State of the Art, Trends and Future of Bluetooth Low Energy, Near Field Communication and Visible Light Communication in the Development of Smart Cities

The current social impact of new technologies has produced major changes in all areas of society, creating the concept of a smart city supported by an electronic infrastructure, telecommunications and information technology. This paper presents a review of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Near Field Communication (NFC) and Visible Light Communication (VLC) and their use and influence within different areas of the development of the smart city. The document also presents a review of Big Data Solutions for the management of information and the extraction of knowledge in an environment where things are connected by an “Internet of Things” (IoT) network. Lastly, we present how these technologies can be combined together to benefit the development of the smart city

Security Analysis and Evaluation of Smart Toys

During the last years, interconnectivity and merging the physical and digital technological dimensions have become a topic attracting the interest of the modern world. Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly evolving as it manages to transform physical devices into communicating agents which can consecutively create complete interconnected systems. A sub-category of the IoT technology is smart toys, which are devices with networking capabilities, created for and used in play. Smart toys’ targeting group is usually children and they attempt to provide a higher level of entertainment and education by offering an enhanced and more interactive experience. Due to the nature and technical limitations of IoT devices, security experts have expressed concerns over the effectiveness and security level of smart devices. The importance of securing IoT devices has an increased weight when it pertains to smart toys, since sensitive information of children and teenagers can potentially be compromised. Furthermore, various security analyses on smart toys have discovered a worryingly high number of important security flaws. The master thesis focuses on the topic of smart toys’ security by first presenting and analyzing the necessary literature background. Furthermore, it presents a case study where a smart toy is selected and analyzed statically and dynamically utilizing a Raspberry Pi. The aim of this thesis is to examine and apply methods of analysis used in the relevant literature, in order to identify security flaws in the examined smart toy. The smart toy is a fitness band whose target consumers involve children and teenagers. The fitness band is communicating through Bluetooth with a mobile device and is accompanied by a mobile application. The mobile application has been installed and tested on an Android device. Finally, the analyses as well as their emerged results are presented and described in detail. Several security risks have been identified indicating that developers must increase their efforts in ensuring the optimal level of security in smart toys. Furthermore, several solutions that could minimize security risks and are related to our findings are suggested, along with potentially interesting topics for future work and further research

Sistema de comunicação por luz visível de baixo débito

Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e TelecomunicaçõesRecent advances in light emission diodes (LED) technology led them to an important place on lighting systems. This conquer allied to its switching speed permitted the development of new visible light communication systems (VLC), these are included in unguided optical communications. In the past, unguided optical communications were restricted to infrared spectrum due to LEDs ine ciency, but nowadays this is changing. Visible light communication systems can o er viable or complementary alternatives to the existing communication systems, due to its easy integration in certain environments. One possible integration environment are the mobile communications, and that fact is in the origin of this work. Old mobile phones had interfaces that allowed optical communication, for example IrDA but with the advances of technology these become obsolete and were eliminated. Due to that, modern smartphones do not o er any kind of interface for optical communications. However most of them have one camera that uses a ash device based on high intensity LEDs. Controlling with some precision one smartphone ash allows the implementation of one low data rate VLC systems which can be used for smart tagging, remote control of electronic devices or to control access to buildings. The main goal of this project is study the viability of the use of one smartphone as emitter in a VLC system.Os recentes avanços na tecnologia dos diodos emissores de luz (LED) levaram a que estes conquistassem um lugar muito importante nos sistemas de iluminação. Esta conquista aliada à sua velocidade de comuta ção levou ao desenvolvimento de sistemas de comunicação por luz visível (VLC), estes incluem-se nos sistemas de comunicação ópticos não guiados. No passado as comunicações ópticas não guiadas restringiam-se ao espectro infravermelho, devido a ine ciência dos LEDs, mas hoje em dia isso está a mudar. Os sistemas de comunicação por luz visível podem oferecer alternativas viáveis ou complementares aos actuais sistemas de comunicação, devido à sua facilidade de integração em certos meios. Um dos meios em que este tipo de comunicação se pode integrar, e que deu origem a este trabalho, são as comunicações móveis. Os telemóveis antigos possuíam interfaces que permitiam comunicações ópticas como por exemplo IrDA, mas com os avanços tecnológicos estes tornaram-se obsoletos e foram eliminados. Devido a isso os smartphones modernos não oferecem qualquer tipo de interface óptica de comunicação. Privilegiam no entanto o uso de câmaras que têm associado um dispositivos de ash baseados em LEDs de alta intensidade. Conseguindo controlar com alguma precisão o ash de um smartphone consegue-se implementar um sistema VLC de baixo débito que pode ser usado em sistemas de smart tagging, controlo de remoto de dispositivos electrónicos ou mesmo controlo de acesso a edifícios. O principal objectivo deste trabalho é o estudo da viabilidade do uso de um smartphone como emissor num sistema VLC de baixo débito

Intergenerational interpretation of the Internet of Things

This report investigates how different generations within a household interpret individual members’ data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT). Adopting a mixed methods approach, we are interested in interpretations of the IoT by teenagers, their parents and grandparents, and how they understand and interact with the kinds of data that might be generated by IoT devices. The first part of this document is a technical review that outlines the key existing and envisaged technologies that make up the IoT. It explores the definition and scope of the Internet of Things. Hardware, networking, intelligent objects and Human-Computer Interaction implications are all discussed in detail. The second section focuses on the human perspective, looking at psychological and sociological issues relating to the interpretation of information generated by the IoT. Areas such as privacy, data ambiguity, ageism, and confirmation bias are explored. The third section brings both aspects together, examining how technical and social aspects of the IoT interact in four specific application domains: energy monitoring, groceries and shopping, physical gaming, and sharing experiences. This section also presents three household scenarios developed to communicate and explore the complexities of integrating IoT technologies into family life. The final section draws together all the findings and suggests future research

Filter-less WDM for visible light communications using colored pulse amplitude modulation

This paper demonstrates, for the first time, a new wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) scheme for visible light communications using multi-level coloured pulse amplitude modulation (M-CPAM). Unlike traditional WDM, no optical bandpass filters are required and only a single optical detector is used. We show that, by transmitting n independent sets of weighted on-off keying non-return-to-zero data on separate wavelengths over a line-of-sight transmission path, the resultant additive symbols can be successfully demodulated. Hence, the data rates can be aggregated for a single user or divided into individual colours for multiple user access schemes. The system is empirically tested for M = 4 and 8 using an off-the-shelf red, green and blue (RGB) chip light emitting diode (LED). We demonstrate that for M = 4, using the R and B chips a bit error rate (BER) of ≤10-6 can be achieved for each wavelength at bit rates up to 10 Mbps, limited by the LEDs under test. For M = 8 using R, G and B a BER of ≤10-6 can be achieved for each wavelength at bit rates up to 5 Mbps

Light sensor development for ARA platform

Some years ago Google announced the ARA initiative. This consist on a modular phone where parts of the phone, like cameras, sensors or networks can be changed. So when a new feature appears or requiered by the user it is not needed to change the mobile phone, just to buy the modules with the functionality. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pr9cV6lvws for further information. The Wireless Networks Group will receive in December a developement kit (http://projectara.com/s/ProjectAraSpiral1DeveloperHardwareManual.pdf), to start working with it on January. The PFC or MasteDuring the last years, Visible Light Communication (VLC), a novel technology that enables standard Light-Emitting-Diodes (LEDs) to transmit data, is gaining significant attention. In the near future, this technology could enable devices containing LEDs – such as car lights, city lights, screens and home appliances – to carry information or data to the end-users, using their smartphone. However, VLC is currently limited by the end-point receiver, such as a the mobile camera, or a peripheral connected through the jack input and to unleash the full potential of VLC, more advanced receiver are required. On other, few year ago, Google ATAP - the Google innovation department - announced the ARA initiative. This consist on a modular phone where parts of the phone, like cameras, sensors or networks can be changed. So when a new feature appears or required by the user it is not needed to change the mobile phone, just to buy the modules with the functionality. This Master Thesis presents the design and development of a simple module that will support communication by light (VLC) using the ARA Module Developer Kit provided by Google. It consists on building a front-end circuit, connecting a photodiode that receives the level of light and use it as data carrier, in order to receive and display data inside a custom Android application on the ARA smartphone

The Internet of Things Will Thrive by 2025

This report is the latest research report in a sustained effort throughout 2014 by the Pew Research Center Internet Project to mark the 25th anniversary of the creation of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-LeeThis current report is an analysis of opinions about the likely expansion of the Internet of Things (sometimes called the Cloud of Things), a catchall phrase for the array of devices, appliances, vehicles, wearable material, and sensor-laden parts of the environment that connect to each other and feed data back and forth. It covers the over 1,600 responses that were offered specifically about our question about where the Internet of Things would stand by the year 2025. The report is the next in a series of eight Pew Research and Elon University analyses to be issued this year in which experts will share their expectations about the future of such things as privacy, cybersecurity, and net neutrality. It includes some of the best and most provocative of the predictions survey respondents made when specifically asked to share their views about the evolution of embedded and wearable computing and the Internet of Things

Experimental Characterization of RGB LED Transceiver in Low-Complexity LED-to-LED Link

This paper proposes a low-complexity and energy-efficient light emitting diode (LED)-to-LED communication system for Internet of Things (IoT) devices with data rates up to 200 kbps over an error-free transmission distance up to 7 cm. The system is based on off-the-shelf red-green-blue (RGB) LEDs, of which the red sub-LED is employed as photodetector in photovoltaic mode while the green sub-LED is the transmitter. The LED photodetector is characterized in the terms of its noise characteristics and its response to the light intensity. The system performance is then analysed in terms of bandwidth, bit error rate (BER) and the signal to noise ratio (SNR). A matched filter is proposed, which optimises the performance and increases the error-free distance

TechNews digests: Jan - Mar 2010

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month