Find out what happened on the Internet of Things area recently. Enjoy our newest monthly IoT digest! Don't forget to subscribe not to miss next month IoT digest. Check our blog for more: https://www.eliftech.com/blog

1. IoT Digest
July 2018
By Dmytro Mysak,
Software Developer

2. www.eliftech.com
Hardware news
Software news
General news

3. www.eliftech.com
Hardware news
▪ Nvidia powers Isaac smart
robot platform with Jetson
Xavier
▪ Bluetooth Mesh is a wise
choice for smart buildings
▪ Semtech and Ubicquia Light
Up the Streets with a Smart
Grid LoRa-based IoT Solution
▪ Telit’s New LN941A6-E1
NGFF Data Card Enables High
Speed Applications for
European Market
▪ China’s dove drones take
surveillance to new heights
▪ Small chips edge smart nano-
drones closer to reality
▪ British Army exploring
autonomous warfare, new
breed of soldier
▪ US soldiers to get miniature
personal reconnaissance
drones

4. www.eliftech.com
Software news
▪ Windows 10 IoT
Core Services
▪ Red Hat teams up
with Vorwerk to
help create smarter
home appliances
▪ Pymetrics’ open
source tool can
detect bias in AI
algorithms
▪ Kerlink and
Microshare
Announce
LoRaWAN™
Integration in
Google Cloud IoT
▪ Facebook using
machine learning to
fight fake news
▪ Google smart home
products leak
location data
• MIT introduces
brain-controlled
robots
• Bringing home the
bacon: Alibaba
brings AI platform to
pig farming
• Digital twins:
Helping West Coast
trains to run on
time?

5. www.eliftech.com
General news
▪ On why poor quality
data won’t cut it in
delaying your IoT
initiatives
▪ Connected car
owners will trade
personal data for
services
▪ How startups can
survive and thrive in
an IoT landscape
▪ Semtech’s LoRa
Technology Manage
Utilities in China for
a Smarter, Cleaner
Planet
▪ Greater China Set to
Dominate Global
IIoT Market
▪ 3 Ways 5G Wireless
Technology Could
Change Your Daily
Commute
• California could
force USA to adopt
GDPR-style laws
today
• War of words
escalates between
tech firms’
employees and
government
• Hackers could use
Web-based attacks
to take over IoT
devices

6. www.eliftech.com
Hardware news

7. www.eliftech.com
Nvidia powers Isaac smart robot platform with Jetson Xavier
There are three main components to Nvidia’s Isaac
platform:
▪ Isaac SDK – a collection of APIs and tools to
develop robotics algorithm software and runtime
framework with fully accelerated libraries.
▪ Isaac IMX – Isaac Intelligent Machine Acceleration
applications, a collection of NVIDIA-developed
robotics algorithm software.
▪ Isaac Sim – a highly realistic virtual simulation
environment for developers to train autonomous
machines and perform hardware-in-the-loop
testing with Jetson Xavier.
For more click here

8. www.eliftech.com
Bluetooth Mesh is a wise choice for smart buildings
▪ IoT Tech Expo in Amsterdam is just kicking off and there’s
already fighting words from low-power networks on why
their technology is the best.
▪ In a keynote titled ‘Putting the Smart in Smart Buildings
with Bluetooth Mesh’, we heard from Bluetooth SIG
Technical Program Manager Martin Woolley on what
makes the technology a wise choice for smart building
deployments.
▪ “Last year, we introduced something called Bluetooth
Mesh,” says Woolley. “That gave us the ability to have
many-to-many communication paths between devices.”
▪ “Many thousands of devices can form a network ... it’s very
much designed for things like smart buildings.”
For more click here

9. www.eliftech.com
Semtech and Ubicquia Light Up the Streets with a Smart
Grid LoRa-based IoT Solution
Streetlamps represent a large portion of a city’s allocated
energy budget, in some cases reaching upwards of 40%.
Studies of energy grids estimate that a smart grid
Internet of Things (IoT) solution utilizing sensors,
gateways and LED bulbs would provide large financial
returns as well as valuable data. Ubicquia’s new LoRa-
based gateway module allows the Ubicell streetlight to
act as both a gateway and a client maintaining its core
functionality that includes advanced light control, utility
grade power metering, tilt and vibration sensing,
connection to third party sensors and network
integration.
More info here

10. www.eliftech.com
Telit’s New LN941A6-E1 NGFF Data Card Enables High
Speed Applications for European Market
Telit, today announced its new LN941A6-E1 data card
designed for high-speed cellular broadband market for mobile
computing for tablets, notebooks as well as routers and
gateways for high-end commercial use and applications in
enterprise networking.
The LN941A6-E1 is the latest example of Telit’s leadership in
enabling advanced internet-based applications.
For more click here

11. www.eliftech.com
China’s dove drones take surveillance to new heights
The technology is thought to have been used extensively in
the autonomous region of Xinjiang Uygur. The huge area
in the northwest of China shares borders with Russia,
Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and
Afghanistan, among others. It’s also one of the most
ethnically diverse parts of the country and thought of by
the central government in Beijing as a separatist
movement waiting to happen.
The result: state surveillance disguised as nature. The
programme is code-named ‘Dove’, and is being led by
researchers at the Northwestern Polytechnical University
in Xian, Shaanxi province.
For more click here

12. www.eliftech.com
Small chips edge smart nano-drones closer to reality
Researchers working at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) have developed a tiny chip that could control
drones as small as a bee.
A team at MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science has created a processor called Navion,
which measures 20 square millimetres and consumes just 24
milliwatts of power.
For more click here

13. www.eliftech.com
British Army exploring autonomous warfare, new breed of
soldier
The British Army is set to “push the limits of innovative
warfare”, following a new approach outlined by its
chief of general staff, General Mark Carleton-Smith.
Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute’s Land
Warfare conference in London, General Carleton-
Smith addressed the topic of emerging technologies
and the role they have to play in the future of warfare.
For more click here

14. www.eliftech.com
US soldiers to get miniature personal reconnaissance drones
▪ Imaging company FLIR has been awarded a US Army
contract for personal reconnaissance systems, worth
$2.6 million.
▪ As part of the Soldier Borne Sensor Program, the US
Army has been experimenting with drones to provide
military personnel with more situational awareness in
the battlefield.
▪ The deal has been struck with FLIR to provide Black
Hornet personal reconnaissance systems. FLIR claims
the Black Hornet – currently at version 3 – is the world’s
smallest such drone. The miniature helicopter has both
thermal and optical imaging capabilities, and a flight time
of 25 minutes.
For more click here

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Software news

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Windows 10 IoT Core Services
The commitment offers assurance that any ‘Things’
deployed won’t be outdated anytime soon. With large-
scale IoT deployments, this is particularly vital to avoid
fears of costly replacements and/or downtime.
Microsoft’s existing IoT Core will continue to be free as a
semi-annual channel offering. IoT Core Services is a paid
solution but represents a long-term servicing channel
which is to be combined with various services.
One of the most important services is access to the Device
Update Center where an overview of all devices can be
seen and updates scheduled for when appropriate. All of
the updates will be delivered using the same CDN
(Content Delivery Network) as Windows Update.
For more click here

17. www.eliftech.com
Red Hat teams up with Vorwerk to help create smarter
home appliances
Red Hat has announced that Vorwerk is implementing a new
IoT environment with multi-cloud support and an
infrastructure based on Red Hat OpenShift Container
Platform.
This hybrid cloud solution is developed from enterprise-grade
Kubernetes and Linux containers that provide the flexible,
scalable architecture for Vorwerk to expand device
connectivity and application processing power.
In order to get better leverage of the increasingly connected
nature of the consumer world, Vorwerk applied a digital
recipe ecosystem, “Cookidoo,” which contains an IoT
environment with multi-cloud support to integrate more than
1.5 million of its IoT devices.
For more click here

18. www.eliftech.com
Pymetrics’ open source tool can detect bias in AI algorithms
▪ New York-based AI startup Pymetrics has announced
it has open-sourced its much-needed tool for
detecting bias in algorithms.
▪ Now available on GitHub, the company’s so-called
Audit AI will scan algorithms for anything which is
being favoured or disadvantaged.
▪ Pymetrics’ background is “matching talent to
opportunity, bias-free” to help ensure businesses are
recruiting the best candidates for their job.
For more click here

19. www.eliftech.com
Kerlink and Microshare Announce LoRaWAN™
Integration in Google Cloud IoT
Combining Kerlink and Microshare technology with Google’s
Cloud IoT Core and the suite of data-management tools available
in the Google Cloud IoT platform brings a degree of
sophistication necessary to support the next generation of value-
added IoT solutions without the need for expensive internal IT
resources.
“By integrating Microshare and Kerlink’s technologies in Google
Cloud, we can create carrier-grade solutions at cloud-scale in
hours rather than months.”
“Reducing the burden of security, scale and reliability allows both
solution providers and customers to focus on rapidly delivering
valuable business insights with their LoRaWAN networks.”
For more click here

20. www.eliftech.com
Facebook using machine learning to fight fake news
▪ Facebook has announced a raft of measures to
prevent the spread of false information on its
platform.
▪ Writing in a company blog post on Friday, product
manager Tessa Lyons said that Facebook’s fight
against fake news has been ongoing through a
combination of technology and human review.
▪ However, she also wrote that, given the
determination of some people to abuse the social
network’s algorithms for political and other gains,
“This effort will never be finished and we have a
lot more to do.”
For more click here

21. www.eliftech.com
Google smart home products leak location data
Research has shown that Google’s two most popular smart
home products are leaking precise location data, revealing
their whereabouts.
Craig Young, a researcher at security firm Tripwire,
discovered that the security flaws in Google Home and TV
streaming device Chromecast are exposed when an
attacker asks the Google device for a list of nearby wireless
networks. That list can then be sent to Google’s
geolocation lookup services.
“An attacker can be completely remote, as long as they can
get the victim to open a link while connected to the same
Wi-Fi or wired network as a Google Chromecast or Home
device,” Young said to KrebsOnSecurity.
For more click here

22. www.eliftech.com
MIT introduces brain-controlled robots
▪ Scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are
leading research into controlling robots using
brainwaves and simple hand movements.
▪ Their work is designed to ease the complex
challenges of robotics control systems, which
often require dedicated programming and even
language-processing capabilities.
▪ The new system allows a robot’s supervisor to
correct mistakes instantly and more intuitively,
using a combination of gestures and brain
signals, paving the way towards fully brain-
controlled robots, and countless new
applications.
For more click here

23. www.eliftech.com
Bringing home the bacon: Alibaba brings AI platform to
pig farming
Alibaba has already trialled its AI technology with pig
farmers across China. Visual recognition, voice
recognition, and real-time environmental monitoring
have all been deployed on its platform to gather
individual data on each hog’s daily movements, as well
as analysing growth indicators, pregnancies, and other
health-related matters.
On top of giving farmers more livestock insights and
actionable data, Alibaba’s machine learning
algorithms can automatically prescribe a workout plan
for hogs to improve overall health and yield. The
system, Alibaba claims, can improve farmers’ output
by detecting sick pigs before illness spreads or
becomes fatal.
For more click here

24. www.eliftech.com
Digital twins: Helping West Coast trains to run on time?
Construction giant Laing O’Rourke is using digital
twin technology to begin solving problems that
many people face in their daily lives: inefficient
railways.
Speaking at our Internet of Manufacturing event in
London, Dr Graham Herries, Laing O’ Rourke’s
director of Digital Technologies, explained how the
construction company is using its Optimised digital
twin platform to rework the operations of the West
Coast Mainline – one of the UK’s busiest and most
important rail corridors, currently operating as
Virgin West Coast.
For more click here

25. www.eliftech.com
General news

26. www.eliftech.com
Johan Krebbers, Shell: On why poor quality data won’t
cut it in delaying your IoT initiatives
For Johan Krebbers, IT CTO at Shell, it’s non-negotiable. “IoT on
its own is useless,” he explains. “It only becomes useful when we
pick up the data, and apply machine learning to it, digitise it, and
help the decision maker.”
Yet the rise of machine learning in recent times – in order to
facilitate real-time insights, as well as provide self-learning
mechanisms – has taken the next step up. “We have to make
sure we’ve got the whole end to end workflow in place,” adds
Krebbers. “To just talk about IoT itself is a waste of time. IoT by
itself only does data collection – you need all of the things to
come [together] for your decision making.”
For more click here

27. www.eliftech.com
Connected car owners will trade personal data for services
The research, commissioned by automotive data services
platform Otonomo, indicates high-profile privacy
breaches have not shaken the majority of consumers’
willingness to share personal data — as long as it’s clear
what services they’ll receive in return.
On average, around 80 percent of those surveyed who
expressed interest in connected services indicated a
willingness to share personal automotive data in order to
access specific capabilities.
For more click here

28. www.eliftech.com
How startups can survive and thrive in an IoT landscape
"If you want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg,"
explained Wienke Giezeman, co-founder at
LoRaWAN network provider The Things Network,
"don't go into IoT."
Giezeman said he had been an IoT entrepreneur for
three years and that it was 'super hard'. If you want to
build a business in IoT, he argues, you need a myriad
of competencies - cloud, hardware, security
certification, the lot. "It's very difficult for a startup,"
he added.
For more click here

29. www.eliftech.com
Semtech’s LoRa Technology and Suntront Manage
Utilities in China for a Smarter, Cleaner Planet
Semtech Corporation announced Semtech’s LoRa® devices and
wireless radio frequency technology into its smart gas and water
meters for more advanced coverage and analytics.
Suntront’s smart gas and water metering solutions utilize LoRa
Technology to remotely measure and adjust the levels of flow
through piping by accessing a LoRaWAN™ network and
transmitting data via third-party applications. A simple user
management software service connects to Suntront solutions and
provides the utility manager all necessary functions, including the
ability to view usage trends and to monitor each meter remotely.
Utility managers then use the data to program the LoRa-enabled
devices to automatically shut off or change valves when certain
thresholds are met.
For more click here

30. www.eliftech.com
Greater China Set to Dominate Global Industrial IoT
Market, Says New GSMA Report
Government Backing 5G, AI and Data Analytics to Transform
Industrial Sector; GSMA Intelligence Forecasts 13.8 billion
IIoT Connections Worldwide by 2025, with China Accounting
for One-Third of Global Market.
The GSMA today issued a new report, ‘The Industrial IoT in
Greater China’, highlighting how the region is poised to lead
the global Industrial IoT (IIoT) market.
For more click here

31. www.eliftech.com
3 Ways 5G Wireless Technology Could Change Your
Daily Commute
Here are three ways 5G technology could change your daily
commute.
▪ You’ll Get to Work Faster
▪ You Won’t Have to Drive Yourself
▪ Your Can Use Your Commute to Get Things Done
Being able to let your car do the driving will transform your
commute into an opportunity to get things done on the way
to work. With your hands and eyes free, you can watch a TV
show, read a book or take a nap on your way to the office. Or
if you prefer to be productive, you can start getting work
done even before you get to work.
For more click here

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California could force USA to adopt GDPR-style laws today
The US state of California could be about to introduce GDPR-
style data privacy laws.
The state legislature is set to vote later today (Thursday 28
June) on the proposed California Consumer Privacy Act of
2018 (CCPA). The new online privacy rules could bring
sweeping changes to how technology companies both gather
and monetise their customers’ data in the state.
For more click here

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War of words escalates between tech firms’ employees
and government
Google announced its intention to leave the AI programme
earlier this month, after more than 4,000 employees signed
a petition urging the company to withdraw from “the
business of war”. Others resigned, citing fears over the
potential weaponisation of AI.
Amazon has also found itself in the firing line recently over
its relationship with government agencies, particularly
experimental deployments by police of its Rekognition
facial recognition system. Many Amazon employees – and
some senators – believe this will underscore ethnic bias
and introduce unwarranted real-time surveillance of
citizens.
For more click here

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Hackers could use Web-based attacks to take over IoT devices
Security researchers have warned that hackers could
create webpages that rapidly scan for home IoT devices
and then take control of them.
According to a paper to be presented at the ACM
SIGCOMM 2018 Workshop on IoT Security and Privacy
in August, have discovered a faster way of mounting an
old attack method, known as DNS rebinding.
A DNS rebinding attack happens when a user visits a
webpage that contains a malicious script and remains on
the page long enough for the script to be run in its
entirety. Such attacks typically fail if a user navigates
away before the attack has finished, as it takes a minute
to run.
For more click here

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