I've been working hard over the past few months to launch a new company vision, one where anyone can put computers into everything around them. Part of the motivation was realizing that my skis have a microcontroller. But I can't connect that microcontroller to anything, it doesn't tell me when my skis need sharpening, and it doesn't tell me how much air I got off the last jump or how far I traveled down the mountain. That's just one example, but think of toys, mobile assets, watering your lawn only when it actually needs water, protecting critical infrastructure -- they all need computers. And that's where Sentilla is uniquely position to help.
The short is--Moteiv is now Sentilla. Sentilla enables millions to create real world applications that was limited to a few thousand people before. And that's really exciting. See a video segment below of me on NBC talking about the company launch and its applications.
We've launched a blog over at Moteiv that covers developments with both Moteiv products and the wireless sensor industry. Check it out at blog.moteiv.com. Cory, Rob, and I will be commenting on a regular basis.
Just before Christmas, I sent an email to the TinyOS 2.0 working group about the involvement of the TinyOS community in the Zigbee Alliance. For those of you that don't know, there's a new version of TinyOS under development that changes almost all of the system interfaces. Part of this effort is to define an architecture to build sensor networking protocols. Zigbee is an industry-led alliance to standardize networking for wireless sensors.
My proposal had just one point:
Zigbee should be the first network protocol released for TinyOS 2.0
I detailed a few reasons why:
Zigbee is a standard.
TinyOS has received lukewarm, at best, recognition in the
commercial sector. Embracing a standard protocol suite will bring attention to the project and interest from commercial users.
A standard protocol suite is valuable not just for commercial use, but also for academics.
A TinyOS-Zigbee implementation opens the door to improvements that the TinyOS community may propose to the Zigbee 2.0 technical working group.
Zigbee will help frame the design of TinyOS 2.0's networking
architecture.
Think of the opportunities! "TinyOS inside" stickers for
lightbulbs, thermostats, forklifts, trucks, toasters, microwaves, etc!
As of the writing of this post, there has not been a single response to my proposal. As per most of my suggestions, this very important proposal for saving TinyOS has been ignored and discarded by the infamous TinyOS "czars".
There are about 500,000 hits for "TinyOS" on Google compared to the almost 2 million hits for "Zigbee", yet there are only 9,000 hits for the combined search terms "TinyOS" and "Zigbee".
I'm excited to participate in the Summer School on Wireless Sensor Networks and Smart Objects. Should be a good time at Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany......
The paper that Fred and I wrote on perpetual power systems for wireless sensors won best paper award at IPSN/SPOTS. Of course I updated my publications page with this information :) We had a great tutorial in LA; however I...
