IoT news of the week for February 28, 2020 - Stacey on IoT

Cupertino, February 28, 2020

Feathers adds motion detection via Wi-Fi: For some time we have been discussing alternative solutions to traditional motion detectors. This week, Plume debuted one of those solutions with the introduction of Plume Motion, which uses Wi-Fi to view and report movement throughout the home. Plume says detections can be used to trigger automation in a home, as well as to view movement in private areas where you would not want a camera-based solution. Plume Motion is included in the $ 99 annual Plume quote, so if you're already a subscriber in the U.S., you should now have the optional feature. (plumage)

Prepare for enhanced stress tracking on future wearables: I've seen some smart watches that measure stress, but they are a little lacking. This is because it relies solely on heart rate rather than measuring cortisol, which is a better indicator of stress. Researchers at Caltech have developed a small non-invasive cortisol sensor made of graphene that has only one layer of thick carbon molecules. If the sensor can be manufactured on a large scale, we could see improved stress detection on laptops, without adding any volume. (Medgadget)

Wi-Fi radios smaller than a grain of rice! Kudos to the electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego, for designing a super low-power Wi-Fi radio that sounds great for certain IoT devices. You could fit five of these diminutive Wi-Fi radios into the same space as a single grain of rice. Of course, you won't get the same fast speeds and wireless range as a phone or tablet, but the results are impressive. They generate 2 megabits per second over a range of up to 21 meters using only a reduced power of 28 micro-power. Sounds perfect for small sensors in a wireless home network. (UCSD News)

This LoRa project is the answer to the mailbox evasive sensor: While we receive hundreds of calls a year on the voice telephone line of the IoT Podcast, certain questions from the listener reappear on a regular basis. One of them is how to activate notifications from a mailbox when the mail arrives. You might think you can only use a basic light sensor, but the challenging bit is the connectivity aspect - that is, how do you get a signal from such a sensor, which is probably too far from your home wireless network? This project uses an ATmega328 microcontroller with low power and LoRa radios that work on three AAA batteries to do the trick. I still have an ATmega card in my Computer Architecture class, so I can give that! (HackADay)

Better turn on those unauthorized devices in your enterprise network: If you are managing an IT enterprise environment, you probably know that some employees connect personal devices to the corporate network. And I'm sure you're trying to block them from doing that, but you have to try harder. Why? Because more than half of the devices in most enterprise networks are consumer type or IoT devices, from smart speakers and smart watches to IP cameras, according to a report by Zscaler. And given how safe some of these products can be, you don't want them to be stuck in your network with the potential to infect work devices. That being said, I want to know who brings an IP camera to the workplace and why. Can you see who else is eating at lunch? (ZDNet)

Farm data produces a nasty crop of unhappy farmers: Until this week, I didn't know that many American farmers actually rent the land on which they cultivate their crops. And you will never guess how I found out. Corporation Corporation, which helps farmers gather and analyze crop data, has begun working with Tillable, a company that invests in rented farmland. Farmers were surprised when Tillable started contacting landowners to make purchase bids so they could rent the land instead, which could lead to higher rates for farmers renting the land today. Thus, the farmers gathered on social networks and concluded that Tillable could have access to valuable data on the crop, soil and crop collected by Climate Corporation. However, the company denies this and, in an effort to build good relations with farmers, has decided to cancel its relationship with Climate Corporation. (NPR)

Eero routers get an Apple HomeKit update: Last year, Apple announced HomeKit-enabled routers, but its hardware partners were slow to deliver. This week, however, the owners of the Eero router line have a pending software update that allows HomeKit support. Once upgraded, homeowners can select the security and access levels of their HomeKit devices, namely Home, Automatically, and Unrestricted. (Eero)

It's time for smart home devices to have local recharge options during cloud outages: After a break in Nest rooms this week, I decided to take a stand. I'm asking smart home device manufacturers to start designing their cloud-based products with a type of local backup options, even if they have limited functionality. Something we have to offer here, because the smart home is increasingly based on millions of people to monitor, react and inform us about changes on the roofs on our heads. Server interruptions are a question of when, not if, even for the best companies that have large layoffs. (StaceyOnIoT)

Clearview AI is supposed to be for law enforcement. It is? On the podcast a few weeks ago we discussed Clearview AI, a company that has access to over 3 billion images for facial recognition. Many of these images are provided by us; are taken from public social media platforms and the like. If that wasn't scary enough, the Clearview product should only be used by law enforcement agencies. Guess what? His reported client list has run out. As you might expect, the list includes US immigration and customs enforcement and the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. So do Macy's, Best Buy, Kohl's, Walmart and the NBA. But because the list was illegally obtained, Clearview AI said it did not comment on its validity. (BuzzFeedNews)

What's next for Fitbit after the Google acquisition Only Google and Fitbit know what new devices and services are planned for their health tracking devices, but a survey by Google about potential WearOS features seems to give a great hint. In light of this survey, I think that the traditional Fitbit type behaviors will be done for some time. However, I also know that Google's smartwatch platform is not even a close competitor to Apple's watchOS. So, the potential health data points we could see on Google integrated include SPO2 tracking, sleep apnea detection, heart beat alerts, and sleep analysis, to name a few. (DroidLife)

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