Along with the First International Training Course Libelium opens its wireless sensor networks services line in order to make it easier for companies who want to get their own sensor solution for an specific vertical market.

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This is where the technology comes in. When growers protect cranberries against frost, they need to know the exact bog temperature on the canopy. Traditionally they used sensors, hardwired from the bogs to a pump station to transmit environmental information. But, broken cables often disrupt transmissions. Hard wired sensor connections are also challenging because of long distances between the sensors to the pump station. Lange knew there had to be a better way. He found it with Spinwave Systems.

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The Internet of Things is what happens when you take everyday ordinary objects and put Internet-connected microchips inside them. These microchips help you not only keep track of your belongings, but many of these devices sense their surroundings and report it to other machines as well as to you when you most need it.

From RFID to the Nabaztag Bunny to Arduino hobbyists, innovation is growing at a rapid rate. Our collection features popular videos about how to make your own objects, as well as overviews, interviews and lectures. The intent of these devices is to make our lives easier, yet as David Orban suggests in the eighth video, this is not guaranteed. Issues of data-overload and a lack of privacy may interfere with how these devices ultimately help us. As the growth of this trend continues you’ll be seeing many more videos about the Internet of Things.

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It’s still very early in this era and the platforms we’ll profile here are at this point more about experimentation than commercialization.

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The main purpose of the SLEWS project is the development of a prototypic real-time landslide monitoring and early warning system for an efficient landslide hazard management. In this context especially the enhancement of data quality to improve recognition and analysis of hazardous situations and reduction of false alarm rates are of special interest. The whole information chain from data gathering, validation and interpretation to data retrieval, visualization and user specific warning is subject of the research project. The project focuses on innovative web technologies using standards according to the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) sensor web enablement (OGC SWE) and cost efficient but reliable micro sensors (MEMS) from the automotive industry. The integration of heterogeneous data and information from various providers may be established by an open platform strategy using the web service technology. The Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) integrates modern sensor technologies, data gathering, storage and retrieval as well as services for data validation, processing and alarm generation.

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The scheme is rather simple but it could amount to huge cost savings for builders, as it saves the materials and time needed to physically connect sensors within a structure. Take the climate control system for instance. In order to function properly, temperature sensors have to be wired throughout the building to tell the central heating and cooling unit when and where to pipe conditioned air.

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The Wireless Sensing Demonstrator Showcase invites innovative demonstrations from industry and academia. Demos will be classified into two categories R&D systems and Commercial Products. The event will be hosted by the Sensing Technology 2010 Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham UK on Tuesday 28th September

Both wireless sensing systems developed as ‘instruments to enable scientific investigation’ and also ‘as solutions to known problems’. Demonstrators need to be end-to-end systems with achievements beyond the state of the art at one or more of the following levels: physical level, sensing level, energy harvesting, power management, data fusion, middleware, communications, information extraction, and user interfaces.

They are particularly encouraging demonstrators in the areas of body sensor networks, environmental monitoring, industrial monitoring and control, security and surveillance as well as assisted living. The demo proposals will be reviewed by a committee and the delegates of the Sensing Technology 2010 Exhibition. The ‘Best Demo Award’ will be awarded in each of the two categories based upon both the technical and innovation contribution.

IMPORTANT DATES
Submission deadline:     Sept 1, 2010
Acceptance notification:   Sept 10, 2010
Camera-ready deadline:  Sept 20, 2010
Demo Registration deadline: Sept 15, 2010
Showcase date:              Sept 28, 2010

Registration and more info here

An Iranian immigrant and electrical engineer at the University of Maryland, College Park, Kalantari has devised what he calls a lightweight, low-power, wireless sensor that he hopes will detect weaknesses in bridges and other infrastructure before they can turn into calamities such as the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge that killed 13 people in Minneapolis in 2007.

If they work as imagined, the devices would detect anomalies in the structure of even the most inaccessible parts of bridges and send alerts via cellular frequencies to its human masters. Among the things it would measure would be stress loads, vibration, temperature and the creation and growth of cracks.

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On a technological level we see a tendency towards many platforms, a high number of solutions and open standards and we foresee a deluge of data. Much like the end of the 90’s when RFID got under the penny cost and database storage became cheaper and cheaper, storage as such might not be the real issue, but turning data into meaningful information for end users remains the key challenge. Especially when we are confronted with a tendency to making data public by governments and by public making data through all kinds of emerging services like Pachube, Arrayent and AlertMe. Is it possible to build a generic service layer between end users and the applications, appliances and devices in the home, work and fun sphere? Confronted with younger generations that want to stage their lives and are accustomed to sharing so they might want to ‘stage’ their homes by tweeting every change, new notions of privacy and privacies become crucial if we want to balance a productive and innovative relationship between individuals and groups.

More info here.