In general, asset tracking or logistical management with RFID is very similar to applications in wireless sensor control networks. However, RFID and sensors use wireless connectivity differently.

Wireless sensor networks use small, inexpensive, wireless transceivers integrated into compact sensors that can be used to monitor a wide range of changes like temperature, humidity, vibrations and fluid levels. This data is passed via a gateway to the enterprise net.

Over time, it is expected that wireless sensor networks and RFID will integrate and that RFID systems will be extended and evolve into “Smarter RFID Tags” which can sense, act and display.

More precisely, RFID tags will not create the “Internet of Things;” they will tag the things so the things can become members of the internet.

However, because of this extended functionality and connectivity, these connected RFID tags require greater amounts of energy, and will need to be powered by batteries. At that point, it is clear that the RFID industry will be able to benefit from the ultra low power concept (and its alternative “no-batteries” capabilities) as developed by companies like GreenPeak wireless sensor networks.

More info here.

Bethlehem, PA — Since when has censorship become a green activity?

Since Rick Blum and other experts in signal processing began seeking to make sensor networks and radar arrays more energy-efficient.

Sensor networks, says Blum, the Robert W. Wieseman Chair in electrical engineering, are playing a growing role in everyday life.

On a bridge, for example, sensors detect and process the signals caused by the stresses from passing vehicles and then transmit data to a central decision point. This helps engineers determine more quickly and accurately the likelihood that a bridge will fail.

Sensors also detect the presence of radioactive or other toxic waste in the environment. They can determine whether or not a cell is malignant. And they are used in military surveillance, air traffic control, home automation and other applications.

For more information click here

Most people, if they bother to think about it at all, probably view the internet as an agent of profound change. In the 15 years since Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web, the life of almost everyone in the industrialised world has been touched by it. But just as many of us are getting to grips with its second stage, the mobile internet, very few are prepared - perhaps even aware - of the third and potentially most revolutionary phase of all: the internet of things.

Sometime between now and 2010, the internet is poised to reach beyond virtual space and take root in the physical world. According to many futurist thinkers, almost every object you can see around you carries the possibility of being connected to the internet. This means that your domestic appliances, your clothes, the books on your shelves and your car in the driveway may one day soon be assigned a unique IP address, just as both computers and web pages are assigned them today, to enable them to talk to each other.

More info on this Guardian article, here.

AUSTIN, Texas & DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–RF Code, Inc. , a leader in automating physical asset management using RFID enabled solutions, today announced the availability of a wireless environmental monitoring solution that provides real-time information about the temperature and humidity conditions surrounding IT assets. Ideal for monitoring environmental conditions in IT dense areas such as data centers and offices, the new R155 active RFID sensor (or “tag”) provides an affordable way for companies to implement eco-friendly monitoring easily. The announcement comes during the Active RFID, RTLS & Sensor Networks 2008 Conference, where RF Code is highlighting the sensor (Booth #7). The company will also be keynoting a session during the Active RFID in Asset Tracking track, along with IBM.

For more information click here

Now, the European Union has announced that it will pursue the main component of Web 3.0, the Internet of Things (IoT).

According to Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media for the EU, “The Internet of the future will radically change our society.” Ultimately, the EU is aiming to “lead the way” in the transformation to Web 3.0.

Reporting on the European Union’s pursuit of the IoT, iBLS reports,

“New technology applications will need ubiquitous Internet coverage. The Internet of Things means that wireless interaction between machines, vehicles, appliances, sensors and many other devices will take place using the Internet. It already makes electronic travel cards possible, and will allow mobile devices to exchange information to pay for things or get information from billboards (or streetlights).”

South Korea is at the forefront in implementing ubiquitous technology and the Internet of Things. An entire city, New Songdo, is being built in South Korea that fully utilizes the technology. Ubiquitous computing proponents in the United States admit that while a large portion of the technology is being developed in the U.S., it is being tested in South Korea where there are less traditional, ethical and social blockades to prevent its acceptance and use. As the New York Times reports

“Much of this technology was developed in U.S. research labs, but there are fewer social and regulatory obstacles to implementing them in Korea,” said Mr. Townsend [a research director at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California], who consulted on Seoul’s own U-city plan, known as Digital Media City. ‘There is an historical expectation of less privacy. Korea is willing to put off the hard questions to take the early lead and set standards.’”

An April 2008 report from the National Intelligence Council discussed the Internet of Things and its possible implications.

Research Triangle Park, NC (4 November 2008) — The ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute (WCI) successfully conducted a demonstration of the ISA100.11a wireless industrial automation network at ISA EXPO 2008, 14-16 October in Houston, TX.

The demonstration employed technology based on the latest draft of the ISA100.11a industrial wireless communications standard. The demonstration highlighted the mesh and interoperability capabilities of the proposed ISA100.11a standard by showing ISA100.11a Field Routers from many different vendors formed into a self-healing and dynamically adaptive mesh network.

Devices from 14 different instrumentation vendors formed the wireless network of interoperable devices all seamlessly working together using the ISA100.11a draft technology. These devices included various wireless platforms from fully integrated devices to devices with attached wireless adaptors. Wired HART devices were included in the demonstration and used the wireless adaptors to communicate HART information like stranded diagnostics over the ISA100.11a network to a host system.

For more information click here

Chevron refines more than 2 million barrels of oil a day. However, in many respects Chevron considers itself a “technology” company that produces energy.

To Chevron, technology creates opportunity and a sound technology strategy forms the basis for their business planning.

For Chevron, a wireless sensor network had to address a number of key factors. These include:

• Monitoring rotating equipment such as pumps, including those in remote oil fields
• The extraction of more sophisticated information regarding device diagnostics and preventative maintenance data, believed to be “stranded” in the devices and inaccessible to the existing control system
• The addition of equipment not previously monitored due to the limitations of installing wired infrastructure
• The testing of new applications including the extension of the process control network to mobile operators

U.S. researchers are developing a new robust wireless communication systems for Mount St. Helens. With the help of a $1.63 million NASA grant, they’ve developed a dozen of smart robotic sensors which talk to each other and send information to a central information hub, the Johnston Ridge Observatory located atop the Mount St. Helens visitor center. But this wireless network is just a pilot program. The researchers want to use these sensors for other emergency applications, such as a mine collapse or a terrorist attack destroying traditional networks. 

More info here.

Microsoft showed “SenseWeb” at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference.

Feng Zhao explained the basic mesh network of sensors mounted on the ceiling of the convention center, and pointed them out above the heads of keynote attendees. He demonstrated the ability to map the sensors in a browser and analyze the data. Google Maps meets ZigBee. Zhao is a Principal Researcher and Manager in the Networked Embedded Computing Group at Microsoft Research.

Microsoft seems to have crudely replicated common off-the-shelf building-automation technologies and wowed a room full of people who had never seen it before. Zhao didn’t indicate whether the sensors used ZigBee (a wireless sensor network protocol) or some other method.

Zhao surely is aware that this capability has been around for several years. He’s been involved with sensors for at least 3 or 4 years. He would have to have ignored companies like Gridlogix, CePORT and Echelon, who have numerous deployments of similar technology.