The first commercially manufactured versions of the CSIRO-designed environmental and industrial sensor platform, FLECK, will be available in early 2009. The technology promises to open new opportunities for gathering information that will lead to productivity gains in a wide range of industries including agriculture, aquaculture, manufacturing, mining, construction and environmental management.

Tasmanian company The Powercom Group - through its subsidiary Datacall Telemetry - is the chosen manufacturer of the platform, which gathers information in the field and delivers it to a server and then the Internet.

‘This is good news for anyone in the business of gathering data in remote areas and having it acted upon in the field, independent of outside instruction,’ says Sensor Networks theme leader for CSIRO’s ICT Centre, Dr Gautam Tendulkar.

‘FLECK allows the creation of a wireless network of devices that sense the environment, share information through wireless communications, formulate group decisions and instigate required actions,’ he says.

More info 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.

The CLARITY centre for sensor Web technology In Ireland is selecting high-profile early-career-stage investigators that want to apply for a SIRG in the area of sensor networking. Applicants must have at least 3 years post-PhD experience and not more than eight years beyond their PhD. Grant holders will be based at UCD in Dublin.

The SFI (Science Foundation Research Grant )Starting Investigator Research Grant (SIRG) Programme provides an opportunity for excellent early-career-stage investigators to carry out independent research in the fields of science and engineering that underpin biotechnology, information and communications technology, and sustainable energy and energy-efficient technologies. The award also provides funding for a postgraduate student, who will be primarily supervised by the Starting Investigator (SI). The SI will work with an associated mentor, who will provide the necessary support and infrastructure for the project to take place. SIRG awards are up to €500,000 direct costs for a period of four years; up to 20 awards are expected to be funded through this Call.

For more information about the SIRG Eligibility criteria of the Applicant, please follow the link. Potential applicants should send their CV and a 1-page lobbying document about the research that they are willing to undertake to ruzzelli@ucd.ie with a subject “SIRG applicant” .

The UCD internal closing date for the call is 13:00 Friday 21st of November.

Building on its popular Imote2 advanced wireless sensor platform, Crossbow Technology announced today the new Imote2 Multimedia Board (IMB400), an integrated camera sensor board that simplifies the capture of rich media content for wireless sensor network applications.
“For the first time visual and audio data can be easily added to wireless sensor applications,” said Ralph Kling, Chief Architect for Crossbow Technology. “This opens up new possibilities for wireless sensor applications, including for example, surveillance, machine vision, object tracking, animal behavior surveys, and elder care monitoring in locations and environments that would otherwise be too costly to observe with traditional monitoring systems.”

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.