The move to bring IPv6 to wireless sensors networks, making them part of the next-generation Internet, got a boost this week with new products from two vendors, and an Internet group taking the next step in standardizing the protocol for these low-power networks.

Both the products and the advancing standard are adding fuel to a controversy over whether the Internet protocol suite is suitable for short-range, low-power networks, especially with a variety of other protocols, such as ZigBee, being adopted by vendors for a growing range of vendors.

Meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, earlier this week, the Internet Engineering Task Force’s IPv6 Low Power Wireless Personal Area Network working group (6LoWPAN) took another step toward a final standard.

More info is available here.

Taking the last major step toward merging wireless sensor networks (WSNs) seamlessly into the world of Internet Protocol (IP) standards, Arch Rock Corporation has introduced the first commercial implementation of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 6LoWPAN proposed standard for IPv6 communication over low-power IEEE 802.15.4 wireless radio.

Arch Rock Primer Pack/IP, an out-of-the-box solution that lets users create pilot WSNs in manufacturing, office and retail environments using a service-oriented architecture (SOA), is the first sensor network to run native IP end-to-end, taking the IP protocols beyond their current boundary at the WSN gateway and out to the individual sensor nodes.

More info available here.

OpenWSN is the first open source platform for WSN research and robust industry applications in China. The idea of OpenWSN project was first proposed in 2004. In its first stages, OpenWSN was actually a simulation software. OpenWSN is proposed as a research project, but the authors hope it can be popular in industry and applications.

More info at the project’s website.

To be held at the University of Havana, Cuba, from April 23rd to May 4th. The workshop is a special research meeting dedicated to addressing the challenges in the area of wireless computing and sensor networks. WCSN aims to pinpoint the more interesting open research problems in the area and to make a concentrated effort towards their solutions.

Researchers interested to participate should contact organizers at their earliest convenience.

More info here

Pervasive computing technology which can monitor the welfare of the elderly will be made available within the next 18 months. The technology is to be developed by the University of Southampton’s new Pervasive Systems Centre which is being launched this month. The Centre, co-directed by Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi and Professor David De Roure, both from the University’s School of Electronics & Computer Science (ECS) brings together multidisciplinary expertise from across the school’s research groups, ranging from sensors and wireless communications to computer science theory and practice.

This combined expertise will make it possible for them to develop a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) which can operate in homes to monitor the health of the elderly. In order to make it possible for such individuals to live independently, the researchers are developing low-cost sensor networks to monitor their environment so that changes in health can be detected.

For example a weight sensor positioned under the bed could detect the individual’s movements throughout the night. A sensor in the bathroom could monitor use of toilet facilities to pick up signs of digestive problems, and body imaging and temperature sensors could highlight areas of the body that are painful.

The complete story here.

From Moteiv Blog:

EasySen, LLC. has announced two new sensor boards compatible with Moteiv’s Tmote Sky hardware platform.

The WiEye sensor board is a low power, highly sensitive surveillance and security board that has the capability of detecting IR signatures from more than 100 feet distance. It has many unique features that allow for extremely low sampling rates and ”backdating” of events.

The SBT30EDU is a low price development board with a prototyping area, 3 integrated sensors, and connectivity to external devices. This versatile board is tailored to the needs of university labs and system developers.

WiEye and SBT30EDU are available for ordering and shipping immediately, directly from EasySen. The company also manufactures the SBT80, a multi-modality sensor board.

More info here.

Daintree Networks Inc., a leading provider of development, deployment and operational support tools for wireless sensor and control systems, today announced that they will present a “hands-on” training session at the 2007 ZigBee Developers Conference during which attendees will install and commission their own ZigBee networks.

“Even though commissioning physically occurs during the installation phase, it is critically important that it be considered and designed in during the development of any ZigBee application,” said Jason Choong, Director of Marketing for Daintree Networks. “This training session will give ZigBee developers the chance to experience, first-hand, the challenges associated with deployment of real-world ZigBee-based systems. This will highlight many of the issues and problems that can occur during deployment unless they are properly designed for up front.”

The complete story here.

Fractus, the pioneer developer of fractal antenna technology, has set a new standard for antenna miniaturisation with the launch of its smallest antenna for the ISM 2.4GHz band. The 3.7mm by 2mm Micro Reach Xtend antenna is the size of a single grain of rice, providing device designers with significantly more available space to enable new multimedia applications or reducing the space needed within devices.

The miniature antenna was designed using Fractus’ patented fractal antenna technologies and developed especially for Bluetooth headsets and mobile handsets. It supports all standards working at the 2.4GHz ISM band, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee. Using fractal geometry with its extremely economical use of space, Fractus has created a solution that offers the maximum performance-to-space ratio as well as reduced costs.

The complete story here.

April 24, 2007 ­ Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

In a half-day tutorial, we will give hands-on EXPLORATION OF wireless acoustic and seismic sensing systems. Both systems are based on a common software and hardware platform, and share robustness and scalability features. Both the systems use battery powered sensor nodes BASED ON AN XScale processor, running Linux, 802.11b radios, and software written in EmStar.

For each system we will describe the key components of the system in detail, set up the array, demonstrate the use of the system, run the self-configuration software, delve into the details of the sampling and system software, and analyze data coming from the system; we will also write some simple programs to modify the nodes behavior.

Speakers:

Lewis Girod (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Vinayak Naik (University of California at Los Angles)

More info is available here.

Registration is possible in the conference website.

A new compact, five-channel sensor board from Information System Technologies is designed for real-time sensor-level signal processing in large wireless sensor network environments. The high-performance sensor board provides has an onboard field programmable gate array (FPGa) and memory that allow for efficient implementation of flexible system structure and advanced signal-processing algorithms. An onboard radio provides added capability for self-localization. This technology overcomes the bandwidth and processing limitations in large wireless sensor networks, which may be deployed for real-time situation awareness and surveillance applications.

The sensor board can be interfaced with commercial Zigbee-based devices, e.g., motes. The system currently supports acoustic and seismic input signals, although it can be configured for other types of sensory inputs. Applications include acoustic localization and tracking of moving vehicles and gunshot detection, localization and classification. The system is suited for small fixed or moving sensor platforms, such as helmet-based systems.

More info here.