IoT news of the week July 22, 2022

This week’s news was compiled and written by Kevin C. Tofel

Better night vision for smart homes? Although the latest connected cameras offer improved night vision output, there’s still room for improvement. That’s why I’m calling attention to this article, which brings AI into the mix. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine are combining AI with traditional night vision sensors to create fully colorized images. The thought is to deliver better night vision for military use, but I think that’s short-sighted (no pun intended). With the right infrared sensors, this approach could benefit smart home owners, too. (Big Think)

Smart cities try to earn trust with stickers: We haven’t heard much about Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs since its large-scale efforts effectively ground to a halt. But fear not, its legacy lives on in the form of smart stickers! Four regions around the world are testing smart city deployments based on Sidewalk Labs and to earn citizens’ trust, they’re using these informational stickers. Similar to a product’s nutrition label, the stickers indicate what high-level technology is in use and if there are cameras in the area. Additionally, there’s a QR code sticker that points residents to more detailed information. Think it will help? (Enterprise IoT Insights)

Save the trees and use an e-ink luggage tag: Here’s a great idea from Alaska Airlines that I hope goes industry-wide. Instead of printing off a tag at home or at the airport for your checked luggage, you can just pick up an e-ink luggage tag. The airline plans to provide 2,500 e-ink baggage tags to its frequent fliers later this year. The idea is that you can self-check your luggage using the NFC chip in your phone, which generates a UPC bag tag for the eInk display. That same code is transmitted to the airline via your phone, so they don’t lose your bags. It’s a low-power, reusable solution that eliminates the time and waste of printing out those paper tags. (The Verge)

Amazon’s Dash Carts arrive at Whole Foods: Amazon this week announced the second iteration of its smart shopping cart, the Dash Cart. And you may not have to visit an Amazon Fresh grocery store to use one; the company is starting to bring them to Whole Foods, which it also owns. If you’re not familiar with the Dash Cart, it’s equipped with cameras and sensors. You can just shop, put your items in bags, and place everything in the cart, scanning or weighing items as you go. When you leave the store, the cart automatically checks you out and charges a credit card you have on file with Amazon. No lines, not even the self-checkout one! (Engadget)

Amazon’s Alexa is ready for Matter: Although we covered Amazon’s Alexa Live developer event on the podcast, Stacey has a more detailed write-up explaining the big news. There are plenty of SDK advances for developers to take advantage of, but I’m more excited about the hardware news. No, it’s not another Echo device. Amazon has tweaked its Alexa Connect Kit by adding Matter support. That means you can get the hardware kit and either prototype or build a smart device with Matter already built in. Plus you get managed services to track the deployment, implementation, and related data metrics. (Stacey On IoT)

Build your own weather logger: It’s another week and I’ve added yet another fun project to my ever-growing list of things to do. This week, I found a great DIY walkthrough on how to create your own weather data logger. It’s a bit more complex than others I’ve seen, but don’t let that stop you. You’ll need quite a bit of hardware, including an Arduino board; sensors for humidity, air quality, and light levels; as well as cellular and Bluetooth radios. The end result looks worth it, though, if this is the type of data you’re after. (Hackster.io)

Need a 108-megapixel camera for your next IoT project? Speaking of DIY, I’m reminded that there’s a new camera sensor now available for IoT projects. And it has a massive amount of resolution: 108 megapixels, to be exact. At $399, the module from ArduCam isn’t cheap, but you can use it with just about any board or system that supports USB 3.0 for projects. The sensor is capable of capturing a 12,000 x 9,000-pixel image, which would be nice for traditional photography use. But it’s really meant to see fine details needed for a machine vision IoT project, so if you have one on your to-do list, you’ve got a great sensor option available to you. (ArduCam)

Telefónica is combining satellite and 5G NB-IoT networks: Spanish telecom provider Telefónica is taking the giant leap into space. Not literally, of course. The company is trialing Sateliot’s satellite service to pair with its own 5G NB-IoT network in the hopes of providing a 100% coverage area where it provides service for IoT devices. Given that fixed, cellular networks can’t promise such a thing, this is a smart move. Nor does it hurt that Telefónica says existing NB-IoT devices will seamlessly work with either satellite or cellular. (Enterprise IoT Insights)