Category Archives: Machine to Machine (M2M)

Telcares Blood Glucose Meter Calls Home via Verizon

Telcare’s next-generation wireless blood glucose meter – the Telcare BGM has now been certified to operate on Verizon’s nationwide cellular network. The product was developed in collaboration with both Verizon and Qualcomm, Inc., and is the first medical device to utilize Qualcomm’s new Internet of Everything module. Telcare’s product is the first technology to make CDMA connectivity affordable for consumer-focused medical devices. The product will be exhibited in Telcare’s booth, located inside the Qualcomm Life Pavilion #26715 at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show.

The Telcare product will operate with both Telcare’s FDA-cleared diabetes management portal and with other soon-to-be released mHealth care management platforms. By integrating Telcare’s FDA-cleared blood glucose meter and cloud server to the Verizon network, people with diabetes, their families, and their health professionals will now be able to integrate real-time measurement of blood glucose levels with other physiologic parameters, such as weight and blood pressure.

“Telcare is excited to establish this collaboration as it will enable us to better support Americans with diabetes, their loved ones, and their medical caregivers. Moreover, the outstanding cellular coverage afforded nationwide by Verizon wireless will be particularly valuable in continuously connecting people with diabetes to their care system,” said Jonathan C. Javitt, M.D., M.P.H., Telcare’s CEO and co-founder.

Diabetes mellitus affects 32 million Americans and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that one in three Americans born after 2000 will have the condition. Although the complications of diabetes can be prevented through daily monitoring and control of blood sugar, diabetes today accounts for one in ten healthcare dollars spent in the U.S. and results in needless strokes, heart attacks, amputations and cases of blindness.

Telcare BGM is a registered trademark of Telcare, Inc.

Belkin Announces WeMo SMART, a Platform to Bring Internet Connectivity to Everyday Devices

Belkin today announced WeMo SMART, a program designed to bring its simple, Wi-Fi based WeMo home automation platform to new brands and a wider variety of household devices. Jarden Consumer Solutions (“JCS”), a leading provider of global consumer products brands, will be the first company to partner with WeMo SMART for its Sunbeam®, Crock-Pot®, Mr. Coffee® and Oster® brands.

“As smart devices become more prolific in the home, we wanted to give companies an easy way to reinvigorate traditional product categories with internet connectivity and the ability to integrate with other household devices and cloud-based services,” said Jamie Elgie, senior director of product management at Belkin. “JCS is the perfect initial partner because its brands make the exact kind of products our fans have been asking us to integrate with WeMo.”

The WeMo SMART platform allows companies such as JCS to bring smart capabilities to their products quickly and without developing a separate hub, by using Belkin’s existing WeMo technology, app development and cloud server. Mature product lines can be quickly brought into the smart home realm, giving them increased functionality and the ability to be controlled via smartphones and tablets.

“With Belkin’s focus on the tablet and smartphone market and recent successes in creating simple solutions for Internet connected devices, it is a natural partner to help some of JCS’s best-known brands create appliances that people can use to make their homes smarter, safer and more flexible,” said Alejandro Pena, senior vice president and general manager, Global Appliances.

By expanding WeMo to other known brands and appliances, Belkin gives people the ability to remotely monitor, program or interact with more devices in their homes from anywhere. The first JCS products with WeMo will launch later this year, with additional product offerings through 2014

 

Zonoff Releases Low-cost Wireless Home Automation Architecture

Zonoff, Inc., today announced the launch of the “Zonoff Distributed Radio Architecture” (ZDRA). The new architecture includes hardware reference designs for an ultra low cost wireless radio solution code-named “Sentry” which will be demonstrated by Zonoff at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

“The release of ZDRA and Sentry is the next logical step for Zonoff,” explained Mike Harris , Zonoff’s CEO. ZDRA and Sentry facilitate communication back to the home’s primary automation controller, which houses the “brain” of the connected home via Zonoff Home Software.

“Other companies have traditionally depended upon a dedicated home automation controller box to contain both their control software and the specific radios required for RF standards used in home automation, such as Z-WaveZigBee and others. Essentially, we have separated the control software from the radios, enabling the radios to be placed wherever they may be needed in the home, without the need for a wired Ethernet connection. The benefit is that consumers can use their existing WiFi network to add any home automation device in any location,” Harris explained.

Libelium Launches Waspmote Plug & Sense

Libelium, a wireless sensor networks platform provider for Smart Cities solutions, today launched Waspmote Plug & Sense!, a new line of Libelium encapsulated wireless sensor devices allowing system integrators to implement scalable, modular wireless sensor networks and reduce installation time from days to hours.

Waspmote Plug & Sense! models are pre-configured to create such widely applicable services as Smart Cities, Smart Parking, Smart Agriculture, Air Quality, Smart Security, Ambient Control and, Radiation Control, out of the box. Unlike other platforms, Waspmote Plug & Sense! sensor nodes are ready for deployment anywhere in the world, in terms of available radio frequencies (2.4GHz, 868/900Mhz) and certification (CE, FCC, IC). Plug & Sense are set to send information to Meshlium, the sensor gateway that uploads data to the Cloud, making the data accessible from anywhere and easy to integrate into third-party applications.

Ready to install and easy to deploy, each Waspmote Plug & Sense! mote is equipped with six connectors to which sensor probes can be attached directly, allowing services to be scalable and sustainable. The Waspmote Plug & Sense! Platform may be solar powered to allow energy harvesting and years of autonomy. Once installed, Waspmote Plug & Sense! sensor nodes can be programmed wirelessly thanks to an over the air programming (OTAP) feature. Sensors can be replaced or added without having to uninstall the mote itself, keeping maintenance costs to a minimum. For example, a network with CO2 probe sensors may easily add a noise sensor by simply attaching it, thereby extending the service.

“In the context of Smart Cities, the Waspmote Plug & Sense! platform makes adding a new sensor so easy that municipalities will not need to reinstall the network,” said David Gascon, CTO of Libelium. “We have reduced the complexity of installation with a solution that provides low-cost maintenance and a high degree of scalability, ensuring the shortest time to market for system integrators and end users.”