July 30, 2008
Cisco buys Pure networks
congrats Ignition on the deal.
Posted by Martin at 1:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 15, 2005
Good Zigbee/Zensys FAQ
Well ZWave has formed the Z-Wave Alliance Frequently Asked Questions top combat the Zigbee wave of press around their finalization of the standard. The main difference: ZWave has been in the market for 3 years and has 100 OEMs and works on a proprietary platform that can gaurantee interoperability and works on a different frequency than WLAN (Zigbee experiences significant packet loss with a WIFI network present). I am going ZWave in my house.
Posted by Martin at 10:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 23, 2004
Can Peer-to-Peer help RFID?
RFID Journal - Peer-to-Peer: RFID's Killer App?. Swedish company Stockway is trying to promote a peer-to-peer software platform for distributing RFID data. I don't really understand this, but I am still looking for a software play in RFID.
Posted by Martin at 11:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 21, 2004
Round up of Mote companies and VCs who invest in them
Thompson just published a decent round-up article. I am still looking for my investment in sensor networks. Not sure it is in the VERY low power range. Maybe more cellular.
Posted by Martin at 7:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 18, 2004
Ember launches 802.15.4 compliant EmberNet
Ember - Embedded Wireless Networking
I have been tracking these guys for some time. While 802.15.4 (ZigBee) is not yet a totally baked standard, these guys have been selling a protocol stack, chipset and SDK to enable developers of mesh networks. Everyone is looking for a mesh network idea. Don't know if these guys are too early. Doesn't look like there are many companies shipping solutions with the Ember stack. Their customer scenarios are all just that and mostly highly specialized situations like industrial environments hostile to other network protocols or military applications.
In thinking about when I can buy Zigbee products, it doesn't look like any time soon. For some simpler home applications, Zensys has product shipping today that are much easier to install than X10 and cheaper. They aren't Zigbee compliant, but they work today.
Posted by Martin at 8:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 29, 2003
iReady consortium formed for home appliances
The battle intensifies...iReady Technology Specifications.
I don't believe consumer appliance manufacturers will drive the standards. I believe the computer industry will.
Posted by Martin at 2:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 16, 2003
TAXICAB INTERVIEW | Kris Pister, President & CEO, Dust Incorporated - Mesh Networking
This from IBDNetwork. Dust is building on the TinyOS. It is in competition with Zigbee. I have a feeling that Zigbee has the lead. But Intel is behind TinyOS. An interesting race.
TAXICAB INTERVIEW | Kris Pister, President & CEO, Dust Incorporated - Mesh Networking
1. How do you explain what you do and your market space in 25 words or less?
Dust Incorporated is a technology company that provides wireless sensor networks for various applications. We are the horizontal layer of technology that connects sensors to applications.
2. What is mesh networking?
Mesh networking refers to the reliable routing of data and instructions between motes. Mesh networking allows for continuous connections and reconfiguration around blocked paths. Mesh networks are self-healing which means that the network can still operate even when a mote breaks down or a connection goes bad. As a result, end users can have a reliable wireless sensor network.
3. What are the business applications for sensor mesh networks?
There are many applications for wireless sensor networks: sensing, monitoring, and communicating. For example, in a health-care market, an application would be used to monitor the health of the residents in a building by tracking heart rates, blood oxygen levels, and body temperatures. This information would be relayed via electronic alerts when the measurements rise above or fall below a pre-specified range. For manufacturing or industrial companies, you can mount current sensors in energy monitoring systems to track levels of energy being used in grocery stores, commercial buildings, and residential facilities. And in the defense industry, one possible application is to drop motes into a battlefield for sensing enemy movement. The list could go on...
4. When will this market "arrive?" In 6 months, 12 months, or 2 years?
We believe the market is here now. Mesh networks have been gaining momentum over the past couple of years and many opportunities already exist today. The difficulty lies in whether or not end users are ready to adopt wireless technologies as their primary means of communication and data collection due to concerns for reliability.
Posted by Martin at 1:18 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack