The one thing constant in this world is change, and with the growing interest in the Internet of Things, SiliconANGLE will deliver a renewed focus on this market.  Last week, the Smart World Series kicked things off with two new categories: Smart City and Smart Infrastructure.  If you missed it, check it out here.

Two more categories are included in this refreshed series.  Smart Living deals with the smart home and connected car markets, while the Smart Office category deals with Internet-connected office implementations to improve the workplace.

To start the week off right, today’s Smart Living issue features a state-of-the-art solution for the future of TV, an app for home improvement based on Google’s Tango Project, and a module to help IoT devices reach store shelves faster.

Alticast to transform TVs

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At The Cable Show event, being hosted at the Los Angeles Convention Center from April 29 – May 1, 2014,  Alticast will show off its latest solutions that will “Simplify the Future of TV.”

Alticast is a company that makes it possible for service providers to deliver “TV Everywhere” services to consumers by developing advanced end-to-end, multi-screen solutions.  Its latest “Simplify the Future TV” solutions will allow cable operators to deliver a more personalized TV experience.

The new solutions leverage the Reference Design Kit (RDK), the popular pre-integrated software bundle for customer-premises equipment.  Among the solutions to be demonstrated at The Cable Show 2014 is the Alticast HDMI Media Express, working in conjunction with a home gateway to enable service providers to securely deliver on-demand programing to TVs at home or on the go.

There’s also the AltiView II, the company’s new User Experience and the central focus for Alticast’s modular Windmill Services Platform (WSP), while the Alticast Application Store for HTML5 applications to give operators complete control on tools for branding services and curating offerings while the backend administration workflow tools for developers allow application upload, versioning and sales monitoring. Lastly there’s the Cloud-DVR option to give users more control on how they consume entertainment, such as automating scheduling, recording, and storage.

Smart Picture Technologies

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With all the hype in home automation, people may be inspired to modernize their homes. But even for experienced weekend warriors, a DIY smart home renovation can be a complex endeavor. One startup aims to make home improvement projects easier for DIY enthusiasts and contractors alike, taking advantage of a recent Google initiative.

image courtesy Smart Picture Technologies

Google introduced Project Tango back in February.  It’s a 5-inch smartphone equipped with front and rear cameras, an additional motion tracking camera, integrated depth sensing, a Movidius’ Myriad 1 vision processor, plus all the other usual components, such as gyros and sensors, that are found in most smartphones.  Though the search giant may one day make the device available for consumers in general, much of its focus is on finding the right developers that would be able to utilize Project Tango to its full potential.

Smart Picture Technologies is one of the developers chosen by Google to work on Project Tango.  The company is slated to release a series of apps for iOS and Android smartphones in the next 3-4 months, including a photo-taking app for homeowners to take accurate room measurements during renovation.  The software has already been engineered, but Smart Picture believes that with the use of Project Tango, the software will be more meaningful.  This will allow homeowners to share photos with contractors and receive quotes.

The Smart Picture app captures images in 2D or HD 3D, which contains millions of measurement data points which can be used by contractors to get an exact measurement.  Users can send the photo using Smart Picture’s mobile app or cloud service.

Wireless sensors get smarter

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At the Internet of Things Conference in Asia, Libelium launched a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) module that connects Waspmote sensor nodes to smartphones, tablets, and all other BLE compatible iOS and Android devices.

Libelium’s Waspmote connects any sensor, using any wireless communication protocol, to any Cloud platform. With the integration of BLE, Waspmote will allow any device to connect to the Internet via a smartphone or tablet that bridges data to the Cloud through the Wi-Fi or 3G radio available in the mobile device.

The Waspmote BLE module’s primary function is to broadcast data, or iBeacons, that allow sensor data to be transmitted without the need for a previous pairing process. Aside from the BLE integration, Waspmote interfaces with six radio protocols such as Wi-Fi, ZigBee, 802.15.4, NFC, 3G, GPRS, which allows users to switch between any two of the said technologies as needed.

“We see Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth Smart connectivity as an efficient, energy-saving option for everyday objects and new IoT applications in categories such as home automation, healthcare, retail mobile tracking, and security,” said David Gascón, CTO at Libelium.

Libelium designs and manufactures hardware for wireless sensor networks so that system integrators, engineering, and consultancy companies can deliver reliable Internet of Things (IoT), M2M and Smart Cities solutions with minimum time to market.

feature image : Artiii via photopin cc