Internet of Things News of the Week, February 3, 2017

From connecting volcanos to detecting emotion…all of this and more in this week’s Internet of Things news roundup. Get this in your inbox every Friday morning when you subscribe to my newsletter.

The Mouth of Hell gets an IoT network: The Mouth of Hell, Masaya volcano in Nicaragua is getting a wireless sensor network in and around the volcano’s crater. The project brings tech from GE, Libelium and others so scientists can understand how magma behaves under the Earth’s crust. I lava this! (Libelium)

Look, it’s an Alexa for telecom engineers: Nokia is taking voice assistants to school, so it can help telecom workers solve problems in the field by answering questions and guiding them through repairs. Maybe this is what the pros will use while they wait for augmented reality to become mainstream. (Engadget)

Look, your gadget is not a platform: An argument that building a consumer product that does one thing well and communicates what it does easily, is far more likely to succeed than trying to design an all-in-one device or a platform from the beginning. (Bolt blog)

How will carriers charge for speed and IoT? As mobile operators around the world invest in faster networks (gigabit wireless is coming) and differentiated low-power networks for IoT devices, there are a lot of questions about how their pricing models will change. The article covers some of that, but even more surprising was the CTO of Cisco Australia saying that wireless revenue was going to split into two streams in the near future. One in the licensed spectrum band and one in the unlicensed band, where companies using technology such as LoRA or Sigfox are offering services. (ZDnet)

A wearable that detects emotion: MIT researchers have built a wearable that can detect emotion in the person you are talking to. The device. which is not ready for a commercial debut, is designed to help folks with Autism understand social situations better. I find the idea of wearing something that can analyze emotions of the person I’m speaking with both far-fetched and possibly troubling. Inaccurate guesses on the part of the wearable could cause real problems for people who already have challenges in social settings. Meanwhile, the tech itself, if good, could be put to some unwholesome uses. (MIT News)

Volkswagen’s emission scandal as an IoT case study: When Volkswagen decided it wanted to bypass strict European emissions testing by messing with its engine software it had to turn to Bosch for help. Now Bosch is on the hook for the role it played helping to deceive consumers and governments. This story is an excellent example of how companies that build hardware will have to learn how to master software, or they will have to sign close partnerships with software companies. And those relationships may expose the partners to greater liabilities. So in the internet of things, partner with those you trust.  (New York Times)

The connected lab is a better lab: This story in Nature drives home a few tweets I’ve received from folks who use connected temperature sensors to monitor their lab fridges. These folks tell me it helps them relax and has saved their lab data on more than one occasion. Looks like companies such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, TetraScience and Germany’s Eppendorf are getting into the connected lab business in a big way. (Nature)

It’s the end of the world–IoT edition: We need a federal agency (and possibly a worldwide treaty) to help govern and secure the internet of things — or what Bruce Schneier calls a world-sized robot. We should also ask ourselves if everything really does need to be connected. Finally, we don’t have to design the internet of things the way we currently are. This is a long article, but it pays off. (New York Magazine)

This is patently about royalty negotiations: This is somewhat tangential to the internet of things, but since I care about Qualcomm and its patent fight with Apple, this is a very good take. (Radio Free Mobile)

The future is awful: For disturbing reading on the future of privacy and how your data may be used against you, please read this 56-page report on how data brokers sold us out. You’re going to weep, but you’ll also learn about a whole new world of black-market data sites. (ICIT)

What have you hacked today? Netgear routers and so many printers have big security flaws.

Design rules for AI: This is half Yves Behar design showcase and half useful content, but some of the “rules” are currently ignored, so if you’re designing connected products take a look. It may be self-promoting, but many of the ideas are sound. (FastCo Design)