Helium Raises $20 Million Series B Funding, Launches Two New Products
Wireless sensing platform provider Helium has raised $20 million in Series B investment funding. The round was led by Google Ventures, whose general partner Andy Wheeler will join Helium’s board of directors. Khosla Ventures, FirstMark Capital and Munich RE/Hartford Steam Boiler Ventures also invested. Khosla Ventures led Helium’s $16 million Series A funding, which closed in October 2014. FirstMark Capital also participated in the first round. Helium will use the money for ongoing product development, sales and marketing.
The startup, which makes wireless sensors that use a variation of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard to sense a range of variables, as well as device-management software and a cloud-based platform, also announced two product announcements this week. Its new sensor, called Green, measures temperature (from -4 degrees to +140degrees Fahrenheit [-20degrees to +60 degrees Celsius]), humidity, barometric pressure, light and motion (detected from a distance of up to 5 meters [16.4 feet]. Green sensor joins Helium’s original sensor, Blue, which contains a thermistor and a magnetic reed switch to determine the position of a refrigerator door.
Helium has also introduced Helium Pulse, a monitoring and alerting application that runs on Helium’s cloud-based platform—via both Web-based and mobile clients. Pulse enables customizable alerting and monitoring functions, based on the Helium sensor data it consumes.
Pulse can be configured to trigger alerts when any measurements taken by the Green or Blue sensor fall outside of a set range. Or, the user can set alerts based on multiple variables, such as a change in lighting that coincides with a temperature change. Helium products, which are sold as a hardware-software package that the company calls sensing-as-a-service, are being used by several customers in the health-care and food-service industries, according to the company. Specifically, the technology is used to monitor environmental conditions in temperature-controlled areas within hospitals, which can utilize the technology to ensure compliance with perishable drug management guidelines, and to help restaurants ensure that foods are stored in conditions that ensure freshness and safety.
C-Labs Announces Two Key Customers
C-Labs, which sells software that links legacy manufacturing equipment to the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), has scored two new customers for its flagship product, Factory-Relay software. Factory-Relay runs on an industrial PC that manages a programmable logic controller (PLC) that, in turn, controls automation equipment on the factory floor. The software collects data from the PLC in the communication architecture it uses, such as OPC UA or Profinet, in order to make remotely accessible data from sensors connected to each piece of machinery, via Web-based interface. However, in order to keep factory equipment secure (preventing nefarious parties from using remote devices to introduce viruses, or to steal intellectual property) the Factory-Relay running on the PC acts as a gatekeeper. Before the data moves from the PC to C-Labs’ cloud-based server—from which remote access is enabled—the Factory-Relay, based on the customer’s IT department protocols, can inspect the data, add firewalls and apply SSL encryption.
AXOOM, which sells a browser-based material order and management system for manufacturing plants, is using the software to provide security for its application. And Nebbiolo Technologies is utilizing Factory-Relay to provide a security layer to its fog-computing system, which filters and processes process-automation data on edge devices (such as the industrial PCs on which Factory-Relay also runs) within factories.
Atlanta-Area Police Departments Purchase Connected Body Cameras
Utility, Inc., a provider of wearable video recording equipment designed for police officers, reports that the police departments in Lilburn and Marietta (near Atlanta, Ga.) have purchased its BodyWorn product for their respective officers.
The BodyWorn camera is integrated into an officer’s 4G-LTE mobile phone, which also runs the BodyWorn software. When not using the phone, an officer slips it into a chest-mounted holster integrated into his or her uniform, which enables automatic video recording.
The Lilburn Police Department has purchased and deployed 30 of Utility’s BodyWorn cameras, as well as 30 of its Rocket mobile hotspot routers, which are mounted in police vehicles and linked to components inside the vehicle, such as the siren and, in some cases, rifle rack, via a Bluetooth connection. Aside from serving as a means for streaming video data collected from the body camera to an Internet-based server, the router can trigger officers’ cameras to begin recording when the sirens are powered on or a gun is removed from a holster with an integrated Bluetooth radio. The Marietta Police Department has purchased 142 BodyWorn cameras, 130 Rocket routers and 70 in-vehicle cameras.
The smartphone supports high-resolution video capture, multiple microphones, Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS position reporting, a three-axis accelerometer for detecting rapid motion, Bluetooth wireless technology and a Near Field Communication (NFC) module. The accelerometer triggers the camera to begin recording, if it is not already doing so, if it senses the officer is running. An officer can also use voice commands to control the video camera, negating the need to remove the device from his or her uniform. The NFC module in the phone communicates with an NFC chip integrated into the officer’s uniform, which automatically identifies the officer and logs him or her into the phone.
The camera’s recording settings can be configured, using BodyWorn software, based on each police department’s data-collection policies. The devices also support two-way communication with the department’s central dispatch, so that officers can easily issue emergency alerts, along with their location. The video feed can also be live-streamed to central dispatch, based upon priority and department policy.
BodyWorn also includes a product called Smart Redaction, which police departments can use while reviewing tape to keep any perpetrator’s face and body parts unobscured. The system automatically blurs the faces and identifiable body parts or tattoos of victims, innocent third parties, minors and undercover police officers, in order to protect their privacy before the recordings are released in response to media and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and to prepare video for use in court, thereby eliminating the need to manually edit the videos per department policies.
Internet of Elevators at Hannover Messe
At this week’s Hannover Messe trade show in Germany, AT&T announced that it will provide its Global SIM management and IoT services, including Control Center, M2X and Flow Designer, to the Otis Elevator Co., a unit of United Technologies Corp., to enable it to access real-time equipment performance data from cellular-connected elevator, escalator and moving-walkway equipment. AT&T will also provide cellular services to more than 30,000 Otis service employees worldwide.
Also at the trade show, German elevator manufacturer Thyssenkrupp Elevator AG said that it plans to expand its preventive service and maintenance system for elevators. The service, called MAX, is a cloud-based system, built on Microsoft‘s Azure Machine Learning platform, collects sensor data to remotely monitor an elevator’s speed of travel, payloads, door mechanisms and other functions. The service, which is designed to help service mechanics access real-time elevator performance data and, if needed, take preventive measures before an elevator breaks down, is already being used to monitor thousands of elevators throughout the United States. Thyssenkrupp said it plans to connect 180,000 elevators to the MAX predictive-maintenance service by the end of 2017. The company is running pilot programs for the MAX service in the United States, Germany and Spain.
Danish City Eases Traffic with IoT
Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, is leveraging a network of approximately 200 gateways, made by Danish company BLIP Systems. The gateways are mounted along busy commuting corridors to gain insights into the movement of traffic, and to make adjustments to traffic infrastructure that have had demonstrable benefits for commuters, according to BLIP.
The gateways collect the MAC addresses transmitted via Bluetooth (and, in some cases, Wi-Fi) by the smartphones of passing commuters, and then encrypt and timestamp those numbers and send them to the server, hosted by BLIP Systems, where the system’s software filters and analyzes the data. The output is an estimate of travel times, dwell times and movement patterns on each monitored roadway.
The city’s planners use the analysis to identify intersections where they think adjustment can remove common chokepoints. Changes to turning lanes and adjustments to the timing of traffic lights at particularly congested intersections have cut travel times during heavy traffic periods by as much as 31 percent—while throughput at one key intersection has increased by 50 percent.
In 2015, Aarhus mounted 10 electronic signs at key points throughout the city that use data from the BLIP system to present real-time travel times, suggestions of the fastest routes between popular destinations, and traffic alerts. Many cities have deployed BLIP’s technology for similar applications, and airports use it to convey wait times for travelers in security queues, for example.
AT&T Seeks to Erase Dead Zones With Globecomm Partnership
Through a new partnership with Globecomm, a communications service provider and data-management company, AT&T is planning to remove connectivity hurdles for its customers who use its cellular modems to track assets in remote parts of the world. The two companies will launch a new service that will allow AT&T customers using IoT devices to access Globecomm’s satellite connectivity when assets being tracked are located outside AT&T’s cellular network. The IoT devices will connect to the cellular network by default, but if a signal is unavailable, the devices will automatically connect to Globecomm’s satellite network. The partnership will remove the need for businesses to purchase their cellular and satellite services separately.