IoT news of the week for Dec. 7, 2018

Voice computing is getting closer: Right now, the idea of voice computing is powerful, but still difficult to implement. Computers are good at understanding the words that we say, but not always great about ascribing meaning to them. The third step — figuring out what to do once that meaning has been interpreted — is even tougher. Honestly, I’m in a similar boat. People are tough to understand, and we generally rely on contextual clues to ascribe meaning and then take action, clues to which a computer may not have access. But that will have to change if we hope to improve our voice experiences. Amazon researchers will present a paper that shows how they have improved by 35% Alexa’s ability to understand what topic category a request falls under. Basically the research shows how Alexa can derive context from the prior utterance to determine what to say and how to react. The article goes into how the researchers used a variety of neural networks to gain this improvement, but for most of us it’s enough to know that our digital assistants are getting more context and thus are getting smarter. Of course, whether we want them to use or even have additional context is another matter we might want to discuss. (VentureBeat)

The House passes an IoT bill: Someone asked me why I didn’t include the news that the U.S. House had passed a bill called the SMART (State of Modern Application, Research, and Trends) IoT Act, which will call for a survey on the state of IoT use and security nationwide. I had skipped it because the House passes legislation all the time and until something reaches the point of Senate committee hearing and discussion, nothing much is likely to come of it. It’s also a bill that doesn’t seem to do much. But if you want to check it out, you can find it here. (Multichannel News)

Watch those protocols!: TrendMicro put out a report saying that in many cases the popular messaging protocols MQTT and CoAP are insecure. While companies can deploy them in a secure manner, most don’t which leads to message traffic getting leaked. I hear about these protocols every day when asking about IoT architectures, so take a gander and check your protocols. (The Next Web)

ConnectSense has a new outlet: ConnectSense, a company that makes connected devices that have historically worked with Apple’s HomeKit, has released a new product. This one is a Wi-Fi-connected outlet that works with Google, Alexa, and Apple’s HomeKit. The outlet has two sockets that can be monitored and controlled individually; it can monitor energy use and also includes a USB charging port. It costs $59.95, which seems high compared with other options out on the market. For example, IKEA just launched a $10 smart plug and Amazon offered its new $25 outlet for $5 during the shopping days after Thanksgiving. However, this outlet works with a lot more platforms and has two outlets. I’m still not sure we’ve surpassed that price point, but we’ll see how it does.  (ConnectSense)

Cypress purchases Wi-Fi startup Cirrent: I have followed Cirrent for the last few years and was excited to see that it had been acquired by Cypress. In this story on our site, I explain what’s behind the deal. (StaceyonIoT)

Apple Watch 4 update enables ECG support: Nearly three months after the Apple Watch 4 hardware launched, the software to support the wearable’s integrated electrocardiogram (ECG) feature is now available thanks to Apple’s watchOS 5.1.2 update. The ECG app can be used at any time to detect an irregular heart rhythm, one of the signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib). While you can manually take an ECG with the Apple Watch 4, it can also occasionally scan for any irregularities and notify the wearer if any are detected. Oftentimes sensors are simply added to products, leaving a user to configure or set them up; this is a smart example of supporting proactive monitoring and notifications out of the box. And it’s easier to share ECG data with physicians, too, since not all of them have access to Apple Health; you can simply print out or export a PDF of your ECG data for them to review. (Apple) –Kevin Tofel

Google Assistant brings personalized news playlists to Google Home: Some folks use their Google Home devices for listening to the news, but I never got into it. I may now, though, thanks to a new feature that adds personalized playlists. Google is starting with 20 news sources and will curate stories from them based on the user’s interests. Think of it as an audio version of news similar to the personalized information on the old Google New feed. (The Keyword) –KT

You might never wait in a grocery line at Whole Foods again (someday): This week, reports surfaced that Amazon is testing its cashier-less payment model in larger stores after adding the function to some small convenience retailers earlier this year. The system relies both on cameras and weight sensors on shelves. When it sees you put a product in your bag, for example, the item is automatically added to your bill. You grab your goods and walk out, with the bill deducted from a linked account. There’s obvious speculation that this technology could arrive in Whole Foods supermarkets, which makes sense since Amazon acquired the grocer last year for $13.7 billion. And an easy way to cut long-term costs is to reduce the number of paid cashiers while bringing a potentially better checkout experience to shoppers. (Techcrunch) –KT

Pindrop raises late-stage investment round: Pindrop, an Atlanta company that provides security and authentication for voice, just raised a $90 million Series D round of funding from several investors, including Schlage owner Allegion Ventures. I’ve known the company for a few years, ever since visiting Atlanta a few times when I was with GigaOM. The company was a big fish in that pond and it did a good business selling its authentication software to call centers. Now it wants to bring that service to connected devices. That’s the sort of thing that could change home access and also make voice shopping much more simple. It also could be the key to bringing voice assistants into the enterprise, since only the right people could access certain data. (TechCrunch)

This is a good list: It’s the end of the year and the time of lists and predictions is upon us. Who knows, I may end up doing one in the next few weeks. Most are dull and predictable, but I liked the companies included in this list of hot industrial IoT startups — and that’s despite the fact that it’s a slideshow and many of the company descriptions are barely intelligible marketing mumbo jumbo. As someone who knows what most of these companies do and has spoken to at least some of their customers, I can tell you there are some legit businesses on this list. (CRN)