Bath startup launches IoT system for commercial buildings
Bath-based ContinuumBridge has launched an intelligent, connected IoT device called Spur.
This is aimed at service providers in the facilities management, retail, leisure and hospitality industries to provide an intelligent, easy-to-use means for service users to initiate a request or report an issue and provides the user with an immediate acknowledgement.
The physical part of Spur is a call button that integrates a display whose message indicates to the user what they are able to request/report and then provides instant visual feedback confirming the outcome. For example, if installed by a coffee machine the display could say, “Push here if this machine requires more coffee” and then after pressing the button the display could change to say, “More coffee for this machine has been requested”. Similar scenarios can be applied in other situations, such as reporting that a printer or photocopier is out of toner, or that a toilet needs cleaning. Multiple call options are possible by cycling the e-ink display, for example, requesting waiter service or asking for the bill in a restaurant, and perhaps subsequently rating the customer experience.
“During Spur’s development we worked closely with our customers and are confident that it meets genuine needs. The capability that lies behind the button provides numerous benefits for both the service provider and end‑user or customer,” said Peter Claydon, CEO of ContinuumBridge. “
The technology uses 868MHz wireless for low power connections, allowing a battery life of up to 5 years. A gateway bridge, which only requires a power outlet, provides connectivity between the wireless buttons and a server using a cellular modem so there is no need for network connection. Service providers access the server through a fully programmable but easy to use web portal using the Wisp technology developed by ContinuumBridge. This provides comprehensive reporting that is available through the web site or via email, SMS or data-sharing with a third party database. The whole Spur solution is safe-guarded with state-of-the-art, end-to-end security.
“We were trying various wireless technologies such as Z wave, Zigbee and WiFi for the battery life and the range of the radio,” said Claydon. “A mesh is OK if you have lots of them but try telling an installer that. So we worked backwards from those requirements. The e-ink display is great for low power, so we’ve uses a standard 868MHz radio with our own lightweight protocol so that you only turn the radio on when someone presses the button and once an hour to check for updates. At 10 pushes a day that gives us a 5 year battery life and 300m line of sight connection or three floors of an office building from the 868MHz radio,” he said.
“The gateway is the same bridge that we have already developed which is a Raspberry Pi at heart with the 868MHz radio and a 3G cellular modem so you don’t have to get into someone’s IT infrastructure and the bandwidth required is so low,” he added.
Spur is undergoing trials now in the UK and volume production will commence in mid-2016. ContinuumBridge is looking for distribution partners throughout Europe with North American and other geographies anticipated in the future.
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Imagination’s potential to really take on Raspberry Pi
Does the electronics industry need another low cost development board? After all, we already have nearly 1.5m Raspberry Pi boards shipped worldwide, as well as a plethora of Arduino and Beagle boards. There’s even the Galileo boards from Intel using the low cost, low power x86 X1000 Quark processor.
Imagination Technologies, which has a design centre in Bristol and its wireless division nearby in Chepstow and is a key player for technology in the region, has developed its own version of Raspberry Pi. The Creator C120 uses a MIPS-based processor from Ingenic and is the first board that combines Imagination’s MIPS, PowerVR and Ensigma programmable RF technologies.
The 90.2 mm x 95.3 mm board uses an Ingenic JZ4780 with a 1.2GHz dual core 32bit MIPS with a SIMD engine (for doing graphics quickly) and both single and double precision floating point FPU. It is also adding 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. For video and graphics, the PowerVR SGX540 GPU and dedicated video hardware support a suite of video codecs, including MPEG-4, H.264, VP8, MPEG-2, RV9, and others. There’s also two USB ports and an HDMI connector – there’s more details and comments on the background in the EETimes story I wrote.
The other interesting thing is to look forwards. Imagination has pointed out that this first board doesn’t use its Ensigma IP – what about a low cost Ingenic part with the Whisper WiFi IP (more on that here tomorrow!) and Warrior processor embedded as well? A low cost board with good WiFI out of the box running Android 4.4 KitKat? That is a compelling coder/developer board at $25-$35 that would also make a huge difference to ODMs – and don’t forget Imagination has a well established consumer electronics subsidiary (Pure) that already has volume board manufacturing deals. Add in Imagination’s Flow cloud software on this to make it easily part of a home system with some automatic discovery and it becomes compellingly easy to set up and use. Mmmmmmm, some very interesting opportunities there!
Imagination Takes On Raspberry Pi | EE Times.
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