Showing posts with label connectivity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label connectivity. Show all posts

Footprint of IoT Powered and Filter Free Air Purifiers

The presence of dust in homes, offices, and other human environments are unavoidable. In fact, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air can be 2 to 5 times more polluted than outdoor air. This airborne pollution contributes to minor annoyances such as itchy eyes, sneezing, and headaches to human beings. Worst still, it can be a major contributing factor to severe allergies, life-threatening asthma.
To solve this problem, a working air purifier machine well address this issue. there are various IoT based air purifiers available in market, Xiaomi beat all of them with low price and advance feature.

IoTMania - IoT Based Air Purifirs

Xiaomi launched their IoT based air purifier. It can clean the air in a 23-square-metre room in 10 minutes.
The Mi Air Purifier can be controlled by a smartphone and uses a brush-less DC motor for better performance and less friction. It delivers clean air at the rate of 330 m3/h. Xiaomi promises that it can clean 99.7 percent of small PM 2.5 particles in a room.
The air purifier, which is WiFi linked, has different modes that can be changed through an app for the device from your phone, tablet or desktop. It can also detect your presence and can switch off when you leave the house. It also learns your sleeping patterns and changes the modes accordingly.
Coway’s innovative technology, which combines its core competitiveness “care,” Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT), is also attracting attention from the global and domestic markets.
Coway’s innovative technology, which combines its core competitiveness “care,” Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) with air purifiers, is also attracting attention from the global and domestic markets.
Coway Dual Power Air Purifier IoCare checks the levels of fine dust, ultra-fine particles, carbon dioxide and gas, which are the major factors that affect the air quality of households, in real time. It then offers customized solutions, such as ventilation and air cleaning, via smartphones in accordance with real time household air quality. Instead of changing filters all at once, the product also provides personalized filters, including yellow dust filters, old house filters and new house filters, according to pollutant types and concentration levels, which vary with the lifestyles of households.

What's Not So Cool?

The filter is the major component on the device and that will be an additional cost that the consumer will have to bear with every three to 4 months. The filter costs Rs 2,499 and this will be a recurring cost for the consumers.

What's Next?

Technologies like electrostatic precipitator and electrostatic ionization have potential to remove the filter dependency completely. Many companies trying to make such air purifiers. Gurgaon based Bitspi is in the way to launch one of kind intelligent, fully connected indoor working air monitoring, control and purification system. The new air cleaning system is potentially capable of detecting and combating airborne germ, chemical, smoke and other particle attacks, and also no dependency on filters.
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Node.js Vs MicroPython for IoT

Here are the major differences between Node.js and MicroPython for IoT.

Node.js

1- Node.js built to handle asynchronous I/O from the ground up that make it good choice for IoT.

2-Dependency resolution with npm is so much better. Although if you have to develop and run the code in both Windows and Linux in rare cases you may see some quirks.

3- Right now there are two new micro-controller boards seeking funding for Node.js - one on Kickstarter ( Espruino), and the other on Dragon Innovation’s new crowdfunding platform(Tessel ).

4- Other framework and boards includes The Thing System , Node Red, noduino, and DeviceJs.

MicroPython

1-Circuit-level control is possible with MicroPython.

2- MicroPython has special commands that interface directly with assembly. Specifically, the assembly accessible to MicroPython is the ARM Thumb-2 instruction set. As an example, the command "mov(R1, 0xff)" would move the hexadecimal number "ff" to register-1.

3- MicroPython natively supports the Pyboard (https://github.com/micropython/pyboard). The Pyboard uses the STM32F405RGT6 MCU (MicroController Unit) which uses the ARM Cortex M4 core. The hardware is 32-bits and runs at 168MHz. The Pyboard supports I2C, UART, SPC, and GPIO.


4-MicroPython is used in the WiPy (http://wipy.io/). The WiPy is an Internet-of-Things (IoT) development platform which is a circuit board with a Wifi chip. Developers can easily program the WiPy and upload new code via Over-The-Air (OTA) updates. The WiPy uses the TI CC3200 MCU (Cortex-M4 @ 80MHz), has 256 kilobytes or RAM, and supports WiFi-Direct. The WiPy can be used to make various wireless devices. The WiPy can also be interfaced with the Pyboard or many other motherboards and circuits via its GPIO pins, I2C bus, or SPI. WiPy's manufacturer is Bestronics (http://bestronics.eu/).

5- Right now LoPy seeking funding on Kickstarter, It is a MicroPython triple-network dev platform which doubles up as a LoRa Nano gateway and Arduino IDE compatible as stretch goal. It include a dual processor (each core running @ 160 MHz) + WiFi + BLE radio System on Chip, network processor handles the WiFi/BLE connectivity and the IPv6 and IPv4 stacks and main processor entirely free to run the user application along with the LoRa stack.

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MicroPython - the future of IoT

MicroPython is a lean and fast implementation of the Python 3 programming language that is optimised to run on a microcontroller. It has advantages over traditional programming software such as C/C++ because it is essentially a live development environment and your write and debug code much faster…in fact 5-10 times faster than C++.

It ensures that the memory size/microcontroller performance is optimised and fit for purpose for the application it serves. Many sensor reading and reporting applications do not require a PC based processor as this would make the total application over priced and under-efficient.

As a programming language it is expressive and versatile and allows the developer or enterprise engineering teams to choose components that are optimised both in terms of price and performance.
Micropython is environmentally friendly. Yes, that right and here’s why: when a device boots up using MicroPython it does not consume memory and thus doesn’t incur current drain.

The tutorial, http://micropython.org/doc/tut-contents, is really nice and easy to follow.

To get a micro python prompt to write instructions directly to the board do,

screen /dev/ttyACM0

This is what you get from the help() function on micro python interpreter.

>>> help()         
Welcome to Micro Python!

For online help please visit http://micropython.org/help/.

Quick overview of commands for the board:
  pyb.info()    -- print some general information
  pyb.gc()      -- run the garbage collector
  pyb.delay(n)  -- wait for n milliseconds
  pyb.Switch()  -- create a switch object
                   Switch methods: (), callback(f)
  pyb.LED(n)    -- create an LED object for LED n (n=1,2,3,4)
                   LED methods: on(), off(), toggle(), intensity()
  pyb.Pin(pin)  -- get a pin, eg pyb.Pin('X1')
  pyb.Pin(pin, m, [p]) -- get a pin and configure it for IO mode m, pull mode p
                   Pin methods: init(..), value([v]), high(), low()
  pyb.ExtInt(pin, m, p, callback) -- create an external interrupt object
  pyb.ADC(pin)  -- make an analog object from a pin
                   ADC methods: read(), read_timed(buf, freq)
  pyb.DAC(port) -- make a DAC object
                   DAC methods: triangle(freq), write(n), write_timed(buf, freq)
  pyb.RTC()     -- make an RTC object; methods: datetime([val])
  pyb.rng()     -- get a 30-bit hardware random number
  pyb.Servo(n)  -- create Servo object for servo n (n=1,2,3,4)
                   Servo methods: calibration(..), angle([x, [t]]), speed([x, [t]])
  pyb.Accel()   -- create an Accelerometer object
                   Accelerometer methods: x(), y(), z(), tilt(), filtered_xyz()

Pins are numbered X1-X12, X17-X22, Y1-Y12, or by their MCU name
Pin IO modes are: pyb.Pin.IN, pyb.Pin.OUT_PP, pyb.Pin.OUT_OD
Pin pull modes are: pyb.Pin.PULL_NONE, pyb.Pin.PULL_UP, pyb.Pin.PULL_DOWN
Additional serial bus objects: pyb.I2C(n), pyb.SPI(n), pyb.UART(n)

Control commands:
  CTRL-A        -- on a blank line, enter raw REPL mode
  CTRL-B        -- on a blank line, enter normal REPL mode
  CTRL-C        -- interrupt a running program
  CTRL-D        -- on a blank line, do a soft reset of the board

For further help on a specific object, type help(obj)

To close the screen session do 'Ctrl + a' and 'Ctrl + d' in sequence.
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Internet Of Things - Impact on our life style and wealth

The Internet of Things is a growing network of everyday objects from industrial machines to consumer goods that can share information and complete tasks while you are busy making other plan. Our Bikes, our homes, our audio system and even our city streets will be connected to the Internet, creating a network of objects that is called the Internet of Things, or IoT for short. 

The IoT is creating a new world, a quantifiable and measurable world, made up of millions of sensors and devices that generate incessant streams of data and can make more timely and better informed decisions. This new connected world brings with it fundamental changes to society and can be used to improve our lives and our businesses in many ways. But how it impact our day to day life?, how does it work? And  Is IoT a new source of wealth creation?

How Internet of Things impact our day to day life?

In our day to day life prospective, IoT devices can be classified in three categories: 
  • Wearables
  • Smart home devices
  • M2M devices
Wearables are the devices that people carry with them, which usually connect via Bluetooth or WiFi to a smart phone, and from there to the Internet. This category includes devices such as smart watches, fitness bands and devices to help people to live more ’mindfully’ – increasing the wearer’s awareness of how well they sleep, how much they move around, monitoring their vital signs, tracking their exercises, tracking their gadgets etc. 

Smart home devices are also part of the IoT and usually connect to the Internet via ZigBee or  low power wireless communication and the home router. These include all domestic devices, from lights and light switches to motion sensors, thermostats, door locks and automated curtains. The smart phone also becomes an online dashboard and control device for Smart Home applications via its WiFi connection to the router.

The third category, M2M (Machine to Machine) devices, comprises devices that are directly connected to the cellular network and internet, such as vehicle that can report their location (in case of an accident or theft), vending machines that can alert when their stocks are running low, industrial machines that can predict their fault very early stage and alert before failure etc.

How does Internet of Things work?


Whatever the type of IoT device, it consist of a sensor, a micro-controller and a real time operating system running on micro-controller. Sensor will sniff a wide variety of information ranging from Location, Weather/Environment conditions, Grid parameters, Movement on assembly lines, Jet engine maintenance data to Health essentials of a patient. Microcontrollers and RTOS together create a IoT Gateway, that enables companies to seamlessly interconnect industrial infrastructure devices and secure data flow between devices and the cloud. 

At device end various range of hardware boards, like PanStamps, Raspberry Pi, and Pinoccio, different RTOS like Contiki, TinyOS and Kura, many communication technologies like Zigbee, 6LoWPAN, and WiFi and protocols like CoAP and MQTT are playing vital role to put these device online. On the other side at cloud end various type of infrastructure are there to provide a middle layer for IoT devices and real world, currently REST API is the best choice as a middle layer. Mobile Apps and Web Applications are working as presentation layer, providing UI to control and access IoT devices.

Is Internet of Things a new source of wealth creation?

Cisco estimates that 50 billion devices and objects will be connected to the Internet by 2020. Yet today, more than 99 percent of things in the physical world remain unconnected. The growth and convergence of processes, data, and things on the Internet will make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before. This growth creates unprecedented opportunities for industries, businesses, and people, but the real benefits of the Internet of Things will not, however, be realized until leading companies develop the next generation of applications that address specific business needs.

The IoT can potentially transform nearly every industry-locally and globally. It is creating new opportunities for business in four main ways

  • Advance business models:  The IoT will help companies create new value streams for customers, institute processes that speed time to market, triage market performance, and respond rapidly to customer needs. Uber is one of the example of such a business model.
  • Real-time critical information:  With IoT, organizations can capture more data about their processes and products in a more timely fashion to create new revenue streams, improve operational efficiency, and increase customer loyalty, e.g. vending machines that can alert when their stocks are running low.
  • Diversification of revenue streams:  The IoT can help companies create new services and new revenue streams on top of traditional products, e.g smart shopping malls and their automated inventory management system.
  • Efficient and intelligent operations:  Access to information from autonomous end points, as today’s smart grid already supplies to utility companies, will allow organizations to make on-the-fly decisions on pricing, logistics, sales, and support deployment, etc.
With policies to encourage interoperability, security, and property rights, the Internet of Things can begin to reach its full potential, if leaders truly start embracing data-driven decision making.
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