IBM Opens Watson IoT Headquarters, Eight IoT Centers
IBM‘s new series of Internet of Things-based offerings launched this week, along with the opening of a new Watson IoT unit headquarters, which will include the European Watson innovation center. IBM has also opened eight other innovation centers around the world.
The Watson IoT headquarters, located in Munich, Germany, is expected to draw hundreds of IBM developers, as well as consultants, researchers and designers, to create solutions at what Big Blue calls the intersection of cognitive computing and the Internet of Things.
IBM intends for the centers to drive innovation through collaboration between IBM researchers and scientists and company partners and clients to identify opportunities for IoT development. Clients and startups will be able to access IBM’s cloud-based IoT software platform for testing, developing and building IoT applications and solutions. IBM expects automotive, electronics, health-care, insurance and industrial manufacturers to be those most involved with the work conducted at the Watson centers.
The headquarters center is IBM’s largest European investment in more than 20 years. The other new Watson IoT Client Experience Centers are located in Beijing, China; Böblingen, Germany; São Paulo, Brazil; Seoul, Korea; and Tokyo, Japan; as well as in Massachusetts, North Carolina and Texas in the United States. These centers also provide clients and partners with access to technology, tools, and experienced researchers and scientists for IoT development.
Google, Apple and Nest Alum Release Afero, IoT Platform
Industry veterans from Google, Apple and Nest have joined forces to launch Afero, a new Internet of Things platform to help developers create IoT solutions. The platform includes a Bluetooth Smart module chip, scalable cloud services, mobile apps and a variety of software-development tools.
The Afero platform is intended to provide a higher level of connectivity and security to the Internet of Things, according to the companies, and to be a less complex option for IoT device manufacturers and developers than existing systems. The team reports that it has been developing the platform throughout the past two years.
Afero announced that electronic components company Murata Manufacturing, health-care IT systems company Infocom, and toys and video games firm Bandai have all chosen to use its platform to build cloud-connected products and services. For example, Afero is working with Murata to manufacture the Afero ASR-1, a secure Bluetooth Smart module.
Gooee Offers Enterprise IoT Lighting and Sensing Gateway
Smart lighting company Gooee has released a multi-protocol enterprise IoT gateway device intended to connect lighting and sensing devices to Gooee’s cloud-based software platform. The gateway—which supports Bluetooth, ZigBee and Wi-Fi communication protocols, as well as Ethernet and serial ports—serves a hub that provides the connectivity necessary to forward data from IoT devices to a cloud-based server.
Gooee is also releasing the Puck, a wireless device designed to extend the gateway’s range and increase the number of end-point devices that can be used with it.
The gateway device is currently being field-tested at various facilities and pilot sites, Gooee reports. The company plans to exhibit the gateway and Puck at the Consumer Electronics Show, to be held in Las Vegas on Jan. 6-9, 2016.
Haselmeier Adds IoT Connectivity to Self-Injection Devices
Haselmeier, a manufacturer of devices that patients can use to self-inject medications, has teamed with the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) to develop an IoT-enabled self-injection product. The company has equipped its Axis-D platform (self-injection) pen with an AIT-designed cartridge fill-level measurement system that includes Near Field Communication (NFC) RFID technology.
Patients will be able use their NFC-enabled smartphones to capture data from the self-injection device and forward that information to a server. This online record of the delivered medication dosage can then be shared with a physician, enabling remote monitoring and interaction.