Rory Dear, European Editor/Technical Contributor
-
electronica: Maxim demonstrates Pocket IO PLC with soccer ball
Industry 4.0 and wearables are the key areas of focus for Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. at electronica 2016, where they’ll be presenting exactly how they’re empowering design innovation across the rapidly expanding industrial and healthcare markets. Maxim’s offering claims to address loss productivity, the key driver of Industry 4.0. Their Pocket IO programmable logic controller [...]
-
electronica: Avnet Silica brings IoT solutions to industrial and automotive
No one could accuse Avnet Silica of plastering “IoT” over its electronica 2016 stand without substance. This year, they are showcasing three discrete demonstrations of the power of their much publicized Visible Things IoT platform, claimed to “deliver rich functionality from edge to enterprise with outstanding cost, power, and size specifications.” Geared towards industrial markets, [...]
-
electronica: Digi starter kit enables rapid prototyping for IoT devices
Digi International doesn’t just want to show you its ConnectCore for i.MX6UL Starter Kit at electronica 2016 – it wants you to walk away with one. Digi is bringing the shop floor to the show floor and offering electronica delegates the kit for a heavily discounted $49. The starter kit promises a “universal and powerful platform for [...]
-
electronica: Linear Technology’s plug-and-play and IoT retrofit capabilities in action
Off-the-shelf and IoT are rarely synonymous, the combination of new technology and new applications rarely satisfied by that one-size-fits-all approach – though that is changing. IoT is traveling down the same road from niche to mainstream as “embedded” itself has, and with that comes a range of off-the-peg IoT products on show at electronica 2016 [...]
-
electronica: RS Component’s answer to the FAE
The limitations RS Components perceives with a typical field application engineer (FAE) aren’t personal; an FAE’s role demands servicing an almost untenably large number of clients and thus, they have to split resources thinly between them. To the vendor, this methodology means a high cost per touch, so it’s not the best strategy for them [...]
-
Microsoft returns to non-IoT embedded with Windows 10
Back in March I wrote a pretty scathing piece asking, Has Microsoft forgotten about embedded? Six months later, they’ve remembered – and I hope I played some role in jogging their memory! My original piece unashamedly bordered on a rant, as the voice of so many left scratching their heads, asking where their XP Embedded [...]
-
Thunderboard React Derby Car vehicle for IoT inspiration
You’re never too old to play with toy cars, especially one that combines a childhood passion with a current passion, and especially one that provides the joy of building it first! Having spent five minutes assembling and another five minutes playing testing, I wrenched myself back to the adult job at hand and the very [...]
-
Energy high at London IoT start-up event
Billed as the place to discover today’s rising companies within the London hardware and IoT scene and connect with the people reinventing the future of the Internet of Things (IoT), I naturally ensured I attended Show Me the Product, Hardware Pioneers‘ hardware, wearables, and IoT start-up demo night. What I feared encountering was a poorly-planned [...]
-
Post-Brexit UK and Embedded – from the ground
The revolution of IoT is finally transforming the embedded industry in the UK (and globally) from niche to mainstream, though the immediate aftermath of the Brexit is stifling that growth. The majority of UK embedded vendors fall into one of two groups. The first produce highly specialized solutions designed and manufactured in the UK and [...]
-
Your smartphone could double as an IoT gateway
As a standalone product, the well-publicized IoT gateway has come under regular attack since its inception from seasoned OEMs adamantly realizing that the IoT revolution doesn’t require a discrete middle-man and another box. Router makers argue that ...
-
The beginnings of innovation in the “new” embedded
I’m often guilty of tunnel vision when it comes to embedded, as the majority of my career has been spent where embedded and industrial were synonymous, and often interchangeable. However, events like Computex 2016 always remind me just how wide the s...
-
No shortage of IoT displays at Computex 2016
No longer the niche industry it once was, the wave of IoT has grabbed embedded computing by the scruff of the neck and dragged it into the consumer space. Well acquainted with the importance of IoT, Computex 2016 (May 31 – June 4, in Taipei, Taiw...
-
A village of IoT startups at Computex 2016
The Internet of Things (IoT) not only promises new business models and revenue streams for those long embedded in our industry (pun intended), but also heralds unique opportunities for start-ups. Computex 2016 sees the launch of InnoVEX, a “start-up ...
-
IoT Gateways: Designed out before designed in?
With the news that the lower end of the 4G LTE spectrum is to be opened up for low bandwidth M2M and IoT devices, with CAT1 and soon CAT0 connectivity, one must consider if the much-anticipated IoT Gateway has obsolescence in sight before its widesprea...
-
Embedded World 2016: Android in Embedded?
The blogosphere has been very quiet on the featuring of Android-powered embedded devices at Embedded World 2016 so far. To be candid, I was one of the most skeptical, having endured years of convincing system integrators not to attempt to crowbar the l...
-
What I want to see at Embedded World 2016
“IoT”, “M2M”, and “Industrie 4.0″ are a few obvious exam-ples of the plethora of buzzwords I’ve little doubt I will be visually assaulted with as I meander around Nuremberg Messe’s Embedded World 2016, th...
-
NFC: Now for children?
Near field communication (NFC) combined with the latest Internet of Things (IoT) technology is creating a generation of mini-consumers; whilst good for retailers, is it good for society? Undoubtedly stretching back to the invention of money itself, gen...
-
Smart, adaptive manufacturing with connected devices
Connected production technologies allow manufacturers to satisfy consumers’ needs of tomorrow. Historically, best production practices predominantly focused on achieving the advantages of scale-of-manufacture. Setting up inflexible manufacturing ...
-
Scalable security requirements of connected devices
Multiple levels of security must combine both via the cloud and locally between devices to satisfy the growing capability of IoT. Once upon a time, from the most basic electronic devices to the most complex embedded device, where there was a need for s...
-
IoT and the elderly
Are those least familiar with technology those that can benefit the most?
-
How do we inspire tomorrow’s embedded engineers?
Since I’ve long since graduated from being the “newbie” in the embedded and electronics industry, I often ponder what we can do to attract fresh blood, the engineers of tomorrow, to our somewhat niche space. I asked myself the questio...
-
Embedded growing in food production
One rapidly growing (pun intended) application for embedded computing can be found in the food production chain, where technology is driving efficiency, quality, and traceability improvement – from the farmer’s field to your dinner plate. To in...
-
Internet of (enchanted?) Things
Emerging claims suggest that the next thing after the Internet of Things will be "Enchanted Objects", but is there really a distinction between the two?
-
IoT: Revolutionising home energy management
The IoT is transforming the way energy is managed more efficiently in the home, both personally and autonomously.
-
Industrial IoT: Robust connected embedded devices
The fast approaching revolution of industrial IoT (IIoT) differs from human IoT (HIoT, or what is often called IoT) and will evolve the embedded arena.
-
IoT, 3D printing, dev tools, and more at Electronica 2014
Electronica’s bi-annual return coincided with an exciting year in the embedded industry and welcomed an increased number of visitors from its 2012 outing to the tune of 73,000. Historically Electronica has been considered the German exhibition fo...
-
New tech at the Engineering Design Show sets up an exciting embedded future
Tools, support, and manufacturing developments at the 2014 Engineering Design Show demonstrate how embedded designs will get to market faster and be better than ever. Bigger and busier than ever before, the 22-23 October 2014 Engineering Design Show bu...
-
Building infrastructure for a smarter world at the Industrial Automation Conference
The IHS Industrial Automation Conference held in London in October 2014 demonstrated how the Internet of Things (IoT), smart factories, and the Industrial IoT (IIoT) are creating smarter systems, factories, and cities. Building on the success of last y...
-
Bringing the cloud and embedded connectivity to aircraft black boxes
Commercial aircraft black boxes use rudimentary technology that is much less powerful than the average smartphone. They aren’t fit for purpose and there’s little urgency in rectifying this, though many improvements are possible.