Uncategorized – Page 4 – Acoustic IoT Observatory

3 tips to use ISA-95 for IIoT

Posted by: admin Posted on: December 3, 2019

The rapid growth of IoT technology has led to a common complaint about the lack of standards across IoT, but organizations can use the ISA-95 standard for IIoT.

1. No need to reinvent the wheel.

ISA-95 is already widespread in manufacturing and industrial organizations. Even though IIoT is in some respects new, it doesn’t require rethinking the software, database and information structure from the ground up. That work has already been done and organizations considering IIoT adoption have likely already implemented the structure. IIoT architects should think in terms of integrating into ISA-95, not supplanting it.

2. ISA-95 is silent on hardware and lower-level infrastructure, including network, security, compute and storage.

A fundamental divide splits IT between software and infrastructure people. Even though organizations can implement infrastructure through software, the logistics of getting data from point A to point B, then processing and storing it effectively still comprises infrastructure. Similarly, virtual machines and containerized applications have replaced servers, and software-defined networks and software-defined WANs replace traditional appliance-based networking.

3. IoT architects and engineers should focus on infrastructure and cybersecurity requirements.

Given the established framework of ISA-95, architects can best spend their efforts on network, compute, storage and cybersecurity for IoT and IIoT. The ISA has developed cybersecurity framework IEC 62443 that aligns with ISA-95, but it focuses more on the information and modeling or conceptual level and requires enhancement and extension to cover the entire IIOT.

Smart Home

Posted by: admin Posted on: October 25, 2019

Home Automation, often referred to as “Smart Home Technology”, is the use of technology to automate your home. Home automation allows you to control almost every aspect of your home through the Internet of Things (IoT).

Home Automation started with the invention of the Thermostat and has developed into one of the biggest and fastest growing markets in technology. Home Automation’s potential continues to grow. You can use it for home security, controlling appliances, monitoring energy use, as a personal assistant, for looking after the elderly or disabled and more.

The first industry standard for home Automation was X10. X10 helps devices connect to each other primarily through power line wiring, radio frequency, and wireless-based protocols. Today Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Insteon are also leading protocols for Home Automation. These new industry standards rely more heavily on modern wireless technology, like mesh-networking.

Smart Home Basics

Let’s start with the basics. The following are the most commonly used Smart Home options on the market right now. They are easy to use, install, and tend to be the most affordable Smart Home tech. Some of these basics are: Smart Speakers, Smart TVs, Smart Thermostats, Smart Plugs, Light Automation, Video Door Bells, Robot Vacuums.

Smart Kitchens

Though technology has yet to provide us with a robot chef, these smart kitchen appliances make cooking and cleaning that much easier. You can even connect many of them with your smart speakers!

Smart Bathrooms

Even the most basic necessities can be enhanced in a Smart Home. Smart-Bathroom technology will make your bathroom more than a room you have to use.

Smart Nurseries

Having a newborn is one of the most rewarding, and stressful experience in life. Thanks to Smart-Nurseries, babies are safer than ever, and parents can relax just a little.

Smart Pet Care

Taking care of your fur-babies is easier than ever with smart pet-tech. The best part about these gadgets is that they make life easier for you and your pets. Feel less guilty about leaving them home alone during the day, and enjoy the time you do spend with them that much more.

Is Home Automation Safe?

No technology is a 100% foolproof, and Home-Automation is no different. Here are some things to keep in mind when investing in Home Automation. When it comes to Smart Homes, you really have to consider the fact that being so connected gives companies the chance to collect data about you. The number one culprit is going to be your smart speaker. Many people leave their smart speakers on all the time, which means they are listening all the time.

Cybersecurity is another very important issue that many people do not take seriously enough. The Internet of Things (IoT) device market just keeps growing and developing, and as it does security for these devices sometimes falls through the cracks. As a consumer, you need to know how to protect yourself, in case developers cannot.

Now that you have all the information you need on Home Automation, and Smart Home technology, the next step is finding the best products for you.

Edge computing

Posted by: admin Posted on: October 3, 2019

The cloud prepares for the next phase. We will move from today’s large centralized data centers to more local computing and storage. This is nothing less than edge computing, the new generation of the cloud.

Edge Computing

The possibilities of edge computing

Edge computing allows us to offer less latency, more efficient communication and greater security, critical aspects for new applications. Lower latency means faster communication, in a few milliseconds, which will allow new applications beyond what is technically possible at this time in areas such as virtual reality or autonomous driving.

Improving the efficiency of communications will make it easier to manage the large amounts of data generated by video and the Internet of Things (IoT), and especially everything related to artificial vision.

Finally, data security and privacy will allow us to face one of today’s most complex problems: instead of depending on a global cloud that we don’t know where it is or who controls it, we will have the possibility of storing the data in nearby and secure locations under our control.

These new capacities will have an impact on the devices: edge computing will allow some of them to be unloaded with processing capacity, as this can be produced on the network, closer to the user and in real time. This will result in a reduction in its cost (simpler devices) and energy consumption (less process), so that the number of connected devices will increase, which will also generate new opportunities for growth in the business of connectivity.

Edge computing in companies

But these new capabilities and less consuming devices already have concrete uses at this point in the day-to-day life of businesses. Let’s look at some examples: Data storage, Artificial vision, Industrial Internet, Video and virtual reality, Data network or Autonomous driving.

Impact on consumers

It will also change our lives as consumers, since edge computing will make possible things unthinkable until now. The magnitude of the leap from fiber and 4G to edge computing will be similar to the shift from ADSL to fiber.

In short, a world of low latency, high capacity and millions of connected devices is an experience that combines edge computing, 5G and fiber: the combination of these technologies represents a virtuous circle. Undoubtedly edge computing has come to change our lives and our way of working.

To read the full article click here

Mingling of IoT with AI

Posted by: admin Posted on: September 26, 2019

All we need to do to create an accurate and working Machine Learning models is a huge amount of high quality and relevant data. Internet of Things (IoT) devices have the potential to generate a vast amount of data which can be then used with AI. Imagine facial recognition systems using cameras to replace ordinary payments, or recall the current hype for autonomous cars gathering data about surroundings using built-in sensors. Those solutions use both AI and IoT, yet little has been written on how to easily integrate them together. Fortunately, existing IoT platforms provides the interface to gather the data from various devices and can offer a relatively easy way to utilize the IoT data into AI/ML systems. This article will provide you with a few state-of-the-art AI+IoT examples, an overview of the most popular IoT platforms and how they can be integrated with your AI/ML systems.

Just to give you a better feel of how AI can be utilized with IoT, here present two business cases which use both technologies, and a list of some of the most popular IoT platforms with AI capabilities.

ET City Brain

Source : www.alibabacloud.com

ET City Brain, created by Alibaba Cloud, is a complex AI platform solution which optimizes usage of urban public resources. It has been successfully implemented in Hangzhou, China leading to a decrease in car traffics by 15%. The solution also helps to detect road accidents, illegal parking and supports ambulances to reach their target faster by changing the traffic lights to help it reach the patient faster. It is an outstanding software system which utilizes traffic light cameras from the whole city and based on the output of machine learning models it can determine how traffic lights should be changed.

Tesla's Autopilot

Source: Tesla

Tesla autopilot system incorporates GPS, cameras, sonars and forward-looking radars together with specialized hardware to fully utilize the usage of the data coupled into Neural Networks architecture. It works as a self-enclosed system which gathers the data from sensors and then uses a Neural Network model to help determine what should be the next change in the movement of the car .

IoT Platforms with AI capabilities

IoT platforms are getting increasingly popular as they offer a variety of useful tools and cloud storage options for the data streamed from IoT devices. What does each platform offer?

Microsoft Azure IoT Platform

Azure IoT has a Github repository which was created to help you integrate AI and IoT easily. This code repository provides different code examples on how to use Machine Learning and Azure IoT Edge together. Deep Learning models can be packaged in Azure IoT Edge-compatible Docker containers and then exposed to the data using REST APIs. Alternatively, it can be deployed on the cloud and then used for predictions with REST APIs. Azure IoT has a lot of useful tutorials and case examples which are available on their website.

Google Cloud IoT

Google Cloud IoT is an impressive IoT platform which enables you to connect the data to the machine learning model in many different ways. It offers a complete set of tools for edge/on-premises computing with machine learning capabilities, similarly to Azure IoT. Google has also created a separate AI Platform so you can train the model there, together with a cloud storage option for the IoT data. There are few useful tutorials out there: this one, for example, explains how to deploy the ML model to the IoT device which updates itself on the new upcoming data.

AWS IoT

The well-known AWS also offers AI+IoT solutions. AWS IoT Analytics is especially interesting, as it offers data preparation, visualization, and machine learning tools. Machine learning model can be trained using Amazon Sagemaker and then containerized so it can be used with the data stream from IoT devices. ML models can also be uploaded to devices directly where they run much faster and they can also be automatically updated based on the new incoming data.

In conclusion, IoT is making machine connected and communicates with the entire network. IoT also generates Big Data, but AI is only the technology that makes those Big Data useful and meaningful for an industry. A reciprocally beneficial coexistence occurs between IoT and AI technologies. There are tons of domains and business niches, which can reap the advantages of the coexistence of both technologies.

Source: towardsdatascience

What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

Posted by: admin Posted on: September 20, 2019

Described as a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is certain to alter the way the human race lives, works, and relates to one another.

A number of technological fields will see major advances over the next few years that will affect all disciplines, economies and industries. These fields include robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, autonomous vehicles, and more.

Experts predict a number of changes to come with 4IR. Over 7 million jobs will be affected over the next five years in the world’s largest economies, as technological progress in 3D printing and robotics starts to disrupt manufacturing and other industries.

Preparing for 4IR Begins with Education

Education is key for adapting to the changes 4IR technologies will bring. The employment landscape will undergo a massive shift, making advanced skills increasingly important. IEEE is helping to educate future leaders on their role in fostering innovation and shaping technological breakthroughs.

As the importance of understanding 4IR grows, IEEE publications have become a valuable resource for students and teachers to learn about emerging technologies. Every year IEEE publishes new journals, conference papers and standards with knowledge and insights that are helping to shape this revolution. A recent evaluation of the top ranked engineering and technology universities worldwide found that all top 100 schools subscribe to IEEE content and depend on IEEE information to educate future innovators (Times Higher Education).

To read the full article click here and to see the IEEE publications across all 4IR technologies, visit the IEEE Xplore digital library.

Top IoT Development Tools

Posted by: admin Posted on: September 16, 2019

The Internet of Things is penetrating every aspect of our daily life. With this humongous interest, numerous organizations are battling a war against one another and are attempting to create products that are superior to their partners. A wave of IoT Tools has emerged over the past years. Here a list of the most Popular IoT development Tools are listed.

ARDUINO (IDE)

Arduino is an open-source prototyping and simple-to-use IoT platform. The Arduino uses microcontrollers programmed using any of the supported languages, C and C++.

RASPBIAN

This IoT IDE is created for Raspberry Pi board by IoT tech enthusiasts. With over 35,000 packages and numerous examples along rapid installation with the use of pre-compiled software makes it an essential IoT development tools.

NODE-RED

Node-RED is a simple visual tool which is built on Node.js, a server-side JavaScript platform which is widely used in IoT projects. It is an open-source tool mainly used to connect devices, services and APIs together with an integrated browser-based flow editor.

TESSEL2

This is a hardware provider that can be used to build basic IoT solutions and prototypes. Tessel 2 lends a helping hand through its numerous sensors and modules. This is a board which can hold up to a dozen modules including the RFID, camera, GPS and the accelerometer.

PLATFORMIO

This platform comes with a build system, supported by a library manager and IDE. It comes pre-equipped with more than 10 frameworks, more than 20 development platforms, and more than 400 embedded boards. It has support for C and C++ Intelligent Code Completion and Smart Code Linter for Professional Development. It also has support for multiple projects workflow in multiple panes.

Open Standards for the Internet of Things

Posted by: admin Posted on: September 1, 2019

The Internet of Things, commonly abbreviated as IoT is a novel paradigm that describes the idea of everyday physical objects being connected to the Internet. This includes everything from mobiles, vehicles, air conditioners, headphones, wearable devices and almost anything. Unquestionably, the IoT idea has a high impact on several aspects of everyday life and behavior of potential users. Consequently, companies have started to introduce numerous IoT based products and services and several consortiums have been formed to define protocols and standards for the IoT.

The article “Open Standards for the Internet of Things” aims to provide a brief revision of the state of the art in the IoT field (5G IoT Standards, FIWARE), and a summary of some of the research proyects related to the IoT concept in which the Audio and Communications Signal Processing Group and the Multimedia Communications Group of the ITEAM UPV are currently involved (MAtchUP project and SSEnCe Project on Acoustic-aided IoT) .

MAtchUP is an EU-funded Smart City project involving three lighthouse cities (Valencia-Spain, Dresden-Germany and Antalya-Turkey) and four follower cities (Ostend-Belgium, Herzliya-Israel, SkopjeFYROM and Kerava-Finland). It started on September 2018 and will finish on September 2023. During this period, MAtchUP partners will create and adopt solutions that can turn urban problems into smart opportunities to improve the citizens’ quality of life and boost the local economies, mainly in the areas of energy, mobility and ICT (information and Communications Technologies). The final aim is to create a prosperous and more liveable urban environment for communities.

The SSEnCe project (Sound-Aided Smart Environments for the City, Home and Nature) aims to encourage the dissemination and develop of real and practical prototypes focused on the Global concept of Intelligence in the IoT, particularly the applications are based mainly on the acoustic information of the environment. The main objectives of this project are the creation of an Observatory and the development of three technological demonstrators of immediate practical application.

Read the full publication here.

Fourth meeting MAtchUP project (Valencia, June 2019)

Posted by: admin Posted on: July 17, 2019

The last week of June, the fourth meeting of the MAtchUP project was held in Valencia. The three lighthouse cities (Valencia, Dresden and Antalya), together with the follower cities (Herzlyia, Kerava, Ostend and Skopje), have met to share the advances obtained.

The agenda of the event included among others: 5 parallel sessions, 15 video interviews and the Valencia Study Tour, the goal is to help cities to integrate environmental and social needs in their urban plans, and to pave the way towards energy transition.

In the parallel sessions the MAtchUP partners discussed the main pillars of the project: energy, mobility, ICT and non-technical actions. The three cities showed their developments and results about the city platforms, such as open data portals, representations of data sets and dashboards.

The first stop in the Valencia Study Tour was in the Traffic Management Centre: the visitors could saw, how the real time city traffic information, provided by over 3000 detectors installed all over the city; is processed and controlled, for an efficient and safe traffic for all road users.

Continuing with the visit, the city council presented two of the main projects of the Valencia smart city strategy. One of them, is “Decidim València” citizen participation project; the first dedicated department, created to put in place tools and mechanisms for citizens participation through dialogue and digitalization, decentralisation, co-design working groups. And the second one, is València App, it provides real time information and integrates all services from the open governent projects as a one stop shop at citizens disposal.

Later, the partners visited de García Lorca Public School, which participates in the 50/50 programme about enerty efficiency. Thanks to this activity, students, parents and teachers are now more aware about the environmental, economic and social impact of their consumption.

The meeting was closed with a visit to the Albufera Natural Park of Valencia. The following plenary meeting will be in one of the follower cities, Skopje, in December of this year. See you soon!

Good teams make the success of a project. @matchupEU

What Is The “Internet of Things”? Part I

Posted by: admin Posted on: June 21, 2019

Smart Systems and the Internet of Things are driven by a combination of:

The interactions between theses entities are creating new types of smart applications and services.

SENSORS & ACTUATORS

We are giving our world a digital nervous system. Location data using GPS sensors. Eyes and ears using cameras and microphones, along with sensory organs that can measure everything from temperature to pressure changes.

CONNECTIVITY

These inputs are digitized and placed onto networks. Read more

Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Homekit: Your Guide to Smart Home Ecosystem Options

Posted by: admin Posted on: June 7, 2019

Devices can work together for a seamless smart home experience. In today’s IoT world, there are smart home devices for security and privacy, energy, cooking, entertainment, and pets.

@iotforalll

Smart homes used to be the stuff of science fiction. Moviegoers watched as Tony Stark controlled his mansion with nothing more than his voice, and we’ve all wished we could have the type of technology that made Batman’s life so amazing. These days, you don’t have to be a billionaire business owner or an eccentric crime fighter to create the ultimate smart home. Tools like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and the Apple Home Kit have put home automation within reach for nearly anyone.

Smart home technology uses artificial intelligence (AI) to talk to you, respond to commands, and answer questions. For instance, you can ask Alexa to “add bananas to the grocery list” or “tell me the score from last night’s game.” Smart hubs can also communicate with other internet devices, allowing you to control all your smart home gadgets simultaneously. They can turn down the thermostat, turn on the lights, scare away burglars, and even make coffee.

Home automation is not only cool, but it’s practical, sustainable and can even save you money by reducing your utility bill. When looking to automate your home, it’s important to consider the different types of smart home ecosystems, devices and how they will work together to create a seamless experience.

To know what are the best Smart Home Ecosystems, read more