Internet of Things

For decades sci-fi has been promising us helpful home robots, but progress and uptake have been slow. Amazon may have heeded the call with Astro, its new Alexa-on-wheels – and whether this future is more The Jetsons or Black Mirror is up to you.

Researchers have demonstrated a new approach to harnessing the power of ambient radio waves, developing a novel chip that can convert Wi-Fi signals into power for a small LED, and possibly other small electronics and sensors.

While there are now many appliances that can be controlled via the internet, each one of those has to incorporate Internet of Things (IoT) electronics. Engineers have now created a system that moves those electronics to the home's wall outlets.

Some people, and I count myself among them, are so scatterbrained and disorganized that they should never be put in charge of another living being. If that's you, then welcome to the future! Come get your six-hundred-dollar automated pot plant.

Researchers at Cornell University have been working on a one-size-fits-all solution for smart home energy tracking, developing a vibration-sensing device that can keep tabs on appliance usage through machine learning and lasers.

Scientists at Purdue University are putting forward another interesting proposition in the realm of home automation, developing a cheap sensor that can detect when a person enters a room via carbon dioxide levels in the air.

Everything needs to be online nowadays, from vending machines to smart speakers, but that costs in terms of bulk and energy use. Now researchers have come up with a chip that gets devices connected with 5,000 times less power draw than normal.

Nowadays you could kit out your entire house with smart devices – but that bill would stack up pretty quickly. Fingerbot is essentially a remote-controlled finger that can press buttons and flip switches on demand, making existing devices smarter.

In the Internet of Things age, everything will talk to everything else, and your car tires will be no different. Pirelli's new smart tires can feed information back to your car, other cars and V2X roadside infrastructure through 5G connectivity.

Engineers at MIT are developing a way to turn the humble RFID tag into a light-powered sensor for the internet of things.

The OmniFob is designed to be the last fob you'll ever need. A universal remote of sorts for your keychain. This teachable, versatile device is more than just a key-tracker that can open your garage door or send an SOS, it can integrate with your Smart Home systems and even start and lock your car.

​Israel's CompuLab has launched the third generation of its fanless, rugged Airtop mini-PC, with more memory capacity, more connectivity options and Intel's 9th gen Core CPU running the show.​