Internet of Things - tiny electronic brains with tiny sensors, cloud connected, embedded in everyday objects. We're wondering how it could revolutionise art and entertainment. Our experiments begin here
The Internet of Things (IOT) is about efficiency and added magic - not Big Brother surveillance. For example,
Smart central heating that knows when to switch on by predicting local micro-climate
Public bins that tell the council when they're full
Parking sensors that advertise empty spots in busy cities
Activity sensors for elder care
Coldplay's Xylobands (sort of IOT)
Digital twins that keep machines working well
And yes... the internet connected fridge (dark side of IoT)
Helium Edge Networks
IOT devices need to be low power, connect at distance, and share small packets of data e.g. "there's a car here/there's no car here". There are a few networks for connecting IOT devices to the wider web known as Edge Networks. The first picture above shows the current extent of 'The People's Network' aka the Helium edge network. It is the IoT cloud. The next picture shows Thanet's coverage (where we are) which ain't bad. The last picture is our first day as part of that network!
Super-excited here. If you've read this far you're at least interested. I'm want to know how you would connect everyday things, how it could be used in art and entertainment, and to allow people to understand and play with it.
The next picture shows my Helium hotspot's information is connected, contributing the existence of the Helium network and earning some IOT crypto-tokens worth actual money.
Long Range Wide Area Network
Helium is a LoRaWAN network with ultra low data rates, ultra low power & cost, range measured in kilometres. Perfect for IoT devices. The network is supported by routers that create a mesh of LoRaWAN hotspots and connect to the internet. People who buy and run one get rewarded in cryptocurrency. It's open source, anyone can get a hotspot and plug it in to contribute to the network. It also gives our local communities access to a cheap IOT edge network.
Get in touch and lets delve into this exciting technology together.