Deeply woven webs, changes and interactions.

Laser-based UAV sensor payload for detecting beach mines to be designed by BAE Systems

Electro-optics designers at the BAE Systems Spectral Solutions segment in Honolulu are developing a prototype laser-based mine- and obstacle-detection system to help Navy and Marine Corps forces avoid threats on invasion beaches.

BAE Systems is developing the laser sensor for mine-detection prototype under terms of a $20 million contact announced Monday from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Arlington, Va.

BAE Systems is developing an advanced prototype system to detect mines and obstacles in the near-shore waters for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The laser-based systems will provide 24-hour capability.

• April 12, 2013, 12:18am

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Here, There, Everywhere: Rugged Computers Enable True Workforce Mobility

So what are today’s forward-thinking professionals doing with this new technology?

They’re finding that work is a whole lot simpler, faster and more enjoyable with data devices that can sort, synthesize and analyze data as well as collect it, and that can work seamlessly with both worksite machinery and advanced office hardware.

Take the public works sector: Government agencies and private companies across the world are using rugged technology for a wide range of tracking, monitoring, reporting and scheduling tasks essential to city maintenance — all while saving time and improving the accuracy of their data.

For example, GPS-enabled devices can tag along worry-free for messy catch-basin cleanup runs and sewer line repairs, and dashboard-mounted tablets with tracking software can simplify data collection on street-sweeping and waste-collection routes, without ill effects from constant road vibrations.

The data these computers collect can be stored, organized, charted, transmitted wirelessly to office locations, and formed into customized reports. Simple manual and sensor-based data input reduces human error and increases accuracy for record-keeping and important reporting, such as for governmental regulations or grant compliance.

• April 10, 2013, 1:11am

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Adopting IPv6 is a Corporate Business Issue

Along with many groups Internet pioneer Vint Cerf has persistently warned of the imminent exhaustion of IPv4 Internet addresses (see clips from 2010, 2011 and 2012), to largely frustrating effect. The time for warnings is over.

“IPv6 adoption is currently perceived as all cost and no value. So organisations are maximising the remaining elbow room in the current IPv4 environment, by, for example, squeezing more out of Network Address Translation (NAT) which allows a network to use minimal addresses, or by renumbering redundant addresses, or by other means such as deploying private networks.

And when it comes to the Internet of Things there is a chorus from some technical but influential people in organisations actively urging restraint on IPv6 adoption.They see IPv6 as a Layer 3 network issue, not an Internet of Things issue. One argument is that IPv6 is just one element towards interoperability in an Internet of Things environment and not the be-all and end-all.  It  points to inherent dangers in equating IPv6 with getting value from the Internet of Things saying, for example, that the thousands of sensor devices around a hub don’t necessarily need IPv6. It is only the hub itself that does.”

— Dr John Riley

• April 10, 2013, 1:04am

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Om Malik: What the internet of things can learn from Minecraft and Lemmings

Once we have a home full of connected devices do we really want to individually manage all of them? Mike Kuniavsky, a principal in the Innovation Services Group at PARC, explains in this weeks podcast how we’re going to have to think differently about programming devices for the internet of things. Devices will need to know what they contain and how those elements might contribute to a certain scenario in the home.

For example when you want to watch a movie, you shouldn’t have to program 6 different devices in your home to tell them what they should do when you toggle on your movie setting, your devices should have some sense of what they are capable of and how to enter a set mode. As he did in his chat in February at our San Francisco Internet of Things meetup, Kuniavsky, likened this device behavior to video games like Minecraft or Lemmings, where preset general behaviors determines how the game unfolded as opposed to rigid and specific actions. He explains all this and more in the podcast. Check it out.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/gigaom/MIKE_KUNIAVSKY.mp3

• April 10, 2013, 1:01am

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Using Visual Recognition to Tap into the Consumer Mindset

“Marketers have been trying to capture that magic moment when a potential consumer is actually looking to interact with your brand.”

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“Current smartphone technology allows for nearly infinitely granular targeting based on behavior, third party data, contextual data like location, and universal sign-in profiles. All of these allow increasingly relevant interactions to follow a consumer across apps and the mobile web, all while waiting for the right moment. While interesting, however, this is not what I am talking about. This is just a refinement of existing approaches to targeting. It’s nothing new.”

“What I’m talking about is giving consumers control, a tool that allows them to quickly and easily learn something about a specific product or service. I’m talking using our smartphones to create intuitive gateways that bridge the real world with related digital experiences. Whether you call it Web 3.0 or the “internet of things,” this is what mobile is all about and I believe visual recognition technology will play a key role in making it happen.”

• April 10, 2013, 12:57am

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The internet of things: an elephant in the room that threatens to squash us

Andy Hobsbawm’s (one of the founders of the business EVRYTHNG) business gives me a headache quite quickly as I struggle to imagine the implications of the humungous data generated by everything we touch. And then there’s the data generated by mixing up the data with other data in order to create more data that predicts the future and reshapes our existence. Got that? Just a little scary, yes?

I don’t mind my bike or my fridge talking about my habits but the implications of underwear or individual deodorants having their own Facebook page, or the web-of-things equivalent, is mind-boggling. What if - oh dear, how embarrassing - you don’t appear to have a deodorant life? Too much information or not enough, either way as we become even more defined by our consumption this could get vicious. I can sense a lobby forming to say our rights are being eroded in ways that go way beyond what Google’s done to us so far.

• April 10, 2013, 12:49am

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Cisco’s Lew Tucker On The Internet Of Everything And The Tie To An App-Centric World

Cisco’s Lew Tucker stood onstage today at Cloud Connect and pitched the networking giant’s “Internet of Everything,” an app-centric world that will be worth $14.5 trillion over the next couple of years. Whereas the Internet of Things is all the objects in our world, Tucker says the IoE is the smart grids and, really, the entire supply chain and its transformation.

Big enterprise companies are good at this kind of thing. They talk about huge market opportunities and great futures with tremendous upside, but it’s a question of how nimble they can be with startups innovating so fast. Tucker, however, gets credit for explaining how an app-centric world ties in with software-defined networking (SDN) and the switch from traditional, heavyweight systems of records (ERP, CRM) to systems of engagement (apps, lightweight services that provide feedback loops).

Tucker, citing Cisco’s own study, says there is $4.9 trillion in immediate opportunity through the development of such things as smart grids, smart factories, smart buildings and smart cities.

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The IoE also provides a context for the ways we interact with this deep fabric of connected things. An ERP system will become less relevant for companies. Instead, systems of engagement will put us right in the center of a feedback loop that allows us to measure our own selves and in the process connect to all the other smart aspects of our life. That might be in the city of San Francisco when trying to find a parking spot or the smart factory where we order our data-generated personal things.

• April 10, 2013, 12:44am

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Weightless finalizes its white spaces networking standard for the internet of things

See on Scoop.it - Web of Things

The Weightless SIG claims the new standard will allow for ultra-low-power transmissions at long-range and at a cheap manufacturing cost. If true, that would make the technology ideal for M2M communications.

• April 10, 2013, 12:41am

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4 Myths about the Internet of Things

Interesting read Kishore Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at Accenture, on the possibilities of the Internet of Things and the myths of the things that are stopping the thing called the Internet of things happening.

Myth 1: IoT is a Technology. IoT is a concept, not a technology you would buy. (See also: http://thebln.com/2013/04/the-internet-of-things-a-definition-according-to-cisco/).

Myth 2: IoT is the next wave of the Internet. The closest some devices will get to the Internet is using TCP/IP protocols.

Myth 3: Regulations on data privacy is a critical enabler of the IoT. Privacy concerns might give rise to more innovative business models, but that is no reason to hold off on understanding what the IoT means for businesses.

Myth 4: IoT needs device communication standards. Standards never hurt but most devices will be communicating for specialist and limited reasons.

• April 10, 2013, 12:40am

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The real breakthrough of Google Glass: controlling the internet of things

Many of the first apps for Google Glass will be about consuming and sharing content on the go. But what if Google Glass could unlock control over the world of the Internet of Things both inside and outside the home?

“Picture arriving home from work, and the door of your house automatically unlocks to let you in as you walk up to it. Inside, your NPR app comes on the glasses screen and you can tune in or change the channel while you fiddle with turning on the connected sprinkler system for your lawn. Your Nest thermostat app then pops up on your Google Glass screen to let you know that you’ve been good this week and saved a lot of energy, but with a wink you override the conservation mode and crank up the heat.

The scenario isn’t as crazy as it sounds and all the basic technology is there. There are mobile apps that already do all of these things. Essentially you’d just be moving the control function from the cell phone touch screen and your fingertips to the screen in front of your eye and either a facial gesture or hand movement. All devices in the home that would benefit from having connectivity and control are getting it, and there will be a variety of remotes that will control them — why not one on your face?”

• April 10, 2013, 12:32am

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