Cell phones connect you to the Internet, take and transmit your pictures, help you navigate, take your messages and play movies, music and games – and make phone calls. Soon, they may also serve as nodes in a vast network of chemical weapon sensors.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and NASA are developing cell phones that contain tiny sensors able to detect the presence of harmful chemicals, such as those used in chemical weapon attacks and those released in industrial accidents. When the chemicals are detected, the phones would alert the user and automatically report to government authorities.

The idea, called Cell-All, is a leap ahead from current chemical sensor deployments, which typically involve handful of sensors installed more or less permanently in a relatively few key locations in major cities and around critical installations.

More info here.

The research group on Computer Engineering at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) has an opening for a post-doctoral fellow and PhD students in the field of sensor networks. These positions are in conjunction with the PermaSense project and two new projects in nano-tera.ch where we focus on real sensor networks deployed for environmental monitoring purposes.

Details are available here.

Body Sensor Networks, wearable electronics and smart tissues are just few of the interesting new technologies which are now facing the market, or that are already commercialized. But, which is the role of the designers willing to approach these new technologies, which are the opportunities and challenges? Generally speaking designers are asked to think about new innovative products and services or novel interaction with objects, therefore the question for a designer is always “what these new technologies will allow me to do? What are them already allowing and to which extent?”

Design with wearable electronics requires competences usually falling outside the usual knowledge area of a designer: not only the body ergonomic, but also biomedical and electronics as well as the psychological aspects impose urgent limits to the design process. These limits must be considered by the designer.
This book is specifically meant for designers and extensively analyzes these problems. Thanks to the contribution of different matter experts the book tries to address the specific areas involved, presenting the biomedical, electronics and psychological states of art, trying to answer to the most important questions. It addresses therefore the essentials elements to understand the wearable systems design. All these information are tied together into a novel specific design methodology, which has been applied, into the second part of the book, to several projects which involved the authors and some students.

More info here.

From the New York Times:

In computing, the vision always precedes the reality by a decade or more. The pattern has held true from the personal computer to the Internet, as it takes time, brainpower and investment to conquer the scientific and economic obstacles to nudging a game-changing technology toward the mainstream.

The same pattern, according to scientists in universities and corporate laboratories, is unfolding in the field of sensor-based computing. Years ago, enthusiasts predicted the coming of “smart dust” — tiny digital sensors, strewn around the globe, gathering all sorts of information and communicating with powerful computer networks to monitor, measure and understand the physical world in new ways. But this intriguing vision seemed plucked from the realm of science fiction.

The complete article is available here.

From IEEE Spectrum:

Soon enough, say some engineers, miniature wireless sensors will be located in spots where it would be inconvenient, to say the least, to change their batteries—inside your body, within the steel and concrete of buildings, in the dangerous innards of chemical plants. But today, even the most robust nodes can be counted on to last only a few years. Ideally, engineers need a sensor that can last forever without external power sources or battery changes. According to research presented in December at the International Electron Devices Meeting, in Baltimore, that dream is within reach.

Two research teams tackled the problem of sensor longevity in two very different ways. Both methods rely on piezoelectric power generation, in which a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) cantilever converts mechanical motions into electrical power. However, the cantilever’s movements are propelled by very different mechanisms—one by a radioisotope and the other by vibrations harvested from the environment. In a big step forward, both methods fully powered autonomous wireless systems.

The complete article is available here.

The the fourth edition of the workshop is to be held on 11-14th October 2010 in Denver, Colorado, after successful previous editions.

SenseApp 2010, the Fifth IEEE International Workshop on Practical Issues in Building Sensor Network Applications, will be a one-day workshop, held in conjunction with the IEEE Conference on Local Comupter Networks (LCN 2010). The workshop aims at bringing together researchers from academia and industry to showcase their work and obtain feedback. We expect the workshop to act as a forum for the sensor network research community to discuss open issues, novel solutions and the future development of wireless sensor networks in general.

More info avaialble here, and also the CFP is  here (pdf)

The First International Workshop on Networks of Cooperating Objects will be held on April 12th, 2010 – Stockholm, Sweden, collocated with the CPS Week 2010.

During the last decade, the continuous improvement and miniaturization of integrated circuits has led to new types of computing systems. An emerging trend is the collaboration of miniature devices to achieve a common goal. Representative examples include wireless sensor networks, pervasive computing and embedded systems.

Along this trend, the notion of Cooperating Objects collectively refers to embedded computing devices equipped with communication as well as sensing or actuation capabilities, able to cooperate and organize themselves autonomously into networks to achieve a common task. As such, Cooperating Objects envision a single, coherent system formed by a wide range of devices, including those from the areas mentioned above. The complexity germane to the interaction inside and across networks of Cooperating Objects presents a rich set of research questions, and entails a wide range of scientific disciplines, such as networking, software engineering, and control theory.

CONET 2010 will provide a discussion forum for researchers, aimed at fostering synergy and convergence of complementary areas towards the vision of networks of Cooperating Objects. Work-in-progress systems, provocative ideas, and position papers paving the road towards such synergy and convergence are particularly welcome.

Full list of topics of interest available here

Important dates
Submission deadline: Monday, March 1, 2010
Acceptance Notification: Monday, March 22, 2010
Camera Ready: Monday, March 29, 2010

Last week, MEMSIC announced the acquisition of selected product lines, intellectual property and fixed assets from Crossbow Technology, Inc. The transaction extends MEMSIC’s sensor integration and solution capabilities, expands its product lines, and strengthens its sales and marketing capabilities.

As part of the acquisition, engineers from Crossbow have joined MEMSIC’s global engineering team, adding significant sensor system integration and solution talent. Selected sales and marketing personnel have also joined MEMSIC, expanding its customer reach and enabling a seamless transition for Crossbow’s large customer base.

The acquisition price of $18 million in cash included the non-military portion of Crossbow Technology’s Inertial Systems business lines and its Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) “Mote” and eKo environmental monitoring business lines. These business lines accounted for approximately $10 million in sales annually by Crossbow.

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in San Jose, California, Crossbow Technology, Inc. was the leading end-to-end solutions supplier of wireless sensor networks and inertial sensor systems. Crossbow shipped over 500,000 sensors to more than 1,000 customers, including select Fortune 100 companies, for diverse applications such as industrial, aerospace, and environmental control.

Complete article available here

In the last quarter of 2009, a number of significant public speeches were made about Internet of Things in China. It started on August 7, when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made a speech in the city of Wuxi calling for the rapid development of Internet of Things technologies. It included this equation: Internet + Internet of Things = Wisdom of the Earth. Wen Jiabo followed up with a speech on November 3 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, in which he encouraged breakthroughs in key technologies for sensor networks and the Internet of Things.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao did with the Xinhua News Agency at the end of December:

“This concept [of Internet of Things] first came to my mind when I talked with a group of young researchers who returned to China after their overseas studies,” Wen said, referring to those he met during his inspection tour to east China’s Jiangsu Province in November.

“I learned Internet of Things is a network that can be applied to infrastructure and services. The program will have a rosy prospect,” Wen said.

According to Internet of Things, when objects ranging from books to airplanes are equipped with minuscule identifying devices, they can be identified and managed through computer networks.

Internet of Things was one example Premier Wen cited while outlining the country’s initiatives to foster new growth areas, especially in emerging strategic industries.”

More info here.

Libelium will conduct another Waspmote presentation on February 4th at the the University of Zaragoza (CPS), Spain. Those interested to get a quick intro to the Waspmote platform and couldn’t attend last presentations now have a new opportunity.  Registration available here.

In addition to that, a public Waspmote Training Course it’s also open for registration. It will take place in Zaragoza, February 17th-18th. Previous experience with the Waspmote platform is not necessary for attending the course. Important discounts apply for those who buy a Waspmote Kit in place.

New update of the API functionalities (v0.12) includes localization tools using the mobile phones cells ID’s and their received signal strength (RSSI)