Applied AI Weekly News

Justin Grammens

Reading that 17% of the world's software developers are working on an IoT project is an encouraging sign for our industry. I spent time focusing my career on the interaction of mobile devices and cloud infrastructure well ahead of the exposition that has happened in recent years. I see the same trends happening again with the Internet of Things. While the number of projects might seem small today, it's the beginning of a high demand skill set in the coming years - and Oracle agrees.

The next explosion of growth on the internet is no longer just providing data between people, but in connecting objects and machines. While there's a limit to the number of people who can connect to each other, the world of sensors and tracking of data in the physical world is limitless!

Sam Schroeder

Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, famously said that platforms need wide adoption by developers to be successful. He was right. Where would the Xbox be without it's game library or the iPhone without the millions of apps created by third party developers? Tech giants, small startups, and crowd sourced projects are all heavily vying for developer attention. The "Internet of Things" is so hot right now that banks, who traditionally are not developer friendly, are trying to get in on the action.

Over the next few years It will be interesting to see who wins the hearts and minds of the builders.

News

12 Data-Driven Cities Making the Internet of Things a Reality

Checkout these cities topping the list of who are using data driven analytics to improve their efficiency. A few are still in the concept phase, but all have the potential to impact our world and be models for other cities to follow.

Photo: Craig O'Neal | License

Amazon, Inc. "Doubling down" on Internet of Things

While the Fire Phone to date has for the most part been a failure Amazon is not giving up on building new hardware. Their devision that is building not only devices, but new products for the Internet of Things, is planning to grow its staff by at least 27% in the next 5 years.

IoT Help for Nation's Aging Railroads

Building out networks of sensors takes resources and time. As we saw with the rise of the Internet, it's not until after the network is built that we see investments pay off. Transportation is one area where real time sensors can prove invaluable to making data and applications work seamlessly together.

Consumer

Are These 9 Kitchen Gadgets 'Smart' or Just Plain Ridiculous?

The "Internet of Things" is still new to the general public. As it continues to search for an identity we will continue to see off the wall products emerge. This article covers both practical and some of the "out there" ideas on what is possible once we start addressing any number of "things" on the internet.

Development

Software Stack from Eclipse Could Unleash Java Developer Army on IoT

The Eclipse Foundation has released its Open IoT Stack for Java to allow developers to "re-use a core set of frameworks and services". The free download includes support for three major standards and frameworks to build home automation products and factory automation systems. Eclipse is an open source development environment for the Java programming language.

Citi Calls Coders to Develop Apps for Internet of Things

Consumer banking software has often felt old and antiquated. It's only a recent development that you can deposit a check with a smartphone app. But, how often do you actually receive a paper check any more? Banks have always been behind the curve and they want to change that. One example is Citigroup's Mobile Challenge which looks for developers to help unleash a new era of banking through hardware.

What's the Right Messaging Standard for the IoT?

There's a myriad of choices when you decide on the messaging layer you wish to put in place for your IoT solutions. While there is no right or wrong solution, this presentation walks through some of the options and defines what might work better in certain circumstances over others.

Run Golang on the Intel Edison with Gobot

With a dual-core Atom processor and impressive technical specifications, the Intel Edison allows you run the Go Programming Language. As developers start writing instructions in a higher level languages such as Go, this opens up the opportunity for a larger developer pool and more shared code. Gobot is one example of this higher level language in practice.

Adesto Enters Internet-of-Things Battle with Memory Chips That Use 100 times Less Energy

Whoa! Adesto announces memory chips that use 100 times less energy. Yes, you read that right 100 TIMES LESS. Innovations and new technology like this are key to allowing the Internet of Everything to flourish. As the industry evolves, these sensors will be put into conditions where they need to run for years. Low power devices will dominate in the market and it's great to see Adesto looking to the future by trimming power usage of their components.

DIY

How the ADRC Shield Was Developed

The people over at Xped have created a Arduino shield that uses NFC to register devices and control them. This tutorial shows the development of their shield along with a video of how it works in practice.

Open Source Bluetooth Door Lock

The folks over at PunchThrough have created the Bean Lock - an electronic wireless deadbolt that is controlled via BLE. All of the parts are freely available to build your own solution and install it today!

Crowd Funding

Create IoT Devices with SAM Labs' Development Kit without Coding Skills

You don't have to be an engineer to start building your own devices. SAM labs, a startup based in London, has created a development kit so anyone can "start making without coding." The SAM Kickstarter Page show the project is already more than half way to it's funding goal with almost a month to go.

Books

Make: Wearable Electronics

We have seen interest in wearable computing this year continue to grow and expand. This book covers the fascinating subject of wearable garments and how you can jump right in and start designing and creating your own garments for all types of consumers!

Events

Launch Event: IBM Innovation Centre Mobile Lab - Winchester, UK

October 9 in Winchester, Hampshire, UK | Registration

The latest offering from the IBM Innovation Centre in Hursley is a new Innovation Lab dedicated to Mobility and The Internet of Things.