Prototype

Meet CREATE – The UNSW Club for Making Things – Sydney Maker Faire 2014

Aug 21, 2014Mike88Maker FaireCloudherd, Maker Faire, Mobile app, Prototype, Robotics

Meet the team from CREATE – The UNSW Club for Making Things.

These guys are the most entrepreneurial group of students I have met in my years of working with or attending Universities. As a group they are only about 18 months old but are growing rapidly.

Typically University students learn a particular skill set focused on their major, however the products of our new world are increasingly merging where new classes of devices require sophisticated combinations of Electrical, Electronics, Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design and then fabrication. Its a team game, no one discipline can hope to master all of the skills needed.

CREATE UNSW Hexacopter

CREATE started off as Student Club to give practical experience for Engineering students, running courses to learn how to program Microcontrollers and Ardunio, as well fabrication skills such as 3d Printing, CNC tools, CAD and other engineering subjects which are well covered in most Universities from a theory perspective but rarely well covered with practical workshops.

Hexacopter at Maker Faire

When I first did my apprenticeship 30 years ago (yes before most of you were born) you had to do a trade to learn how to make things. Fitters and turners, machinists, boilermakers, pattern makers, they were the makers of yesteryear, and while there were a lot of people who loved their mechanical engineering jobs, no one loved going to the factory everyday as it was in many cases a production line where your job was turning out parts someone else created, rarely being involved in the creation yourself.

Today many of these jobs are being done by machines programmed and operated by extremely smart University graduates or enthusiasts discovering new age ways to do past age work and to create new devices and services (Draftsmen are probably the only ones which are still in demand, but no velum, clutch pens or pen plotters in sight, only Solidworks or Autocad gurus need apply).

This trend will continue to accelerate, if you doubt that your job can be done by a machine run by computer check out this list of old English occupations and see whats left.

Which is why its great that the CREATE team are running these courses and now officially opening their courses to non University students. You can join their Facebook Group here

Once of the things that impressed me was their parts and quadcopter sales. Because a lot of the components needed for their soldering and electronics businesses were not available readily from local suppliers, they put together a float and started buying components in from China, they now run weekly trade stalls for all of the students to purchase the parts they need for their projects.

From this came a project to build a Quadcopter which I wrote about early this year and now after prototyping a few versions they have now sold over $20,000 worth of Quadcopters this year, not bad for a University Club, this will keep them in Beer and Pizza for the rest of the year.

If you think these things are toys you are dead wrong, they have very advanced features including;

GPS
6 Axis Accelerometer
Compass
Altimeter
Long Distance Radio control with a range of 10 miles
Fully programable autopilot with mission planning
Self tuning flight trimming to save the potentially damaging process of launching a new aircraft
Sophisticated dampened Gimbal for mounting a camera and streaming real time video of the flight back to the user
Just in case something goes wrong they also have an auto return home function to return the aircraft back to base if they lose radio control.

Watch these guys, they are going to do something special.

http://youtu.be/izx3IIeTM6Q

MetalTree’s HUGE 3D Printer demos at Sydney Maker Faire

Aug 20, 2014Mike88Maker Faire3D Printing, Crowdfunding, Hardware, maker, Maker Faire, Prototype

Meet the Metaltree 3D Printer maker Jason Crowe.

Metaltree-Jason Crowe

At 1.2m high this is the biggest 3D printer I have seen (and none of it is support cabinet), earlier in the year we researched over 50 printers in our 3d printers comparison and this is significantly larger build volume than anything I have seen on the market short of the industrial versions.

It uses a Delta configuration which means that the extruder head moves around on 6 arms and the build plate doesn’t move at all.

This simplifies construction and allows for a larger build space for a given size and weight than a traditional 3d Printer where the extruders move X Y but the build plate moves up and down as the item is printed.

Metaltree Extruder Head

This is still a prototype so its not ready for production yet, Jason is working towards getting it production ready and plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign to sell them next year.

Invision prototyping mockup source control

Invision – Web & Mobile Prototyping and UI Mockup Platform

Jul 23, 2014Mike88Pitch your StartupApps, collaboration, Design, Github, Invision, Jason Calacanis, Pitch your Startup, Prototype, Prototyping, version control, Web design

I regularly listen to This Week in Startups which is produced by Jason Calacanis, he does a great weekly video which runs for an hour and has in depth interview with VCs and startup founders, who he manages to get to reveal some pretty interesting stories, often gets them to admin to things they may not have before, its one of the better webcasts for startups and a great laugh at the same time.

Jason does the Web equivalent of a live read for his sponsors (those of you who have ever advertised on radio will be familiar with the concept) and one of the companies he mentioned the other day was Invision a new prototyping, collaboration and workflow platform.

Having tried about 10 prototyping/wireframing/mockup apps in the last year for one of the projects I am working on, I can tell you they pretty well all suck big time on the collaboration aspect.

Also commenting and keeping track of problems is also a major headache, invariably you need to switch out to another platform to track the requests/bugs etc and don’t even talk about keeping version control over design suggestions and mockups, its not trivial or commonly done.

So Invision seems to solve the problem for design collaboration and prototyping in a similar way to how Github solves the problem collaboration problem for code and version control.

There is a 30 day free trial and the plans seem reasonable including a free plan for only one project. Check it out here Invision App.

Invision prototyping-mockup real time commenting

www.invisionapp.com

Five real problems I really think need solving

Dec 11, 2013Mike88EntrepreneursDrones, Electronics and Electrical, Hardware, Henry J. Kaiser, Kickstarter, Manufacturing, Printed circuit board, Prototype, Prototyping, Surface-mount technology

“Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.”

Henry J. Kaiser US Industrialist I was talking to a class of University students the other day and they were looking for problems to solve as part of their hardware design subject after a lot of thought this is what I came up with. I believe they are validated and represent real business opportunities.

Prototyping and small volume Manufacturing Machines

: English: SMT placement machine Juki KE-2080L at Megger’s Dover site. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hardware is hard and expensive to develop. There are a bunch of reasons around this and it’s usually nothing to do with the cost of the components which are mostly very cheap. Its primarily to do with the lags and lead times involved in building new devices and building prototype circuits and devices and access to the equipment needed to build circuits most of which is located in manufacturing centres in Asian countries.

If you believe as I do that Western economies can start to move their smarter manufacturing back from low cost countries, then the logical extension of this is that we should have the ability to quickly and easily make prototypes and send these into small volume manufacturing locally rather than waste 3-4 weeks trying to get someone overseas to prototype it for you (and then have to do it numerous times until you have a workable product)

Also the cost of putting a consumer electronics product into production is in the millions due to setup costs.

Rapid Prototype and small run manufacturing machines could provide solutions to allow local makers and hardware hackers to experiment and build at low volume to prove out a market before they invest $1000000s in funding a full production run.

I am 75% of the way through a rapid prototype for a wearable device at work and one of the things I can say with some conviction is that the faster you can find errors in your designs and correct and test them the cheaper and faster the overall production will be.

But to find errors you usually have to build, if you have to build you usually have to send it overseas, none of this is easy and can take weeks to months, what if you could build it in your office or garage in an afternoon on a Rapid Prototype Machine.

This would further cut the costs and difficulties of developing hardware. I know you can make your own single and double layer boards, there are lots of tutorials on the web but its tough to do anything complex on the kitchen table and it is very difficult to get any sort of complexity using etch resist using Toner/Iron/Sandwich maker.

Typically once you are past the breadboard you have to start thinking about Surface Mount components and these are very small and difficult to work with and require special soldering equipment or ovens.

Brisbane based Cartesian Co has created this fantastic Kickstarter Project the EX1 which provides rapid 3d Printing of Circuit Boards using conductive silver nano paint sprayed on like an inkjet.

EX1-3d Circuit Board Printer – Kickstarter

The Kickstarter project finishes today and has smashed its target and is a great example of the need for these type of machines http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cartesianco/the-ex1-rapid-3d-printing-of-circuit-boards?ref=country#

For most of last century a manufacturer and mechanical workshop needed the following

Drill press,
Lathe,
Milling machine,
Welder
Bandsaw,
A massive production line with lots of workers

In this era we need

PCB Fabrication Machine
Pick and Place Machine
SMD surface mount soldering machine/oven
3D printer (with numerous materials)
CNC Router/mill
Small Production line full of robots
Office full of designers and programmers

Domestic Power Consumption Measurement

solar monitor thingy (Photo credit: djbones)

I recently received a $1500 power bill for the quarter. It seems like a lot, its a big house and has some big water pumps but surely not that much.

One or more of the appliances are consuming a lot of energy it would seem but which one?

So here is the problem I cant tell how much power I use in real time, I can’t tell what devices are using the power.

Neither can anyone else.

No single product seems to be able to tell me where the power is being consumed and how to optimise it.

If you are looking for a huge problem this is definitely huge, every home owner in the Western world is going to continue to be hit with rising power bills far in excess of inflation and are looking for easy ways to reduce this.

Solar Power Storage Systems

English: Solar Power demonstration house A demonstration of various forms of solar power technology at the CAT 27588. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I want to convert to solar, but apparently its not very economically feasible, the payback is 5 years plus. In our house and I suspect most houses except retirees, consumption is greatest in the evenings and early mornings and lowest in the day times, which is the exact opposite of solar generation.

And yet almost no one puts in batteries to store the charge generated during the day to power usage during the evening. Instead they pump their excess power (most of it) it back onto the grid where the power companies pay you peanuts for it and if predictions are true will end up charging you an electricity access fee if you start generating enough power to be self sufficient and don’t need them anymore.

So why hasn’t anyone worked out an energy storage system that balances the generation hours and consumption hours, such a system would make solar so much more effective without changing solar cell technology. I haven’t found anything except for extremely expensive batteries and not many are being implemented.

If you could harness all of the power every day and store it, the breakeven on Solar would drop dramatically and most users could probably use smaller systems and cover most of their needs. I can tell you that Governments and Power Companies will not like this and will try to cover infrastructure costs by charging for access to the grid even if you are not using power, however in my opinion if you can manage to supply most of your own power, water and if you can substitute solar power for petrol, you will be next decades rich lister.

Defense System against Spying Drones

MQ-1 Predator – Credit Wikipedia.com

Destroying or generally defending against drones from paparazzi or unwanted surveillance will become a must have if you are a celebrity or bizoid, someone will work out how to do this without hurting people and will make a business from products that take down or decoy drones. Some of this may or may not be legal depending on where you live.

Easy system for managing Personal Encryption across all your services

Personal encryption is not easy, its non trivial to get end to end encryption of email, VPN or other services or applications without an IT department.

It is impossible to easily ensure all of your personal data and communications are correctly secured. In the days of NSA mega surveillance or for those living in countries with malevolent Governments this may be a matter of life or death but its exceptionally difficult to get right. Someone who made it easy could charge a premium for this.

What do you think? What problems do you see that are validated problems still not solved? Please leave your comments below.

Internet of Things – Big List of Companies, Products, Devices and Software by Sector

Oct 28, 2013Mike88Internet of ThingsHardware, Internet of Things, IoT, Kickstarter, Prototype, Robotics

I have recently spent a lot of time researching the companies and products in the Internet of Things (IoT) space and decided to list all of these out into a post to make it easy to see who is doing what. It’s a work in progress, it’s not complete (will never be) so please be patient as I add additional resources and information. The original inspiration for this came from a Techcrunch infographic by Matt Turck managing director of FirstMark Capital http://mattturck.com/2013/07/16/making-sense-of-the-internet-of-things/ but it was lacking URLs or any useful descriptions or photos about the companies. It has since been supplemented by about 100 other companies that I have found while looking at the landscape. If you have an interesting new product or startup or we haven’t found you yet, please Tweet me @mikenicholls88 or tell us your story here and we will add it to the list, if it looks interesting we may even publish a separate article on it.

Platforms

Hardware Platforms

Arduino.cc

Arguably the device that launched a 1000 startups. Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping computing platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. Available in numerous different sizes shapes and even flexible or fabric based computing devices and hundreds of software programs called Sketches allows you to experiment with controlling devices and chips by downloading the sketch to your Arduino which is hooked up to your sensor, device, robot, UAV or other device to be controlled.

: Arduino-logo

: Arduino-models

: Arduino Models 2

Intel Galileo

intel_galileo

The Intel® Galileo board is a microcontroller board based on the Intel® Quark SoC X1000 application processor, a 32-bit Intel® Pentium® brand system on a chip (SoC). It is the first board based on Intel® architecture designed to be hardware and software pin-compatible with shields designed for the Arduino Uno* R3.

This platform provides the ease of Intel architecture development through support for the Microsoft Windows*, Mac OS*, and Linux* host operating systems. It also brings the simplicity of the Arduino integrated development environment (IDE) software.

Raspberry-Pi

http://www.raspberrypi.org The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming.The idea behind a tiny and cheap computer for kids came in 2006, when Eben Upton, Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and Alan Mycroft, based at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, became concerned about the year-on-year decline in the numbers and skills levels of the A Level students applying to read Computer Science. Rasberry Pi cost between $25-35

: RasberryPi

: RaspiModelB

Gadgeteer

http://www.netmf.com/gadgeteer/ This is Microsoft’s attempt at the smart devices and internet of things space. Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer is an open-source toolkit for building small electronic devices using the .NET Micro Framework and Visual Studio (including Express editions). Gadgeteer combines the advantages of object-oriented programming, solderless assembly of electronics with a kit of peripherals, and support for quick form-factor construction using computer-aided design.

: Gadgeteer modules – Credit Microsoft

: Gadgeteer – Rover 5 Tank Chassis – Credit – Microsoft

Beaglebone

BeagleBone Black is a $45 MSRP community-supported development platform for developers and hobbyists. Boot Linux in under 10 seconds and get started on development in less than 5 minutes with just a single USB cable.

: Beaglebone – Credit Beaglebone.org

Cubieboard

: Cubieboard

Electric Imp

http://electricimp.com/ The imp is a powerful, yet tiny, hardware module that runs the imp OS. Our operating system provides the foundation to build advanced features and services for your devices, and it works with the imp Cloud to provide seamless and secure connectivity of your devices to software, third party services and external servers.

: Electric Imp

Hardware Variations and Accessories

Earthmake

http://earthmake.com Touchscreen LCD for Arduino platform

: Earthmake-Touchscreen-LCD

Seeeduino Film

http://www.seeedstudio.com

: Seeeduino Film

Seeeduino Film is a Arduino chipset mounted on a Flexible circuit, it is only a few mm thick and around 20mm wide by 70mm long, having used these ourselves I can tell you it is tiny and so light and very flexible, chips notwithstanding.

Communications Hardware

TST Sistemas

TST – IOT Device TSmarT supporting ethernet, wifi, zigbee and nfc or rfid?

TST is a high-tech start-up founded in 2007 with private capital as a spin-off from Network Planning & Mobile Communications Lab at the University of Cantabria. They have recently announced an IOT Device called TSmarT which supports ethernet, wifi, zigbee and nfc or rfid all in the same device. http://www.tst-sistemas.es

Software Platforms and Frameworks

Riot

http://www.riot-os.org/ RIOT is an open source software platform that bridges the gap between operating systems for WSNs and full fledged operating systems currently running on Internet hosts. RIOT provides a uniform programming interface across a wide range of devices, allowing multi-threading with standard POSIX API with very small memory footprint, starting from 1,5kB RAM and 5kB ROM (without network stack). By design it provides energy efficiency, reliability, and real-time capabilities, based on a modular, microkernel architecture. RIOT implements a microkernel architecture. In addition, RIOT add native support for C/C++ and provides a TCP/IP network stack. Advantages of the RIOT architecture thus include: (i) high reliability and (ii) a developer-friendly API. The modular microkernel architecture of RIOT makes it robust against bugs in single components. Failures in the device driver or the file system, for example, will not harm the whole system. RIOT allows developers to create as many threads as needed and distributed systems can be easily implemented by using the kernel message API. The amount of threads is only limited by the available memory and stack size for each thread, while the computational and memory overhead is minimal. RIOT supports current Internet standards, such as 6LoWPAN, IPv6, RPL, TCP, and UDP.

Carriots

Carriots.com

www.carriots.com We are a spanish startup offering a Platform as a Sercice for IoT projects. Powerful rules engine (Groovy scripting), data storage and project management. And its free up to 10 devices, enough to build your first IoT project.

1. CONNECT DEVICES

Connect all kind of devices to Carriots to gather data and build applications for them

2. COLLECT DATA

Use our HTTP RESTful API to push and pull XML or JSON encoded data

3. MANAGE DEVICES & DATA

Take full control of your machines using the 2 way communication protocols.

4. BUILD YOUR APPS

Carriots let you define your rules in your apps. Your connected objects become smart

5. WE RUN IT!

I particularly like the Beer Flowmeter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO_V0mKRj-s

Lithouse

Developer Portal for Internet-of-Things, looks like a beta service. https://www.lithouse.co

Lithouse-API

1 Build your device by connecting sensors and actuators.

2 Register the device with Lithouse and collect a deviceKey.

3 Download Lithouse client libraries for your platforms (Arduino, Raspberry Pi etc.) and initialize with thedeviceKey.

And, you will be able to access the device through our RESTful APIs.

NodeJS

http://nodejs.org/ Node.js is a platform built on Chrome’s JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

Sensinode

http://www.sensinode.com/

: Sensinode

Sensinode was recently acquired by ARM. Sensinode provides end-to-end software products that bring IP and web services to the end node, combining highly optimized embedded client software with a scalable management and web application platform. Sensinode’s software brings web services to the most demanding enterprise applications in the Internet of Things.

	NanoStack » NanoStack™ 2.0 is our advanced 6LoWPAN protocol stack software product for 2.4 GHz and Sub-GHz radios.

	NanoRouter » The NanoRouter™ 2.0 software acts as a 6LoWPAN network edge router, and enables routing between 6LoWPAN and IPv4 / IPv6 networks.

	NanoService » The NanoService™ solution provides end-to-end web services using leading CoAP and Embedded Web technology, including the backend web application environment, graphical reference apps and a device libraries.

IFTTT.com

https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT is a service that lets you create powerful connections with one simple statement: If this then that. Each statement is called a recipe. Channels are the building blocks of an IFTTT statement. The various channels could be Facebook, Evernote, Email and Weather; Youtube, Dropbox, or Linkedin. For example a sample recipe for IFTTT will be : IF [New Favourite Video On Youtube] THEN [Share On Facebook] You can also create your own recipes by registering on the IFTTT website.

Thingworx

http://www.thingworx.com/

Thingworx makes it easy to build machine to machine and Internet of Things applications.

ioBridge

www.iobridge.com

ioBridge makes it easy for professionals and enthusiasts to connect almost anything to the internet and monitor and control it via their smart phone or web app using our general purpose web gateways.

IO-204 Web Gateway Evaluation Kit

IO-201 Wi-Fi Web Gateway

IO-204 Temperature Sensor Kit

IO-204 Temperature and Humidity Sensor Kit

IO-204 Web Gateway

Gamma PRO Web Gateway and Wireless Endpoint Kit

Buglabs

http://www.buglabs.net/ Buglabs developed Swarm which is a cloud-based “Internet of Things” development platform that let’s you easily add new services to your product. Whether it’s a simple sensor device or a complex industrial system, Swarm provides everything necessary to get valuable new online product services up and running quickly.

Arrayent

http://www.arrayent.com/ The Arrayent Connect Platform enables you to connect your low-cost products to value-added smartphone and web applications with unprecedented low-cost and simplicity.

Open Source Platforms

Alljoyn

Alljoyn is @Qualcomm open source development platform for the Internet of Everything.

: Alljoyn connected home – Credit Alljoyn.com

https://www.alljoyn.org/ provides a framework to code solutions focused on SmartTV, Automotive, Connected Home and Smart Audio

Device Information & Configuration – allows the device to broadcast information such as device type, manufacturer and serial numbers; also allows the user to assign a name and password to the device
Onboarding – allows headless and other simple devices to be easily connected via an intermediary to the user’s network
Notifications – so products can broadcast and receive basic communications easily (text, image/video, audio)
Control Panel – enables a device like a smartphone or tablet to control another product via a graphical interface
Audio – so any device with audio can stream it to any set of Alljoyn-enabled speakers, audio receivers and other audio playback devices

Thingspeak

https://www.thingspeak.com/ An Open Application Platform to designed to enable meaningful connections between things and people.

Nimbits

http://www.nimbits.com/ Nimbits is a collection of software for recording time series data to the cloud.

Spark Core

http://www.sparkdevices.com/ A tiny Wi-Fi development board that makes it easy to create internet-connected hardware. The Core is all you need to get started; power it over USB and in minutes you’ll be controlling LEDs, switches and motors and collecting data from sensors over the internet!

Xively

https://xively.com/ Xively provides the platform, tools, services and partners that simplify and accelerate the creation of compelling connected offerings. With Xively, you’re free to focus on innovation instead of infrastructure.

Supermechanical

http://supermechanical.com/ Twine helps you detect small problems before they become big problems. Get notified of changes in temperature, vibration, orientation and more, even when you’re not home. Get an alert when your pipes freeze, the AC breaks, or the garage door is left open. An external sensor port lets you add features later, such as a moisture sensor, magnetic switch, or breakout board. Cloud Shield Stack Cloud Shield on your Arduino, connect it to Twine, and get email, texting, calling, and more in a jiffy. With Cloud Shield, you can add the ability to trigger any Twine output from your Arduino sketch with three lines of code, so you can focus on your idea and not debugging networking code. It has two capacitive pads for easy input with your fingers or conductive objects, and an LED to let you know when it’s been triggered. Moisture Sensor Add a moisture sensor to your Twine, and you’ll be able to detect the presence of water even when you’re not at home. You can get a text message or email as soon as your basement floods or your water heater leaks, and prevent costly damage to your home. Breakout Board Connect the Twine breakout board to your Twine’s external sensor port and instantly get the ability to measure anything with your own digital input (analog coming soon). Each breakout board has a unique ID so your sensor’s name and settings are remembered for the next time you plug it in. It has holes for mounting and easy-to-use terminals for signal, 3.3V power and ground. Magnetic Switch Did you leave a window open? Did someone just open the door? Detect things moving even when you’re not at home. Add a magnetic switch to your Twine, and you can get a text message or email when a door is open or when the mail has been delivered. Have peace of mind when you’re away from home.

External Temperature Sensor

Is your freezer on the fritz? Add an external temperature sensor to your Twine to monitor the temperature in your refrigerator, freezer, or anywhere else you don’t want to stick your Twine due to a hostile environment or a spotty wireless connection.

Twine Screenshot

http://www.getosito.com/ http://www.zonoff.com/

Big Data

Apache Spark

http://spark-project.org/ Apache Spark is an open source cluster computing system that aims to make data analytics fast — both fast to run and fast to write. Spark was initially developed for two applications where placing data in memory helps: iterative algorithms, which are common in machine learning, and interactive data mining. In both cases, Spark can run up to 100x faster than Hadoop MapReduce.

Tableau Software

http://www.tableausoftware.com/products If you start to gather sensor data, pretty soon it gets massive. Imagine keeping someones heart rate, temperature, blood pressure, location, time and any events. Just for one person that is a full time stream, x1,000,000 and it gets massive, trying to use that data to produce meaningful information is challenging. Tableau Server is a business intelligence application that provides browser-based analytics anyone can use. It’s a rapid-fire alternative to the slow pace of traditional business intelligence software.

: Tableau Software

Ginger.io

Ginger.io a behavioral analytics platform that turns mobile data into health insights Anapsis is a research platform and marketplace for scientific and statistical computing BigEvidence is developing software that improves the way medical providers evaluate and apply medical evidence CancerIQ is harnessing big data to accelerate personalized cancer care FlatIron Health is a business and clinical intelligence platform for cancer care providers Huneo has a health data infrastructure that forms a comprehensive system to monitor human health and provide access to real-time and historical data collected from patients

Sensors/Networks

http://mesh-systems.com/ http://blog.safecast.org/

Robotics, UAV, MAV and other Vehicles

3D Robotics BitCraze makers of the Crazyflie miniature Quadcopter smaller than your hand, capable of being equipped with long range RF.

: crazyflie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWSUMGJKt0U NanSatisfi Sells time for experimental purposes on the Ardusat public Satellite

: Ardusat – Credit Kickstarter.com

Adafruit Backyard Brains Dash Robotics

Enabling Networks

http://www.freedompop.com/ http://socialsign.in/ http://www.sigfox.com/en/ http://opengarden.com/

Wearable Computing

http://www.google.com/glass/start/ http://getpebble.com/

Health

Fitness

http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/nikeplus-fuelband http://amiigo.co/ http://www.fitbit.com/ https://jawbone.com/up

Edisse

http://www.edisse.com/ Edisse is a company I met whilst mentoring at Incubate.org.au the student incubator at Sydney University. They have prototyped a wearable sensor for real time tracking, fall detection and alerting. Basically it combines a GPS, mobile data, sms and an accelerometer to detect unusual movements ie a fall and then report this to an 3rd party such as the adult children or other carer. The idea is that anywhere in the world a carer can get an alert that their loved one has fallen over and exactly where it has happened.

: Edisse Fall Detection Watch & App

Withings

http://www.withings.com/ Health monitoring hardware and software, includes a set of internet/app enabled scales, a blood pressure device and app and a baby monitor.

: Withings-Scales

: Withings Blood Pressure Monitor

: Withings Baby Monitor

http://lumoback.com/ http://www.hapilabs.com/products-hapifork.asp http://www.wahoofitness.com/ http://www.numetrex.com/ Proteus Digital Health makes a ingestible biomedical sensor, a wearable, peel-and-stick patch, and a companion smartphone app

Education

Evil Mad Science ExploreLabs LittleBits MakeyMakey Printrbot

Family

http://goodnightlamp.com/ http://www.mylively.com/ http://www.evadofilip.com/ Lifestyle Leisure http://www.hexbright.com/ http://sleepwithremee.com/ http://www.icakitchen.com/ http://www.blossomcoffee.com/ http://socialbicycles.com/ http://vimeo.com/17873025 Pets http://gibitechnologies.com/ http://www.fitbark.com/ Toys https://www.sifteo.com/ http://www.makielab.com/ http://store.karotz.com/en_US/ http://www.greengoose.com/ http://romotive.com Music http://www.incidentgtar.com/ http://www.apogeedigital.com/ Gardening http://www.bitponics.com/ http://www.myplantlink.com/ http://www.koubachi.com/main?locale=en Home Improvement http://www.radiatorlabs.com/ http://www.netatmo.com/en-US/site

Gaming

Phonejoy

This is a pretty cool device that can attach to just about any smartphone or tablet device due to adjustable playing pads that can move in and out to suit the device. phonejoy.com seems pretty good value too at $69

Phonejoy Smartphone Gaming Device

Home Automation

Ninjablocks

: Ninjablock

http://ninjablocks.com/ Australian home control and automation platform. The free Ninja Blocks platform simplifies the process of building web & mobile apps that talk to hardware. Each Ninjablock has both a beaglebone and a Arduino running the system. You can also buy motion sensors, temperature and humidity, window and door contact sensors and also program other sensors into the platform.

Moores Cloud

http://moorescloud.com/ LED Smart lighting system by @mpesce and @kcarruthers. The first product they have produced is initially positioned as the worlds smartest Christmas lights but talking to Kate I can see a big future for programmable LED lighting systems. 50 LED strings are controlled by an embedded computer with Smart Phone apps to drive it. They originally ran a kickstarter which got an amazing $275,000 but fell short of the $750,000 target, however they still managed to get the product built and have sold all bar a few of the first batch., the last few are available here http://store.moorescloud.com/

: Moores Cloud – Credit morescloud.com

http://revolv.com/ http://www.wovyn.com/ http://nest.com/ https://mylapka.com/ http://theubi.com/ http://www.sticknfind.com/

Energy Efficiency

wattvision.com This is a pretty cool solution to a problem which I am very frustrated by.

Wattvision Meter Sensor

Wattvision Mobile App Screenshots

Wattvision provides a Smart Meter without having to install a smart meter. It measures real time usage of power and transmits it to a slick mobile and web application. It doesnt go all the way to solving the problem of measuring what each individual device and light does but it appears to be one of the best solutions available. The app provides a great aggregate view with fantastic platform to visualise what is happening in real time with your power consumption. http://www.amperic.com/ http://lifx.co/ http://www.tado.com/en/ http://www.belkinbusiness.com/everything-connected http://www.micasaverde.com/ http://www.belkin.com/au/wemo https://www.ecobee.com/

Security

Y-cam

http://www.y-cam.com/ Security solution including a range of indoor and outdoor semi pro and professional Wireless Security cameras, Cloud Monitoring Software http://www.homemonitor.me/ and a Baby monitor http://www.babyping.com/. The cameras support up to 1080HD and some are available with Wireless, Ethernet with power over Ethernet.

: Y-Cam Bullet1080

: Y-cam-cube1080

: BabyPing_Monitor

http://www.alarm.com/ http://www.kwikset.com/ https://lockitron.com/preorder http://www.canarycom.com/index5.html http://becanary.com/ http://www.homemonitor.me/ https://www.ismartalarm.com/ http://www.bosch-si.com/technology/software-suite/bpm-plus-iots.html New Interfaces http://www.neurosky.com/ http://www.gestigon.de/ http://www.gosphero.com/ http://www.primesense.com/ http://equiso.com/ http://interaxon.ca/ http://www.emotiv.com/ https://www.leapmotion.com/

Industries

Retail http://www.getnomi.com/ http://placemeter.com/ http://euclidanalytics.com/

Healthcare

http://www.visimobile.com/ http://www.adheretech.com/ http://www.alivecor.com/ http://www.intelligentm.com/ http://telcare.com/

Automotive

https://www.moj.io/ http://www.ford.com/technology/sync/ http://www.toyota.com/entune/ http://openxcplatform.com/ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dashlabs.dash.android

Smart Buildings

http://w3.usa.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies/us/en/building-automation-and-energy-management/apogee/pages/apogee.aspx http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/content/us/en/products/building_efficiency.html http://www.buildingiq.com/ http://www.schneider-electric.com/corporate/en/products-services/buildings/intelligent-buildings/building-management-system.page

Industrial Internet

http://www.instrument-works.com This company is in stealth mode so there are no photos but I have actually seen the new probe electronics and it looks like a great advancement on a market that is using 50 year old technology. Instrument Works is developing a platform for wireless sensors for portable laboratory instruments. By embedding Bluetooth smart technology into analytical probes such as those for the measurement of pH, conductivity, temperature, dissolved oxygen and turbidity, we are able to connect these sensors directly to smart devices such as iPhones, iPods and iPads. This allows us to leverage these devices superior computational and graphical capabilities, including location and internet connectivity, compared to the existing proprietary products on the market. The lower cost of these smart devices compared to regular analytical style instruments will also benefit users. http://www.kivasystems.com/ http://www.doublerobotics.com/ http://www.airware.com/ http://liquidr.com/ http://3drobotics.com/ http://momentummachines.com/ http://www.robotex.com/ Greentech http://bigbellysolar.com/ http://www.gridmobility.com/ http://www.enlightedinc.com/ http://www.axeda.com/

3d Printing

http://www.3dsystems.com/ http://www.stratasys.com/ http://formlabs.com/ http://www.shapeways.com/ http://www.makerbot.com/ http://reprap.org/

MakerGear

http://www.makergear.com Makes a lot of 3D printing gear for other manufacturers and makers/hardware hackers who want to build their own 3D Printers.

: MakerGear 3D Printer

Buccaneer

: Pirate 3D Buccaneer – Credit Kickstarter.com

DOOD Foldarap Printrbot

Building Blocks

Connection Protocols

A single #IoT system with ethernet, #wifi, #zigbee and #nfc or #rfid? Soon the new #TSmarT line will hit the road! http://www.neul.com/ http://www.zigbee.org/ http://www.macheen.com/ http://www.ieee-rfid.org/ http://www.nfc-forum.org/home/ http://www.ieee802.org/11/ http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/Bluetooth-Home.aspx http://www.z-wave.com/modules/ZwaveStart/ http://www.m-bus.com/ http://mqtt.org/