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Top 10 Internet of Things Products of 2009

2009 has been a turning point for the Internet of Things, when real world objects (such as lights, cars and packages) get connected to the Internet. This trend has added a significant amount of new data to the Web, so for that reason alone it is an important development. Having said that, many of the following top 10 list are not yet mainstream products. But we expect some of them to become well known over the coming years.

Underlying the Internet of Things are technologies such as RFID (radio frequency identification), sensors, and smartphones. Now let’s look at the 10 products which stood out this year.

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Pachube

A small UK startup particularly impressed us this year: Pachube. Pronounced “PATCH-bay,” Pachube lets you tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments both physical and virtual. According to founder Usman Haque, Pachube is about “environments” moreso than “sensors.” In other words, Pachube aims to be responsive to and influence your environment – for example your home.

For more on this innovative company, see ReadWriteWeb’s 3-Part analysis of Pachube:

1. Pachube Adds Real-Time Notifications – More Power to The Internet of Things
2. Applications From The Internet of Things – An Analysis of Pachube
3. Business Models of The Internet of Things – An Analysis of Pachube’s Open Source Platform

IBM’s sensor solutions

One of the leading big companies in Internet of Things is IBM, which offers a range of RFID and sensor technology solutions. IBM has been busy working with various manufacturers and goods suppliers this year, to introduce those solutions to the world. For example IBM announced a deal at the end of June with Danish transportation company Container Centralen. By February 2010, Container Centralen undertakes to use IBM sensor technology to enable companies in the horticultural supply chain to track the progress of shipments as they move from growers to wholesalers and retailers across Europe. It makes the travel process very transparent and data centric.

Arduino

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform made up of open source hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. For an example of the type of internet-connected object you can build with Arduino, check out this presentation where the author configured a child’s toy ray gun to react when anyone posted on Twitter about the #barcampliverpool hash tag.

Fedex SenseAware

International courier giant Fedex released a new tracking device and web service for packages in December. Called SenseAware, it keeps tabs on the temperature, location and other vital signs of a package – including when it’s opened and whether it was tampered with along the way. Fedex is running a trial period of about a year with 50 health care and life science companies, for tracking delivery of surgery kits, medical equipment – and even live organs.

HP CeNSE

HP Labs has joined the race to build an infrastructure for the Internet of Things. The giant computing and IT services company recently announced a project that aims to be a "Central Nervous System for the Earth" (CeNSE). It’s a research and development program to build a planetwide sensing network, using billions of "tiny, cheap, tough and exquisitely sensitive detectors." The technology behind this is based on nano-sensing research done by HP Labs. The sensors are similar to RFID chips, but in this case they are tiny accelerometers which detect motion and vibrations.

Next page: Top Internet of Things Products 6-10

Eigenharp Alpha, Pico demo and mind-blowing concert (hands-on)

Remember the Eigenharp Alpha and Pico that we broke news of last week? Sure you do, but we bet you still haven’t a clue how those long, elegant sticks work. The forty employees at Eigenlabs probably heard us simultaneously scratching our heads so they kindly invited us to their London studio for a quick demo, and boy, those musical wands look great up close, not to mention their remarkable flexibility for user configuration as well. John Lambert, Founder and Chairman of Eigenlabs, managed to sneak out of his busy schedule to give us the lowdown on the Eigenharps. It all started in his Devon barn about eight years ago and over time the Alpha was groomed into a 132-key beast, followed by the recently-developed, self-explanatory Pico. The defining character of both Eigenharps lies in their “completely new sensor technology” consisting of pressure sensitive keys, that can do dual-axis vibrato (not dissimilar to string instruments), accompanied by strip controllers for applying filters or pitch bend, or anything at all depending on how you configure them on their Mac software suite (Windows-support due in January). Likewise with the breath pipe: once you’ve loaded your library and presets you can switch from a Kenny G to a Daft Punk at the simple click of a key. Heck, you can even configure the air pressure sensitivity as well if you’re tickling for a soft mood, or just feeling lazy. And those funky LED lights, you ask? Well, they’re actually indicators for the different modes you’re in rather than just being pretty. Watch the walkthrough videos after the break and you’ll get a better idea.

Continue reading Eigenharp Alpha, Pico demo and mind-blowing concert (hands-on)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Eigenharp Alpha, Pico demo and mind-blowing concert (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IBM and The Internet of Things

In the Web world, you know that a trend has major traction when IBM is all over it. Like any large Internet company, Big Blue is careful about which trends it latches onto. It was a good couple of years before they were spotted at the Web 2.0 conference, for example. However in the case of Internet of Things, IBM is proving itself to be an unusually early adopter.

I recently spoke to Andy Stanford-Clark, a Master Inventor and Distinguished Engineer at IBM. Yesterday we wrote about how Stanford-Clark has hooked his house up to Twitter. Today we delve more into what his employer, IBM, is doing with the Internet of Things.

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IBM is involved in some very interesting projects at the intersection of two big trends we’ve been tracking in 2009: The Real-time Web and Internet of Things. They have a website devoted to this topic, called A Smarter Planet. As the name implies, it focuses on environmental matters such as energy and food systems. Sensors, RFID tags and real-time messaging software are major parts of IBM’s smarter planet strategy. The catchcry for the site – Instrumented, Interconnected, and Intelligent – is about outfitting the world with sensors and hooking them to the Internet to apply the ’smarts.’

IBM has a whole set of RFID and sensor technology solutions. But more importantly it has been busy working with various manufacturers and goods suppliers in recent months, to introduce those solutions to the world.

This month IBM made an agreement with Matiq, an IT subsidiary of Norway’s largest food supplier Nortura. The project involves using RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to track and trace poultry and meat products "from the farm, through the supply chain, to supermarket shelves." This food tracking solution will help ensure that meat and chicken are "kept in optimal condition throughout the supply chain." The system uses IBM’s WebSphere RFID Information Center, together with IBM’s sensor and actuator solutions.

A similar project is one that IBM announced at the end of June with Danish transportation company Container Centralen. By February 2010, Container Centralen undertakes to use IBM sensor technology "to allow participants in the horticultural supply chain to track the progress of shipments as they move from growers to wholesalers and retailers across 40 countries in Europe." Specifically this refers to transportation of things like flowers and pot plants, which are very sensitive to the environment they travel in. Having sensors as part of the entire travel chain will allow participants to monitor conditions and climate during travel. Essentially it makes the travel process very transparent.

As Andy Stanford-Clark explained to ReadWriteWeb, using RFID technology to monitor temparature when transporting flowers ensures that no short cuts are taken by some in the supply chain (e.g. turning off the climate control for a while to save money). It gives more data to make decisions, for example it may enable a retailer to refuse to accept a shipment if the sensor data suggests the flowers are close to wilting.

IBM is also working with German car manufacturer Volkswagen to add sensor technology to its operations. The aim is to improve Volkswagen’s material logistics operations through the use of sensor technology. For example, shipping containers carrying auto parts for Volkswagen will be fitted with RFID tags. So far about 3,000 shipping containers have been fitted with RFID tags.

These are all exciting developments in the Internet of Things, because they impact real-world processes. It’s great to see a large technology company like IBM at the forefront of this trend. It’s a very smart move (pardon the pun), because in 2009 we’re only at the very start of connecting almost any object in the world to the Internet.

Imagine a world with millions, perhaps trillions, of sensors that use IBM technology – because that’s what Big Blue is imagining.

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