When a wireless sensor node has to run with batteries for months it is really important to know which is the average power consumption. Standard AA batteries have about 2000 mAh (they can supply 1 mA for 2000 hours), msp430 (which maybe is the 16 bit microcontroller with lower power consumption) can draw from 0,3 uA in sleep mode to 4 mA in active mode, a radio chip like CC2420 draws about 20 mA in Transmition or Reception, reading from any kind of sensors could up to 6 mA. The worst case would be a power consumption of 30 mA, that will draw the entire battery in about 72 hours. That’s not good. It is mandatory to have an inteligent operating system adaptation that really manages power consumption and starts and stops devices only when needed. But is also really important, when prototyping a wireless sensing application to know exactly how much power will it draw. This is why at dexma we have developped DXNRG, used with dexCell framework, will help integrators to fine tune the application and optimize battery life. DXNRG is fully integrated in dexCell Stack, it takes care of how much time each device is used, information can be sent over the network or over the serial port. Using dexCell Server integration, it is really easy to know which is the average power comsumption of your applications, and predict in a more effective way batteries life.

Yesterday I’ve been invited to a debate organized by the Fundació UPC about “internet in your pocket”. During the debate, Albert Calvet from CV&A Consulting talked about e-learning and its applications to cellphones. Carles Grau from Microsoft talked about the upcoming technology that Microsoft is preparing for new mobile devices, he talked about his Media Center integrated in some versions of Windows Vista, but I became surprised because he did’t talked about Windows Mobile Edition, that has become a winner between Operative Systems for mobile devices, maybe because the concept “PDA” is almost dead? Josep Fígols from Sun was really direct and concise; he said that Java is more alive than ever (making special attention to JME), he introduced the SunSPOT and said that any mobile device oriented applications needs a solid and strong backend (and of course, Java is the right technology to implement it). He also made a reference to the acquisition of MySQL by Sun (while Carles Grau noticed in an interview that Opensource has no sustainable Business Model behind). Xavier Kirchner from Telefonica I+D talked about more generalistic data and showed us why existing internet access from cellphones became a complete failure. I really liked his thought that we must look at cellphones as an interface to interact with social networking applications. I made a fast reference to most new devices (Iphone, Blackberry and Asus Eee PC) that make possible to take advantage from ubiquitous connectivity, but also to new devices that forge the anacronysm of typical input/output interfaces like keyboard/screen. Finally I talked about new network providers like Fon or future MVNO’s. A final reference was to Android and RSS as a upcoming platforms and standards needed to speed-up new applications development.

During the rest of the debate, we discussed about Opensource, about the inexistent initiative from the Y generation (while I was criticizing the University for not stimulating students creativity). Also there was a reference about the need of add semantic information to this huge amount of data that Internet is becoming. It was a really interesting debate that could have been running for hours because of topic’s interest and possibilities. Here you have my slides. I would like also to thank to the Fundació UPC the invite to a high level debate.

La innovación tecnológica de Dexma ha sido premiada por Bancaja.

Dexma ha ganado uno de los premios de ‘Empresas de Base Tecnológica’ en los Premios de Emprendedores.

EMPRESAS DE BASE TECNOLÓGICA:

• Iberobotics, S.L.
  Fabricación, importación y distribución de equipos robotizados de uso doméstico y profesional. Santander (Cantabria).

• Vinci Energia Coop. V.
  Desarrollo de un método y sistema de conversión de energía solar en mecánica o eléctrica. Castellón.

• Alimentos funcionales de origen tradicional S.L.
  Producción de alimentos de origen vegetal sin lactosa ni leche. Aldaia (Valencia).

• Solaiemes S.L.
  Consultoría y desarrollo de aplicaciones y tecnologías móviles (telefonía, PDA). Madrid.

• Veracetics, SL
  Investigación, desarrollo, producción y comercialización de extractos vegetales (Aloe Vera). Madrid.

• Miramedia Comunicación S.L.
  Innovación y generación de nuevos medios de comunicación y publicidad. Valencia.

• Dexma Sensors, SL.
  Ingeniería especializada en redes de sensores inalámbricas y M2M (comunicaciones entre equipos). Barcelona.

• Cultivos Marinos del Cantábrico S.L
  Cultivo y distribución de algas marinas. Gijón (Asturias).

• Sharika Digital S.L.L.
  Desarrollo de aplicaciones de alto valor añadido utilizando software libre. Donostia (Guipúzcoa).

• Quobis Networks SLU.
  Instalación de sistemas de networking, telefonía IP y despliegue de redes inalámbricas. Vigo (Pontevedra).

from IDTechEx

Active RFID, where a battery drives the tag, is responsible for an increasing percentage of the money spent in the RFID market. It will rise from 12.7% of the total RFID market this year to 26.3% in 2017, meaning a huge $7.07 billion market. If we include the market for cell phone RFID modules (another form of active RFID), the market is an additional $0.44 billion in 2007 and $1.2 billion in 2017.

Analysis of 75 case studies

In the analysis of 75 active RFID case studies from 18 countries, the largest number of projects has been in Logistics with around double the number for each of the nearest contenders - Air Industry, Automotive/Transportation and Healthcare. Added to those as important sectors will be such things as safety of constructions and people monitoring. Meanwhile, RTLS is being put in about 50 hospitals yearly, for staff, patients and assets. In the case studies, the items that are tagged were mainly containers, followed by vehicles, conveyances and people.

Applications of Active RFID by market vertical 2007-2011

Gracias a SIMO y FUNDETEC, Dexma ha sido obsequiada con un stand en la zona Vivero de la Feria Internacional SIMO. El premio esta dirigido a empresas de reciente creación (tres años de antigüedad) que aporten innovación en productos y servicios en relación con los sectores correspondientes a Tecnologías de la Información; Aplicaciones Profesionales; Telecomunicaciones; e-Business-Internet, o Domótica.

De esta forma, desde aquí queremos invitar a nuestros clientes, proveedores, partners y amigos a venir a vernos entre el 6 y el 11 de Noviembre por el stand 1A146. Durante la muestra realizaremos demos en el campo de monitorización vía Wireless Sensor Networks y RTLS (Real Time Location System).

Poneros en contacto a info@dexmasensors.com para recibir entradas.