December 11, 2014 at 14:25Thingsee One: Almighty Internet of Things from Former Nokia Engineers
An interesting article about the young Finnish company Haltian, in which natives of Nokia work, was published on Wired. They introduced the universal gadget Thingsee One on Kickstarter . This multifunctional IoT module, strewn with a bunch of sensors, combines the functions of an environmental tracker, like the Quirky Spotter UNIQ, and an advanced GPS beacon with the ability to transmit data over mobile networks.
Thingsee One, in truth, doesn't look very presentable. Its angular brutal forms immediately suggest the idea of extreme sports and multi-kilometer cross-country crossings. By the way, the creators built an advertising campaign in the same spirit. The lion's part of the presentation video is occupied by colorful sketches from the life of the Finnish hinterland and talking heads in woolen hats. However, the local flavor only emphasizes the originality of the device.
So what is a gadget? Firstly, it is a shockproof case 110 x 67 mm with moisture protection class IP67, equipped with a monochrome OLED display with a diagonal of 1.54 inches and a resolution of 128 by 24 pixels. Inside is a 32-bit ARM-based Cortex M3 processor and a host of different sensors: a 3-axis accelerometer, temperature and humidity sensor, pressure sensor, gyroscope, magnetometer and light sensor. There is also a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) module supporting GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou.
Thingsee One prototype, made in an even more brutal design
An abundance of sensors and a highly accurate positioning system are complemented by advanced communication capabilities. In addition to the standard Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g and Bluetooth LE 4.1 wireless modules, which provide a short-distance connection, the Finns equipped their offspring with a GPRS module and a micro-sim card slot, allowing them to transfer data over mobile networks. Thanks to the low power consumption of the 2G transmitter and all the sensors included in the kit, the battery life of the Thingsee One when the battery is fully charged reaches one year. At least that's what the creators say. The battery itself has a capacity of 1900 mAh.
According to one of the co-founders of Haltian, Ville Ylläsjärvi, Thingsee One was not conceived as a separate device, but as a whole platform for developers of IoT systems. The main problem that the current creators of the Internet of things face is the need to create a certain iron from scratch for each new project, spending a lot of money and time on it. “Instead,” says Ville, “startups could use Thingsee One as a platform for their development. This is ideal for testing various IoT networks, relatively cheap and provides a complete carte blanche for programmers who can use both our Thingsee Backend SDK and traditional software platforms like NodeJS, Ruby, Rails and PHP. ”
However, the device is focused not only on developers, but also on ordinary consumers. Using the application for Android and iOS, anyone can use Thingsee One to solve all sorts of everyday tasks. The Kiksterter project page contains the story of a simple village guy who adapted the gadget to track his non-electronic correspondence. He placed the gadget directly in a metal letter box, located at some distance from his house, and set it up so that every time a light sensor is triggered, a notification of an incoming message is received on his mobile phone. So to speak, a symbiosis of traditions and new technologies.
Or another touching story of a certain Anna, who sends her six-year-old daughter to school every morning, carefully putting her universal gadget in her satchel.Little Red Riding Hood girl is forced to get to school over rough terrain and, often, all alone. Mom is afraid that a regular GPS tracker may suddenly run out of batteries and the child will disappear without a trace in the cold Finnish forests. Therefore, she trusts the safety of the baby only Thingsee One.
If we ignore these jokes that embodied the specific humor of Finnish creators and temporarily forget that the application for both mobile platforms is still under development, it is worth recognizing that the gadget really has a certain potential. This conclusion is by no means impressed by the device itself (in truth, it is still quite crude) and not under the influence of extravagant promotion.
First of all, the conceptual and technical core of Haltian consists of former Nokia engineers who left the company after it became part of the Microsoft empire. It turns out that before the takeover Nokia actively mastered several new directions, including the newfangled Internet of things. At Microsoft, these studies were not in demand, and Finnish engineers from the corresponding department were forced to continue developing independently within the Haltian framework. However, the guys are not discouraged, hoping that in the very near future their company will become one of the leaders in the emerging IoT industry. Given a good team back-kick and a good start on Kickstarter, these dreams do not look so utopian.
Author: Andrey Gasilin
Source: Wired
Thingsee One, in truth, doesn't look very presentable. Its angular brutal forms immediately suggest the idea of extreme sports and multi-kilometer cross-country crossings. By the way, the creators built an advertising campaign in the same spirit. The lion's part of the presentation video is occupied by colorful sketches from the life of the Finnish hinterland and talking heads in woolen hats. However, the local flavor only emphasizes the originality of the device.
So what is a gadget? Firstly, it is a shockproof case 110 x 67 mm with moisture protection class IP67, equipped with a monochrome OLED display with a diagonal of 1.54 inches and a resolution of 128 by 24 pixels. Inside is a 32-bit ARM-based Cortex M3 processor and a host of different sensors: a 3-axis accelerometer, temperature and humidity sensor, pressure sensor, gyroscope, magnetometer and light sensor. There is also a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) module supporting GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou.
Thingsee One prototype, made in an even more brutal design
An abundance of sensors and a highly accurate positioning system are complemented by advanced communication capabilities. In addition to the standard Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g and Bluetooth LE 4.1 wireless modules, which provide a short-distance connection, the Finns equipped their offspring with a GPRS module and a micro-sim card slot, allowing them to transfer data over mobile networks. Thanks to the low power consumption of the 2G transmitter and all the sensors included in the kit, the battery life of the Thingsee One when the battery is fully charged reaches one year. At least that's what the creators say. The battery itself has a capacity of 1900 mAh.
According to one of the co-founders of Haltian, Ville Ylläsjärvi, Thingsee One was not conceived as a separate device, but as a whole platform for developers of IoT systems. The main problem that the current creators of the Internet of things face is the need to create a certain iron from scratch for each new project, spending a lot of money and time on it. “Instead,” says Ville, “startups could use Thingsee One as a platform for their development. This is ideal for testing various IoT networks, relatively cheap and provides a complete carte blanche for programmers who can use both our Thingsee Backend SDK and traditional software platforms like NodeJS, Ruby, Rails and PHP. ”
However, the device is focused not only on developers, but also on ordinary consumers. Using the application for Android and iOS, anyone can use Thingsee One to solve all sorts of everyday tasks. The Kiksterter project page contains the story of a simple village guy who adapted the gadget to track his non-electronic correspondence. He placed the gadget directly in a metal letter box, located at some distance from his house, and set it up so that every time a light sensor is triggered, a notification of an incoming message is received on his mobile phone. So to speak, a symbiosis of traditions and new technologies.
Or another touching story of a certain Anna, who sends her six-year-old daughter to school every morning, carefully putting her universal gadget in her satchel.
If we ignore these jokes that embodied the specific humor of Finnish creators and temporarily forget that the application for both mobile platforms is still under development, it is worth recognizing that the gadget really has a certain potential. This conclusion is by no means impressed by the device itself (in truth, it is still quite crude) and not under the influence of extravagant promotion.
First of all, the conceptual and technical core of Haltian consists of former Nokia engineers who left the company after it became part of the Microsoft empire. It turns out that before the takeover Nokia actively mastered several new directions, including the newfangled Internet of things. At Microsoft, these studies were not in demand, and Finnish engineers from the corresponding department were forced to continue developing independently within the Haltian framework. However, the guys are not discouraged, hoping that in the very near future their company will become one of the leaders in the emerging IoT industry. Given a good team back-kick and a good start on Kickstarter, these dreams do not look so utopian.
Author: Andrey Gasilin
Source: Wired