IoT news of the week for April 24, 2020

Spectrum for 6GHz Wi-Fi gets OK’d: The world of Wi-Fi is about to get a super fast lane for new devices thanks to the FCC voting on Thursday to approve 1,200 megahertz of spectrum in the 6GHz band. This will add to the existing 5GHz and 2.4 GHz bands already in use for Wi-Fi. The new spectrum will be used for Wi-Fi 6E, with the “E” standing for enhanced. Like the new Wi-Fi 6 standard, it will use a different modulation scheme to improve the way packets flow on Wi-Fi networks, reducing latency. But because there’s so much more room in the 6GHz band, it will also allow for much faster data rates. The caveat is that older, non-WiFi 6 devices can’t hop into this “fast lane,” which will keep data flowing quickly but also means older devices won’t get the benefit. So don’t rush out and get your Wi-Fi 6E routers anytime soon unless you plan on running Wi-Fi 6 devices on the network. (FCC) — Stacey Higginbotham

This is big news in the world of autonomous vehicles: The dirty little secret in the world of autonomous vehicles is that in most cases, you still need a human operator. For companies seriously building in this space, the question is how many human operators. This month, Einride, which makes autonomous, electric commercial trucks, showed off one operator remotely controlling two autonomous trucks at the same time. Einride says it plans to expand that number to 10 trucks per operator. (InsideEVs) — Stacey Higginbotham

I think this is a 5G screwdriver, y’all: Telecom giant Ericsson and ABB Power Grid, which makes power transformers and distribution equipment, put out a press release this week touting the 5G factory environment that Ericsson has built for ABB Power Grid. The release says ABB Power Grid’s factory in Ludvika is attaching essential tools, such as cordless screwdrivers, to the network as part of a factory optimization effort. So, it sounds like somewhere in Sweden there’s a 5G industrial cordless screwdriver. I have to wonder about that battery life. (Ericsson) — Stacey Higginbotham

Google opens its Healthcare API: After more than a decade of hope, the coronavirus is helping to push a variety of changes into the healthcare system that could make it much easier to deliver telemedicine and get access to your medical records in a standard format. This is a good thing. Google’s contribution is an open API that will take medical records from different providers and organize them in Google’s Cloud. Of course, if they want to store those records, they will need to pay for Google’s cloud storage. (CNBC) — Stacey Higginbotham

Want to understand the difference between MQTT and LwM2M messaging protocols? If you do, then check out the white paper published by IoT testing house MachNation, which looks at the trade-offs associated with each protocol. Both are used in the IoT, although MQTT is far more common. Lightweight M2M, meanwhile, is popular in cellular networks, and while one of the paper’s sponsors is AT&T, it’s worth a look if you’re wondering which messaging protocol works for your job. Note as well that MQTT is getting a lot of support from organizations building open-source add-ons to improve some of its shortcomings. (MachNation) — Stacey Higginbotham

Scary robots help hospitals with COVID-19: You’ve probably seen videos of Boston Dynamics’ Spot, its somewhat terrifying line of dog-like robots. It turns out they’re doing good work at hospitals. The company said this week that health care facilities reached out in March to see if the four-legged robots could be used for a mobile telemedicine platform. The first facility Spot was deployed to was Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston; he’s been there for the past two weeks, equipped with an iPad on its back. His presence allows doctors and nurses to have two-way video chats with patients without any risk of virus spread. Good dog! But I still think they’re scary. In the future, the company hopes to equip Spot with sensors to measure a patient’s temperature, pulse, and oxygen saturation levels. (Boston Dynamics) — Kevin Tofel

Raspberry Pi lookalike device has a powerful AI chip inside: Nvidia is widely known among consumers for its graphical processing units and cards for gaming, but those who follow IoT know Nvidia’s chips can power AI and ML applications, too. And if you’re into artificial intelligence development, you might want one of these compact computers with Nvidia’s Jetson chips packed inside. Based on its appearance, I first thought these small devices were a cheap Raspberry Pi. Nope. These are similar on the outside but have enough compute power to provide 32 TOPS (32 trillion operations per second). Of course, that kind of performance will cost you — between $450 and $1,100, to be exact, depending on the model. (AAEON) — Kevin Tofel

Are we one step closer to a universal brain-computer interface? I admit I’ve watched “The Matrix” one too many times and want to see a brain-computer interface (BCI). Just the idea of thinking about something and tapping the vast knowledge of the internet to get more information in milliseconds sounds amazing. We’re not there yet, of course, and most research on BCIs is currently aimed at people wearing prosthetics or battling a disability. For those people, there may be an improvement on the horizon. Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh have published research that could remove the current requirement to “recalibrate” devices that use a BCI. This article is an interesting look into what could be next, which is me hopefully jacking into the web from my noggin. Oh, and for you other Matrix fans, there is no spoon. (TNW) — Kevin Tofel

Home Assistant automations can supercharge your smart home: I’ve spent the last few weeks digging into the automation functions of Home Assistant and I’m completely impressed. They are easy to set up now that the software is moving away from text file configurations to a card system based on triggers, events, and actions. And they even use an open-source natural language processing system to better understand what you’re trying to automate. Folks who have been telling me that Home Assistant makes store-bought hubs look like toys, you were right! (StaceyOnIoT) — Kevin Tofel