PITNEY BOWES AND GE COLLABORATE ON 'LOCATION INTELLIGENCE'
Oct 02, 2015This summer, IOT Journal reported that Pitney Bowes, a manufacturer of mail-sorting and -handling machines, was using General Electric (GE)'s Predix software to enable Pitney Bowes' enterprise business customers to analyze metrics collected from sensors and cameras embedded in mail equipment, with the goal of improving uptime.
Last month, GE and Pitney Bowes said they're collaborating again, but this time GE is embedding Pitney Bowes' technology into its Predix platform. Specifically, GE is leveraging what it called Pitney Bowes' "location intelligence" mapping software, which gleans geospatial data from the vast stores of street addresses and GPS coordinates that Pitney Bowes maintains as part of its mail-handling system. GE will use this software to correlate sensor data collected by sensors on machines and assets with geospatial data, which it says it will use for analysis and real-time business decision-making.
A municipality may rely on maps related to sensors mounted on streetlights to help it make decisions regarding repair or maintenance activities. Or it may rely on a real-time geospatial view of sensors integrated into infrastructure to make decisions around planning or delivering city services. Pitney Bowes has also contributed its location data capabilities to IBM BlueMix, Salesforce and Facebook.
On Thursday, Oct. 1, at its fourth annual Minds + Machines event, GE awarded Pitney Bowes with an Industrial Internet Innovation ("INNIE") Award as part of an inaugural program to recognize the contributions of its partner companies toward developing the Industrial Internet.
INFOSYS ANNOUNCES DIGITAL THREAD TESTBED
Infosys and General Electric (GE) are partnering on a testbed for the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), the goal of which is to develop a means of tracking data related to discrete assets during three key stages of their lifecycles: design, production and field-testing/service. The testbed, known as the Industrial Digital Thread Testbed, will launch through a pilot project at a GE Aviation plant, but Jayraj Nair, who heads Infosys's Internet of Things practice, says the project is still in its early stages. He says it will initially focus on the manufacturing and field-service phases of the lifecycle, and that he can not name the specific aviation part on which the project will initially focus.
The ultimate goal of the pilot, and more broadly the testbed, is to evaluate whether improved lifecycle tracking, enabled through sensory data collected and analyzed using software such as the Infosys Information Platform (IIP) and the GE Predix platform, can help manufacturers quickly identify the root cause of component failure, and then eliminate it through design engineering and manufacturing operations.
The IIC launches testbeds in order to accelerate the deployment of IoT technologies in the industrial sector. Infosys is leading another IIC testbed as well, also involving GE, which will develop best practices for improving asset efficiency in industrial settings.
MICROSOFT-CERTIFIED IOT STARTER KITS FROM TEXAS INSTRUMENTS
Texas Instruments (TI) has announced three IoT evaluation kits that include its embedded processors that have been certified to support Microsoft's Azure Internet of Things software suite, and onto which the Azure IoT suite's agent code has been pre-ported. The kits are designed to help developers begin IoT application development quickly and easily, the company reports.
The kits are available with either TI's low-power SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3200 wireless MCU LaunchPad kit; the BeagleBone Black board with and TI Sitara AM335x processor, which includes the 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 core and supports Ethernet or Wi-Fi through TI's WiLink 8 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module; or the BeagleBoard Green by SeeedStudio board, which is built on the BeagleBone Black but also includes two sensor ports.
The SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3200 wireless MCU LaunchPad kit is USD $29.99 and available from the TI Store. The BeagleBone Black board is available from authorized Beagleboard distributors for USD $55.00. The SeeedStudio BeagleBone Green board is available from Seeed Bazaar for USD $39.
The Microsoft program verifies that a member's hardware is compatible with Azure IoT Suite and enables developers that have purchased TI's low-cost development kits to easily download the appropriate Microsoft Azure for IoT agent in order to quickly connect to the cloud.
LORA NETWORK EXPANDING INTO EUROPEAN CITIES
Semtech, the analog and mixed-signal semiconductor manufacturer that collaborated with IBM to develop the LoRa long-range, low-power IoT radio technology for IoT modules, reports that network operator The Lace Company has deployed a network of LoRa modules throughout more than a dozen major Russian cities, including Moscow and Saint Petersburg. According to Semtech, the areas covered by the network are home to more than 30 million people across 9,000 square kilometers (3,475 square miles).
The company also reports that French mobile network operator Bouygues Telecom is partnering with Sagemcom, a manufacturer of meters, routers and other wireless devices, to deploy a LoRa network across much of France, across a region that is home to 40 percent of the country's population. The partners are targeting the network to utilities and municipalities, which could use it to enable connected metering, lighting or other infrastructure.
SENSARA AND GREENPEAK CO-DEVELOPING SMART HOME PLATFORM
Sensara, which develops home monitoring and safety systems specifically for seniors living independently, is partnering with chipmaker GreenPeak Technologies to co-develop a smart-home device platform. The platform will combine Sensara's Senior Lifestyle System, which is based on an application that connects seniors with family members through smartphones and tablets via automated alerts and messages, with Greenpeak's ZigBee-based sensors.