IoT news of the week for June 21, 2019

The FCC looks at connectivity for farms: Agriculture is taking advantage of innovations in sensors and AI to bring technology to farming. However, as I’ve written before, farmers are often stuck in areas without quality cellular coverage. A group of farmers along with farming equipment maker John Deere have now asked the FCC to consider thinking not only about people when evaluating how to best use spectrum, but to also consider use cases that benefit people. And the FCC may be about to do just that. This week, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he had created a task force to advise the agency on policies aimed at delivering connectivity for American agriculture. The group will work with the Department of Agriculture to figure out how to deploy faster and better broadband access on unserved agricultural land. One of the goals will be achieving reliable broadband capabilities on 95% of agricultural land by 2025. Given how dismal U.S. rural broadband is currently, that’s a pretty tall order. (FCC)

SmartRent scores $32M: SmartRent, which gained a bit of infamy as the startup that was tasked with transitioning a hacker’s apartment locks to smart locks against her will, has raised $32 million to continue making apartment buildings smart. What strikes me about this deal — and this company — is that it involves a group of big real estate players and venture firms creating a startup to solve perceived business needs as opposed to one of the many other companies already trying to help apartment complexes bring connected devices into their operations. Companies such as PointCentral, Stratis, and Iotas have all been building companies in this realm for years and have gained a lot of insights into what landlords and residents want — and how to serve both markets. (Reuters)

Accenture has acquired an IoT security firm: Accenture has purchased Seattle-based Deja vu Security and will add the company to its cyber defense group. Deja vu was founded in 2011 by former HP, Amazon, and Microsoft executives; they tackled security with a holistic perspective that started with the device and focused on the physical hardware, the network, and the cloud. The purchase helps broaden Accenture’s IoT security practice and brings more experts into what is a hot area for new hires. (Accenture)

Insteon slims down to compete in the smart home: My friend Richard Gunther has written an in-depth look at Insteon, from its recent past to its current state and beyond, to its expected future. Insteon’s smart home platform never piqued my interest because it was mostly for high-end installers and dedicated hobbyists, but many in my audience loved it. If you want to know what happened there and where Insteon is headed, click on through. (Digital Media Zone)

Signify adds LiFi to Philips Hue: Signify, the company behind Philips Hue lights, said its lights now support LiFi and can transmit data at 250 Mbps. I was not prepared for this news at all. I’ve monitored LiFi for years. The technology uses visible light to transfer data, and companies ranging from Disney to GE have played around with it. The challenge has been that the data transfer relies on the receiving device being able to “see” the light. That means if a phone is in your purse or pocket, or a computer doesn’t have a special receiver, the transmission doesn’t work. And while that is still the case, Philips is hoping that by making one half of the network widely available it might incent others to build the other half. LiFi is a useful technology for areas with congested RF environments and in places where RF signals struggle. Those include places with metal walls and equipment or places with a lot of water. So perhaps LiFi becomes a wireless data option for factories or for aquariums. (The Verge)

A brief word about the GE resetting video: Folks in the smart home world are busy mocking the reset process for the C by GE light bulbs, thanks to an educational video from the company. The reset process involves turning off the light for at least 5 seconds before turning it on for 8 seconds and then off for 2 seconds. You’ll do the on/off sequence five times. While this is a tough reset sequence, as a veteran of the connected lighting space I can say that such an intense process isn’t all that uncommon. For Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Z-Wave bulbs these unique sequences help differentiate a reset from kids just flicking the light on or off half a dozen times (trust me, it happens). These bulbs don’t have direct access to the internet so you can’t control them directly via an app. So yes, this is a pain, but it’s also less of a pain than having an easy sequence that gets accidentally reset all the time. For my money, the best pairing action is Lutron, but that’s a proprietary protocol, so they can do what they want. (YouTube)

What tasks are suited for the edge? MobiledgeX just launched new research to understand what use cases make the most sense for the edge. The company conducted interviews with more than 200 businesses to find out which applications required low latency and lots of data, or maybe just low latency and less data. You can click through to see the use of edge computing in broad segments such as healthcare or AI or dig into the specific use cases within each segment. (MobiledgeX)

This is worth a scan: The Industrial Internet Consortium publishes a journal every few months, and the latest one is focused on AI. I particularly liked the article asking how AI can affect the trustworthiness of a machine or process in manufacturing. It’s not exactly a beach read, but you can read it at work. (The Industrial Internet Consortium Journal of Innovation )

IDC thinks the IoT will generate 79.4 zettabytes (ZB) of data in 2025: IDC has put out a report estimating that in six years there will be 41.6 billion connected IoT devices that will generate almost 80 zettabytes of data, with most of that traffic generated by video surveillance. In my opinion, it’s not the big data that always has the most value in IoT, but rather it’s the data that was heretofore unable to be collected and aggregated by computer. Still, that’s a lot of data. (IDC)