The volume of harvesters (in units) sold into each of the market segments will vary significantly, mainly because of the different size/power output/specifications for each harvester in each market segment. For example, military and aerospace applications will account for approximately 70,000 units of high value harvesters in 2017, whereas industrial applications will reach over 40 million units.

More info here.

The Iridium satellite network now supports the iDigi Device Cloud. This means that Digi devices with an Iridium data transceiver inside can now send and receive data via iDigi over the Iridium network.

The Iridium network is the world’s furthest-reaching network, so this capability extends connectivity to the remote corners of the globe and is faster and easier than ever before.

“The big picture is that we’ve made it ridiculously easy to create backcountry realtime environmental stations, operate autonomous terrestrial or oceanic vehicles or support advanced devices in the developing world,” said Rob Faludi, collaborative strategy leader for Digi R&D. “Developers can create high-tech interactions that persist though natural disasters because no local infrastructure at all is required, and deploy them in any spot on the planet. We say any app, anything, anywhere and we mean anywhere!”

Iridium and Digi create a valuable partnership– with Iridium operating the world’s furthest-reaching network and enabling connections in remote places and Digi, who continually pushes the bounds of technology in terms of what is possible through networks.

More info here.

Jing Li, a scientist at NASA Ames, has been working for years on what will be the greatest phone accessory of all time. It’s a small chip (about the size of a postage stamp) that houses 32 nanosensor bars. Each bar is composed of a different nano-structure material. Because each sensor bar is unique it can respond to different chemicals in different ways, enabling it to not only differentiate between them, but also to monitor their relative levels, in real time.

In its current state (which is looking mighty close to production-ready), it’s housed in a small case that attaches to a smartphone. For legal reasons they wouldn’t say which smartphone it’s built to attach to, but you can probably guess. Eventually, it will be built to attach to many other popular models. The idea is to develop a low-cost version so that consumers can afford to have them for health and safety applications. But let’s back up a second.

This nanosensor technology was originally developed by NASA Ames for space applications. This is NASA, after all. The first usage was monitoring for fuel leaks around launch vehicles. They’ve been on the International Space Station since 2008, monitoring air-quality and checking for formaldehyde in the air. Future applications could include taking samples on asteroids and Mars missions. So that’s where it started, but the Department of Homeland Security is now funding this project in order to bring it back down to earth—and to consumers.

There are certainly military applications (the Department of Defense is funding an implementation where soldiers could wear these to alert them of chemical threats), but the cellphone implementation is aimed squarely at consumers. The chip only draws 5 milliwatts, which means very little battery-drain (the smartphone they tested it with can use the sensor for 8 continuous hours on a single charge). It’s primarily being developed to monitor carbon monoxide as well as chlorine, ammonia, and methane in your home.But these things could really be used anywhere because they’re so small. An app could automatically send data back to the Department of Homeland Security or other emergency services agencies, which would give them a big-picture look at a larger area—and let them know if a mass evacuation is needed.

More info here.

With Flyport, Internet of Things is more closer to you! Why?! Well, because, with Flyport, the wifi programmable module, you can now interface to the cloud services – ThingSpeak.

ThiDIY gives access to the ThingSpeak Services. ThingSpeak allows to draw online charts, to store and recall values and to use specific APIs to work with Twitter, or to send HTTP requests directly from the ThingSpeak servers.You can create private or public channels. Every channel can store up to 8 fields (the values) and creates charts with those fields. Every channel has a Channel ID, a Name, a Write API Key and a Description. The Write API Key is the most important information of the channel, since it allows to upload or download the field data.We created a public channel to share with you the results of this Application. You can also use the private channels to respect the user privacy.

You can download for free the Application Note to interface by yourself Flyport to cloud services!

More info here.

More info here.

The Design contest “IQRF Wireless Challenge” is open to anyone who is able to create a design for wireless communication platforms. Registration starts 1st December 2011 and the competition closes on 31st March 2012. IQRF development sets are available with up to 70% discount for all participants in the competition.

Contest categories are:

• Best Application using IQRF

• Best Student Design using IQRF

We will even reward original ideas for applications or ideas for IQRF platform improvement!

The competition will be open for entries from 1st December 2011 and you may register at
 www.iqrf.org/contest where you will find instructions, guides and documentation and opportunity to upload your designs.

Many applications in different domains will be coming up like:

• eHealth: The future of healthcare lies in creating tighter connections between physicians, hospitals, rescue centers and patients by using modern technologies.
• eMobility: To make electric vehicles widely accepted, it will take a sophisticated charging infrastructure, an intelligent system to orchestrate this new industry with vehicles, charging service providers, and utilities.
• eProduction: In the efficient industrial production of tomorrow, decisions will be made real-time derived from event-driven supply chains and diagnoses.
• eEnergy: Energy Management targets to optimize energy demand and consumption in different ways, at utilities, at industrial, at communal or at private consumers.

In 1982, a group of students at Carnegie Mellon University connected a Coke machine to the internet so they wouldn’t have to traipse down several floors just to find the machine empty. While the number of devices connected to the internet has exploded since that time, the majority of household appliances and objects have been slow to make the move online. Despite talk of the emerging “Internet of Things” connecting anything other than a computer, games console, tablet or smartphone to the internet via a home network generally still requires some specialized knowledge.

It is this hurdle that Carr and Kestner are aiming to clear with Twine, which they say will make it easy to connect things to the internet “without a nerd degree” – meaning there’s no programming or soldering and wiring expertise required. The Twine module provides Wi-Fi connectivity out of the box and comes with on-board temperature and vibration sensors. Power is supplied either via the unit’s mini-USB port or by two AAA batteries, with an email alert being sent when the batteries need replacing.

More info here.