IoT Podcast Episode 331: Safe words for smart homes and cheap mesh

We start this week’s show with a $200 million funding for Wiliot, a company I profiled back in 2017 as one of the vanguards of low-power sensing. Then we tackle a creative idea that could see consumers create safe words for their smart homes to indicate when they might be in trouble. Next up is President Biden’s National Security Memorandum on securing cyberinfrastructure. Like coffee? This connected coffee machine raised $20 million.  If coffee’s not of interest, perhaps you’ll want to hear about research into the incidental users of smart home gear and what we owe them, or how to change Alexa to Ziggy and get a new voice option. I also talk about a new dev kit that will let you hook up Swarm’s satellite connectivity to a variety of sensors. Or maybe you’d like to hear Kevin’s review of the $60 Vilo mesh Wi-Fi system or about the upcoming Firewalla Purple device. We end the news segment by answering a listener question about the Firewalla Purple.

The Swarm Eval kit could be yours for $499 plus the $60 annual connectivity fee. Image courtesy of Swarm.

Our guest this week is Jason Shepherd, the VP of Ecosystem with Zededa, a container orchestration company for the industrial internet of things. It’s been a while since Shepherd has been on the show, so I asked him for an update on the IT and OT divide that we talked about four years ago. Both sides are coming together, but there are still challenges when it comes to bringing IT to scale in operations. We talk about heterogeneity, security, the challenges of remote access, and more differences worth thinking about when we put computers in industrial equipment. We also talk about the challenges of scaling machine learning models at the edge, and especially those designed to adapt to changing real-world conditions. It’s a fun interview.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Jason Shepherd, the VP of Ecosystem with Zededa
Sponsors: Very

• Does your smart home need a safe word? Or an emergency alert?
• Biden wants to secure our infrastructure from cyberattacks
• Want to try a satellite connection for your sensors?
• Four ways IT folks have to adapt to the real world of OT needs
• How to scale machine learning for the edge

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IoT Podcast Episode 330: Amazon’s Matter plans and how IoT helps first responders

This week we got great news on the Matter front, as Amazon announced its plans for supporting the smart home interoperability protocol on most of its Echo devices. We talk about new features for Alexa developers before talking about new research from ARM showing a 32-bit ARM-based chip printed on flexible plastic. We then turned to a discussion of Qualcomm’s attempts to build something for wearables and plans for a new smart lighting platform from Nokia. (Actually, the platform is from Smartlabs Inc. which makes the Insteon brand and has now launched Nokia-branded smart lighting products.) We also focused a bit on industrial IoT security with the results from MITRE’s testing of several industrial IoT security platforms including Armis, Dragos, and Microsoft. We also mentioned Samsung’s upcoming Unpacked event that you can watch on August 11. Then we ended by answering a listener question about creating a sunrise/sunset-based schedule for Wyze lighting outside the native app.

The Nokia smart lighting keypad switch will sell for $59.99. Image courtesy of Smartlabs Inc.

Our guest this week is Michael Martin, CEO of RapidSOS, a company that provides software to 9-1-1 providers that lets phones, cars, and IoT devices send sensor data to 9-1-1. The 9-1-1 infrastructure has been having trouble adapting to the end of stable location data provided by landlines and the adoption of cell phones, so when people call for help on a cell phone, 9-1-1 agents can have trouble getting their location. RapidSOS has deals with Apple and Google to use a phone’s GPS to share location and is also working with clients in the vehicle space and now in the smart home to bring in new sources of data for emergency workers. Martin talks about what sensors would be most useful for first responders and what the future might entail. It’s a good glimpse of how the smart home might help people in the years ahead.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Michael Martin, CEO of RapidSOS
Sponsors: Silicon Labs and Trek10

• Almost all Amazon Echo devices will support Matter
• What could you do with flexible electronics?
• Welcome the Nokia brand to the smart lighting world
• Why you might want to send your health data to 911
• Smart cameras, cars, and wearables would help first responders

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IoT Podcast Episode 329: Radar is coming to the smart home

Welcome to another show! We’re spending the first few minutes of the show diving into the rise of RF sensing in the IoT, covering the news of Amazon applying for an FCC waiver to use radar for sleep tracking, the FCC creating a notice of proposed rulemaking to use the 60 GHz spectrum for radar, and a deep dive into other technologies in the 60 GHz spectrum such as ultrawideband and even Wi-Fi sensing. Then we talk about Ring’s end-to-end video encryption, right to repair news, and how to use local control on the Amazon Echo. Our news bits include stories about Google, an IIoT vulnerability, new light strips from Wyze, and Motorola Solutions planning to buy Openpath. We end by answering a listener question about Wyze.

The latest generation Google Nest hub uses radar to track sleep. Soon, we could see the tech in more devices around the home and in cars. Image courtesy of Google.

Our guest this week is Chris Grove, product evangelist at Nozomi Networks, who is on the show to discuss a new report detailing the escalation of ransomware attacks across several industries. He also talks about how the recent spate of ransomware attacks has and will continue to affect manufacturing operations. He breaks down how attacks on IT networks can affect operations networks and he offers some advice on how governments and companies can mitigate the harm of ransomware attacks. One suggestion I found worth noting was his idea that more companies start adopting separate Safety Instrumented Systems,  which are separate networks that monitor and can shut down other network systems in case of an error. It’s a really informative interview for those who want to understand more about the demands of OT systems and what they can teach us about IT security.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Chris Grove, product evangelist at Nozomi Networks
Sponsors: Silicon Labs and Trek10

• Want to understand everything you need to know about radar?
• Biden’s right-to-repair rules target smart farming equipment
• In which we discover Alexa has local control options
• Why IT folks should know more about safety instrumented systems
• Cameras are everywhere, and they are still pretty vulnerable

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IoT Podcast Episode 328: The IoT is a privacy nightmare and more 5G

Imagine all of the potential problems associated with the internet of things, and then settle in, because I think we talk about all of them in this episode. We start by detailing research out of Northeastern University that shows old data isn’t deleted from hardware-reset Amazon Echo devices and then discuss a class action lawsuit going ahead against Google’s digital assistant. We toss in a disturbing stat from Microsoft and a school that’s deploying facial recognition to round it out. We also devote time to Facebook’s synthetic training environment for home robots, ADT suing Vivint, and  Brilliant’s connected light switches getting HomeKit support. Kevin also reviews the Wyze lock. We end by answering a listener question about developer access on Amazon’s Sidewalk network.

Brilliant’s smart lights. Image courtesy of Brilliant.

Our guest this week is Teppo Hemiä, the CEO of Wirepas. Hemiä explains what massive IoT is and where Wirepas’ network fits in with other IoT networks such as those from Amazon, Apple, or even proprietary industrial options. Instead of the physical radios, Wirepas makes a distributed, mesh network software that can run on other company’s radios. Hemiä shares some customer stories from a hospital and from a ball-bearing manufacturer to show the benefits of having access to a cheap, scalable connectivity layer. He then tries to explain how Wirepas technology is part of a new DECT-2020 new radio standard that was adopted by the ITU for 5G deployments. It’s a bit confusing but could lead to a non-cellular technology used as part of 5G networks. Enjoy the show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Teppo Hemiä, the CEO of Wirepas
Sponsors: Silicon Labs and Trek10

• Researchers discover a privacy flaw in Echo devices
• Wait, how many requests for user data does Microsoft get each day?
• Can we train robots to handle the real world in virtual spaces?
• What the heck is massive IoT?
• How a non-3GPP standard is breaking into 5G

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IoT Podcast Episode 327: Amazon’s Halo health push and more Matter

Any Amazon Halo subscriber can try Amazon’s Movement Health service now, so Kevin and I explain what it is and what Amazon’s decisions around the Halo fitness tracker signal about the company’s interest in healthcare. We then cover the good news that Google will support connected Nest devices with security updates for up to five years after launch and Google’s new location tracking app for its Wi-Fi routers. Kevin wonders why Verizon needs its own smart display and tells us about Lenovo’s latest Google clock display while I share news of a smart building startup getting funding. We end with the news that ADT and Ring have settled their lawsuit about Ring’s use of the trademarked blue ADT octagon. After the news, we answer a listener’s question about changing Wi-Fi SSIDs and passwords and what that might mean for his smart home devices.

The Lenovo Smart Clock 2 can charge your phone using a Qi dock. Image courtesy of Lenovo.

Our guest this week is Nathan Dyck, chief product manager at Nanoleaf. We kick off the segment by focusing on the future of lighting before digging into a discussion of the Thread protocol. He talks about why Thread is such a positive choice for the smart home, and then we talk about Matter. He explains what the multi-admin feature is and tells us why he’s excited about the distributed ledger for tracking the provenance of a device. We end with a look ahead at some of the features he expects to see in smart lights after Matter is established. Enjoy the show.

Host: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Nathan Dyck, chief product officer Nanoleaf
Sponsors: Silicon Labs and Trek10

• Amazon’s Halo isn’t about fitness, it’s a about health
• How long should a thermostat get security updates?
• Could Verizon’s new display offer a path to Amazon’s Sidewalk?
• Nanoleaf didn’t start out making smart lights
• Matter may make new features easier to develop

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