ioBridge, Inc. announced today that Microchip Technology Inc. selected ioBridge to be its first “Embedded Cloud” design partner. Embedded cloud technology allows products based on Microchip’s embedded control solutions to be Internet-connected via ioBridge firmware and protocols, to leverage ioBridge Internet services such as remote firmware upgrades, alerting, remote monitoring, and remote control via mobile apps.

“This design partnership with Microchip brings Internet of Things solutions to low-powered processors and embedded systems at a low-cost,” said Dr. Robert Mawrey, CEO of ioBridge. “Customers and developers looking to get to market quickly will benefit from having a seamless integration between embedded technology and cloud services.”

Since 2008, ioBridge has been selling patented Web gateways that incorporate Microchip’s devices and are used by thousands of customers to connect almost anything to the Internet. Applications are diverse, ranging from smart energy management to agricultural automation and monitoring. In recent years, ioBridge has successfully Internet enabled consumer products using Microchip’s embedded Wi-Fi® technology.

“We are thrilled to name ioBridge as Microchip’s very first Embedded Cloud Design Partner Specialist,” said Cheri Keller, senior manager of Microchip’s Design Partner Program. “The biggest challenge our clients face in cloud-enabling their products is bridging the gap between embedded design and IT professionals. ioBridge’s expertise in building Microchip-based Web gateways enables our clients to eliminate this hurdle and speed their time to market.”

To get started with your product design, contact ioBridge and we will get you to market quickly.

[via Microchip / eReleases]

The post Microchip Names ioBridge Its First Embedded Cloud Design Partner Specialist to Develop Internet of Things Solutions appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Will you commercialize on the next technology revolution or fall behind?  Recent reports estimate M2M will be a $1 Trillion industry by 2020.  Where are the opportunities and strategies for Entrepreneurs?  How will you embrace it for your business and thrive?  Does your startup focus on M2M?  Join us for our next forum where we will discuss this new frontier.

EntreTech Forum: The Internet of Things (aka Machine to Machine or M2M) – A new Frontier for Entrepreneurs
May 21, 2013 - 6:30 – 9:30 pm

Emerging Enterprise Center
Foley Hoag the Bay Colony Corporate Center
1000 Winter Street, Suite 4000 (North Entrance)
Waltham, MA

Register at Eventbright and view more information at EntreTechForum.org.

The post ioBridge Joins The EntreTech Forum, Next Topic is The Internet of Things – A New Frontier for Entrepreneurs appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

RealTime.io is a cloud platform for the Internet of Things. Everything is API driven and perfect for hardware developers and web developers. By providing API abstraction, developers are able to create prototype connected projects and transition to production products very quickly.

Adding cloud interactivity to a product is possible with an ioBridge Iota embedded wireless module, embedded firmware on your product, or via an ioBridge Gateway.

For more information about RealTime.io, view RealTime.io Documentation on ioBridge Connect.

The post RealTime.io IoT Platform Updates appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

“The geoweb connects the digital realm to physical location, through location-based services, hyperlocal media, digital out-of-home and augmented reality. Geoweb Forum is a community platform for pioneers in the emerging geoweb industry.”

Meet the Geoweb Summit Internet of Things Panel

Hans Scharler is the co-founder of ioBridge, an Internet of Things application platform that makes it simple and cost-effective to Internet-enable devices and products.

John Canosa is the General Manager for M2M at ThingWorx.

Chad Jones is Vice President Marketing and Product Management at Xively.

“We will be discussing our initiatives regarding the intersection of location-based services and the Internet of Things using our RealTime.io platform for real-time services,” said Hans Scharler, President, Software at ioBridge.

Registration for the Geoweb Summit is available at geowebsummit.com.

The post ioBridge Returns to the Geoweb Summit Internet of Things Panel on May 23 in NYC appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

We have exciting news for users and developers looking to build professional solutions for Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) applications. ioBridge released today the Gamma PRO Web Gateway and Wireless Endpoints for battery-powered, wireless sensor monitoring and control apps. These new products come with free ioBridge web services and mobile apps. The Gamma PRO Web Gateway with Wireless Endpoints are available now via the ioBridge Store.

“Our new products and features drastically lower the barrier to entry for professional and industrial applications that require low-cost, reliable, and secure performance to solve many M2M needs.”

New Features

In an effort to make our platform even easier to use, we have made it possible for users to create customizable dashboards and mobile interfaces for ioBridge and ioBridge PRO devices. This integration is available now at ioBridge.com/interface – all ioBridge and ioBridge PRO devices can be linked and registered to your ioBridge.com user account. This makes it really nice to have common dashboards, the ability to have devices send signals to each other, and make it simpler to manage as you add more devices.

One Dashboard for ioBridge and ioBridge PRO Devices

Don’t just monitor… introducing ioBridge Alerts.

Along with many other enhancements, we have added a new section for ioBridge Alerts. You now able to send ioBridge Alerts and see the latest alerts from the ioBridge Interface. We will soon be releasing an alerts widget so you can display alerts on your dashboard, mobile apps, or on a customized web app. Having your alerts displayed on the ioBridge Interface has the added benefit of making troubleshooting easier.

New Solutions

We consistently hear a need for battery-powered, wireless sensor and control solutions from our users, customers, and potential customers. We have spent a long time building a platform with our customers that addresses many professional application requirements. We are making our solutions low-cost and flexible enough for many solutions. So far users have built amazing solutions, including industrial garage door monitoring and control apps, pump and monitoring apps, remote sensor and environmental monitoring apps, water management systems, and agriculture control systems.

“Several of our professional customers have already built amazing, low-cost solutions for everything from tide level monitoring to water management in cities and towns.”

The Wireless Endpoints support battery operation of up to one year, solar charging circuit for Li-Poly battery packs, built-in temperature and humidity sensors, audio range testing, up to 1 mile operation using XBee-PRO radio modules, secure programming and pairing of XBee radios, latching control relay, and general support for external sensors.

Just think of what you can solve with having these new products and features available at a much lower-cost than competitive solutions but also have the ioBridge web services and mobiles apps included for free.

Contact us, visit our documentation site, or check out the ioBridge Store for more technical and purchasing information.

[via eReleases]

The post New Products and New Features = New Professional Solutions for Internet of Things and M2M Applications appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Twitter is full of weird stuff none of us ever notice because it mostly just looks like spam or nonsense. But if you look closely, as some have, you’ll find spies using Twitter to communicate with each other in code, environmental sensors broadcasting useful data, a toaster with 2,000 followers and an artificially intelligent chat-bot that debates deniers of climate change.

This is happening… We recommend that you also check out what is going on at MyRobots created by the robotic experts at RobotShop. MyRobots is a platform for robots powered by ThingSpeak, an open source platform for the Internet of Things created with ioBridge technology. To spur on robotic innovation, MyRobots is holding a cloud robotics hackathon April 6-14th, 2013.

[via Mashable / Quartz]

The post “The Future of Twitter Is Robots Tweeting at Each Other” appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

This might be a question that you have been asking lately as we all keep hearing more about smart things and connected devices. “Internet of Things” concepts were introduced to us over 10-15 years and have shifted from humble object tagging ideas to much more sophisticated concepts. We believe the Internet of Things is an ecosystem of devices and systems interacting with each other using the Internet on behalf of people. This interaction may produce automation systems, social entanglement with our objects, efficiency in systems, brand new product categories, and meaningful analytics.

Claudia Bracholdt of Quartz recently invited Robert Mawrey, CEO of ioBridge, to share our experience and view-point on the Internet of Things. In the following YouTube video, Robert discusses the Tweeting Toaster (@mytoaster) and demonstrates a smart plug that is able to be controlled by a smart phone and social interaction. The smart plug is powered by the ioBridge Iota Wi-Fi Module making anything smart and cloud-connected. Manufacturers use the Iota module or a reference design in many products when they are looking to build scalable, stable, and secure connected products and services.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vs_6QEu-tw

Using the ioBridge platform, known as RealTime.io (real-time input and output), users are able to build all kinds of interactions among things, people, and apps. RealTime.io provides social context such as Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare and system context with Email, back-end systems, weather systems, analytic processing, and voice services such as Twilio. Robert mentioned a “tweeting toaster” which tweets when it is in use. This was created over 5 years ago and has stirred up many conversations about connected objects. The idea is not to stop at this humorous example. We ask ourselves, “What does this mean?” and “What else can we do?” Knowing if a toaster is in use can tell us the power consumption of the appliance. What if this was not a toaster but a washer and dryer? You could get notified at laundry mat that your laundry is ready. Instead of a public output to Twitter, how about to sending notifications to phones. This could have been a medical device that is out of spec and alerts you that you need calibration or service and possibly do that calibration remotely.

What else could you do? How about building a smart city. This is exactly what Geosyntec did with the ioBridge platform and devices. Instead of reacting to Twitter, water systems in cities react to weather conditions read in from weather websites, remote locations, local sensors, and now have the ability to make real-time control decisions in determining how water is collected, routed, and used efficiently.

Again, the idea is to keep pushing the ideas further. With ioBridge, we make it possible to create all kinds of newly imagined ideas. Let’s keep the conversation going… Please contact us and see how we can work together and build amazing new things.

[via Quartz]

The post From Toasters to Smart Cities, See How ioBridge is Building the Internet of Things appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

[via Living Sustainably]

The post Monitoring Utility and Generator Power Sources appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

If you want to quantum leap into connected products, schedule a meeting with us at CES. Contact us and we would love to introduce our platform, technology, and strategy to you. We have developed first-of-their-kind, patented technologies – the building blocks for the Internet of Things that  include wired and wireless connectivity for devices, high-scale web platform technology, enterprise solutions, and mobile / social integration for things.

CES 2013 – International Consumer Electronics Show

Las Vegas Convention Center

January 8-11, 2013

The post Yes, ioBridge and the Internet of Things will be at CES appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ObS1Z82o2g

Congrats, Ryan! It’s great seeing an ioBridge project on TV mixed in with a movie marathon of The Christmas Story, football, and reruns of Seinfeld.

The post ioBridge Project by Ryan Rusnak Featured in Best Buy Commercial appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

We have the distinct honor of being nominated for an award. CheerLights has been nominated by Postscapes for the Best DIY Internet of Things project project for 2012. These are the 2nd annual Internet of Things Awards. Last year, we won for TideAlerts – our open network of tide level monitoring stations.

Please take a moment and vote for CheerLights and your favorite Internet of Things projects. Thanks!

[via Postscapes Internet of Things Awards 2012]

The post CheerLights Nominated for Best DIY Internet of Things Project appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Recently, the X10 interface modules manufactured by X10 were discontinued. We were able to get the last 25 that were in stock directly from X10. Then, we manufactured another 25 X10 Smart Boards to pair with the X10 interface modules. We are selling the X10 kits on the ioBridge Store and when we run out, we will not be able to manufacture more. We are looking at alternatives and also looking at supporting other home automation protocols such as INSTEON and many others. For more information on X10 Home Automation with ioBridge, check out the ioBridge + X10 App Note.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr-DkaWkK0o

ioBridge’s ioApp for Android and iPhone supports X10 Controls and will support future protocols. Leave a comment if you have any ideas on what to support next.

[via ioBridge Store]

The post X10 Home Automation with ioBridge Remote Control Apps appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

The latest update to ioApp (v1.1) includes the following new features:

• ioBridgePro.com Support
• Support for HTML App and Chart Widgets
• Landscape View

In our next update, we will add support for the tall iPhone 5 and iPod Touch screens. As always, feel free to post your questions or comments, in our Mobile Apps Forum on ioBridge Connect.

[via App Store]

The post ioApp for iPhone Now Supports ioBridge PRO Widgets, Update is Now Available appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

At one of the marinas, we have a security camera setup running off of an APC battery backup system. Here’s what really high tides look like.

Here’s another photo of a dock submerged under water:

The system is running an ioBridge Gateway with connected battery-powered sensors over an XBee radio network. The tide level sensors are MaxBotix ultrasonic level sensors. Check out the Technology Review article, Cape Cod is Tweeting, Thanks to the Internet of Things, for more information about our tide project or contact us.

[via TideAlerts.com]

The post Hurricane Sandy Tide Levels appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

“The geoweb connects the digital realm to physical location, through location-based services, hyperlocal media, digital out-of-home and augmented reality. Geoweb Forum is a community platform for pioneers in the emerging geoweb industry.”

Meet the Geoweb Summit Internet of Things Panel:

Hans Scharler is the co-founder of ioBridge, an Internet of Things application platform that makes it simple and cost-effective to Internet-enable devices and products.

Chaz Mee is co-founder and CEO of Brouha, an RFID based presence aware mobile marketing network.

Sheldon Reich is VP of Solutions at Cybra, the developer of EdgeMagic RFID control software and MarkMagic bar code labels, RFID tags, and electronic forms software.

Jack Mason is the strategic programs and social media leader at IBM Global Business Services.

“We will be discussing our initiatives regarding the intersection of location-based services and the Internet of Things using our RealTime.io platform for real-time services,” said Hans Scharler, President, Software at ioBridge.

Registration for the Geoweb Summit is available at geowebsummit.com.

The post ioBridge joins the Geoweb Summit Internet of Things Panel appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFxYjJ3R0e4

[via Instructables]

The post Raspberry Pi Smart Target #piday #raspberrypi appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

“This patent is an important example of how we are innovating and creating value for our customers and partners,” said Dr. Robert Mawrey, CEO of ioBridge, Inc. ”Our technology opens up a whole world of possibilities. Interactive toys, healthcare devices, and traditional M2M applications are taking advantage of low-cost connectivity and cloud services. This is a very exciting time for ioBridge and its partners.”

[via GlobeNewswire]

The post ioBridge Issued Patent for Connecting Devices to the Internet appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

A special thanks to all of the beta testers on the new app!

Download ioApp via Google Play and access your ioBridge widgets today. Check out our mobile apps product page for more apps.

The post ioApp is now on Google Play for Android Devices appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

What I have created is a socially aware Elmo toy. Instead of tickling Elmo, you Twitter him or Like his Facebook page to get him going. Interestingly enough, Elmo has over 3.6 million likes on Facebook. And, he gets a few likes every minute (trust me I have been tracking him for weeks). The experiment that we are running is what will happen at the Maker Faire. We have written a RealTime.io plugin for ioBridge that is tuned into things, location, and the social graph using Facebook’s API. We are excited to see what will happen at the Maker Faire when makers from all over Pittsburgh come together with their location-aware devices and Facebook accounts. Visitors to the ioBridge demo area will be able to Like Elmo via a QR code. If the graph of you, us, Elmo, the location, and/or your friends all line up, Elmo will get activated in real-time. Elmo has an infectious laugh and we’ve got hear him start singing quite a few times this week.

As our things generate more data, we hope to keep pushing the limits and find meaning. Connections are forming and how we find about what are things know, “who is at the house,” and “if my basement is flooded” will be told to us like other info that we find out about our friends on the Twitter stream or the Facebook news feed or our Google Circles. In fact our friends on our graph may find out before we do.

The post The Social Graph + The Internet of Things appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

The Pittsburgh Maker Faire is presented by our friends at HackPittsburgh and the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, and starts at 10am on Saturday, September 22 at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. We will be sharing photos and updates in real-time on Twitter and Facebook. We look forward to seeing you there!

The post Pittsburgh Maker Faire 2012 appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

“The Geiger-Muller tube is rated to detect alpha, beta and gamma particles.  This means that while it can be used for local testing of radiation, it should also be able to detect astronomical events such as the radiation from solar flares.  So I interfaced it to the web using a spare port on one of my ioBridges so that I could see charts of radiation over a 24 hour and 7 day period.”

The normal “clicks-per-minute” is 9-12 in his location in the United States. But, one day the radiation level jumped to over 20 CPM! The unexpected jump in radiation was due to a coronal mass ejection (CME) which is better known as a solar flare. Sure enough, there was a reported solar flare that coincided perfectly with the data collected by his Geiger counter.

For more information this project, visit Guy’s website where you can check out the live radiation levels in Maine from his Internet-conencted Geiger Counter.

The post Internet-connected Geiger Counter Happens to Detect Solar Flares appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

And!

Make sure you are listening to The Peggy Smedley Show for the latest in M2M and emerging connected technology. On a recent episode, Peggy covers “Hot Summer Gadgets” and discusses the iAquaLink with her co-host Mike Carrozzo. As with all episodes, Peggy dives into the space we are working so hard to advance and it’s great to hear about one of our customer’s products on the show. Check out the Hot Summer Gadgets segment on The Peggy Smedley Show.

The post iAquaLink Featured in Connected World and on The Peggy Smedley Show appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Technometria is a podcast dedicated to conversations about Web 2.0, programming and software development, open source, identity, new media, enterprise computing, and the emerging Internet of Things. We recommend that you check it out for other great interviews and discussions on the topics and near and dear to our hearts.

We got a chance to talk with Phil and Scott about the Internet of Things, the ioBridge origin story, our platform, our projects, and our amazing customers. I hope you enjoying hearing the story that we created together. Thanks to all of you!

[via ITConversations]

The post ioBridge Founders on ITConversations Podcast appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

YOU have a chance now to help make the decisions involving Accessibility, Timeliness, Privacy, Control, and Licensing by being involved in the Internet of Things Bill of Rights spearheaded by the Open Internet of Things Assembly. Internet of Things is important and has an impact over privacy and many parts of our lives. Unlike social networking, we have a chance to get privacy and openness right before a few companies make the decisions for you.

Open Internet of Things Assembly is assembling for the first meeting June 16-17, 2012 in London. The Bill of Rights 2.0 document will be finalized at the assembly. It will be a great event and features an amazing lineup of speakers, panels, and keynotes including Adam Greenfield – Urbanscale, Rob van Kranenburg – The Council, Laura James – Makespace Cambridge, Russell Davies – HistoryTag, Usman Haque – Cosm, and Gavin Starks – AMEE.

ioBridge is pleased to announce that we are sponsoring the inaugural Open Internet of Things Assembly. We believe initiatives like this will help shape the future of the space we know and love. This is going to be a great event and also shows how amazing the Internet of Things community is. It’s awesome to see events and initiatives like this emerging and seeing people contributing and taking control.

Follow the Open Internet of Things Assembly on Twitter and contribute on their website.

The post Open Internet of Things Assembly 2012 appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Nik’s Bumblebee Project started off in 2011 with the goal of getting to know these amazing, social creatures. As he learned more, he found that the bees documented behavioral patterns were different from observed behavioral patterns due to climate change and unusual weather conditions. Nik observed countless hours of camera footage and discovered that the Queen’s hibernation schedule has been completely disrupted leading to disaster of new bumblebees and subsequent pollination which is critical to our food supply. There are many reports of a decline in pollination and is of global significance.

Earlier this year, Nik added sensors and a gateway from ioBridge to help automate and collect more data generated by these busy bees. The bee boxes now monitor temperature, track movement, count bees, and provide real-time feedback from the bumblebees by being connected to the cloud. The project looks to be evolving as new sensors and ideas will be incorporated over time.

“ioBridge is a big step forward in allowing us to automate and correlate environmental and activity data without resorting to manual CCTV analysis,” said Nik in an email interview. “It gives us the freedom not only to view and collect the data from anywhere remotely,  but also share it and tweet it – again helping to raise awareness.”

Nik was able to capture a photo of the first tweet triggered by a Bumblebee.

And, here’s what she said…

We were so happy to find out about this project. We didn’t know much about Bumblebees and learned a lot by following Nik’s project. Thanks for sharing and we hope to do our part to help raise awareness of the global impact and never ending curiosity that bumblebees generate.

To get more info about the Bumblebee Project visit LoveBumbl.es and follow the project on Twitter.

The post Connected Bumblebees: Use Twitter to Follow Bees #buzzisback appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

“If consumers try something connected, they will try another,” said Hans Scharler, co-founder of ioBridge. “For example, if you could open your garage door from a mobile phone, then controlling a light is right around the corner. But, the same consumer will not make a major overhaul of his or her house all at once. A connected world could potentially be much more than home automation, but it will take a series of little wins to get there.”

We believe that it will take a lot of small steps and small ideas to help push along the Internet of Things. Already a lot has happened since Jason Winters and I founded ioBridge, Inc. in 2008. We operated the very first server from Jason’s house and quickly grew to customers in over 40 countries with many servers in the US and Europe. We had big ideas for lots of markets and knew early on that we needed to partner with companies to bring out next-generation products and services. We were fortunate that our early customers wanted to invest in us by sharing great ideas and working together on new things. Our goal remains to make connected devices easy, fun, and practical for tinkerers and manufacturers alike.

First ioBridge Prototype

This little guy, called the IO-100, was our first connected gizmo that could monitor and control anything that you hooked up to it over the Internet. Does that sound familiar?

We look forward to the new things to come and seeing what people dream up next as the Internet of Things emerges.

[via Connect World Magazine]

The post Small Steps Lead to Big (Connected) Things appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

ioApp is a mobile app created by ioBridge to access your ioBridge Widgets right from an iPhone or iPod Touch. All you have to get started with ioApp is create widgets at ioBridge.com, then run ioApp on your smart device. ioApp works with Button, Switch, Value, and State widget types. Android app is coming soon.

If you are new to ioBridge and wondering how to get started with ioApp, we have also created a video tutorial that walks you step-by-step. At the end of the tutorial, you will be monitoring your outside temperature right on your mobile device. View the complete ioApp tutorial on ioBridge Connect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6X8ikoFbR4

We look forward to your feedback, so feel free to chime in on our forum.

The post ioApp — iPhone App for ioBridge Widgets is Now Available appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Here’s a quick video introduction linked by Carecraft pool builders and retailers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np5ZaUU3ltk

Zodiac contacted us about creating a remote monitoring and control device for their pool and spa control systems. We worked with their engineering and marketing team to create a new product that incorporates Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, and RS-485 connectivity. We also extended our web services, created an API, and provided a streaming interface to monitor and control over 100k pool and spa systems efficiently. All of our combined efforts resulted in a highly secure, real-time, connected product that is targeted to pool professionals and consumers.

The pool and spa industry is highly competitive. By adding Internet-connectivity and many new features, companies like Zodiac are able to maintain their competitive edge. “It’s critically important to Zodiac and our Jandy Controls business to maintain our reputation for highly dependable, intuitive pool and spa automation,” said David Goldman, Director of Product Development at Zodiac. “We’re delighted to raise the bar yet again by incorporating ioBridge’s technology.”

And, we are thrilled as well to be working with innovative partners like Zodiac. We have many other projects like this going on under the hood and we love being able to share this one with you.

“We are extremely proud to have been chosen by Zodiac to provide connectivity technology for their new iAquaLink intelligent pool control system,” said Dr. Robert Mawrey, CEO of ioBridge. “The flexibility and accessibility of the ioBridge platform allows companies to enhance the value of their products. We believe that the iAquaLink is a wonderful example of an Internet-enabled product and that it provides a competitive edge that sets Zodiac apart from other pool and spa control system providers.”

Visit http://www.ioBridge.com for more applications and information on how ioBridge works with manufactures such as Zodiac.

[via ioBridge Press Release]

The post ioBridge Provides Web Connectivity Technology and Cloud Services for Pool Control Systems appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Last month Powercast put a live demo of their remote monitoring in the cloud solution on their website.  The layout below displays various Temperature, Humidity, Light and Carbon Dioxide sensors at different locations throughout the Powercast headquarters.

This is a great example of how ioBridge technology can be the missing piece of the puzzle in someone else’s solution.  We are seeing a growing level of interest from solution providers like Powercast that have their own existing technology, customers and applications.  We love these types of partnerships where our cloud connecting technology makes their solutions better and easier to manage.

The post Powercast and ioBridge Partner to Create Cloud-connected Wireless Sensor Networks appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

In a recent white paper written by Cisco they state that the compounded annual growth rate of mobile M2M devices from 2011 – 2016 will be 42% going while the traffic growth rate will be 86%.  From 2011 to 2016 that 86% compounded annual growth rate yields a 22x increase in traffic.   All that traffic adds up to 508,022 terabytes per month in 2016.

Where is all this growth coming?

Internet of Things of course!  All those pet feeders and tweeting toasters are going to eat up the world’s bandwidth.  Okay, maybe not, but on a more serious note big industries are making large moves in the M2M space.

Cellular communication between objects, machines, or sensors has led to the growth of M2M connections. These connections are in the form of smart metering, business and consumer surveillance, inventory management, fleet management, and healthcare modules, all of which are designed for operational excellence. M2M technologies are being used across a broad spectrum of industries. As real-time information monitoring is helping companies to deploy new video-based security systems and hospitals and helping healthcare professionals to remotely monitor the progress of their patients, bandwidth-intensive M2M connections become more prevalent. Traditional appliances and devices, such as home appliances, vehicles, energy meters, and vending machines-which traditionally have not been connected directly to cellular networks-are now entering the network.

What is ioBridge’s take on this?

At ioBridge, we see the same trends.  Practically everyday we talk to prospective clients on new applications for mobile connected things and how we can help complete their vision.  The examples listed above have been well-known for years and will be a substantial part of the growth.  What we are excited about are the applications people haven’t thought of yet and how they will affect these numbers.

We also see the increase in bandwidth usage.  Plain and simple, we see the desire for more types of data and in greater frequency.  More data than just a temperature and a power reading.  Video, voice, images and arrays of sensors painting pictures with a much broader brush.  This is a much larger influx of data plus everything out there being more chatty to give more data resolution.  All of this contributing to one of the other recent trends we’ve discussed in Big Data.

The post Cisco Reports Mobile Internet of Things Traffic to Grow 22x from 2011 to 2016 appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

What is Big Data?

The Wikipedia says:

Big data is a term applied to data sets whose size is beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time. Big data sizes are a constantly moving target currently ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petabytes of data in a single data set.

What does this have to do with the Internet of Things?

Well, in short it has a lot to do with the Internet of Things.  In a recent article in the NY Times called The Age of Big Data  the Internet of Things is mentioned as playing a major contributing role to Big Data.

There is a lot more data, all the time, growing at 50 percent a year, or more than doubling every two years, estimates IDC, a technology research firm. It’s not just more streams of data, but entirely new ones. For example, there are now countless digital sensors worldwide in industrial equipment, automobiles, electrical meters and shipping crates. They can measure and communicate location, movement, vibration, temperature, humidity, even chemical changes in the air.

Link these communicating sensors to computing intelligence and you see the rise of what is called the Internet of Things or the Industrial Internet.

What is ioBridge’s take on Big Data?

One major part of our product and services is being a repository and gatherer for all this “Big Data”.   We agree the data is growing, but based on what we’ve seen here at ioBridge we think it is growing a lot faster than 50% per year.  We know how important the data is to our customers, which is why we’ve build our product to be rock solid in gathering the data and never missing a “sensor” beat.

So what is going to happen with all this “Big Data”?

All that data is the foundation for intelligent decision making.  One way to look at it is without the data all the things you see labeled as “Smart” really don’t have much information to figure out what the smart thing to do is.

At this point it is up to our clients to figure out what they can do with the data, but in the near future we can see playing a part in providing tools to help them discover more things about their data.

The post Big Data’s Relationship with The Internet of Things appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Smart-Vegetable Garden (Panasonic)  

Four leaf vegetables can be grown in one so-called “Smart Vegetable Garden” (which is sized at 100x50x30cm) at the same time, with Panasonic claiming that owners can expect to harvest them in about 40 days – 30% less than using conventional methods. Apart from saving time, the device also integrates a cloud-based management system to track growth, for example by automatically screening the level of water and nutrients, or the temperature.

You have to admit, that is pretty cool.  I’m not sure if I’m down with the almost $8k price tag, but monitoring and tracking the growth from the internet is a pretty sweet.

Connected Cars (Mercedes, Audi, Ford) 

As each year passes, the connected car makes more of a noise at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. This year several car manufacturers were touting new features, including Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Audi. The term “connected car” refers to the integration of smartphone apps and content into the car. Typically this is done via the car’s dashboard, enabling you to listen to online music, access Web data, stream video to the car’s passengers and more. In this post we’ll look at three such systems: Ford Sync, Mercedes-Benz mbrace2 and Audi Connect.

My favorite out of these is the Ford integration with the new Focus Electric.  If I had an electric car, I’d want all that information on tap.  Check out the demo from CES.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Yj2WQL3n8

Health Monitoring (MyBasis)

The world’s first connected health and heart rate monitor wearable on the wrist. A multi-sensor band collects data like heart rate, calories burned, physical activity and sleep patterns and links to a personal online dashboard.

There have been a few other competitors in this space but this is the first one I’ve seen that collects heart rate.  I’m a bit skeptical on how good it can be, because in my own experience the only way to get a consistent heart rate reading is by wearing one of those uncomfortable chest straps.  If they can do it well it could be a product I’d be personally interested in.

Twittering Tree (Ericsson)

 …a tweeting tree that was equipped with sensors to automatically send out Twitter messages when its leaves were stroked. But most impressive was the live demonstration of “capacitive coupling,” which transferred a digital photograph electronically through Vestberg’s body, from the phone in his left hand to the workstation he was touching with his right.  (From Mashable)

Internet connected demos like tweeting trees, toasters and Donkey Kong toys are becoming quite the trend of the showroom floors / demo pits. (Warning:  Shameless plug on our own blog) Crowd pleasing internet-enabled, inanimate objects are so much easier to do these days with things like ioBridge.

The post Internet of Things at CES 2012 appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

“Soon, I will be able connect to the robots in my home, and MyRobots will provide me with their current status such as if all is well, they have a problem or even if they require maintenance. MyRobots will inform me in real-time of any action I need to take, thus facilitating the coexistence and communication between mankind and these increasingly intelligent machines.” -Mario Tremblay, RobotShop CEO

Internet of Things Scale

Social networking services like Twitter process over 200 million Tweets a day and when everyday objects and robots come online in the way that we see it, this number will be crushed. RobotShop built their new platform on top of ThingSpeak which is a highly scalable infrastructure for the Internet of Things created by ioBridge. ThingSpeak is open source and enables devices to interact with social networks, store data, send status updates, and track location all in real-time.

“We are excited that RobotShop selected ThingSpeak as the platform on which to build their innovative MyRobots portal. ThingSpeak is ioBridge’s open source Internet of Things cloud service. This partnership goes hand-in-hand with ioBridge’s vision of helping people benefit from being able to interact with a community of smart things” -Dr. Robert Mawrey, ioBridge CEO

MyRobots Platform

RobotShop’s domain knowledge is robots. By taking their passion for robots and pushing their ideas, they will make it very easy for robot manufactures to add the cloud, add engagement, and draw in consumers. They are well positioned with their knowledge and love of all things robot to create a successful cloud robotics platform that makes it look easy on the outside, while doing the heavy lifting on the inside.

‘Open’ for Business

MyRobots leveraged ThingSpeak to provide their platform an instant API. APIs are a way that developers can extend and interact with your system and come up with new things that you may not have originally planned for. Opening up APIs, providing source code, and letting others access data, will generate a new crop of users and ideas. And, new ideas are what the Internet of Things needs to be successful or we will see the momentum die out like we saw home automation die out 12 years ago.

In the article, “The Google Rush Toward Internet of Things”, Dana Blankenhorn, says “An open API would enable start-ups like Thingworx, for instance, bring electric utilities to the party. It lets companies like ioBridge bring cloud robotics to the party.” And, we agree. We could not have predicted that Roomba’s and robots would be using our technology to interact with each other. This is the awesome side effect of being ‘open’ for business and we are so thrilled that RobotShop brought a new idea to the table.

[via ioBridge / RobotShop Press Releases]

The post Robots Interact on MyRobots, a Social Network for Robots appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqi28Qcvvdg

“It’s a way to connect physical things with social networking experiences. We are all connected.” -CheerLights

Colors from Twitter are processed via ioBridge’s Internet of Things Platform called ThingSpeak. ThingSpeak is a suite of apps to make things social and interact with each other and social networks. CheerLights takes advantage of the TweetControl app. This app can be used to monitor Twitter and then send a control signal to anything that supports HTTP like thermostats, ioBridge X10 Home Automation gear, kid’s toys, interactive trade show displays… and whatever you come up with next.

[via iDigi / My Web of Things]

The post Socially Aware Lights, Now Wireless with XBee and ioBridge appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

The article in Scientific American and Fast Company titled How the “Internet of Things” Is Turning Cities Into Living Organism talks about how this solution is a great example of using “Internet of Things” to immediately affect the environments we live in. I especially enjoyed the analogy of the sensors in the city being the “virtual nervous system”.

“By using the Internet to connect real-world sensors and control mechanisms to cloud-based control systems that can pull in streams from any other data source, including weather reports, these efforts enable conservation and money-saving measures that would have been impossible without this virtual nervous system.”

(Even Chris Anderson of Wired / The Long Tail gave this definition of the Internet of Things a ringing endorsement.)

Why this is BIG for the Internet of Things

I feel like this is all just the tip of the iceberg for the “Internet of Things”.  Solving problems like stormwater management are proving that the “Internet of Things” has a big part in solving real world problems, not just tweeting toasters.

Here’s a recipe:

1) Existing data / trends / models (i.e. weather, tides, sunlight)

2) Real time data (i.e. temperature, pressure, humidity, light)

3) “Things” that need to be controlled (i.e. fans, valves, motors)

4) Platforms for the “Internet of Things” (like what ioBridge makes)

Take a few parts real-time data analysis with existing data / trends / model, decide how and when the things that need to be controlled should function, then mix moderately with a platform for the “Internet of Things”.  What can it be used for?  This recipe goes well with agriculture, infrastructure, energy, water…   In the end you’ll have a way to solve many large real-time problems.

As you can see, most of the components 1-3 have already existed for years.  It is the recent emergence of platforms for the “Internet of Things” that provides that last mile to connect it all together and makes  automatically solving real problems in real-time a reality.

Yeah… It’s kind of a big deal.

[via Scientific American / Fast Company / Wall Street Journal ]

The post Stormwater Management and Why it’s Big for the Internet of Things appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Here is a video introduction to CheerLights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqi28Qcvvdg

To join the CheerLights project all you have to is build a controller that subscribes to the “cheerlights” keyword, receives the latest color command, and sets the color on your lights. So, when you see the color change know that the color it is now changing all across the world. Instructions on how to build your own physical controller are based around GE G-35 Color Effects Lights and the ioBridge IO-204, ConnectPort X2, or Arduino Ethernet.

The last color processed by CheerLights is accessed through the CheerLights Channel hosted on ThingSpeak. With that data you could this a lot further and build all sorts of applications that read in that color value and do something with it. Your application could be an Android widget that shows the latest color, a set of Christmas lights, ambient orb, or dynamically setting the background color of a website.

ioBridge has been working on a way to distribute a command from a social network and distribute to thousands of end points in real-time – a many to many issue. The technology behind CheerLights paves the way for an alert system that could cascade across the globe.

[via CheerLights.com]

The post CheerLights: a social network of lights appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

If you say, “Siri I’m cold”, the iPhone sends a command to the ioBridge API to turn on the furnace. Siri warmly replies, “Lighting the fire place, this is cozy.” What is really neat is how the interface is voice commands, but the language is natural.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhc7SKli4M4

Here are some other home automation commands demonstrated in the video:

• Siri turn on the Christmas lights
• Siri turn on the living room lamp
• Siri turn off everything

Markt makes use of SiriProxy to intercept commands spoken at Siri and reroute them to the ioBridge API to control the X10 widgets connected to the ioBridge IO-204. For more information about the project, visit Mark’s blog for a detailed description and things that you need to make your own voice activated home automation system.

[via MarkHodder.com]

The post Voice Activated Home Automation with Siri and ioBridge appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

First I’d like to give a thank you to all the attendees of ioBridge’s DCWEEK Internet of Things Workshop.  It was a great turnout even though it was one of the last events of a long week.

We accomplished all of our goals:

1. Explain to people what the “Internet of Things” is
2. Have everyone realize where it is in their everyday lives
3. Understand just how BIG it is going to be
4. Get people to experiment first hand with IoT
5. Get involved with the Washington, DC tech scene and contribute to DCWEEK 2011
6. Get people giddy like school children when they are controlling their own “Things” on the Internet!

All the attendees were very involved in the presentation.  It was great to see the wheels start to turn as they learned about basic digital and analog inputs/outputs.  Once they understood those concepts they started to see how seemingly complex devices like a touch screen could be broken down in to it’s basic inputs and outputs.

The hands on part of the workshop was very rewarding and we thought everyone had a lot of fun.  We brought ioBridge Dev Kits that include IO-204 and multiple buzzers, temperature sensors, buttons, servo motors and LCD screens for the attendees to play with.  Four separate groups got to go through the module setup process and begin interacting with their items through the Internet.  Once they got that down, it started to get a little creative.

One group used a combination of the temperature sensor and the buzzer to have a buzzer go off when a certain temperature was reached.  They monitored all the inputs and outputs right from the Internet.  Another group took it a step further and had their IO-204 tweet once a certain temperature was reached.  Once they got that down, they used a simple button to trigger a tweet.  Sort of like a motion detector tweeting when someone came into a room.

Here are some of the photos of everyone in action:

The post Successful Internet of Things DCWEEK Workshop appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

This made me think back at how far ioBridge has come and where they were at that time.  The funny thing about it is the technology they are simulating could have just as well be using an ioBridge module.  Public access for internet users to control things in their house was something only super geeks could do at that time.  At the time this episode aired ioBridge only had a working prototype of public internet interactivity with Jason’s original fishcam that open and closed a gator’s mouth in his fish tank.

Obviously ioBridge has come a long way since that prototype, but it’s interesting to see how the ideas have been bouncing around for years but only now is it starting to get the attention where the number of Internet of Things devices now and in the future are in frequent conversations.

For your viewing pleasure I was able to find it on my search through YouTube and wanted to share it with all the Internet of Things fans out there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kzjqBacF1k

The post Internet of Things on Big Bang Theory appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Here are the episode links:

11/1/11 — Episode 163 — The Peggy Smedley Show

• Segment No. 1 — M2M News and Updates: Becoming Context-Aware and Internet of Things. Featuring Peggy Smedley, host of The Peggy Smedley Show.
• Segment No. 2 — M2M Solutions: Building an Internet of Things. Featuring Hans Scharler, cofounder, ioBridge.
• Segment No. 3 — The Business of M2M: Long-Term M2M Players. Featuring Marc Petock, vice president of global marketing and communications, Tridium.
• Segment No. 4 — M2M in Action: Behavioral Change. Featuring Featuring Peggy Smedley, and Mike Carrozzo, chief editor of Connected World magazine.

The post ‘Building an Internet of Things’ on The Peggy Smedley Show appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

ioBridge is pleased to be a part of the schedule at DCWEEK. Hans Scharler is running a 4 hour workshop focused on the Internet of Things. Internet of Things is a perfect fit for the audience at DCWEEK, as this field needs highly creative people from all fields thinking about how connected devices and applications will affect our daily lives. This is your chance to ask questions, learn about the latest trends, figure out business models, and dig deeper into the Internet of Things. This workshop is open to anyone, please check the workshop information at DigitalCapitalWeek.org.

The Internet of Things is emerging. This is the idea of connecting things to the Web. There are already more things connected to the Web than people. Things like mobile phones, health monitors, and power meters are all connected and are very useful because of the connectivity. The Internet of Things Workshop at DCWEEK is a combination of experimentation and conversation. We will cover the concepts behind building connected products and applications, business models, and trends. The goal is to brainstorm and create new ideas for the Internet of Things.

DCWEEK Internet of Things Workshop
November 11, 2011
1pm

Artisphere [directions]
TERRACE GALLERY
1101 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22209

The post DCWEEK Internet of Things Workshop appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

About The Peggy Smedley Show

The Peggy Smedley Show, the voice of M2M and connected devices, is an informative, yet fun, talk show hosted by Peggy Smedley, president of Specialty Publishing Co. The show broadcasts live for one hour each Tuesday at 12 noon CT. The Peggy Smedley Show features discussions with top newsmakers and technology companies, as well as in-depth analysis of the week’s biggest connected devices stories and trends.

The post The Peggy Smedley Show, Connected World Podcast appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Josh had some clear goals to ensure that the breast milk was stored properly:

1. Know the real-time temperature of the freezer
2. Send alerts if temperatures get too warm
3. Monitor the state of power at our home
4. Send alerts if power is out

In this case, adding some remote monitoring smarts to the otherwise “dumb” freezer, is the perfect solution. Josh ran a temperature probe into the freezer and connected it to a channel on the ioBridge Io-204 web gateway. On ioBridge.com, he created a data log to monitor the temperature of the freezer and set an email alert for the temperature required to store breast milk for an extended period of time. Josh also connected the Io-204 to the same power source as the freezer, so that if power was lost to the freezer it would also be lost the IO-204. ioBridge tracks whether these devices are connected, so that you can monitor their Online / Offline status. Josh cleverly connected an API call to the device to a site monitoring service and now is able to monitor the up time of his freezer just like monitoring the up time of a server.

The Internet of Things is in its infancy, but it can be very practical despite the recent articles referring to the number of devices to impress upon us just the sheer volume. To us it’s all about finding useful applications and introducing them to consumers to find our early majority product and service. We believe in and see a connected future, but we want it to be so useful that people don’t have to think about the technology. Like when you are using an iPad, are you concerned over capacitive touch technology or that it’s really easy to play games? Maybe by the time Josh’s baby grows up and enters college, the Internet of Things will be as common place and transparent as indoor plumbing.

Check out Josh’s blog for more details on setting up his breast milk monitoring system using ioBridge and a bonus project on using the Edimax Nanorouter to add Wi-Fi to the ioBridge IO-204 Monitor and Control Module.

[via MojoHo.com]

The post Breast Milk Storage, Real-time Freezer Monitoring appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

At first thought, I thought 24 billion devices by 2020 was a stretch.  Then I realize how many internet devices I already have.  It is probably just me, but the first thing that comes to mind when I think IoT (Internet of Things) are things like home appliances.  Refrigerators, HVAC systems, and power meters… all things I think of as “things”.  IoT is much broader than that.  Stop and think for a minute of how many internet connected things/devices you have.

Here’s mine:

1. Playstation 3
2. Wii
3. Skype Handset
4. Wireless Verizon router
5. Verizon DVR
6. Android Phone
7. Wife’s Phone
8. iPad
9. nano router
10. laptop #1
11. laptop #2
12. laptop #3
13. laptop #4
14. desktop
15. vm server
16. ioBridge IO-204
17. Kindle
18. Nintendo DS
19. Printer
20. My old HTC WinMo phone

The post Internet of Things to have 24 Billion Devices by 2020 (I’ve got 20 right now) appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rwsuXHA7RA

[via I am ShadowLord]

The post Thank You, Steve Jobs appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Perl + CGI changed the Internet back in the mid-90′s. This combo was the catalyst for the creation of dynamic web applications and paved the way for the “Web 2.0″. The next big movement is the Internet of Things. This is where web applications mash-up with sensors, devices, appliances, power meters, mobile phone, and social networking to form new applications. Perl sits in a great spot to “Script Things”. Perl is a high-level language that has the ability to interface with any API, server, back-end, and new things that come its way. This is often why Perl gets called the “Duct tape of the Internet”. Last year, Hans Scharler, of ioBridge, created a thermostat that regulates itself based on his location on Google Latitude. The scripting was all done in Perl and interfaced with ioBridge’s API to control the thermostat. A lot of new applications are possible.

Hans will return to PPW and hold a new session called Scripting Things. The idea behind this session is to start with the basics. You will learn about Digital I/O, Analog Values, Serial Data, and Web APIs. All of these topics are things that we take for granted and assume that everyone knows about. You will also learn how to pull everything together with Perl and scripting languages. The target audience is anyone looking to learn how to get started with the Internet of Things and create mashups with real-life things with virtual things.

Injunction with PPW, ioBridge will also be hosting an all day long Hardware Workshop at CMU on October 8, so you can apply your new knowledge right-away. The only thing you need to bring is your imagination. Everything else will be provided — sensors, hardware, Arduino boards, ioBridge modules, buttons, and LEDs. The location is on the 6th Floor of the Gates Hillman Complex right on the Carnegie Mellon Campus and is open to everyone. We look forward to seeing what you will create and/or inspire for the future of the Web of Things.

The Pittsburgh Perl Workshop
October 8–9, 2010

Carnegie Mellon University
Gates Hillman Complex
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

The post Learn to “Script Things” during Perl Workshop at Carnegie Mellon University appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

While at Remote Expo, we were able to grab some bits of video so that you could see our booth setup and see one of our consumer product demonstrations. One of our exhibits was a web-enabled garage door opener, designed for one of our customers, that features real-time control, integrated video feedback, and mobile and web application control. Here’s a quick video from Remote Monitoring & Control 2011 with introduction and demonstration by our CEO, Dr. Robert Mawrey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUx-q0zh7ZA

Thanks to everyone that stopped by and thanks to the organizers for such a successful event! We enjoyed our visit to Nashville and look forward to working with the many people that we met at Remote 2011.

The post ioBridge at Remote Monitoring and Control 2011 [video] appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Stop by and meet the ioBridge team and pick up your free gift!

Here are the key subject areas for Remote Monitoring & Control 2011:

• SCADA and Data Acquisition
• Remote Networking Technology
• New Wireless Technologies
• Sensors for Monitoring and Management
• Condition and Equipment Monitoring
• Adapting and Upgrading Existing Networks
• Network Configuration and Design
• Industrial Control and Automation
• Telemetry
• Security Solutions (cyber and physical)
• Device Equipment Networking and Management
• Standby and Backup Power Systems
• Site and Security Access Control
• Solar/ Photovoltaic Energy Systems
• Fuel Cells
• Monitoring & Control of Mission Critical Assets
• Standalone Distributed Power
• Small-Scale Cogeneration
• Power Protection/Reliability Systems
• 24/7 and Remote Monitoring
• Testing & Maintenance
• Standards (ISA, NERC/FERC, IEC, DNP3, etc.)

So, as you can see, there is a little bit for everyone that’s looking to build next generation remote monitor and control applications. We hope to see you there!

Remote Monitoring & Control 2011 [info]

September 20-21

Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center [map]
2800 Opryland Drive
Nashville, TN 37214

The post ioBridge Exhibiting at Remote Monitor & Control 2011 appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

Ryan released the beer cannon around New Years 2011, and since then, he has captured the imaginations of TV producers behind great shows on the Science Channel, Discovery, and The History Channel. The producers were creating a new series called, JUNKies for the Science Channel, where people turn junk into new things. They wanted to recreate Ryan’s mini-fridge beer cannon as part of one of the episodes. Hopefully, this episode will introduce the mainstream into Internet-control of things and inspire a whole new crop of innovations.

The “beer cannon” episode of JUNKies premieres on the Science Channel on September 8, 2011 at 10pm (EST). For more information about JUNKies, visit the Science Channel website.

Congrats, Ryan!

The post ioBridge Powered Beer Cannon Featured on Science Channel appeared first on ioBridge Blog.

To use the new gauge widget, create an Analog Input Widget, External Monitor Widget, or Expression Widget, and select “Gauge” under the style option.

The post New Gauge Widgets for Displaying Sensor Data appeared first on ioBridge Blog.