SCADA, Telematics & GPS Technologies

As everyone who’s had a ref make a bad call at their team’s expense knows, NFL refs aren’t perfect. But footballs and gloves with built-in sensors? Those might just make coach’s challenges history.

Dr. Priya Narasimhan of Carnegie Mellon University has developed the football and gloves, loading them up with wireless sensors that can precisely determine whether or not a ball hit the ground before being caught or whether or not someone had control of the ball before fumbling. It could also, using GPS, determine whether or not the ball cross the goal line. But the applications don’t stop there.

Eventually, the same kind of sensors used in the gloves could be adapted to shoes, to measure stride and running patterns, or even shoulder pads, to calculate blocking positions and force.The current version of the glove has 15 touch sensors on the fingers and palm, running to a wireless module on the back of the arm, said Adam Goldhammer of Richboro, Bucks County, a master’s student in electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon.

Source: Gizmodo.com

Audon Electronics is offering the Edam-9000 range of Ethernet-based industrial data acquisition and control RTU devices.

The Edam-9000 range is based on 10/100 Ethernet networking standards and supports the Modus/TCP protocol.

The Edam-9000 also supports UDP protocol over Ethernet networking.

There are six models in the range, covering voltage, thermocouple and PRT analogue inputs, digital inputs, pulse counting and transistor outputs.

All have a 10-30VDC power supply range, full opto-isolation and are housed in robust DIN rail mount enclosures.

Users can add Edam-9000 I/O modules to existing Ethernet networks or use Edam-9000 modules in new or existing SCADA systems.

source: Processing Talks

The Z-Wave Home Control standard expands its reach with the announcement of the Advanced Energy Control Framework (AEC), a specification for advanced energy management technologies that empower homeowners to make informed decisions for energy consumption and monitor home devices. Z-Wave’s AEC will integrate smart metering, consumer notification, automated load shedding and home controls to enable real-time energy management and to help reduce energy demand, lower utility costs and provide active control over home energy consuming devices. Zensys presents the AEC at the Metering Europe event in Amsterdam (Booth J15) between the 22nd and 24th of September, 2008.

“The Z-Wave Advanced Energy Control Framework is a breakthrough in home energy management that will allow homeowners to actively monitor utility costs and demand response in order to save energy and money while reducing their carbon footprint,” says Mark Walters, chairman of the Z-Wave Alliance. “Some utilities are looking to use smart meters to dynamically adjust billing rates based on energy consumption. With AEC we can notify the homeowner of these changes so they can make informed decisions on how they want to consume energy. With Z-Wave and AEC the power to conserve is in the hands of homeowners, not the utilities.”

Transparency and management reduce energy costs
Most consumers receive only one electricity meter reading per month, providing little insight into their daily energy consumption and habits. With Z-Wave’s AEC, consumers can view their energy consumption anytime and anywhere in order to determine when they are using the most energy, and then can work to reduce overuse. Homeowners can also respond to utility billing structures, such as time-of-use pricing and tariff schedules, to minimize energy usage at peak times.

“With its undisputed strength in interoperability and its range of available products, Z-Wave does not only provide for the simple communication from an electricity meter to a gateway and a wireless display in the home,” says Roar Seeger, CEO of Modstroem, a Danish utility company. “It also enables the control of devices in the home that actually consume the power. Especially this second aspect is essential for Modstroem’s advanced service and key to actually achieving energy reduction without compromising comfort for the consumer.”

Z-Wave’s large selection of interoperable home energy control devices enables AEC solutions for a range of consumer scenarios, from simple energy monitoring with smart meters and home displays, to fully integrated device networks including thermostats, home control panels, gateways, sensors, controlled lighting, window coverings and other electrical devices. All the data is collected through an easy-to-understand central Z-Wave control interface that provides homeowners with the information they need to best manage their energy consumption.

Metering Europe: movement in the utility market
This year, the tenth anniversary of the Metering, Billing/CRM Europe takes place in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Since the European member states have opened their electricity and gas markets to competition, the demand for solutions which enable an efficient use of energy and lower the costs increases rapidly. So the investments in smart metering technologies are on the rise. Against this background Zensys will present its Advanced Energy Control Framework in Amsterdam and explain the benefits of the new solution with regard to energy efficiency and the management of consumption.

Source: Sensor News

Sometime, the GPRS coverage & priority issue is a turning down subject in our AVLS operations. Despite of GPS data errors and interferences, we choose to add SMS  mode for failsafe function to our AVLS architecture. It’s not really a big deal to develope the back engine, but in considering the alarm dispacthing functions. Maybe, it will become another turning down factor in our bussiness. the dispatcher should be really intelligent to determine the raw data despite of many of uncertainty factors that always bother. We bought a quad-core dell 1U rack server in order to replace our old beloved application server, a 4 pentium 4 Dell 5U tower server. We done doing upgrades to database server, and now working on the back-end & front-end application test. In another hand, we are migrating the Telemery System for waterworks…. developing a friendly GUI for Flood Monitoring System plus testing the alarm dispatching functions, still handling data loses in ABB EM meters integrations… sigh!

RS Hydro have recently won two seperate contracts to supply anWater Quality Sonde with Remote Monitoring Telemetry Troll Link Systemd install the Troll 9500 multiparameter water quality sonde in remote locations in Wales. Two further units are being supplied as stand-alone platforms.

The clients are using the Troll 9500 XP Professional platform along with the Troll Link solar powered telemetry system with plug and play sensors including turbidity, level, temperature, conductivity and pH/ORP. One of the clients is using the Troll 9500 to provide an early warning alarm to inform the client if any of their remedial works on a dam face are having an influence on the water quality of the compensation flow from the reservoir. The other client is using 4 units to measure water quality in a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) over a period of two years.

Both clients are using RS Hydro’s FlowView platform to provide all the data on a daily basis. Should any of the alarm thresholds be exceeded, text (SMS) messages will be sent direct to the client. It is possible to view a demo of the Troll 9500 on our local river. Before you think there are errors in the conductivity readings, they are correct! The Salwarpe RIver is partly fed by Droitiwch Spa’s naturally occuring brine baths, hence at low flows, conductivity rises dramatically.

Source: RS Hydro

The system uses two processors and a camera — called, appropriately, the Front Camera System — mounted near the rear-view mirror. One processor identifies familiar shapes, symbols and digits on common road signs and conveys the information to the driver via a digital display in the gauge cluster. The other alerts the driver when he or she strays from the lane.

“These new features follow Opel’s philosophy of enhancing driving excitement by assisting drivers without reducing their level of control,” says Hans Demant, managing director of GM Europe Engineering. “That means the system gives the drivers information, but it doesn’t intervene.”

We’re not entirely sure why GM thinks it’s easier to read a speed-limit sign on a tiny display between your speedometer and tachometer than on a big road sign. Dement says “a car that can see and warn the driver well in advance of potential hazards is another important step in our long-term accident prevention strategy.” GM Europe also is developing vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems that allow cars to exchange information about their position and speed.

Source: WIRED

Graphic by GM.

The AVR-Based House Monitoring System is designed around the ATmega8515 microcontroller. The system offers hard-wired and wireless control along with a 1-Wire temperature network. A web-based, user-friendly interface enhances the project. [source]

AVR-Based House Monitoring System - [Download Project] [View Abstract]

Wow, this could grow into something quite awesome. Pachube is -

a web service that enables people to tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices and spaces around the world, facilitating interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual. The idea is to make it relatively simple to “plug” together interactive projects and buildings around the world, as well as to create embeddable graphs of sensor feeds.

Only eighteen feeds conected at the time of this post - but the datastreams are already quite interesting - from a Japanese living room to a swing in Sweden. Head over to the site to learn how to connect your own sensor/stream - Pachube

Source: MAKE

1983: Pioneer 10 becomes the first human-made object to pass outside Pluto’s orbit and leave the central solar system.

Pioneer 10 must be considered one of the most successful spacecraft of all time. Designed for deep-space exploration, which at the time of its launch in 1972 meant pretty much anything beyond the moon, Pioneer 10 achieved a number of firsts while sending back valuable data along the way. Among the milestones:

• Following liftoff, Pioneer 10 achieved a breakaway speed of 32,400 mph, making it the fastest human-made object to leave the Earth. It shot past the moon in a mere 11 hours and crossed Mars’ orbit in just 12 weeks. By the time it reached Jupiter on Dec. 3, 1973, Pioneer 10 was moving along at a crisp 82,000 mph.
• On July 12, 1972, Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt. NASA described this as a “spectacular achievement” and, considering that asteroids the size of Alaska hurtle through the belt at 45,000 mph, there’s no reason to dispute the claim.
• Upon reaching Jupiter, Pioneer 10 sent back the first direct observations and close-up images of the solar system’s largest planet. It was data from Pioneer 10 that confirmed that Jupiter is mostly a liquid planet.
• After clearing Pluto’s orbit (considered the boundary of the planetary solar system in the decades before astronomers decided Pluto isn’t really a planet), Pioneer 10 continued to send back valuable data regarding solar wind, until its scientific mission ended in 1997.

All attempts to contact Pioneer 10 were terminated following the spacecraft’s last transmission of telemetry data on April 27, 2002. Nevertheless, NASA’s Deep Space Network received a final, faint signal on Jan. 22, 2003. It’s been silence ever since.

Although lost to contact forever, Pioneer 10 continues its endless journey through interstellar space. It’s headed in the general direction of Aldebaran, the brightest star in constellation Taurus, forming the bull’s eye. According to NASA, it will take about 2 million years for Pioneer 10 to reach Taurus.

So Pioneer 10’s mission, originally intended to go 21 months, lasted 25 years and change. As project manager Larry Lasher said, “I guess you could say we got our money’s worth.”

Source: NASA

Green Edge Systems, Inc., a trusted leader of HACCP temperature monitoring and control solutions, performance monitoring and energy savings for school food services presents it DataNet state-of-the-art affordable hardware products, software and communication platforms in the TEXAS ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL Nutrition (TASN) conference and exhibition , June 10-11, 2008 Corpus Christi, Texas

The DataNet Wireless Intelligent HACCP temperature monitoring system is the most advanced reliable and affordable Zigbee wireless sensor system. Read more…