Friday, October 16, 2009
What's New? The Wearable MoveIT Senspod: 6 Axis Wireless 3D Motion Applications, from Sensaris
This looks like it will support the transmedia 2.0 applications of the future:
Sensaris Introduces 6 Axis MoveIT Sensor for Wireless 3D Motion Applications
Here is the PR information from Sensaris:
"It's your body that is alive and kicking, not your mobile phone.This pocket size Blutooth enabled Senspod tracks motion sesing information in real time...The sensor is one of the smallest commercially available wireless unit packed with high sampling rate 3 axis accelerometer, 3 axis gyroscope and GPS. The built-in Bluetooth EDR radio makes it the ideal mobile phone or PC companion."
"Its credit card size and light weight enable a wide spectrum of daily life uses as it leaves complete freedom of movement while simultaneously measuring speed, acceleration, rotation, twist, distance and position. Place the MoveIt Senspod on objects or on your body to optimize your own sports performance, explore augmented reality or challenge your friends in new urban games."
"Data exploitation for online/offline analysis, coaching or even social network based challenges is done using web technologies. The provided API and platform independent SDK lets programmers develop innovative consumer applications in their favorite environment to quickly bring them to market. By just requiring a Bluetooth serial profile, the MoveIt is compatible with a very wide installed base of mobile devices."
SENSNET SOFTWARE PLATFORM
Sensaris is located in Crolles, France, and was previously known as Cyberfab. It has a history of nearly 10 years in the sensor development business. Sensaris sensors are used in mobile biomedical health applications.
RELATED
MoveIT Brochure (pdf) "Movement the way it is supposed to be"
City Senspod Brochure (pdf)
Sensopod Base Brochure (pdf) "Connect your senses to the Web".
Leonardo (pdf) "Lets you plug analog of digital elements to the Senspod Motherboard"
SensNet User Manual (pdf)
Sensaris Unveils New Technology for Real Time Noise and Air Quality Monitoring over Mobile Internet
Friday, June 5, 2009
Ubiquitous Technologies: RTLS & Wireless Sensor Networks Summit
The RTLS & Wireless Sensor Networks Summit will be held November 3-4 in Denver, Colorado. If you are interested in ubiquitous technologies, it looks like this will be an important event.
"Reflecting the development of wireless sensors, using both traditional RFID-based technology and new mesh network-based technology, this event will explore wireless location and sensing."
Four master classes will be held during the summit:
- Introduction to Energy Harvesting & Storage for Small Electronic Devices
- Introduction to Active RFID
- Real Time Locating Systems and Wireless Sensor Networks
- Photovoltics and Printed Electronics
- What are the different types of Active tag system, their cost structure and advantages and disadvantages over passive?
- Why is this market growing much faster than RFID as a whole?
- What is the difference between traditional Active RFID, RFID enabled cellphones, Smart Active Labels/ Battery Assisted Passive tags, Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) and Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN) and where are they headed
- What are the different types of wireless sensors, their cost structure and advantages and disadvantage?
- What is the difference between traditional Active RFID, RFID enabled cellphones, Smart Active Labels/ Battery Assisted Passive tags, Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) and Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN) and where are they headed?
- What is the dream for USN - from predicting and controlling disaster recovery to micro-climate in industrial greenhouses - and who is working on which aspect?
The New Market for Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN)
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Everyware Health Care: Vena, the Wireless Asthma Inhaler Delivers Readings to PC, SmartPhone, or Online Electronic Health Records
According to a recent CNET article written by Dong Ngo, Cambridge Consultants is offering a wireless asthma inhaler that links patients with health care providers via wireless technologies and electronic medical records such as Google Health or Microsoft Health Vault.
"The platform, called Vena, employs two emerging wireless standards, including the Infrared-based IEEE11073 and the Bluetooth Medical Device Profile. Vena embeds the two into a single chip as the combination of them ensures compatibility of data exchanged between different types of devices and the security in the transmitting of medical data."
The design of this inhaler is stylish, and I'm sure that children and teens with asthma wouldn't mind carrying this around at school. Why is this important?
Asthma is the leading serious chronic illness of children in the U.S.
According to the American Lung Association, "Asthma is the leading serious chronic illness of children in the U.S. In 2006, an estimated 6.8 million children under age 18 (almost 1.2 million under age 5) currently had asthma, 4.1 million of which had an asthma attack, and many others have "hidden" or undiagnosed asthma. In 2006, the highest current prevalence rate was seen in those 5-17 years of age (106.3 per 1,000 population), with rates decreasing with age. Overall, the rate in those under 18 (92.8 per 1,000) was much greater than those over 18 (72.4 per 1,000). Asthma is the third leading cause of hospitalization among children under the age of 15 and one of the most common causes of school absenteeism."
A less-attractive alternative for the connected teen is the bulkier prototype, a collaboration between SiliconSky GPS and David Van Sickle, a University of Wisconsin researcher.
According to another CNET article by Dong Ngo, "The prototype GPS inhaler is packed with technologies. It features Assisted GPS, a GSM modem, integral antennas, an embedded microprocessor, and an internal rechargeable lithium ion battery. The battery allows for up to 10 days of operation between charges."
The GPS inhaler might be useful and usable, but will not used as medically intended unless it has a great "look & feel".
With the increase in the numbers of children and teens with asthma, it is important to design on-the-go medical devices that increase compliance and healthy choices. It has to be cool.
Some references from the American Lung Association:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Interview Survey Raw Data, 2006. Analysis by the American Lung Association, Research and Program Services Division using SPSS and SUDAAN
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Healthy Youth! Health Topics: Asthma. December 7, 2007. Available here.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Healthy Youth! Health Topics: Asthma. December 7, 2007. Available here. Accessed on December 20, 2007.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics, Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics. The State of Childhood Asthma, United States, 1980-2005. Number 381, December 12, 2006 (Revised December 29, 2006). Available here. Accessed on December 20, 2007.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Pachube and the Internet of Things: Design, Ubicomp, RFID, and Usman Haque
I have a growing interest in the emerging "web of things", and figuring out how computers and gadgets can inter-operate more smoothly. This summer, I'm planning on playing with my RFID toys and learning more about wireless sensor networks. I can't wait until waiting for my MIR:ROR and Nabaztag arrive. I'm also looking forward to exploring the Pachube concept.
So what is Pachube?
Pachube: "A web service that enables people to tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices and spaces around the world, facilitating interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual."
You can sign up for Pachube on the web, and learn more about it by exploring the following links:
Pachube, Patching the Planet: Interview with Usman Haque
Ways to User Pachube
Pachube Website
Pachube Tutorials
Extended Environments Markup Language
EEML library for Processing
Pachube iGoogle Gadget: Create a monitoring dashboard
Usman Haque is an architect and director of Haque Design + Research.
"The domain of architecture has been transformed by developments in interaction research, wearable computing, mobile connectivity, people-centered design, contextual awareness, RFID systems and ubiquitous computing. These technologies alter our understanding of space and change the way we relate to each other. We no longer think of architecture as static and immutable; instead we see it as dynamic, responsive and conversant. Our projects explore some of this territory."
(cross-posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog)
Friday, March 20, 2009
"Web Meets World": User Experience of Embedded Systems and Interactive Wireless Sensor Networks...
In my opinion, HCI/Usability/UX intervention is sorely needed in the converging fields of embedded systems and wireless sensor networks. I fear what the future will hold if usability and user experience factors do not receive attention.
I think there is hope, despite my quote in a previous post about some usability issues related to the SmartGrid City project.
For a good overview of the future of sensor networks and ambient technologies, read the transcript of Tim O'Reilly's "Web Meets World" keynote presentation from the 2008 Web 2.0 Expo, or watch the video below:
O'Reilly asks, "What are our best and brightest working on?" and "Are we working on the right thing?" (He even touches on Richard Bookstaber's "A Demon of our own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation", a book published in 2007 that discusses how the best and brightest developed innovations that made investments more risky. We now know the outcome of those innovations!)
Summer Reading?!
A number of different system concepts have become apparent in the broader context of embedded systems over the past few years. Whilst there are some differences between these, this book argues that in fact there is much they share in common, particularly the important notions of control, heterogenity, wireless communication, dynamics/ad hoc nature and cost.
The first part of the book covers cooperating object applications and the currently available application scenarios, such as control and automation, healthcare, and security and surveillance. The second part discusses paradigms for algorithms and interactions. The third part covers various types of vertical system functions, including data aggregation, resource management and time synchronization. The fourth part outlines system architecture and programming models, outlining all currently available architectural models and middleware approaches that can be used to abstract the complexity of cooperating object technology.
I wonder how much of this book is devoted to usability and user-experience topics!
Graphics for Embedded Systems
Niall Murphy's PanelSoft : User Interfaces and Usability for Embedded Systems Articles
Dr. Kristof Van Laerhoven (Multimodal Interactive Systems)
TinyOS (free, open source operating system for wireless sensor networks)
Siftables: Physical, Natural Way to Interact with Information and Media
My post: Tangible & Fluid User Interfaces Part I: Siftables
Link to previous post:
The UX of SmartGridCity: Control Your SmartHouse Remotely, Online
The UX of SmartGridCity: Control Your SmartHouse Remotely, Online
My interest in interactive wireless sensor networks has been growing over the past several months. This technology supports how we will interact with our "things" in the world. It sounds futuristic, but the technology is here and is in the implementation stage in Boulder, Colorado, known as SmartGrid City.
There are some issues facing the usability of this system for homeowners who participate in the SmartGrid City project. Here is an example from an article in the Wall Street Journal:
"...The Petersons' experience with the smart grid has not been entirely smooth. Mrs. Peterson says it can be cumbersome -- and "boring" -- to use the smart-grid Web site to manage her home's energy use. She has to set more than a dozen data points just to get her bedroom temperature where she wants it through the week.
Her husband finds some of the online charts that track his home's energy use too abstract. "If I told you that today you saved four pounds...of carbon emissions, what does that mean to you?" he asks. He prefers when the software serves up analogies he can visualize: He's saved enough energy to microwave 9,550 frozen pizzas or to light a major-league ballgame for three innings."
The system, of course, was designed by engineers, right?More Information:
If you click on the graphic below, you will link to an interactive graphic from the Wall Street Journal that gives a good visual overview of a house that is linked to the SmartGrid City:
"SmartGridCity is the nation's first fully integrated smart grid community and will boast the largest and densest concentration of these emerging technologies to date."
More information from the Xcel website:
SmartHouse Graphic and Description (pdf)
"Xcel Energy's SmartGrid Consortium is imagining a future that would allow you to communicate your energy choices to the power grid and automatically receive electricity based on your personal needs".
- Advanced sensors distributed throughout the grid and a high-speed communication network tie the entire system together
- Smart Thermostat
- Smart Appliances
- Smart Meter
- Plug-in Hybrid Electric Car
- A dynamic system rich in information technology
- High-speed, real-time, two-way communications
- Sensors throughout the grid enabling rapid diagnosis and connections
- Decision making data and support for peak efficiency
- Distributed generation technologies (such as wind turbines, solar panels, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles)
- Automated "smart substations"
- In-home energy control devices
- Automated home energy use
Friday, March 6, 2009
The Web of Things, Wireless Sensor Networks, Embedded Systems, and (Everyware) Health Care
What is the Web of Things?
I just came across the blog of the same name. The concept is similar to the "Internet of Things", but in my opinion, Vlad and Dominique, the guys behind the blog, have wrapped the concept into a more "user-friendly" package. They have found a way to articulate this concept far better than my feeble attempts, and for this, I am very thankful.
Web of Things: Architecting the Web of Things, for techies and thinkers!
Here is what I lifted from the "About" Section of this blog, plus a few other quotes:
"What is WebofThings.com?
It is a web page founded by Vlad Trifa and Dominique Guinard, two researchers/geeks working at ETH Zurich and SAP Research Zurich. It is more a scrap book that is here to dump our thoughts ideas on our research and work topic, which is the Web of Things. Unlike most Web 2.0 sites that are about advanced powerpoint engineering, we talk about real things that’s under the hood.
There are three main topics in here. First technologies, this section is only for geeks, simply put. It’s about coding, developing toys, plugging kettles on the web (and we actually did that!). The second part is about new ideas, new technologies that are in the lab. It’s about research papers, and software philosophy, and about researchers worldwide. The third part is about end-users and products. You, me, but especially my grand-ma. It’s about products that exist, or at least should exist (or should not!). It’s about marketing and new ideas out there.
Thanks, but it doesn’t help. What is the Web of Things then?
It is an alternative vision to what the Web of tomorrow will look like. It’s about taking the Web as we know it and extending it so that anyone can plug devices to it. It’s basically about giving eyes, ears, and all kinds of sensory appendixes located worldwide to it. It’s about seamlessly connecting the physical world with the virtual.
Why do you want to change the Internet? What’s wrong with it?
Not much really. It’s just a little boring. It only contains data published by other humans, but it’s not enough linked with our physical reality, not real time / real world enough for our taste!
Why should I read this blog?
Well depends how much you care about technology. It’s both for geeks/hackers who need a playground to develop and try ideas. But it’s also for the security expert who wants to take part to make the Web a safer place to hang out. It’s also for people who want to find new ideas.
Cool! SAP has a blog!
Actually, not really. All what we write here is only our own opinions and thoughts, and doesn’t reflect the views of any of our employers. "
"One things that I don’t understand, is that most people in our field do not really like our approach, or maybe they simply don’t get it. Indeed, we’re kind of stuck between several worlds: wireless sensor networks (WSN) people that find our approach too esoteric, and HCI people that find it not enough sexy. It is a bit annoying, as people don’t take us very seriously, especially not WSN researcher. I overheard comments like “What? You want to use the Web to connect devices? hahaha! I can’t stop laughing, haha it hurts me! Come on, be serious dude! Using the Web for that!! Man, you’re great, I gotta call my colleagues to tell them your idea, they’re gonna *love* it“. Jeez! -Vlad Trifa"
"Let’s do something concrete with WSN, that works, and that’s usable, and that people will really need."
Note: When you visit the Web of Things blog, make sure you visit their links!
Why do I think this is important?
First of all, I'm someone who would love to take a class about embedded systems and wireless sensor networks. I got a taste of some of this in a ubiquitous computing class I took a couple of years ago, and I'm still fascinated with these concepts. Imagine a web-browser that could support all sorts of data streaming in from all sorts of things and places, an intelligent web browser that could make perfect sense of he wealth of information that is potentially "out in the wild".
I think that the Web of Things is a concept that will have numerous applications in the very near future. The arena that is foremost in my mind is health care.
Why? I've spent hours hanging around hospitals and health care facilities since my father's health took a down-turn a couple of years ago. If you've been in my shoes, you know what I mean.
I'm writing this from the family waiting room of the cardiac ICU at the Cleveland Clinic, where I've spent the better part of the week with my father, who had surgery and a few complications. I've had plenty of time to spend listening and observing.
Earlier today, as I was visiting my father in the ICU, I had a chance to chat with a nurse who was an IT guy in his previous life. I rarely have a chance to engage in "geek speak" in my day job as a school psychologist, so I welcomed the chance to talk about the concept technology and health care.
I asked the guy if he'd heard of the "Internet of Things", and we discussed how a cross platform web browser, linked to all of the various devices and patient monitors in the ICU could potentially solve many of the problems faced by nurses and related health professionals in their day-to-day tasks. The nurse pointed out that wireless technologies would eliminate the need for a number of the wires connected to my dad's body. That was a good point!
We had a good discussion about how software needs to be user-focused and user-friendly. In health care, as in many domains, it is not. Usable, intuitive software, at least in the health care setting, would decrease medical errors, increase efficiency, save time, save lives, and in the mid-to-long run, save lots of money.
Somewhat Related
(Previous post)
Everyware Health Care: Microsoft Health's Common User Interface, website, usable health care applications, pervasive health games.....
Wireless Sensor Networks for In-Home Healthcare: Potential and Challenges (pdf)
ALARM-Net: Wireless Sensor Networks for Assisted Living and Residential Monitoring
(Crossbow Blog, 9/28/08)
"Wireless Nodes Dynamically Link to Build Intelligent Sensing Networks"
John Suh, RTC 6/2005
Wireless sensor and data transmission needs and technologies for patient monitoring in the operating room and intensive care unit Paksuniemi, M., Sorvaja, H,; Alasaarela, E.' Mylyla, R. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2005, IEEE-EMBS 2005
Healthcare Service with Ubiquitous Sensor Networks for the Disabled and Elderly People
Yung Bok Kim & Daeyoung Kim, Computers Helping People with Special Needs 7/2006
Conferences:
Malignant Spaghetti: A Symposium on Wireless Technologies in Hospital Health Care
(A must-read if this topic is of interest)
S-CUBE 2009
The first international conference on Sensor System and Software
"The widespread acceptance of these new services can be improved by the definition of frameworks and architectures that have the potential to radically simplify software development for wireless sensor network based applications. The aim of these new architectures is to support flexible, scalable programming of applications based on adaptive middleware. As a consequence, WSNs require novel programming paradigms and technologies. Moreover the design of new complex systems, characterized by the interaction of different and heterogeneous resources, will allow the development of innovative applications that meet high performance goals. Hence, WSNs require contributions from many fields such as embedded systems, distributed systems, data management, system security and applications. The conference places emphasis on layers well above the traditional MAC and routing, and transport layer protocols."
