Here’s a new worry for manufacturing: Have you thought about hacked 3-D printers? I hadn’t either, but researchers at Rutgers and Georgia Tech did because they realized that inserting flaws into 3-D printed parts could be a good way to sabotage everything from a refining process to an airplane. Check out their research on how to secure 3-D printers. (Rutgers)
Silver Spring Networks is building an IoT network in Ireland: The former smart grid startup that has since pivoted to an IoT network company is now building a version of it’s proprietary 802.15.4 network in Ireland. It also signed a deal to expand a smart lighting network in London to 30,000 more street lights. (Telegeography)
Amazon is paying developers for more than just games: As the smart speaker competition heats up (and with Apple’s HomePod just around the corner) Amazon is increasing the number of Skills it will pay developers to build. Amazon says it will pay developers based on “engagement” but what that actually means is unclear. Amazon will pay developers building skills in education, food, health and fitness, audio, music, lifestyle and productivity. No word on fart skills. (Amazon)
Google just bought a health sensor company: Google has acquired Senosis, a company that uses the sensors on your smart phone to diagnose medical problems. The company made apps such as SpiroCall and HemaApp, which were in the process of getting FDA approval. The HemaApp uses a smartphone camera to detect levels of hemoglobin in blood without a blood test. These sorts of things (new ways of looking at existing sensors or changing the economics of expensive sensors using math) are where the next frontier of innovation lies, so it’s not hard to see why Google might want to snag people who can think in this fashion. I don’t think this is just about health, but also a worldview. (GeekWire)
The floor is an interface: Microsoft is looking at the future of offices and productivity and it’s not limiting its vision to screens or electronic devices. Instead it’s trying to think what AI and connected objects can do to change the way people work and interact in office environments. If they are eyeing floors, might I suggest they check out Luminous Ventures? (ZDNet)
More money for IoT security: ZingBox, an IoT security company, has raised $22 million in a Series B funding round led by Dell Technologies Capital and Tri Ventures. ZingBox makes software that uses heuristics to determine the behavior of devices on a network and figure out if that behavior is normal or aberrant. Reminds me a bit of the claims made by DarkTrace. (PEHub)
FTC strikes another blow for consumer privacy: I am thrilled that the FTC is aware of the privacy threat the internet of things poses and is willing to step in and fine flagrantly guilty parties. This week it fined Uber for letting employees track where customers were heading when they were using the service. This is actually one of my bigger fears, that someone who works at a connected device company might get mad at me and leak all the pictures of me with bedhead as I take the dog out for a walk. They’d get the pics from my connected doorbell. It shows how creating a culture where users are respected is an important element of building a trusted IoT company. (FTC)
Here’s a new connected car consortium: One day I’ll make a list of all of the connected car standards or information sharing efforts out there, but until then, throw this into the pile. Ericsson and Intel have joined Toyota, NTT Docomo, and Japanese automotive tech company DENSO to form the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium. One thing seemingly in this group’s favor is that it doesn’t seem to rely overly much on the cloud, instead thinking about how to best handle complex tasks at the edge. Given these are devices that can travel at 70 miles per hour, sticking to the edge and lower latency seems smart. (Telecoms.com)
Are smart locks secure? After the bricking of 500 Lockstate locks last week, the media is digging into the concept of connected locks. Personally, they aren’t much less secure than typical locks when faced with a determined person. (Lifehacker)
Are Arduinos for hackers or for commercial products? This article asks the question and between it and the comment debate, I learned a lot about what an Arduino can and cannot do. Makes for an interesting read for anyone who wants to build something to later turn into a product. (Hackaday)
Wink added support for a bunch of new sensors: The majority of this work was done by Flex before Wink was sold to Will.i.am. (Wink)