SCADA, Telematics & GPS Technologies

A SMART vibration sensor with wireless communication for recording and analysing train vibration has been developed in the country.

Alka Dubey and Ashish Verma of Sagar University brought this innovation to light, while presenting their paper at the fourth international Wireless Communication Sensor Networks concluded at Indian Institute of Information Technology-Allahabad (IIIT-A) on Monday (Dec 29).

Dubey said that high speed trains are one of the most impressive developments of the recent years having brought a new degree of comfort for travelers. These trains posed serious accidents because of the high level of vibration, which are generated. Therefore to make the train speed smoother, a smart vibration sensor is developed. It is a self sensation device equipped with recording and wireless communication interface.

Source: Merinews

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

Alanco Technologies has announced that its subsidiary Alanco/TSI Prism, a provider of real-time RFID tracking technologies, has won a $3.3 million contract to create an RFID-based inmate tracking system for the Washington D.C. Department of Corrections.

The Alanco/TSI Prism system, which will combine Alanco’s TSI Prism RFID system with Wi-Fi compatible RTLS technology from AeroScout, will be installed at a Washington DC jail complex housing over 2,000 prisoners and staffed by 450 DOC employees. The system is intended to increase safety and improve inmate accountability.

Source: RFID News

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

Urmet Domus have introduced a simple solution for when audio communication is required as part of a door entry system but where it is not possible to install cables.

Domus Cell is compatible with all major mobile networks and provides GSM connection to Sinthesi door entry panels. The default programming enables users to have the system up and running within minutes and it can provide communication through analogue PABX systems, providing all the benefits of a standard telephone system, without the cost of installing fixed lines.

Domus Cell is a particularly practical and cost effective solution for installers of automated gates and barriers although it is also ideal for site and mobile office applications as the same contact numbers can be used for each new project. Read more about this

Some overview of Wibree vs Zigbee features:

• Wibree is a PAN (Personal Area Networking) technology
• Zigbee is a mesh networking technology
• Wibree is more power efficient
• Zigbee has got more range
• Wibree’s data transfer rate is 1 Mbps
• Zigbees Data transfer rate is 250 Kbps
• Wibree has got a star topology
• Zigbee has got a mesh topology
• Wibree uses bluetooth radio and can co-exist with bluetooth
• Zigbee needs its own special radio and has got no relationship with bluetooth

The idea of growing crops or plants in an environmentally controlled area has existed since Roman times. Some of the early attempts required enormous amounts of work to exclude the elements – and even more work to provide adequate heat and security. Today, greenhouses are high technology production facilities growing crops managed by computer controlled systems. These systems provide screening installations, heating, cooling, lighting and harvesting management systems. Despite dramatic improvements, challenges still face today’s greenhouse owners: maximizing production efficiency, product quality, post-harvest operations and even reducing environmental footprint. To address these challenges, automation, robotics, precision agriculture, sensors and other advanced technologies are being planted today in the most modern greenhouses. (more…)

ZigBee is broadly categorized as a low rate WPAN, and its closest technology is Bluetooth. A good bit of energy has been spent in analyzing whether ZigBee and Bluetooth are complementary or competing technologies, but after a quick look at the two, it can be seen that they fall a lot farther down the complementary side of the spectrum. They are two different technologies with very different areas of application and different means of designing for those applications. While ZigBee is focused on control and automation, Bluetooth is focused on connectivity between laptops, PDA’s, and the like, as well as more general cable replacement. ZigBee uses low data rate, low power consumption, and works with small packet devices; Bluetooth uses a higher data rate, higher power consumption, and works with large packet devices. ZigBee networks can support a larger number of devices and a longer range between devices than Bluetooth. Because of these differences, the technologies are not only geared toward different applications, they don’t have the capability to extend out to other applications. As an example, for its applications, Bluetooth must rely on fairly frequent battery recharging, while the whole goal of ZigBee is for a user to be able to put a couple of batteries in the devices and forget about them for months to years. In timing critical applications, ZigBee is designed to respond quickly, while Bluetooth takes much longer and could be detrimental to the application. Thus, a user could easily use both technologies as a wireless solution in a PAN to suit all types of applications within that network.

Zigbee:

+ lower production costs
+ less battery usage
+ larger node capability 255 vs 8
+ less system resources

- but less data speed ‘only’ 250 Kbps (vs 1 Mbps for bluetooth)
- Not (a lot) available
- Uses 900 Mhz frequentie (vs 2.5 Ghz for bluetooth)
- Less companys that support it
- 30 meter range (vs 10-100 meter for bluetooth)

And the biggest difference is the purpose of both technologie, bluetooth is made to replace datacables, while Zigbee is made to control and monitor activities, like temperature, light, …

The yet unsolved kidnapping of kids have brought much fear to parents with young kids in the country. Despite the intense police and public search nationwide and on-going media coverage, the six-year-old is still nowhere to be found.

As long as the culprits are still at large, the chances of other kids being kidnapped remain high. For the time being, maybe it’s time the authority starts thinking of the possible unconventional measures that can be taken to prevent this heinous crime.

One thing or rather technology that may sound possible to be implemented is radio frequency identification, or commonly known as RFID.

Although its usage currently is very much concentrated on information tracking functions, including inventory management, movement of shipping containers, library books, credit cards, etc, there is a possibility that this technology can be used for tracking humans.

For those who are not familiar with RFID, it’s a tiny rice-sized chip that has an antenna. When the chip hears a specific radio signal, it responds with information, usually a long identification number to allow it to be tracked.

Over the past couple of years, trials have been done in countries such as the US, UK and Mexico on its potential to prevent kidnapping. These include planting the RFID device in children’s clothing or injecting it beneath the skin. The idea is viable because RFID chip does not use battery, and since it is small enough, it can be attached to practically anything.

The issue today is that people don’t like the idea of having something attached to them for the purpose of tracking. The idea of planting the chip in one’s body is still unacceptable to many as it’s a kind of privacy intrusion. But using it on clothing or school bags does seem to make more sense.

Applying this to school kids aged 12 and below may be acceptable because these kids are still not mature enough to protect themselves.

The whole idea of having a trackable device is to make it possible to track a missing child in the first few critical hours of the kidnapping incident, and with the RFID chip transmitting the much-needed data, it may make the search of the missing child easier and faster.

Initiatives like these would need all parties to be involved, especially the Government with the help of telecommunications companies and the relevant technology vendors.

If this technology can be implemented in the near future, as the technology mature and becomes cheaper, the chances of tracking a kidnapped child are probably higher.

Here’s a vision of the not-so-distant future:

• Microchips with antennas will be embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items _ and, by extension, consumers _ wherever they go, from a distance.
• A seamless, global network of electronic “sniffers” will scan radio tags in myriad public settings, identifying people and their tastes instantly so that customized ads, “live spam,” may be beamed at them.
• In “Smart Homes,” sensors built into walls, floors and appliances will inventory possessions, record eating habits, monitor medicine cabinets _ all the while, silently reporting data to marketers eager for a peek into the occupants’ private lives.

Science fiction? Read the rest of this entry