Justin Grammens
Welcome IoT Weekly News Readers! I've been super busy here speaking at conferences, podcasts, teaching a graduate level IoT class and working with clients a number of interesting projects. We are also close to having a launch party for a new partnership between my company and 2 other companies called Lab651. Looking for Mechanical, Electrical and Software Engineering expertise all under one roof? Lab651 is the place to be. If you are ever in the Twin Cities, please contact me for a tour!
Anyway, I've got a great set of articles lined up this week. I hope you enjoy this issue and please spread the word by tweeting it to your followers!
News
Nest Restructuring Sees Platform Developers Join Google's Internet of Things Team
With a number of high profile platform issues with Nest, it was likely just a matter of time before they joined Google proper. As the article states, "The goal is to create a unified Internet of Things platform led by Android SVP Hiroshi Lockheimer."
Why On Earth Is Google Building A New Operating System From Scratch?
This is a from a few weeks back. Since I originally was tracking this story, a few others have broken out as well. At first glimpse it makes no sense as to why Google would be doing this, but upon further inspection it really does have some merit.
Google Hires Airbnb's Shaun Stewart to Help Bring Self-Driving Cars to Market
This new originally broke late last week, but is an interesting development. As quoted, "Google has a new director at its self-driving car unit: Shaun Stewart, former head of Airbnb’s vacation rentals business, and CEO at TripAdvisor prior to that. "
7 Extremely Curious and Creative IoT Projects for the Smart Home
I am proud to personally know Eric Tsai, the creator of the first projects on this list - A Dog Poop Tracker! He actually had developed it with a team of people almost 3 years ago at our first Internet of Things Hackday here in Minnesota!
Smart City Network: LPWA, 5G, or Mesh?
Good short article covering the options out there for wireless solutions for Smart Cities. As the article states, the question that really should be posed is, "Should smart cities tailor the network to the use case, or choose one for an infrastructure backbone?"
Sponsor
University of Saint Thomas - Internet of Things
The University of Saint Thomas Graduate Programs in Software (GPS) offers a graduate level course that is designed for students to be exposed to technologies and best practices that help them understand high level concepts and the supporting technologies that make up the Internet of Things. Register today!
Business
How Traditional Companies Can Tap Into the Power of Connected Devices
Very interesting article that struck a cord with me as talking with companies about they should be thinking differently when it comes to the IoT and connected devices is what Recursive Awesome does for our clients. It's the way of the future.
Even North Korea Is Getting in on the Internet of Things
Fun little article that discovered that the North Korean state television has made a product, the Star Group device. This device allows workers to use a custom tablet to remotely operate machinery in factories. I would guess the software is not open source or able to be downloaded anywhere outside of the country.
Healthcare
Internet of Things in Healthcare: Information Technology in Health
Good article covering some of the key points as to how the IoT will disrupt the Heathcare Industry. There are just so many potentials for cost saving, happier patients and better outcomes with new technology and connected devices these days.
Big Data
GE Predix Chief Architect Sees IoT Analytics as a Game Changer
Amen to all the points made in this article. It's the analytics around the IoT that is the real game changer and one in which will lead to massive improvements in efficiency and time to market. Be sure to take some time to watch the video in the article as well!
Teradata Launches IoT Analytics Accelerators
As you may know about me, I'm all about analytics for the IoT. I found this very exciting that a few IoT Analytics Accelerators are going to be launched later this year.
Finding Hidden Value in IoT Analytics
This article is a bit of sales pitch for a data analytics company, but I included it in this issue as it points to some very common situations where businesses were able to make time and cost saving changes based on the insights gained from the data that they collected.
Development
India's Kerala Embraces Fab Labs and an 'Internet of Things' Future
Like the Fab Lab described in this article, I had the pleasure of touring a new Fab Lab built at Century College this past week. The people, education and equipment blew me away. It's so cool to see this concept originally created by MIT many years ago, take off with such support and commitment by people from all over the globe.
Zephyr Project
I was recently introduced to this project by a colleague of mine as it looks really interesting. Zephyr describes itself as, "a small, scalable real-time operating system for use on resource-constrained systems supporting multiple architectures." Sign me up!