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| 6 takeaways from this week's Works With event |
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| By Stacey Higginbotham |
This week, Silicon Labs held its annual Works With event, covering all aspects of the IoT. While many of the sessions were aimed at engineers trying to learn specific skills for product development, the event held a few panels with a larger focus that included elements worth noting. Silicon Labs also made three big news announcements that are pretty exciting for an IoT observer.
So, let's run through what you may have missed. |
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| — For the second year in a row the Works With event was virtual, with incoming CEO Matt Johnson presenting to an audience trapped behind their screens. Image courtesy of Silicon Labs. |
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Sub-gigahertz radios are maturing in the IoT: Silicon Labs launched a few modules that operate in the 915 MHz band, which is commonly called the sub gigahertz band. This band is used by common household devices like baby monitors and microwaves, but it's also a big feature in several IoT standards. Amazon's Sidewalk radios for long-range wireless coverage use this band, as do the Mioty and new Wirepas 5G radios. It's also used by Wi-SUN, an emerging smart cities standard, though the new Silicon Labs modules aren't supporting Wi-SUN. Silicon Labs isn't the only provider here, but its new modules make it much easier than it has been to design a low-power device that uses the sub-gigahertz radios. This means we should see more devices — and cheaper devices — that support standards such as Sidewalk to Mioty.
Silicon Labs will address security in its manufacturing process: Silicon Labs introduced a concept called Custom Part Manufacturing Service. Using a web portal, customers can tweak their chip orders to program the silicon as it rolls off the manufacturing line. This is a big deal for a lot of reasons. On the security front, it enables the programming of specific security features, such as certificates and unique parts numbers, on the chip in a scalable way at manufacture. Doing so will meet the requirements of certain security regulations that require individually secured devices, as well as help device makers track chips that may end up on the gray market. It also means that companies can stamp the chips with their own logos and hide the name of the chip firm producing the part. Plus, Silicon Labs will charge for these features, which will give it a source of revenue that it will need as the chip market becomes commodified again once the supply and demand for silicon matches up.
Sustainability is gaining ground with manufacturers: One of the most exciting companies I saw at the event was called Dracula Technologies, which in June launched an energy harvesting solar sticker and sensor. I'm always excited to see new energy harvesting technology, but I was positively gleeful to learn that Dracula's sensors are self-powered and designed from materials that are easily recyclable. One of my fears about the IoT is that we'll put a bunch of toxic metals into tiny sensors and just leave them to rot or get tossed as they run out of useful life or are made obsolete. When talking about billions of sensors, that feels untenable.
Batteries are still a problem: Whether it was a panel on the industrial internet or the panel I moderated, which focused on medicine, the challenges associated with power consumption were always a topic. Lithium-ion batteries have lost their luster thanks to difficulties getting materials, concerns about explosions, and general worries about the environmental impact of mining and disposal. And yet, there's still little in the world of batteries that have changed. Meanwhile, energy harvesting is getting better, but nothing has really delivered the number of watts needed to run anything more than sensors with energy-efficient radios. I was not surprised to hear industrial engineers mention this, but when medical professionals on my panel asked about it, I realized it had become a mainstream concern.
People now understand what a semiconductor is: This was my favorite line of the entire conference. It was uttered by Jodi Shelton, CEO of Global Semiconductor Alliance. Unfortunately, people only understand what a semiconductor is because of the chip shortage, which is expected to last until 2023 and has made new cars, some smart devices, and other electronics hard to buy. The entire panel discussion devoted to the chip shortage was good, but I especially liked how it covered things that often get overlooked in mainstream coverage, such as the fact that many of the chips that are holding products back use smaller, older technologies (such as fabs that produce on 200 mm wafers as opposed to 300 mm wafers), and how the lack of investment in old tech has led us to this point. But it wasn't all bad news; the discussion also included the fact that demand for chips has risen in part because COVID has sped up the timeline for investment in digital technologies, even across old industries that until recently were still mostly analog. This is good for the chip sector, but it also changes what for a few years had been a historic cycle of a few years' worth of growth followed by a slowdown. That's why we're here today. Because after a few years of growth, forecasts would anticipate lower demand, and manufacturers would produce accordingly. But thanks to digitization, demand keeps going up. So we're now setting a new baseline for growth that takes into account increased demand for the foreseeable future.
Silicon Labs is still trying to make Wi-SUN happen: I don't know, y'all. Call me when it does. |
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| Works With is available on-demand NO HYPHEN SPONSORED |
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This week, Silicon Labs hosted Works With, the world’s ONLY event to bring the entirety of IoT device makers, ecosystem providers, and standards bodies together to accelerate IoT innovation.
With more than 60 hands-on workshops, panels, and keynotes, you’ll find practical developer training and insightful discussion on hot topics like interoperability, security, and power efficiency across all the programming.
Gain access to watch Works With on demand at your convenience.
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| Forget perimeters; for security, look at device behavior |
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Not a week goes by without some sort of vulnerability or breach associated with the IoT taking place. More devices, varied devices, and the rise of far more sophisticated attackers have led to big IT firms investing in their own security capabilities while our government issues executive orders trying to compel companies to invest in better security.
Today's version of better security requires layers. And after a conversation with Kate Scarcella, chief cybersecurity architect at Micro Focus, I'm convinced that monitoring device behavior will be one of those layers. Much like law enforcement officials trying to assess threats look for suspicious behavior exhibited by people, Scarcella believes devices can provide a set of "tells" after they've been compromised.
All we need is software that can spot the one weird device out of thousands. |
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| — Security, y'all! |
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This isn't a new idea, even for the IoT. I recall having a similar discussion with Google engineers when discussing the Weave protocol for the smart home. Weave didn't really go anywhere (now we're focused on Matter), but Scarcella's version is designed for enterprise and industrial deployments.
Simply put, if a security camera turns off in the middle of the night when it normally stays on, or if a multimode sensor starts trying to check for light levels when historically it has only collected temperature data, that could indicate an intruder or malware on the network or device. Currently, several companies evaluate device behavior on a network, checking to see if, for example, a camera is trying to contact an industrial controller or a TV in a conference room is trying to call out to a server in China. But evaluating a device's behaviors generally includes more than just how it behaves on the network.
Other behaviors can include whether a device is on or off, the time of day or week it operates, the processes it's trying to perform — even command-line behavior on Linux machines. And yes, good software will also measure network connections within the network.
Of course, analyzing all of these variables across thousands of devices is tough, which is why Micro Focus turned to machine learning experts from Interset, which it bought in 2019. (You knew there would be machine learning involved, right?) Honestly, most of the math the Interset folks are using is common to statistics, but they are crunching a lot of numbers for their anomaly detection algorithms.
When oddities are detected, Interset pushes those "weird behaviors" up to a dashboard for a human to review. Interset doesn't only do anomaly detection across IoT devices for security purposes; Micro Focus is simply packaging up the stats for security and then signing deals with other companies to get those analytics out into the embedded world.
Micro Focus sells the data analysis to Karamba Security, an Israeli IoT security startup I profiled last year. Karamba actually puts its own software on embedded devices and then uses the analytics to track that device behavior for clients.
As someone who tries to keep up with all of the potential weak points and new technologies aimed at securing the IoT, I think looking at this element of device behavior might help businesses with tons of embedded devices. Especially if those devices are already in the field, where it can be impossible to update them with software agents for security providers, but also if the devices are simply too constrained to handle security software. |
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| Accelerate time-to-market with AIROC™ Wi-Fi SPONSORED |
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Join the webinar on September 28th to learn more! |
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| Episode 338: Wyze comes back from the edge |
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I need to warn y’all in advance that we don’t discuss Apple news at all this week because nothing really jumped out at us for the IoT. But we did have a lot of other big news starting with Wyze raising $100 million and sharing the precariousness of its situation over the last 18 months. We then talk about a political risk for Tuya and what that might mean for your devices, and three pieces of news from Silicon Labs’ Works With event that have big implications for radios, Matter, and security. After the chip news, Kevin sets the record straight on a story that got Matter wrong, I get excited by new chips coming out of a stealthy startup, and there’s an acquisition that will help developers work with more IoT devices. Google has a new digital twin service for supply chains, Whoop has a new fitness wearable with a fancy battery, and Yale added HomeKit support for its cabinet lock.
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| —The Luci device fits onto existing power wheelchairs. Image courtesy of Luci. |
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Our guest this week is Jered Dean, who is a co-founder and CTO of Luci, a startup making a smart addition for power wheelchairs. First, Dean explains why power wheelchairs are so dangerous and why he created Luci. Then we dive into other challenges of building specialized millimeter-wave radar sensors for the device and specialized ultrasonic sensors and how challenging it is to combine those sensors and cameras into one view of the world. We also talk about why Dean added integrations to connect Luci with health monitoring platforms and digital assistants. And finally, we talk about what it could mean if Luci shared data about what it “sees” with smart city or mapping platforms. I really had fun with this one.
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This week on the IoT Podcast Hotline, we answer a listener question about new smart home cameras.
The IoT Podcast Hotline is brought to you by Very. Very is a fully distributed IoT engineering firm that partners with clients to build systems for smart manufacturing, smart energy and utilities, consumer electronics, and connected wellness. Discover what our multidisciplinary teams can do at https://www.verypossible.com/services. |
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| Attend our RF Sensing event on Sept. 21, 2021 |
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| — Apple is embracing UWB. Google is investing in its Soli radar, Lidar is becoming cheap enough for consumer devices, and the IEEE is creating a new standard for Wi-Fi sensing. There’s a lot of interest in using radio waves to give computers vision without intrusive cameras. Learn more about the options and the tradeoffs involved in using different forms of RF Sensing in your company’s products. Register for free today. |
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| News of the Week |
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Home Assistant tries with a new hub: The campaign for Home Assistant Amber is now live. For $149, customers can buy a Raspberry Pi computer that is pre-loaded with Home Assistant's software and several radios including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee. (The Zigbee radio will support Matter once that certification is out.) While some people are familiar with SmartThings or other more in-depth home automation platforms, this is a device that normal people can use to get started on the Home Assistant platform without having to worry about buying their own computer, attaching dongles, or installing software. (CrowdSupply)
Your fitness data may have been leaked: The health data of 61 million people has been leaked by a contractor called GetHealth, which left unsecured fitness data on the open internet. It's unclear if anyone with nefarious intentions has accessed the data; it was first discovered and accessed by a security researcher who notified GetHealth of the issue and then publicized the leak after getting notice that the data had been secured. Related to this breach is news that the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday issued a policy statement reminding holders of health care information that even if they are not governed by the Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act, they do have a responsibility to notify consumers if their data privacy has been breached. This, honestly, is good news for consumers, since third parties are often the reason sensitive data gets breached. (Computer Weekly, FTC)
Bendable memory could enable smart clothing: This week, Kevin explains how the combination of foldable CPUs and flexible memory would make smart clothing more plausible, which would in turn change the way we monitor our health. He provides examples of smart hats that could detect heat exhaustion and kinesiology tape or braces that could track torsion and stress on joints. I'm pretty excited by the ideas here. (StaceyonIoT)
Arm's getting ready for the software-defined car: Chip design firm Arm has launched an ambitious open source software project that will make development for cars more like developing for the web. As cars become more like computers on wheels, the many different chips and software that combine to make up a car's safety system, infotainment system, and drive system are becoming one single system. And to make sure security, safety, and development times are acceptable, automakers needed a new way to build these systems. Arm thinks that the new way will look like the current way developers build enterprise software, using containers, over-the-air updates, and cloud functions. To make the transition easier, Arm has developed Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge (SOAFEE), an open source framework for building software for cars, and created a special interest group to govern the framework. Several automotive suppliers, including Volkswagen's CARIAD company and Continental, are participating. (Arm)
Infineon's 64-bit microcontrollers now have more security qualifications: Infineon Technologies says it has achieved the Arm Platform Security Architecture (PSA) Level 2 certification for its 64-bit family of MCUs used in industrial and IoT applications. Arm announced its PSA security program in 2017. The program has three levels of security, with Level 3 being the most rigorous. Level 2 certification includes outside evaluation of the hardware root of trust and requires pen tests to establish if the nine security requirements of Level 2 security have been met. (Infineon)
Cisco embeds its sensors with a California vineyard: Man, this story takes me back to the early days of 2015 when Intel, IBM, and Libelium all pitched connected vineyard stories. This week, Bouchaine Vineyards said it would use Cisco's Industrial Asset Vision sensors to measure temperature, light levels, humidity, and more on stick-mounted cameras and sensors. As with most of these stories, the news touts how the sensors can reduce water usage, but I was more intrigued by the promise that the data from these sensors, when analyzed, could take the hundreds of years of anecdotal data derived from walking the vineyards and digitize it. It implies that collecting such data would allow farmers to compress generations of knowledge based on what would be a limited data set. Although, given climate change, it's unclear if knowledge from 100 years ago will help too much. (The Spoon)
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