IoT news of the week for March 18, 2022

Georgia-Pacific chooses MachineQ’s LoRaWAN network to connect public bathrooms: Georgia-Pacific, which makes paper towel dispensers, soap dispensers and other hygiene products, has signed a deal with Comcast’s MachineQ network to connect its KOLO Smart Monitoring System. This system automates restroom device monitoring and management, and is designed for airports, shopping centers, stadiums, schools, or other large buildings with public restrooms. The system is managed by GP Pro, which is a division of Georgia-Pacific. It chose LoRaWAN as its connectivity option because GP Pro has longer-term plans to become interoperable with other networks and wanted a standards-based network infrastructure. GP Pro was already using LoRa silicon, and in a statement provided to me said it decided on the LoRaWAN network provided by MachineQ because of the reliability and security of its enterprise-grade platform. (Comcast)

Lacuna is adding LoRaWAN coverage to its IoT connectivity offering: Lacuna Space says it now has an agreement with Omnispace to collaborate on an IoT service that will use LoRaWAN to enable direct-to-satellite communications for IoT devices. The LoRaWAN coverage will launch in the third quarter of this year and add LoRaWAN coverage to its existing cellular and Wi-Fi options. Lacuna is one of many satellite companies offering an IoT network and one of a few providing LoRaWAN coverage. (Electronics Weekly)

Vivint adds a new role to offer insurance based on its smart portfolio: Security company Vivint has named Ron Davies as its newly created chief insurance officer. In the role Davies will develop an insurance offering based on Vivint’s smart home devices and monitored security service. It’s no secret that insurance providers have been tiptoeing into the smart home market via partnerships with smart device companies and by lowering premiums for customers that have implemented certain services such as leak detection or security. But there’s little reason that other companies can’t look at the prevalence of information available in a smart home, and decide that they can build their own insurance firm. I’m surprised it’s taken so long. (Vivint)

It’s a list of the top 10 industrial IoT software companies: This isn’t a deeply insightful story, simply a list of the top industrial IoT software startups provided by IoT Analytics. I won’t tell you who made the top spot, but I will say I wasn’t surprised by the stat that for the first time, in 2022 the average manufacturer will spend more on industrial software than on industrial automation hardware (OT hardware). According to the new report, five years ago the industrial software market was about 40% smaller than the hardware-centric OT market. (IoT Analytics)

As expected, Peloton is tweaking its subscription model: Peloton is testing new subscription models in select markets. Instead of customers buying the bike for a large up-front fee and paying a $39 a month subscription, the connected fitness company will try selling subscriptions for bikes for between $60 and $100 a month, effectively wrapping the price of the hardware in with the service subscription. This makes a ton of sense for connected device companies, especially those that want to build a recurring revenue business and attract more buyers who could be scared off by high-priced hardware. It also helps people get rid of the idea that they own the device, because with this model it’s clear that they are renting it. I’m just bringing this to y’all’s attention because I wrote about why connected hardware vendors should take note of this shift earlier this month. Consumers probably should too. (WSJ)

Cisco teams up with Cogniac to provide video analytics: Cisco Meraki will work with computer vision company Cogniac to add more video analytics capabilities to Meraki’s MV smart cameras. Cisco has been adding to its line of Meraki cameras and sensors for the enterprise in the last year to take advantage of demand for more intelligence in buildings as companies ask employees to return to work. Tracking the number of people in spaces and contact tracing have driven the demand for smarter enterprises during the pandemic. (Fierce Wireless)

Ambiq released a new portfolio of low-power processors: Ambiq, which develops power-sipping microcontrollers, has added more processors to its line of products. Ambiq is one of my favorite companies rethinking how we build chips for the IoT, and I’m interested to see where their new products end up. The two new chips are the Apollo4 Plus and Apollo4 Blue Plus with Bluetooth Low Energy 5.1. They offer more compute power for graphics and improved clock speeds as well as more robust security. Ambiq’s MCUs have been used in the wearable market, and the addition of more computing power will enable it to become the brains of more complex devices. (Ambiq)

Bad news for autonomous vehicles: Researchers at Duke University have demonstrated a sensor-based attack on autonomous vehicles that can trick the cars into thinking objects detected by its cameras and LIDAR are not where they are supposed to be. It can trick a car into thinking it’s safe to continue when it isn’t and vice versa. The attack involves shooting a laser gun into a car’s LIDAR sensor to add false data points to its perception. If the LIDAR sensor data and the car’s camera data don’t match then it can recognize the problem, but if the LIDAR data points are placed in the car’s 2-D field of vision defined by a shape called a frustum, then the car can still be fooled. A frustum is a 3D pyramid with its tip sliced off, and lends its name to the style of attack, called a frustum attack. To prevent this attack cars may need even more sensors and programmers will have to train cars to recognize when their sensors might lie to them, all challenging tasks. (Science Daily)