With the recent bridge collapse in Minnesota and mine collapse in Utah, the need to detect critical failures is necessary for public safety. Imagine authorities in Minnesota receiving real-time updates on each bridge and then correlating this data with periodic maintenance exams. Authorities can quickly react to any problems, dispatch crews to problem spots, and maintain a healthy infrastructure.
This notion is not infeasible or science fiction; Professor Kerop Janoyan at Clarkson University in New York is leading a project to monitor bridges in upstate New York using wireless sensors based on Moteiv's technology. He has designed a system that monitors acceleration and vibration in all dimensions, analyzes the data, transmits it wirelessly using Moteiv's Tmote Sky module. Strain gauges are also used; they can alert authorities of significant deformations in the bridge's structure that may lead to collapse. Strain gauges are also commonly used to monitor the integrity of pillars in mines to detect the possibility of collapse before such an event occurs. (Gory details about strain gauges and how they work are available at wikipedia).
An article on the system appears online at EETimes and Professor Janoyan's webpage includes an overview of the system. An older article was written and published by Clarkson University.
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The Mobile & Embedded System research group at Yonsei University has released a new operating system for wireless sensors networks called "RETOS", Resilient, Extensible, and Threaded OS for Wireless Sensor Networks. Information about the operating system was published at this year's IPSN/SPOTS conference, where I was a member of the program committee. The initial release supports Moteiv's Tmote Sky modules.
RETOS is a departure from the standard TinyOS framework that many know and love. It supports dynamically loadable modules (ala SOS from UCLA) and a multithreaded system allowing programmers to block on events instead of building complex state machines for asynchronous code.
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The developers of Contiki have released the first version of the Contiki 2.x series. This is the first release of Contiki that supports our popular Tmote Sky modules. New features that are touted as part of the 2.0 release include:
- Dynamic run-time loading and linking of standard ELF files
- Rime, a protocol stack designed for low-power radio communication
- Cooja, a Java-based network simulator for Contiki
- A build system that makes cross-compiling for many platforms easy
Read more information about Contiki, and check out Contiki support for Tmote Sky.
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EasySen, LLC. has announced two new sensor boards compatible with Moteiv's Tmote Sky hardware platform.
The WiEye sensor board is a low power, highly sensitive surveillance and security board that has the capability of detecting IR signatures from more than 100 feet distance. It has many unique features that allow for extremely low sampling rates and ''backdating'' of events.
The SBT30EDU is a low price development board with a prototyping area, 3 integrated sensors, and connectivity to external devices. This versatile board is tailored to the needs of university labs and system developers.
WiEye and SBT30EDU are available for ordering and shipping immediately, directly from EasySen. The company also manufactures the SBT80, a multi-modality sensor board.
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Boeing Phantom Works has published a very interesting paper on a system to detect corrosion in aircraft using wireless sensors at IMECE 2006. Previous research into aircraft maintenance has shown that "by far, the largest single maintenance problem facing the operators [airlines] is structural corrosion."
Their proposed solution is an environmentally powered wireless network of Tmote Sky nodes with corrosion sensors. The system is powered by a piezoelectric bimorph energy harvester with a power conditioning circuit. It operates at a 0.13% duty cycle, sending corrosion readings every 30 minutes.
According to the authors, "Moteiv's Tmote Sky transceiver design requires the least amount of power to operate. In addition, the Moteiv transceiver met all of our requirements and was the lowest in cost."
For more information, see the ASME website and look for paper IMECE2006-13381.
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Grape Networks, a California startup, has released a product that monitors vineyards using miniature wireless sensors. The "Climate Genie" uses Moteiv's Tmote Sky wireless sensor node with humidity, temperature, and light sensors. The system runs Boomerang, Moteiv's business-ready open-source software.
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Texas Instruments is showing videos and handing out flyers about Moteiv's FIRE project at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. If you are attending, but sure to stop by the Texas Instruments booth to check out all of their low power options. The exhibit is at South 2 26426E.
Here is an image of the flyer:
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In addition to the videos on the Discovery Channel and CNN, the FIRE project from UC Berkeley and Moteiv has been written up by a number of different websites and journals. Below are links to articles about the FIRE project.
RFID Journal
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/2717/1/1/
Bill Koslosky's Blog
http://billkosloskymd.typepad.com/wirelessdoc/2006/10/wireless_sensor.html
Gadgetnutz
http://www.gadgetnutz.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=192
Sensors Magazine
http://www.sensorsmag.com/sensors/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=375570
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If you missed the Discovery Channel or CNN broadcasts, the videos are now available on YouTube and embedded into this blog post.
The CNN video can be viewed in its full definition via the CNN website at:
http://www.cnn.com/video/partners/clickability/index.html?url=/video/tech/2006/10/06/velshi.explorers.fire.eye.cnn
Check the YouTube videos at:
WIRED NextFest 2006: Intelligent Fire Information and Rescue Equipment (FIRE)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFky26RedOM
On CNN and CNN Headline News:
CNN Explorer: FireEye and FIRE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzMwj7lLvcA
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CNN has picked up the FIRE project, joint work between the University of California, Berkeley and Moteiv Corporation, for a segment that will air this weekend on CNN and CNN Headline News. The segment on FIRE will air between the following times:
On CNN USA: Friday 11A-12P, 2-3P Saturday 10-11A, 4-5P Sunday 9-10A
On CNN Headline News Friday 6:30-7A, 11-11:30A, 6-7P Saturday 9:30-10A, 12:30-1P Sunday 8-8:30A, 1-1:30P
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The joint work between the University of California, Berkeley, Moteiv, and Chicago on the innovative Fire, Safety, and Rescue Equipment (FIRE) project profiled in our previous post will be featured in a segment on the Discovery Channel and Science Channel next weekend. The story includes live footage of the system in action and interviews with Berkeley students and staff and Moteiv employees.
The full television schedule for the NextFest 2006 show is available at the Science Channel TV Listings and Discovery Channel TV Listings.
The show will air on the following channels at these times (check local listings or TiVo it!)
Science Channel
Sept. 29 9 PM ET/PT
Oct. 1 9 PM ET/PT
Discovery Channel
Oct. 1 11 AM ET/PT
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EasySen from South Bend, Indiana has announced a multi-modal sensor board for our Tmote Sky module that includes visual light, infrared, acoustic, temperature, dual-axis magnetometer and dual-axis accelerometer. The company includes TinyOS and Java code to help get up and running with the device. Single units sell for $179 each.
More information at: http://www.easysen.com |
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Moteiv announces the release of Boomerang 2.0.4 that includes numerous bug fixes and additions from the previous Boomerang releases. Notable changes in 2.0.4 include:
- New applications including a Remote Control using Tmote Invent
- Lower power consumption and active energy monitoring
- New dissemination protocol for data buffers (Spram)
- New Tmote drivers, motelist, and bootstrap loader for increased robustness
- Updates to match TinyOS 2.x interfaces and TEPs
- Bug fixes and performance improvements
For a full list of changes, view: http://www.moteiv.com/community/Boomerang_ChangeLog
Boomerang can be downloaded for free from Moteiv
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The University of California Demand Response project was featured on ABC 7 news in San Francisco for their pioneering work to reduce energy consumption across the state, preventing blackouts and protecting the environment. Nate Ota, a graduate student, described the system that receives information from the power company and then uses it to inform wireless thermostats and sensors placed throughout a house. The intelligent sensors use the information to decide when to use energy and when to conserve.
The University is using Tmote Sky motes in their prototype system, which can be seen in the video.
To view the segment, fast forward to 4:40 into the video below:
mms://MEDIA.citris.berkeley.edu/Energy-on-demand
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Tmote Sky, our very popular platform for developing wireless sensor applications, is featured in the recent Embedded WiseNets report that details numerous platforms, operating systems, and other capabilities available for wireless sensor application development. Thanks to our good friends in Europe for adding Tmote Sky to their list.
To download the full report, fill out the form at the Embedded WiseNets website.
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Over the summer months, vacations cut into the pace of press releases and industry announcements and thus a slowdown in the pace of wireless sensor innovations. In this post, a few articles of interest over the past two weeks.
Honeywell announces wireless sensor strategy
Another article on volcano monitoring using Moteiv's Tmote Sky
Microsoft Research to unveil SensorMap on July 17
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Our good friend Matt Welsh appears in an article about volcano monitoring that was previously featured on the front page of Moteiv's website. Matt and his team at Harvard deployed a system using Tmote Sky to monitor seismic activity and infrasound (low frequency) vibrations. Details about the project, although with some technical inaccuracies, are included in the article from Network World.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/062606widernet-volcano.html
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Our friends at the MIT media lab have designed drinking glasses with a slew of sensors that allow you to communicate through drinking. The glasses communicate with each other using Moteiv's Tmote Sky module. The system will be demonstrated at CHI 2006 in Montreal, Canada in April.
Main Webpage:
http://web.media.mit.edu/~jackylee/cups.htm
Engadget Article:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/09/lovers-cups-let-distant-friends-share-a-beer/
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Have you ever been to a concert, especially at the Warfield in San Francisco, where a few LEDs on the end of a plastic rod are spun around and cause a message to be displayed? Or have you seen the clock that displays the time by quickly moving a pendulum-like device back and forth? They're typically sold by Brookstone or Sharper Image (or you can see one such clock here). Anyway, the folks at UCB have developed a persistence of vision device using Moteiv's Tmote Sky modules shown in the picture below. Check it out.
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/01/wirelessly_updatable_pov.html
