IoT news of the week for October 22, 2021

The ioXt Alliance certifies 60 new devices: The ioXt Alliance, which is a nascent security standard for connected devices including handsets and smart TVs, has certified 60 Android devices. The devices range from Pixel smartphones from Google to rugged handsets from Zebra Technologies. The ioXt Alliance standard tries to do away with both the “nutrition-style labels” used to indicate how secure a device is and the model favored by UL, which ranks connected device security on five different levels. The ioXt has guidelines for devices and apps, and keeps the security requirements specific to the type of device in an effort to make security a little more simple for the consumer. (The ioXt Alliance) — Stacey Higginbotham

File this away in the it’s-hard-to-build-a-network category: Investors are trying to save the Sigfox low power wide area network in South Africa, after the company responsible for deploying and maintaining the network said it was considering shutting the network down after it failed to meet growth expectations. The investment would come from current customers of the network as well as unnamed others. Basically, the network has signed customers, but not enough. We can blame the slow growth of the IoT, the pandemic, or we can just admit that it’s really difficult to build a wireless network. (Techcentral) — Stacey Higginbotham

The Open Connectivity Foundation certifies its first Thread-based chip: Remember the OCF? It was the frontrunner for an IoT interoperability standard that got eaten by Intel and slid most of the way into irrelevance after the launch of the Matter protocol. Sure, there are still some folks working on it, and unlike Matter, OCF does provide a certification for cloud-connected devices, but it doesn’t have the participation or interest that Matter does. Folks at OCF are still chugging along, though, and this week it certified the first OCF- and Thread-compliant platform from Cascoda. The platform includes hardware and OCF-compliant software to connect a device to both the cloud and a Thread-based mesh network. Using Thread is also a way to potentially bridge this device into a Matter-compliant smart home, since Thread is the approved low-data rate connectivity for the Matter protocol. Perhaps this is the beginning of OCF in the cloud and Matter in the building. (OCF) — Stacey Higginbotham

Chip firm Wiliot is making an IoT pivot: Wiliot, which makes energy-harvesting Bluetooth chips that can be attached to devices that run for a long time on a battery or even those that don’t have a battery, has changed up its business. Instead of simply providing chips, it has taken a page from other chip companies that don’t want to be in a commodity business and started wrapping its chip into a service. Wiliot is now offering partners a Sensing as a Service platform, using its IoT Pixels tag tied to Wiliot’s cloud to gather and track data about packages. The IoT Pixels are stamp-sized computers that have sensors, radios, and memory so they can gather and then share data over Bluetooth to various Wi-Fi gateways. From there the data goes to Wiliot’s cloud for later analysis or tracking. With Sensing as a Service, customers don’t buy the tags and build their own tracking operations; they simply turn to Wiliot for all pieces of the puzzle. (Packaging World) — Stacey Higginbotham

Power up your LEGOs with…a Raspberry Pi? As a previous owner of the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kit, this news of adding smarts to regular LEGO blocks caught my eye. There’s a new $25 add-on board called the Raspberry Pi Build HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) made specifically for LEGO sensors and motors. Of course, you need a standard Pi computer to “wear” the HAT. With this accessory, you get four ports that work with LEGO Technic motors and sensors to build your own little robots, smart gadgets, and whatever else you can think of. Sure, it’s more for educating the younger crowd, but really, who doesn’t love LEGOs? (Raspberry Pi)  — Kevin C. Tofel

Robotic garments might help your breathing: Researchers at MIT and in Sweden shared an interesting development this week in the smart garment space. They’ve created a new fabric, called OmniFibers, that senses how much it’s being stretched using fluidics and sensors. The idea here is to provide instant feedback on the muscles involved in breathing. The first application is for singers “to monitor and play back the movement of respiratory muscles” as well as help with optimal posture and breathing during a performance. Future uses could include athletics, patient recovery, and other applications. I don’t sing and yet I still want this. (MIT News) — Kevin C. Tofel 

Power up your plants for air purification: Like many, I use houseplants to improve the air quality in my home. And like some, I’m really bad about watering my plants on a regular basis. This Indiegogo project aims to address both issues; it’s a smart planter and a natural air purifier. The pot is self-watering, although you can monitor water levels and plant health through a mobile app if you want. Under the plant is a filter along with UV-A and UV-C lights to help kill airborne bacteria. A fan pulls air in from the top of the planter and pushes presumably cleaner air out the bottom like a traditional purifier. I like the two-in-one approach here. I’m not sure I like the $279 backer price, though. (Indiegogo) — Kevin C. Tofel

Infineon built a cloud-based security solution for device makers: Chip giant Infineon has released a new way of sharing device credentials and certificates at scale based on technology it snapped up when it purchased Cypress.  The service is called CIRRENT Cloud ID service, and it solves a similar problem that Silicon Labs solves with its Custom Parts Manufacturing Service announced in September. The goal in both of these products is to help smart product makers quickly and easily add security certificates and manage those certificates and device IDs at scale. This used to be done by passing spreadsheets from the chipmaker to the contract manufacturer to the product company and things could go wrong. Now all of that will be handled in the cloud. (Infineon) — Stacey Higginbotham

Did you see how Arm is making the IoT a bit friendlier for developers? I wrote about it this week on the site. (Stacey on IoT) — Stacey Higginbotham