Frankfurt, Germany – April 7, 2008 – MeshNetics, a leading provider of ZigBee modules and embedded software for OEMs and system integrators, and BFM AB, an innovative energy management company, announced today at the Light and Building exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, the successful deployment of the ZigBee-based energy management system called Link2Web. The wireless system deployed at an industrial facility in Sweden reduced the facilitys energy costs by 37% over the course of one year.

The entire Link2Web system was installed in an industrial building with a total heated area of 3,600 square meters holding one oil-fired boiler and nine air handling units with air heaters and recycling air control.
More information can be found here.

From Roger Meike’s Blog

So we launched our SPOT controlled weather balloon, EDGAR1, yesterday. It was really a lot of fun. Here is my account of the day.

This project was started about two weeks ago by our extraordinary intern, Tennessee Carmel-Veilleux. Working in the evening and on weekends he and other Sun Labs researchers designed and executed a plan to put a Sun SPOT in near space. A weather balloon would carry aloft a payload including radios, GPSs, various sensors and of course a Sun SPOT for control. It should rise into the air some 10 - 15 miles and then gently parachute to safety where we would gather up our gadgets and analyze the data. Sounds like fun!

More here.

Devices working their way from industry into innovations in homes.

The device doesn’t look like much – a gray plastic casing that holds a temperature sensor, a low-power radio and a couple of AA batteries. Only the Microsoft Research logo suggests there’s anything revolutionary about it.

But its creator says that pioneers have already used similar gizmos to transform the world. Over the next few years, he predicts, dozens of these bland boxes will change the way you live.

“These boxes will do more for you than your car,” said Feng Zhao, a Microsoft Corp. researcher who has devoted much of his life to a technology that most people haven’t even heard of – yet.
More info here