Posts by Mike Mitchell

LoRa adoption wide, and surprisingly mixed with similar technologies

#LoRa promises long range with battery life and low cost. But like any technology, it is not a solution to all challenges. In LoRa’s case, its because it is extraordinarily bandwidth limited, and upstream oriented. This anecdote from the Mobile World Congress suggests many vendors see it as a complementary technology rather than competitive to…

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Are Consultants Expensive?

Pricing expertise can be a tricky business. Businesses are constantly faced with the build versus buy dilemma, only now it involves people. And compared to employee salaries, contractors often seem expensive. But there are many mitigating factors. How do you know if you are paying too much? How about looking at the market rates? They…

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Will Android do for the IoT what it did for mobile? – Medium

Mainstream devices can use the new Android for #IoT out of the box. If your device is overpowered, has a UI, and potentially difficult to support, using the Android ecosystem maybe for you. Surely, it will be less buggy and more rapidly supported. Obviously it will be heavy, and regression testing will be more complicated,…

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Chicago deploys computers with eyes, ears and noses

The city now has eyes and ears The data will be available on OpenGrid.io.. there is a team of 17 trying to figure out how to use the data. See full story on Chicago deploys computers with eyes, ears and noses | ITworld At almost 7M, I am not impressed by the lack of utility…

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Z-Wave goes public

At least part of it… any developer or manufacturer who desires to have their commercial products labeled as #Z-Wave Certified will need to join the Z-Wave Alliance and submit their products for testing See full story on Z-Wave becomes an open smart-home standard (part of it, at least) So we’ll be able to see inside,…

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Toshiba Silmee W20 and Silmee W21 smartbands announced

Silmee biometric sensor Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.devicetowear.com Toshiba has perhaps one of the most interesting biometric sensors out there "Silmee", but I fear the target market will reject such an ugly device. Athletes would wear this, but probably not Grandma.  See on Scoop.it – Internet of Things, M2M

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To see benefits, heath wearables must keep people engaged

Wearable devices could be key to improving health, caring for patients with chronic diseases and understanding the impact of treatments. But there’s one snag: how do you get people to wear them? For all the hype around smartwatches and fitness bands, not everyone wants to walk around with a computer strapped to their body. Studies…

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Why I won’t run another startup — Medium

  Lured by the lights of the startup industry, founders are the product in someone else’s show. So I’ve made five new rules for myself. Source: medium.com Maybe it is a semantic difference, but he is right about the pitching and competitions. Too many are like fantasy camps, and you may meet some good people,…

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IBM Bluemix – Next-Generation Cloud App Development Platform

Bluemix is an open standards, cloud platform for building, running, and managing apps and services. Source: console.ng.bluemix.net IBMs PaaS offerings are very interesting. You can even get access to Watson. But I really like how they allow so many different platforms to be utilized. By chief objection to amazon and Google services has been that…

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Creating a see-through Arduino with an ATmega328P

CIT is hoping to put the ‘printed’ back into printed circuit boards. CIT Technology is a manufacturer of digitally printed flexible electronic circuits. The crew is on a mission to develop low-cost… Source: blog.atmel.com See on Scoop.it – Internet of Things, M2M

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Nike+ FuelBand SE BLE Protocol Reversed

n sensitive data about the user, this is a good proof of concept on how a badly implemented BLE cus Source: www.evilsocket.net In case you want to hack the Fuelband, some sharp guy has done all the hard work already. See on Scoop.it – Internet of Things, M2M

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How the Internet of Things is transforming law enforcement

From connected guns to wearables for canine units, the IoT is spurring change in the law enforcement field. Source: www.itworld.com It will be interesting to see what the adoption rate and pushback from officers is when the 24 hour surveillance society comes to them. But the public seems to be behind it, and it does…

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Marvell’s Kinoma Create – the JavaScript-powered IoT construction kit – LBSZone

JavaScript-powered IoT construction kit – gives developers a connected device prototyping platform for the modern era, because an inspiring developer experience leads to a great user experience Kinoma Create is the first prototyping platform to transform making, with a fully scriptable device and integrated color touchscreen, all enclosed in a case that makes projects mobile;…

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Internet of Things

The Internet of Things The ‘Internet of Things’ will generate $14,400,000,000 of value over the next decade1. There will be 40 times more devices than peo… Source: www.slideshare.net A plethora of widgets featured here. Some good ideas, some destined to be punchlines.  What differentiates them for you? See on Scoop.it – Internet of Things, M2M

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The new era of mobile health tech has a big gotcha

See on Scoop.it – Internet of Things, M2M New platforms from Samsung and Apple hold great promise, but they also feed into unrealistic hopes Mike Mitchell‘s insight: This salient observation about heath measurement devices: The American health system is not designed or motivated to utilize them.  So sure, you could build the most valuable heath…

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The connected home is going mainstream faster than anybody realizes

See on Scoop.it – Internet of Things, M2M In the US, at least, the “internet of things” is not the future any more, but the present. One in five adult American internet users already has a device at home that connects the physical environment to the internet, according to a Forrester Research report (paywall) out last week. As many as two-thirds…

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How To Build Useful IoT Product: ThingsCon wrap-up

See on Scoop.it – Internet of Things, M2M Should Internet of Things be fixed? How hard is it to manufacture a product? How difficult is to scale? These were the questions that the speakers and attendees of Thingscon have addressed. The org… Mike Mitchell‘s insight: Thingscon attendees were reminded: "Do things that matter. " While…

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Wearables

See on Scoop.it – Internet of Things, M2M Wearables hold possibilities for driving down costs and increasing competitiveness. What could it mean for your organization? Mike Mitchell‘s insight: Here’s a well written article on using wearables in enterprise applications. My own experience in safety confirms his conclusion that as long as a wearable is perceived…

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For Fitness Bands, Slick Marketing but Suspect Results

See on Scoop.it – Internet of Things, M2M Despite rising demand, many devices claiming to monitor fitness and health probably overpromise and underdeliver. Mike Mitchell‘s insight: Over promising may ruin this market. About one vendor: "many of its claims appear scientifically impossible" That’s why nobody was calling points calories. There will be some good devices…

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2013 IoT Internet of Things Awards

See on Scoop.it – Internet of Things, M2M A look at the year’s best Internet of Things companies and products Mike Mitchell‘s insight: Awesome database of some of the coolest IoT products in 2013. To get a good handle on the plethora of ideas out there, you must read every one! See on postscapes.com

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How do you think RTLS/RFID industry will evolve?

In a LinkedIn discussion a software vendor who works with healthcare clients posited that "there is not a single technology (hence not a single vendor) which is the silver bullet for healthcare" I couldn't agree more.  The real value is in the implemented solution. No hardware or software vendor can predict how your staff will…

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Offtopic – Collaberation via Wikis

I spent quite a bit of time in the last few months learning about Wikis, how to use them, and developing a software requirements application using Xwiki, a second generation Wiki platform. While Wikipedia is great, and I encourage you to monetarily support their efforts, Wikis are good for so much more. This is especially…

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Media Oversimplification

Today, I followed the link below curious in what RFID journal was writing about how to pick an RTLS. Without reading the article, I can tell you it will do little to help you decide what to buy and how to utilize an RTLS. It's only 3000 words! While I prize anyone who gets to…

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Integrated battery replacement for power harvesting tags

If you are a tag designer, check out this new device that replaces the battery, rectification, and regulation functions of the power supply for use with energy harvesting.  This device, when combined with an energy harvesting source like solar cell, or mechanical source can power a tag perpetually. http://www.infinitepowersolutions.com/about-us/pr/93-ips-infinergy-launch

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Industrial Applications

Dust networks has a nice summary presentation highlighting their mesh network WirelessHART implementation with channel hopping, time synchronization, and high reliability 3-5 9s reliability. It uses frequency, temporal and path diversity. What is interesting to me is that they are forecasting, albeit very vaguely, the IP addressability and RTLS integration of mesh network nodes. We…

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Wireless Healthcare Standards Evolving

The Continua Health Alliance is trying to solidify an application standard for interconnected healthcare devices that are both mobile, like pulse oximeters, and fixed like sensors used for remote patient monitoring. These technologies promise to ease the burden of caring for the elderly whether in their own homes or assisted living centers. In the quest…

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Sensors in the Cloud

Sensor networks with hierarchies and their resultant isolation will eventually give way to the notion that all devices should interoperate with the world, through IP protocols. I’ve advocated this trend for some time, but several news items from Sensors magazine reinforce this: Zigbee and IP and Pedigree Releases Oneview From an architectural perspective, this only…

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RFID Forecast 2009-2019 Interesting Notes

In a recently released report: RFID Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2009–2019 I found several thing interesting: (Context warning: this is related primarily to passive technologies.) 1. The total spend is only expected to grow 10% in 2009. Hardly a sign we are on the hockey stick of adoption. 2. Three of Five dollars spent is…

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ZigBee vs WiFi smackdown!

Zigbee the much touted wireless sensor network standard has been around a while now. Yet, it’s adoption has been limited. Already several variants and versions have emerged. Any willing vendor can obtain chipsets and protocol stacks and get started right away. But what always makes or breaks a new standard is how well it is…

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New Zigbee Health and Wellness Profiles

Recently, the Zigbee Alliance released standards for Medical oriented devices to allow standardized interoperability for device functions. Eventually, this should allow worthwhile peer- to peer functionality on the 802.15 network, over and above centralized monitoring applications. I can see this functionality built on Zigbee being very useful in elder care facilities, because of its interaction…

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Integrated Wifi Module and middleware

You may be interested in this new module from G2 released just last week. It’s the most power efficient, and fully integrated Wifi device available. It’s almost everything you need to build a tag or data collection device except interconnects, sensors, a battery and housing, with all the certifications done. At $22 in quantity, this…

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Is it time for the RFID hockey stick?

In tech adoption, there is a phase where rapid uptake and expansion occur once maturity has begun and the early adopters have proven the concepts. What I’m seeing at this show, is that passive RFID is very close to that phase. However, there are remaining barriers, and they are no longer in the fundamental technology,…

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The real ROI

One method of evaluating and investment that every MBA is taught is Return on Investment – ROI. While its a fairly simple calculation and many RFID projects can expect superior ROI over other investments, there are many RFID projects that still make good sense. Why? Because the return comes as a second or third order…

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The other green of RFID

RFID is frequently seen as method of increasing efficiency to save money. But it could be seen as much as an environmentally friendly tool as a monetary one? How? Consider that for every efficiency made, there is less energy used on wasted work, less excessive product in the supply chain, and less product wasted because…

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What’s in an acronym – RFID and RTLS

There seems to be confusion in the industry about where these descriptions differ. RFID is a general description of any system that identifies without line if sight. At a cursory glance, RTLS (Real time location System) seems to add a qualitative presentation and timeliness element to data that is collected by RFID. But ask yourself…

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