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Huawei's just bought an internet-of-things startup
Whenever we talk about Huawei, it's normally within the context of the company's growing smartphone business. What we don't talk about as much is the Chinese giant's massive networking operation -- but it's this department that's making a big entry into the Internet of Things. Huawei has announced that it's buying Neul, a Cambridge-based startup that specializes in building low-power wireless sensors for monitoring in various industrial and medical applications. Neul is probably most famous for having built the UK's first smart road, a 50-mile chunk of highway designed to monitor traffic flow and avoid congestion. Huawei has pledged to use its vast resources to turn Neul's Cambridge HQ into an "internet of things stronghold" which, we're sure, will go down really well with those people who refuse to deal with the company on security grounds.
British highway to become internet-connected 'network of sensors' over 50-mile stretch
In a team-up between the UK's Department of Transport, BT and Cambridge start-up Neul, the A14 (which connects Felixstowe to Birmingham) will be transformed into the country's first internet-connected road, with the aim of preparing the country for future tech from wireless toll chargers to automated cars. The smart road will include a network of sensors across a 50-mile segment, with data transmission delivered over white space. Ofcom approved the project yesterday, alongside its plans for the rest of the spectrum space. According to the regulator, "sensors in cars and on the roads monitor the build-up of congestions and wirelessly send this information to a central traffic control system, which automatically imposes variable speed limits that smooth the flow of traffic," Ofcom said. "This system could also communicate directly with cars, directing them along diverted routes to avoid the congestion and even managing their speed." Initial plans for the A14 aren't focused on these borderline zealous goals just yet. Instead, the project aims to gather information on the cars that use the A14, before focusing on heavy goods vehicles, feeding back to a database that the government's Department for Transport will be able to access. As The Guardian notes, the project would offer a cheaper method for data connectivity and gathering traffic information compared to the mobile network techniques used by companies like TomTom. Instead of connecting to pricey mobile masts, the project will tap into small base stations attached to street lamps or BT exchanges, many of which already exist along the hectic A-road. (Image credit: Martin Pettitt, Flickr)
ARM forms UK group to foster an Internet of Things, put 50 billion devices online by 2020
ARM isn't content with dominating the mobile space. It's been by the far the most vocal about an Internet of Things where everything is connected -- and to make that happen, it just established an industry forum in the UK that it hopes will establish common ground for all those internet-linked light bulbs, refrigerators and thermostats. Home energy firm Alertme, cloud-aware sensing outfit AquaMW, lighting maker EnLight and white space wireless guru Neul will start meeting with ARM from August 24th onwards to hash out our automated, eco-friendly future. There's a certain urgency in this for the chip designer: it expects 50 billion devices on the grid by 2020. With IDC estimating a billion new connected devices just in 2011, the clock on that connected device transition is ticking very loudly.
