U.S.-based Ingenu has deployed a LPWA IoT network in South Africa, and announced a new smart city platform.
Ingenu announced the deployment of a Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) Internet of Things (IoT) network using the company’s proprietary Random Phase Multiple Access (RPMA) technology in the Western Cape region of South Africa. The new LPWA IoT network will enable the cities of Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria to deliver smart grid and smart city services. Ingenu plans to expand the network to additional cities in the near future. Drakenstein Municipality is the IoT network’s first customer. This new LPWA IoT network, rolled out in partnership with network solutions provider Vula Telematix, brings the total count of networks deployed by Ingenu to nearly 40. The company’s plan is to have 30 major markets covered by the end of 2016.
“The availability of the Machine Network to the Drakenstein Municipality in Paarl, Cape Town, will provide a multitude of smart energy services to its customers and will enable limitless opportunities for future smart city initiatives,” said Agnat Max Makgoale, CEO of Vula Telematix. “Following the initial roll-out, we will expand the network to provide truly ubiquitous IoT coverage throughout South Africa to support the region’s sustainability and technology initiatives.”
Vula Telematix, which specializes in network solutions for the South African telecommunications and energy market, will act as exclusive provider of Ingenu’s machine network in South Africa.
New smart city platform in partnership with Libelium and PTC
Partnering with Libelium and PTC’s Thingworx, Ingenu also launched this week a turnkey solution for smart cities, named the Smarter City program. The end-to-end platform, based on Ingenu’s RPMA technology, will provide access to municipal IoT applications such as smart parking or electricity metering. “The Smarter City program will offer governments and municipalities a simple, reliable and cost-effective IoT network based on RPMA, while immediately delivering functionality and services for a host of smart city applications,” said John Horn, CEO of Ingenu.
Ingenu claims the type of turnkey solutions it offers through its program commonly provides “a double-digit return on investment within the first year of deployment”.
IIoT News Recap: Microsoft creates 5,000 people-strong artificial intelligence research group; New global M2M standard specifications to improve IoT device interworking; Karamba Security expands car security suite to protect against Tesla-type hacks; Enterprise augmented reality (AR) to dominate AR space by 2021
Picture: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
AI: Microsoft creates 5,000 people-strong artificial intelligence research group
In addition to founding the “Partnership on AI” together with Amazon, Google and Facebook, Microsoft is also ramping up its efforts within artificial intelligence (AI) via the creation of a new AI-dedicated research division. The Microsoft AI and Research Group, led by computer vision expert and Microsoft veteran Harry Shum, will bring together Microsoft’s research organization with more than 5,000 computer scientists and engineers focused on AI. “Microsoft has been working in artificial intelligence since the beginning of Microsoft Research, and yet we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what’s possible,” said Harry Shum. “Today’s move signifies Microsoft’s commitment to deploying intelligent technology and democratizing AI in a way that changes our lives and the world around us for the better. We will significantly expand our efforts to empower people and organizations to achieve more with our tools, our software and services, and our powerful, global-scale cloud computing capabilities.”
Standards: New global M2M standard specifications to improve IoT device interworking
Global standards initiative OneM2M published a new set of machine-to-machine (M2M) specifications opening up the IoT ecosystem to devices that lack the OneM2M protocol. The new specifications enable interworking among systems using AllSeen Alliance’s AllJoyn, Open Connectivity Foundation’s OIC, and the Open Mobile Alliance’s Lightweight M2M (LWM2M). Improved security is also at the core of the new specifications, which enable end-to-end secure information exchange between any devices or servers and implements attribute and role-based dynamic access control, OneM2M stated. “The standards published today mark a major milestone for the Internet of Things, by providing the unique value proposition of a single interworking platform for all enabled devices,” said Dr. Omar Elloumi, chair of the oneM2M Technical Plenary, and a member of the Nokia corporate CTO group. “As IoT devices continue to saturate society, standardisation is key to achieving universally accepted specifications and protocols for true interoperability between IoT devices and applications.”
Connected car: Karamba Security expands car security suite to protect against Tesla-type hacks
Karamba Security has presented an extension of its Carwall electronic control units (ECU) security platform, which promises to block Tesla-type in-memory hacks, by allowing any car’s ECU to protect itself by automatically locking it down to the ECU’s factory settings, thereby blocking any operation not part of the factory settings. The platform also complies with the security guidelines set out by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for autonomous cars, according to Karamba Security.
Today’s forecast: Enterprise augmented reality (AR) to dominate AR space by 2021
By 2021, most revenues in the augmented reality (AR) space will come from the enterprise sector, according to Juniper Research. The analyst firm estimates the enterprise AR market will grow from $515 million in 2016 to $5.7 billion in 2021. The bulk of revenues will come from the subscription and license fee model, as the pay-per-download market is dependent on the adoption of head-mounted devices (HDM). Juniper research expects mainstream adoption of HMD to happen from 2017 onwards. But tablets and smart glasses will account for the majority of revenues in 2021, due to their lower purchase price compared to HMDs.
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