Build your own motion-triggered "Internet of Things" camera

Adafruit has come up with a mash-up of Arduino components to create an internet-enabled motion-triggered camera (Photo: Adafruit)

Adafruit's "Internet of Things Camera" is a neat mashup of existing Arduino components into a versatile remote monitoring camera.

The key here is in the word remote - a capability that's granted by the inclusion of a first-generation Eye-Fi card, which is an SD card with built in Wi-Fi, that can upload images to your computer or other device, or better yet to a variety of photo-sharing websites such as Flickr.

The Internet of Things: It's a term that basically describes the notion of objects - potentially all objects - having some sort of uniquely identifiable online presence and, in more recent years, the ability to report data.

This might be data that it's designed to collect (as is obviously the case with this camera), or merely information about its own wellbeing - like a vending machine asking to be restocked.

It's this ability to report online, to Flickr, yes, but also to Twitter, or via email if you prefer, that ensures Adafruit's camera lives up to its name.

Crucially, no coding is required to get online functionality up and kicking - it's simply a case of entering your log-in information into the accompanying Eye-Fi application.

Unfortunately, the camera doesn't come assembled. In fact it doesn't even come as a kit. You'd need to buy each of the required components and assemble them yourself, though Adafruit gives a lot of guidance as to how this is done.

The main components are an Ardunio Uno microcontroller, TTL Serial JPEG Camera (or a weatherproof variant, if required), Adafruit's Data Logging Shield for Arduino, an Eye-Fi wireless SD card, and some sort of power supply.

By default the Internet of Things Camera is a motion-sensing camera - but because it's comprised of Arduino components, this isn't set in stone.

Adafruit suggests that a time-lapse device, or a camera triggered by a laser trip wire are relatively simple modifications. The recommended camera outputs video, from which stills are then logged and shared.

If you're already dreaming up potential applications for this thing then you're probably wondering about the power rating. Adafruit says a 9 V wall adaptor is the easiest way to keep the camera ticking, but for some uses that isn't going to work. In which case a battery pack of six AA batteries will apparently power the camera "for several hours".

GPS with Android and WiFi on its way

The world's first handheld GPS to use the Android mobile operating system is here.

The All Sports GPS from Holux is also the first handheld unit with WiFi capability.

The idea is to fuse smartphone capability into a handheld GPS, allowing users to download GPS apps directly without having to hookup to a computer.
 
The All Sports GPS is a cooperative effort between Taiwan's Holux, which manufactures GPS products, and Satski, a Canadian company best known for its winter sports apps.

So, it's not surprising that the GPS will come pre-loaded with the SatSki app and a companion suite that includes other sports apps for golf, biking, running and geo-caching, among other activities.

The apps provide all sorts of speed, distance, real-time location and navigation information. For winter sports fans, the Satski app uses resort trail maps.

There's also Facebook and Twitter integration and on online community at luvthesnow.com to share and boast about your greatest runs.

Another app included in the package is All Sports Maps, which allows users to download live maps, including Google, Nokia OVI, Open Street and Open Cycle, for later offline use, all for free.

Similar apps in the Android Market can run you as much as ten US dollars for something well-suited to backcountry use, out of the range of a data connection.

SatSki promises that the All Sports GPS will be a "rugged, highly sensitive IPX 6-rated unit" that also supports Bluetooth health monitor accessories. No word on an exact release date or pricing for the device, but the company promises it is "coming soon."

Gloria: Providing worldwide acess to robotic telescope network

Amateur astronomers wanting to observe celestial bodies soon won’t be limited to just their own personal telescopes, or visits to the local public observatory.

Starting next year, the first in a worldwide network of robotic telescopes will be going online, which users from any location on the planet will be able to operate for free via the internet.

Known as Gloria (GLObal Robotic telescopes Intelligent Array for e-Science), the three-year European project will ultimately include 17 telescopes on four continents, run by 13 partner groups from Russia, Chile, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland and Spain.

Not only will users be able to control the telescopes from their computers, but they will also have access to the astronomical databases of Gloria and other organizations.

Edinburgh bright sparks solve our internet problems ... with the flick of a light switch

Edinburgh bright sparks solve our internet problems ... with the flick of a light switch - Herald Scotland

For what a world it would be if we could all access the internet not through clunky wireless routers and the millions of miles of spaghetti-like cables buried under our streets and fields, but through the golden rays of the electric light bulbs that are in every room in every one of our homes.

Scientists working at Edinburgh University have discovered a way of transmitting wireless data through lightbulbs, an invention that could revolutionise the way we receive the internet.

The discovery is called D-Light (data light) and uses the new light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs that are expected to replace the incandescent models in use. The traditional bulb is banned in parts of the EU due to its wasteful use of energy.

As well as revolutionising internet reception, it would put an end to the potentially harmful electromagnetic pollution emitted by wireless internet routers and has raised the prospect of ubiquitous wireless access, transmitted through streetlights.

The idea is so significant that a Nobel prize-winning physicist has named it among the 100 inventions likely to change everyday life in the next century.

Dr Harald Haas, reader in wireless communications at Edinburgh University, is leading the project.

He claimed the invention could soon be in use all over the world, bringing significant economic benefits to Scotland – and reaffirming the country’s position as one of the world’s leading nations when it comes to scientific innovation.

Dr Haas said: “Engineering and development have, in my opinion, been left out in this country for too long. Lord Mandelson has recently put forward his idea for the digital economy but it needs to be filled with life. This could be one pillar to that economy.

“It should be so cheap that it’s everywhere. Using the visible light spectrum, which comes for free, you can piggy-back existing wireless services on the back of lighting equipment. Power lines are there, which can transmit data, so all you need is a central modem, which would then distribute data into the lightbulbs and then to mobile devices in the home.”

The invention allows data to be transmitted through light, using flickering – imperceptible to the human eye – to send 100 megabits of data a second. That is twice as fast as current wireless routers and matches the speed of the broadband network which could get up to 100 megabits per second by 2017.

At that speed a file of an entire movie could be sent through a lightbulb in only a few minutes. But Dr Haas hopes to be able to send one gigabit a second, which is more than 10 times the speed the network can currently manage.

Wireless communication is a sector growing at an exponential rate, but the infrastructure is struggling to keep up

China Internet Users already Exceed Population of the USA - Only 1 in 4 currently have internet access

China's Internet users have surpassed the U.S. population in number, and more Chinese than ever are using e-commerce and accessing the Web through mobile phones, according to official statistics.

China's broadband users and the number of .cn Web sites coming on-line, are also first in the world, China reports.

Slideshow: 10 ways the Chinese Internet is different from yours

China had 338 million Internet users at the end of last month, the most in any country, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said late Thursday.

Message Boards Chat

Chatting on message boards, cruising around social networking sites and pursuing other entertainment were among the most popular activities for Web users, the center said in a report posted on its Web site. The number of Internet users who watched videos online rose 10 percent from six months ago. More than one-fourth now shop online.

China also led the world in the number of registered Web sites, nearly 13 million, using its .cn top-level domain, the report said

All Figures on the Rise

Almost all of the reported figures rose substantially this year. Nearly all of the Internet users had broadband, which China is working to link to more remote areas

Mobile Broadband

The report gave some mixed signals on the prospects for mobile broadband, which China is also pushing. The number of Chinese who used mobile phones to access some online services rose to 155 million, but just one in four of those people said they would use 3G to surf the Web in the future, the report said.

High prices and limited coverage so far have kept down 3G take-up despite aggressive marketing by China's three mobile carriers.

Malware and Security Issues

The report also showed the severity of malware and other security problems in China. Over 100 million Chinese had passwords or account numbers stolen in the first half of this year, and almost twice as many experienced virus or trojan attacks, it said.

Despite the huge numbers already connected, only one in four Chinese is already an Internet user, the report said. So, brace yourself for the sudden upsurge in Chinese internet activity in the coming year.

Interplanetary Internet on board ISS

The International Space Station is now testing a new communications protocol that could form the backbone of a future interplanetary internet (Image: STS-119 Shuttle Crew/NASA)

The Universal Wide Web (UWW) or Interplanetary internet now has its first permanent node in space, aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The new software will make sending data from space less like using the telephone, and more like using the web. In the modern era of the web and information on demand, teams still have to schedule times to send and receive data from space missions.

But the newly installed system aboard the ISS could one day allow data to flow between Earth, spacecraft, and astronauts automatically, creating what is being dubbed the "interplanetary internet".

It sure beats the dial-up and 386-processor based technology that normally manages the ISS comms.