DASH7 Wireless Sensor Networking Blog

Today we announced the formation of the Automotive Working Group within the DASH7 alliance, another important milestone for DASH7 as we move beyond our supply chain roots into adjacent markets that are ripe for wireless sensor networking innovation.

Today’s announcement is the result of the work of many companies, including RFind, Michelin, Volvo, and others, who have either promoted the idea of DASH7 to their internal or external customers or who are actively building DASH7 solutions for their automotive customers.  While the genesis of much of this hoopla about DASH7 in automotive is in supply chain applications, a funny thing happened on the way to the distribution center:  someone pointed out that the frequencies used for active tire pressure monitoring today were 433 MHz plus a 125 khz LF wakeup signal.  Yet today’s solutions are 100% proprietary and this has been the cause of any number of headaches by various automotive ecosystem members.  So, as the only “active RFID” standard in the world at 433 MHz that uses an optional 125 khz wakeup signal (more on this later), moving to standardize TPMS via DASH7 is not exactly a long putt.

More on TPMS at a later date, but we see TPMS as only the beginning, as there is a broad opportunity to provide a single standard for low power, narrowband wireless communications within the vehicle.  Today, it doesn’t exist in any car that we’re aware of, so when you consider the vast numbers of sensors in an automobile today plus the growth in sensors in the vehicle, the opportunity for DASH7 is big.  Exhaust monitoring, for example.

Think of the automobile as the “third place” for DASH7, with business and the home being the first two.

Today’s announcement points to the hard work from the folks at Melexis, a very cool semiconductor company based in the EU that focuses heavily on automotive.  Melexis is co-chairing the automotive working group (actually a subgroup within the Outreach Working Group) and is tackling a number of relevant issues including that of standardizing an optional LF wakeup (125 khz) signal that can be paired with a 433 MHz DASH7 radio.

LF is important on many levels.  In its most basic form, it ’s used to “wake up” a sleeping tag or put it to sleep, with obvious power management benefits.  But LF has many other uses as well — improved location granularity, configuring or programming a tag, or even powering a tag (energy harvesting).  The US DoD uses LF in a growing number of cases for purposes of location granularity already, and as I mentioned above, it’s already used heavily in TPMS applications.

I’ve written before about the “harmonious” relationship between 13.56 MHz “HF” RFID and DASH7.   Today, I’m pleased to be able to start the conversation around another harmonious relationship between 433 MHz and 125 khz LF wakeup.

For more detail on the automotive working group, click here.

Pretty thorough piece by Marshall Kilpatrick at RWW … really gets to a point I have been making for some time that one of the biggest near term value props of the internet of things, particularly for B2B apps, is that of associating people with assets/things/places.  Assuming that GPS is a non-option in indoor environments like hospitals, as this article explores, what is the shortest path to “LBS-enabling” the many docs, nurses, attendants, and other personnel (don’t forget patients!)?  My contention continues to be that 13.56MHz is the incumbent technology for access control or, as some would say, “people tracking”.  I hate the term people tracking for some of the obvious Orwellian connotations, but it’s not inaccurate.  But this is more than just tracking … it’s about providing context to the location and environmental info being transmitted by the things around us … associating those transmissions with the people that are near them or using them isn’t so much people tracking as it is providing an additional layer of enterprise visibility.  Sure, there are apps where just knowing where a person is may be valuable, but it’s the context in which that information is presented that will ultimately drive value for businesses as well as consumers.  Speaking of, for consumers this is about turning your health insurance card into a (public key, encrypted) longer-range wireless device that is activated upon entering a hospital … or even an ambulance if you like … vital stats, blood types, allergies, etc. are transmitted automatically before you ever set foot in the hospital, where they are waiting and ready for the incoming patient.  This would all be opt-in —- if you are anti-data sharing for things like this … and many people are — you are free to continue using your existing non-wireless device.  If you think you might benefit from the added features of, say, a DASH7-enabled health insurance card, you can ask for it.  It might save your life … who knows.

There is a deeper and more complex thread here on healthcare — HIPAA, cold chain, asset management, billing, and much more.  In the hospital, the wifi folks have done a good job of getting traction but most that I speak to in the wifi world acknowledge the limits of the technology for apps like those discussed here.  Fortunately, DASH7 co-exists brilliantly with WiFi, including 802.11n which is to 2.45GHz technologies like IEEE 802.15.4 what water was to the Wicked Witch of the West.

ParkWhiz Is The OpenTable For Parking Spots would love to see them or someone add DASH7 to this app … removing the human intervention/opportunity for human error in this app.  One idea:  put a DASH7 device with a magnetometer under the pavement (DASH7 penetrates it in many cases) to know whether a vehicle is in the space or not.

One of those things I always knew to be true but could not prove … via WSJ

no turning back, now …

Smartgrid M&A activity remains brisk

creepy but interesting list of innovations happening around the world …

Taking the concept of checkins from the “top layer” of GPS-based location checkins to “lower layer” check-ins of products —- enabling still more opportunities for loyalty points, coupons, etc. — is pretty logical.  The guys at Booyah in Palo Alto are doing it via barcodes which is sort of making lemonade when you’ve got lemons … so hats off to them for taking the lead.  Longer term, however, we’ll see DASH7 enabled phones (or DASH7 enabled loyalty cards) that make this process much faster and simpler —- invoking a barcode reading application, “taking” the picture of the barcode, processing, and completing the transaction are not only too cumbersome and time consuming, but only one person can “read” the barcode at a time … making “check-ins” of events and other products difficult when there’s a crowd.

So the hierarchy of “check-ins” begins with places, but as we dive deeper we begin checking in with things, and ultimately, people.  Solving for the “check-in” problem (i.e. no one is happy with the current state of actively invoking a check-in as it is designed today) is one of the long-term strengths of DASH7 — background check-ins, checking in with indoor locations that GPS can’t reach, checking in with things and people that don’t have their own GPS coordinates, checking in with things that are moving, checking in with things that run on batteries, and more.  DASH7 Mode 2.0, which we announced last week, makes this even easier to do and if you haven’t check it out, I strongly recommend it for those looking at location based services.

A 40-ton whale suddenly leapt out of the water and crash-landed on a yacht, smashing into the mast. It thrashed about the vessel before rolling back into the water.

via SINA English.