Considering how automated many artificial environments are, it is remarkable that most buildings today have so many manual controls.
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Considering how automated many artificial environments are, it is remarkable that most buildings today have so many manual controls.
Phoenix Contact, a leading manufacturer of electrotechnology, and Lemonbeat bundle their strength to lift building automation to the next level. During the “E-world energy & water 2017”, Europe’s most successful specialist energy trade fair, both companies announced their cooperation. It’s goal: making building automation more intelligent and less complex. A first real life project is already underway.
In the long run, the Internet of Things will only be successful if we manage to connect all the different devices in a very uncomplicated manner. Currently, the lack of interoperability is hindering widespread usage. A common language could be a solution and the devices itself have to become more intelligent. A biological organism carries in each cell the complete genotype with individual “working instructions”. This could be a paradigm for the Internet of Things.
One big challenge in the world of IoT will be to ensure devices from a range of different vendors to collaborate smoothly. One solution, and one that has proven the most popular up until now, is to connect each single device with a cloud service, collect the data and let a remote computer decide what to do next. But this is not always a very elegant way of doing things. First of all, you may need to tie in a number of gateways to collect data from the different devices which may all use different protocols. Secondly, by sending everything into the cloud first, you run the risk of higher latency. Thirdly, if the cloud server stops working or a glitch with the internet connection, the whole system may grind to a halt.
Imagine your window shades know when its time to open or close. And not just by day or by night, but also by the amount of light that falls into the room, by the actual inner temperature or by the overall […]
