and medical applications. Such networks often employ distributed nodes which cannot practically be connected to the power grid – through design or through necessity. Therefore powering such devices can possibly be a challenge – due to the costs of either running from battery or solar power, sending technicians for maintenance visits to replace batteries – or having to install one’s own power network for the IoT system.

This is where energy efficiency is key – by using highly energy-efficient design practices in both the hardware and software levels, the power requirements can usually be reduced significantly. In doing so the power supply paradigm can be altered to one of lower cost and higher efficiency. Especially for remote or portable devices that use RF/microcontroller chipsets – the smaller the power requirement the better.

High-power and efficient wireless network nodes can be engineered using modern RF microcontroller system-on-chip devices, activating sensors and peripheral hardware devices only when they are required, and then putting them into low-power sleep modes when not in use. Similarly, the RF transceiver can be switched into a very-low-power sleep state until the microcontroller decides that a transmission of collected sensor data is required. The microcontroller can then wake up the radio, perform the required transmission, and then revert to sleep mode.

In some cases, a burst of data transmission across the wireless network might only occur when a small, intermittent energy-harvesting power supply has accumulated enough energy in a capacitor to power a transmission. Alternatively, a low-power wireless sensor node can “wake-on-radio”, only taking the microcontroller out of its sleep state when a message is received over the wireless network requesting a sensor readout and only powering up the sensors and microcontroller at this time.

With most of the components of the system, such as the microcontroller, radio and sensors – each kept off-line or asleep for the largest practical amount of time – efficiently designed wireless sensor nodes may achieve operating timescales as long as years off a single battery. Today’s typical wireless RF microcontroller system-on-chips targeted at IoT applications typically consume about 1-5 microwatts in their “sleep” state, increasing to about 0.5-1.0 mW when the microcontroller is active, and up to around 50 mW peak for brief periods of active RF transmission.

However when considering the design of energy-efficient, low-power IoT sensor networks, it can sometimes be advantageous to think not just in terms of power consumption, but in terms of the amount of energy required to perform a particular operation. For example, let’s suppose that waking up a MEMS accelerometer from sleep, performing an acceleration measurement and then going back to sleep consumes, say, 50 micro joules of energy; or that waking up an RF transceiver from sleep, transmitting a burst of 100 bytes of data and then going back to sleep consumes 500 micro joules.

If we know the specific energy consumption of each operation, then the average power consumption is simply the energy per operation multiplied by the frequency of that operation, summed over the different kinds of operations. Of course, this assumes that the continuous power consumption of each device when it is asleep is very small and can be ignored. Alternatively, if we have a certain known power budget available and a known energy budget for each sensing, computation or transmission operation – we then know the maximum practical frequency at which a sensor node can perform sensor measurements and transmit its data.

Additionally, efficient wireless sensor nodes can take advantage of some form of energy harvesting power supply – employing energy sources such as solar cells, vibrational energy harvesters or thermoelectric generators to minimise maintenance and extend battery life – with the possibility of completely eliminating external power supplies, but only if the power consumption of the system is small enough and a capacitor is employed for energy storage.

In many applications, solar cells are the most familiar and relatively mature choice for low-power network nodes operating outdoors or under good indoor light conditions. However, other technologies suitable for extracting small amounts of power from the ambient environment exist. For example, a wireless sensor node set up to monitor bearing wear in a generator could employ a piezoelectric crystal as a vibrational energy harvester, converting motor vibration into usable energy, or a thermoelectric generator mounted on a hot exhaust could harvest a small amount of otherwise wasted energy from the thermal gradient.

Typical vibrational energy harvesters usually operate with a cantilever of piezoelectric material that is clamped at one end and tuned to resonate at the frequency of the vibration source for optimal efficiency – although an electromagnetic transducer can be used in some cases. Whilst the electrical power available is dependent on the frequency and intensity of the vibrations, the cantilever tip mass and resonant frequency can generally be adjusted to match the machinery or system that energy is to be harvested from.

Furthermore, energy harvesting management ICs that manage the accumulation of energy in a capacitor over a period of time can enable short bursts of relatively high power consumption, such as when a node wakes up and transmits a burst of data, and are particularly well suited to low-power wireless sensor nodes.

Even with the examples mentioned above, the energy-efficiency possibilities are significant and can be a reality. When designing prototypes or proof-of-concept demonstrations you may put energy use to one side, however when it comes time to generate a real, final product – you can only benefit from taking energy-efficiency into account.

If you are considering creating or modifying existing designs and not sure about the energy-saving and generating options that are available, be efficient and discuss your needs with an organisation that has the knowledge, experience and resources to make your design requirements a reality such as here at the LX Group.

At the LX Group we have a wealth of experience and expertise in the embedded hardware field, and can work with the new and existing standards both in hardware and software to solve your problems. Our goal is to find and implement the best system for our customers, and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success.

We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

As the Internet-of-things industry and products is justifiably booming – like any emerging market or technology area there are several challenges and pitfalls to work through and hopefully avoid. As with the boom in personal computer types in the early 1980s, through to various standards in video and audio media towards the end of the last decade – making the right choices now can be a challenge.

When choosing IoT platforms – do you face problems with privacy, security, or expensive over-engineering of technology for technology’s sake? Are you considering replacing existing systems that aren’t really broken in a way that offers no real return in terms of user experience or economic value – just to be on the “latest craze”? With the standards of the IoT not being entirely prevalent or fixed, issues such as reliability, privacy, security, ownership and control of private data still pose questions that are barely beginning to be worked out.

The Internet of Things is not just something that is hidden away – out of sight somewhere inside an embedded control system. The growth in this field is also represented in a growth in the use of smart devices and technologies that are directly facing the domestic or industrial consumer.

One of these challenges is security of end-user data. As various devices enter the domestic arena, increasingly-enlightened consumers will have be concerned and have various questions about their privacy and security. And as these Internet of Things devices start to generate detailed real-time data about how much electrical power you’re using, which lights and appliances you have turned on at particular times, or even personal medical data logged directly from biomedical sensors – customers and end-users expect to know where that data is being collected and used, by whom, and why. To achieve confidence and acceptance amongst consumers, companies collecting data through Internet-of-Things systems must do so only with the consumer’s consent and only in a secure and controlled fashion.

The next challenge to meet is demonstrable financial benefit. Consumers expect that if they’re paying for new technology that they serve them – and not just the utility or manufactured. For example, if residential electricity consumers are paying for new smart metering infrastructure – then consumers expect to see how the new technology actually benefits them, not just providing a financial benefit to the energy provider who can save money by removing the number of meter readers.

Do the new technologies actually show a clear financial benefit, to corporate, industrial and household users? It has been said, for example, that one Australian electricity distribution company is “building its own Internet” to collect electricity billing data from residential smart meters. It seems ostensibly absurd to “build your own Internet” instead of building solutions that operate – with appropriate security and reliability – on top of the established Internet.

Although everyone may seem to have an education with regards to IoT devices, another challenge is educating potential and existing customers to the benefit of the devices. For example, as Internet-of-Things devices must be relatively inexpensive if they are to become truly ubiquitous in the home and not only adopted by early adopters who see past the initial price tag. For example, if an IoT-enabled light fixture costs $100 against a few dollars for a conventional bulb, it is not clear how widely adopted such a product will be. Although it’s worth noting that the total cost of ownership should be considered by the consumer – including the necessary cloud or software services, and not just the cost of the hardware node.

Another larger challenge, and one that needs to be overcome (or prepared for) before any final sales and installation is the hardware or software standards being used in the device. For example can the device work with IPv6 addressing? With the upcoming exhaustion of IPv4 addresses the address space represents a significant limit for the Internet of Things, for example there is no way that every refrigerator can have an IPv4 address exposed out to the Internet. However, with the introduction of IPv6 the problem is solved. Thus hardware needs this support.

Although the Internet-of-things will eventually prevail – the example challenges listed above and many more still exist. Improvements for the end-user and operator still introduce design problems and perhaps a little “fortune-telling” just as any new wave of technology or standards.

But how do you ensure your hardware will meet upcoming or new standards? Will your Internet-of-things ideas translate into profitable, desired systems by all stakeholders – not just your design team. Or can your existing systems be enhanced to benefit from the Internet-of-things without a total redesign? All these and many more questions can be answered by a design house with the expertise and experience such as here at the LX Group.

At the LX Group we have a wealth of experience and expertise in the IoT field, and can work with the new and existing standards both in hardware and software to solve your problems. Our goal is to find and implement the best system for our customers, and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success.

We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

Recently Google announced their new Cloud Platform services, which allow almost anyone to build applications, websites, store and analyse data using Google’s infrastructure. This is an exciting development for those looking to implement a scalable Internet-of-things system at a minimal cost – so we’ll take an overview of the system as it stands today.

Almost everyone is aware of the researched information, computing power and infrastructure available for Google’s myriad of services, and now it’s possible to harness some of this for your own needs. With the introduction of their “Cloud Platform”, you can harness this power that Google has used internally for years to provide Google’s familiar high-speed, high-scale big-data products and services such as Search, YouTube, Google Docs and GMail and make it available as cloud computing services for use with your own Internet-of-Things projects.

Large-scale, high-speed, distributed “cloud” storage and computation with large amounts of data is at the heart of everything that makes Google what it is, so it’s clear that they have substantial opportunities to offer external cloud-computing customers.

Whilst Google is not the first major player in the cloud computing market, their substantial infrastructure and “Big Data” experience represents a significant source of potential competition with other established cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web Services. The capability to use Google’s data centre infrastructure for cloud storage and computation, their data tools such as BigQuery to process very large scale data sets – and integration with Google’s data, services and apps are increasingly attractive.

The Google Cloud Platform is made up of a couple of different core components – Compute and Storage being two of the most important. The Compute component includes the Google Compute Engine, which is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform designed to run any application on top of Google’s infrastructure – which offers fast networking, scalable processing and storage, and the App Engine, a platform for developing and hosting web applications. The Storage component includes Google Cloud Storage and the BigQuery large-scale query system.

As with most cloud computing platforms, end users access cloud-based applications and infrastructure through a relatively lightweight local computer – via a web browser, lightweight desktop software, or a mobile device application – with the data and most of the software are stored on remote servers in the cloud. Therefore, the hardware requirements for the user to leverage the power of applications and data on Google Cloud Platform-hosted applications and services are almost trivial.

Many components of the Google Cloud Platform support open standards and protocols such as REST-based APIs. The Google Compute Engine is built atop a JSON RESTful API which
can be accessed via numerous different libraries, command-line utilities and GUI front-end tools. Google’s BigQuery, a cloud-based fully managed interactive query service specifically designed for work with massive datasets, is operated via an SQL-like query language.

Google Cloud Storage complements the Compute component of the Google Cloud Platform and serves to glue together all Google Cloud Services. Google Cloud Storage is a HTTP service that serves data directly over HTTP with high performance and resumable transfers of objects up to the terabyte scale. It offers support for two different APIs – one that is compatible with the XML standard used by competing providers such as Amazon Web Services and another API built around JSON and OAuth, consistent with the Google Compute Engine’s API.

The Google App Engine is a “Platform-as-a-Service” cloud computing platform for the development and hosting of web applications in Google’s managed data centres. Applications are sand-boxed and distributed across multiple servers. One of the major benefits of using the Google App Engine is that it can offer automatic scaling for web applications – that is, automatically allocating more resources for the web application to handle the increased demand as the number of requests for a particular application increases.

All that sounds quite useful, however why would your organisation use the Google Cloud Platform? Whilst it requires an initial investment to import your data (especially on a large scale) into the cloud, this is offset by the substantial advantages offered by the platform. By offering fully managed services that remove the requirement for upfront capacity planning, provisioning, constant monitoring and planning software updates. This can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership of large-scale data handling solutions.

Furthermore there’s one thing in particular that sets the Google Cloud Platform apart – the network that connects the company’s data centres so data can be processed and delivered where it is needed in milliseconds. Google has a private distributed backbone between all its data centres – so if you’re moving data around within Google’s cloud, even within geographically diverse data centres (although this is essentially invisible to the user) your data travels over Google’s backbone, and not over the Internet – providing substantially improved performance.

Whilst the Compute and Storage components of the Google Cloud Platform are separate offerings, the performance of Google’s networks make it appear as though they integrated seamlessly, thus allowing integration of Google’s cloud storage and computation with no obvious slowdown.

At the LX Group we have a wealth of experience and expertise in the IoT field, and can develop new or modify existing hardware and software to integrate your system with the Google Cloud Platform. As always, our goal is to find and implement the best system for our customers, and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success.

We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

Although we have recently been focusing on the systems and hardware that can be used in various Internet-of-things applications, there’s much more to learn and understand. One particular aspect is the way in which devices send and receive data between themselves and servers – and an example of that is MQTT.

Message Queue Telemetry Transport, or MQTT, is an open protocol for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications that enables the transfer of telemetry-style data in the form of messages from a network of distributed devices to and from a small message “broker” server – whilst maintaining usefulness over high-latency, expensive or bandwidth-constrained networks. This publish/subscribe messaging transport protocol is designed to overcome the challenges of connecting the rapidly expanding physical world of sensors and actuators as well as personal computers and mobile devices.

The origin of MQTT goes back to the late 1990s, where co-inventor Andy Stanford-Clark of IBM became immersed in M2M communication whilst working with industry partners to mine sensor data from offshore oil platforms, to inform better preventative and predictive maintenance. One of those industry partners was Arlen Nipper of Arcom, an expert in embedded systems for oilfield equipment. Together, Stanford-Clark and Nipper wrote the initial version of MQTT in 1998, and their open-source messaging software has continued to be improved over the following years.

Until recently, one of the challenges limiting widespread development of IoT technologies has been the lack of a clearly accepted open standard for message communication with embedded systems. Today, however, MQTT looks set to play an increasingly significant role in facilitating the Internet-of-Things. In much the same way that the HTTP standard paved the way for the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web as a tool for the sharing of people-to-people information on the Internet, MQTT could set the stage for the machine-to-machine equivalent of the WWW.

MQTT is particularly well matched with networks of small, distributed, lightweight, and pervasive devices – not just mobile phones and personal computers, but embedded computers, sensors and actuators – which can make up the “Internet of Things”. The MQTT protocol specification enables a publish/subscribe messaging model in a very lightweight way, useful for connections with remote devices where a small code footprint is required – low-cost 8-bit micro controllers, for example – and/or where network bandwidth is at a premium.

There is also another standard for sensors – MQTT-S, for which this specification is aimed at embedded devices on non-TCP/IP networks, such as ZigBee/802.15.4 wireless sensor mesh networks. MQTT-S is an extension of the MQTT protocol aimed at wireless sensor networks, extending the MQTT protocol beyond TCP/IP infrastructures for non-TCP/IP sensor and actuator networks. Furthermore, MQTT is already widely supported by servers and brokers including IoT implementations such as cosm, Thingspeak, nimbits, and more.

MQTT is already used in a wide variety of embedded systems. An example documented by IBM demonstrates a pacemaker that communicates via RF telemetry to an MQTT device in the home of a patient – allowing nightly data uploads to the hospital for analysis. This allows recovering patients to leave hospital earlier to recover at home whilst still being monitored by medical professionals. Or if an unexpected event occurs, the system can immediately alert the hospital and emergency services without any patient interaction.

Furthermore IBM has recently announced its’ new “MessageSight appliance”, designed to handle heavy-duty real-time sharing of large amounts of data between sensors and devices and using the MQTT protocol to do so. Finally, IBM and Eurotech have bought MQTT to the open standards process of OASIS – the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. OASIS is a non-profit international consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society.

The OASIS standardisation process started in March 2013, with the goal of establishing MQTT as an open, simple and lightweight standard protocol for M2M telemetry data communication. The newly established OASIS MQTT Technical Committee is producing a standard for the MQTT Protocol – together with requirements for enhancements, documented usage examples, best practices, and guidance for use of MQTT topics with commonly available registry and discovery mechanisms.

Although MQTT does seem to be championed by IBM, the OASIS recently called for industry representatives earlier this year to sponsor the formation of its MQTT Technical Committee, and was answered by Cisco, the Eclipse Foundation, Eurotech, IBM, Machine-To-Machine Intelligence, Red Hat, Software AG and TIBCO. The group will take the MQTT 3.1 specification, donated to the committee by IBM and Eurotech where it was originally developed, and work to standardise and promote its adoption it as an open standard.

In defining MQTT standards and making them open for all, this allows its’ use and will hopefully guarantee a future standard allowing interaction with devices from all suppliers and manufacturers who choose to work with it. It’s a standard that holds a lot of promise for the future of an efficient and affordable Internet-of-things.

At the LX Group we have a wealth of experience and expertise in the IoT field, and can work with the MQTT standard, hardware and software to solve your problems. Our goal is to find and implement the best system for our customers, and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success.

We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

In this instalment in our series of articles focusing on various Internet-of-things systems, we explore the new Nearbus Open IoT Project. Although not the most complex of systems, Nearbus offers a level of control and interaction with devices and sensors which is ideal for demonstrations, proof-of-concept designs or even simple products where rapid development and low-cost are the main requirements.

Unlike other systems, Nearbus takes a different approach to device control. After loading the Nearbus on the device’s microcontroller, it is considered to be part of the “cloud” and as such transparent to the web services or API. In other words, you can read or write to the MCU’s registers directly from the cloud – which makes control much simpler than other systems. By “virtualising” the hardware in the cloud, it makes it much easier for existing services to interact with the real hardware, and in a more secure manner. Let’s examine the how this is possible with regards to the required hardware and software

Hardware – Due to market forces and age of the system at the time of writing, the Nearbus system only works with the Arduino-Ethernet platform. Thus the end microcontrollers used are Atmel ATmega328 programmed with the Arduino boot loader and interfaced with the Wiznet W5100 Ethernet controller. However this allows you plenty of GPIO, ADCs and CPU speed to complete a variety of tasks, and due to the open-source licensing of the Arduino platform the hardware cost for around A$20 per unit in volume. The main downside to this solution is the inability to use onboard WiFi chipsets, so the agent hardware needs to be connected to a separate WiFi router for true wireless control.

Software – Due to the current hardware requirement, the only code for each Nearbus node is their sketch (code) and the Arduino boot loader – both of which are totally open-source. The rest of the work is in interfacing your own cloud- or server-based applications with the Nearbus hub system. This transfer takes place via HTTP requests.

There are two methods for interfacing applications with the Nearbus system. The first method is the “transparent” mode which allows the agent to send and receive a packet of data over preconfigured periods of time, for example every five or ten seconds. This allows your cloud applications to call functions on the agent hardware as if it was controlling the MCU directly.

The second method is the “VMCU” mode (Virtual Microcontroller) which allows direct control of the basic MCU features such as GPIO, ADC, etc., via a web services API. This is the more complex method that maps the MCU remotely and thus allows direct control of the MCU’s registers and returns data in the raw from for your own web app to work with. The ability to map the registers removes a layer of complexity from the user or designer – as they don’t have to worry about network protocols, instead just be concerned with the microcontroller itself.

Furthermore you can configure, add and remove devices with a web-interface, and also create connections to send data to other IoT services such as cosm or twitter. If you don’t have a server capable of running your own web apps to interface with Nearbus, you can use other free or paid services such as Google Spreadsheet web apps – and demonstrations have been provided to show how easy it is to display, capture and analyse data from the hardware agent.

The Nearbus system is a different paradigm to the usual IoT systems. It may seem awkward or different to more conventional or consumer-oriented ways of doing things, however if you have a strong PHP and networking background it can be implemented easily with your server and applications. Due to the low hardware cost it’s ideal for monitoring or remote-control applications that don’t require complete real-time interaction.

If you’re interested in moving forward with your own system based on the Nearbus, we have a wealth of experience with the required hardware options, and the team to guide you through the entire process – from understanding your needs to creating the required hardware interfaces and supplying firmware and support for your particular needs.

Our goal is to find and implement the best system for our customers, and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success. We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

Google Glass might be a controversial point of discussion in the media (and not just because of how it looks; more on this later), but what about the future? Recently, we looked at Machine to Machine Communication and the Internet of Things, both of which are fundamental building blocks towards a world of ubiquitous computing. This could be described as a “post-desktop” paradigm whereby interactions and data processing between us, computers and everyday objects are all seamlessly integrated and largely invisible. Exciting stuff.

Photo by Antonio Zugaldia

What is Google Glass?

For those unaware, Google Glass is an augmented reality headset created by Google’s ‘secret’ research and development lab. It’s essentially a wearable computer with a tiny display which Google claims is akin to viewing a 63 cm monitor from a distance of 2.5 mtrs It supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, has a microphone, voice recognition system, small touchpad and a camera with 720p video capability. The display is said to feature object-recognition working with a graphical overlay, but its true functionality is fuzzy at this stage.

The current headset looks like a variation of the one worn by Geordi in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but Google is said to be in discussions with eyewear manufacturers including Ray-Ban to combine the tech with trendy design. Early renders of potential styles make the technology appear considerably more viable from a fashion perspective.

From a practical perspective, Google product manager, Steve Lee, claims tasks that take around 60 seconds to execute fiddling around with a smartphone could take 2 to 4 seconds on Google Glass. Given that Glass uses voice, movement and vision for its inputs, this is a believable claim – depending on the task at hand.

The Panopticon Problem

Every Google Glass wearer is carrying a web-linked video camera wherever they go, and directing it wherever they look. Understandably, this raises serious issues regarding privacy. It already feels like more of our privacy is being chipped away every year, so imagine if everybody was walking around with Google Glass. You would have entire conversations, events and embarrassing episodes, filmed, uploaded and shared all over YouTube in real time.

So what’s the panopticon problem? A panopticon is a type of building designed in the 1800s using optical principles to create a prison where all inmates could be seen at any given time from one spot, without knowing whether or not they were being watched.

Google Glass isn’t just a minor shift in personal and organisational privacy, but a complete societal game-changer, an issue which has many organizations quite concerned.

Potential Uses for Google Glass

The practical benefits of having an advanced optical overlay in your line of vision at all times are as numerous(less over-the-top word) as they are fascinating. Potential uses for this technology may include:

The ability to upload and view house blueprints for easier DIY tasks
Immediate medical alerts and directions to the patient for doctors
Emergency services announcements and updates
Other navigational uses including full GPS functions
Directions to desired shops or services in the local area
Comparative shopping and item reviews when considering a purchase
A replacement for instruction manuals in consumer products
Refining sports techniques such as golf swings
Endless military applications
Finding a friend’s face in a busy crowd (an app which is currently under development)

At this stage of its development, Google Glass is still really a glorified media device, so most of these potential uses are some way off, bringing us to our final point.

The Future of Wearable Computers

In spite of various niggles Google Glass is almost certainly a major step towards ubiquitous computing. Perhaps Google will successfully integrate the technology with fashionable sunglasses or reading glasses, making it less conspicuous to wear.

Another possibility is a Silicon Valley competitor beating Google to the first widely adopted device of this nature. Google Glass is expected to be commercially available towards the end of 2013, but Sony also has similar patents filed and Apple and Microsoft are likely contenders too. The first developer of a technology is not necessarily the most successful at implementing it.

Other fascinating advances are on the way, such as Fujitsu’s new display which can read, manipulate and interact with data-containing objects such as magazines in real time. We can only hope that one day we’ll all have the kinds of user interface experiences featured in the Minority Report, though hopefully, without all those scary adverts. Then again, Google is primarily an advertising company…

At the LX Group we have a wealth of experience and expertise with IoT devices, and can create or tailor just about anything from a visual sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

Continuing from our previous articles which are focusing on a range of currently-available Internet-of-Things systems, we now move forward and explore another addition to the Internet-of-Things marketplace in more detail – the system known as “ThingSpeak”. Considered to be one of the first openly-available IoT platforms, ThingSpeak operates on their own free server platform, or you can run the software on your own personal servers – and as the entire system is open-source, it’s easier to work with and customise.

As with the other systems examined, ThingSpeak gives your devices the opportunity to interact with a server for simple tasks such as data collection and analysis, to integration with your own custom APIs for specific purposes. Due to the open-source nature the start-up cost can be almost zero, and unlike other systems ThingSpeak is hardware agnostic – giving your design team many hardware options. However as always, let’s consider the main two components in more detail.

Hardware – You don’t need to purchase special base units or proprietary devices. As long as your hardware is connected to the Internet and can send and receive HTTP requests – you’re ready to go. For rapid prototyping, examples are given using many platforms including netduino, Arduino, mbed, and even with the competitive Twine hardware. This gives you a variety of MCU platforms from Atmel and ARM Cortex providers to work with, and as these development platforms are either open-source or inexpensive, your team can be up and running in a short period of time.

Furthermore creating your own devices can be quite inexpensive – a simple device based on an Atmel AVR and Ethernet interface can be manufactured for less than $20 in volume, and doesn’t require any software licensing expenses. To save on hardware costs, it could be preferable to have various sensors in a group communicate back to one connected device via inexpensive Nordic NRF24L01 wireless transceivers – and the connected device can thus gather the data into the require fields for transmission back to ThingSpeak.

Software – Thanks to the open-source nature of ThingSpeak either working with the existing server software or creating your own APIs isn’t a challenge. Interaction is easy with simple HTTP requests to send and receive data, which has a useful form. Each data transmission is stored in a ThingSpeak “channel”. Each of these channels allows storage and transmission of eight fields with 255 alphanumeric characters each, plus four fields for location (description, latitude, longitude and elevation – ideal for GPS), a “status update” field and time/date stamp. Data sent over the channels can be public or private – with access via your own devices and software finalising the security.

Once sent to the server this data can be downloaded for further analysis, or monitoring using various HTTP-enabled entities – from a simple web page, mobile application or other connected device. Various triggers can be created to generate alerts for various parameters, and can be sent using email, twitter, or other connected services such as an SMS gateway. After being in operation for almost three years, the platform has matured to a reliable service that has exposed many developers to its way of doing things, so support and documentation is becoming easier to find.

Overall the ThingSpeak system offers your organisation a low barrier to the Internet of Things. Creating a proof-of-concept device or prototype hardware interface can be done with existing or inexpensive parts, and the use of ThingSpeak’s free server can make an idea become reality in a short period of time. And once you device on the service, by internalising the server software, you can have complete control and security over your data.

If you’re interested in moving forward with your own system based on the ThingSpeak, we have a wealth of experience with the required hardware options, and the team to guide you through the entire process – from understanding your needs to creating the required hardware interfaces and supplying firmware and support for your particular needs.

Our goal is to find and implement the best system for our customers, and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success. We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.