Japanese Firms Prototype Battery-less Remote Control

20/11/2009 by David Slade.

NEC Electronics Corp and Soundpower Corp prototyped a remote control that does not require a battery and is intended for home electric appliances.

The announcement was made Nov 17, 2009. And the remote control will be exhibited at Embedded Technology 2009, a trade show that will take place from Nov 18, 2009, in Yokohama City, Japan.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20091117/177713/1.jpg

The remote control was realized by combining (1) a vibration-based power generation device developed by Soundpower, (2) NEC Electronics’ microcomputer supporting RF remote controls that use radio waves with a frequency band ranging from several tens of MHz to several GHz to transmit and receive data and (3) a power supply control technology that drives electronic circuits with a small amount of electricity.

Specifically, electricity is generated by utilizing the weak vibration caused by pressing a button on the remote control. The electronic circuits of the remote control are driven by the electricity to turn on and off a TV set, adjust the sound volume and switch channels.

NEC Electronics and Soundpower started the joint development of the remote control in December 2006. And they plan to promote its adoption by consumer-electronics makers until 2011.

Posted in Remote Control | No Comments »

Motorola to buy video company BitBand

20/11/2009 by David Slade.

Motorola Inc (MOT.N) on Monday said that it would buy privately held BitBand, an Israel-based video-on-demand technology provider, to expand its home video business. Motorola said it would integrate BitBand into its Home and Networks Mobility unity, for which the company has reportedly been looking for a buyer willing to pay $4 billion to $5 billion.

Motorola, which is losing money on its mobile phones business, did not disclose the terms of the BitBand deal. It expects to close the transaction in the current quarter.

BitBand provides Internet-based television technology to 60 operators in countries such as Holland, Italy and Russia, Motorola said.

Shares of Motorola rose 8 cents to $8.86 in morning trading on New York Stock Exchange

Posted in Internet-based television technology, Motorola | No Comments »

Netflix Goes Live On Sony’s Bravia HDTVs, Blu-ray Players

20/11/2009 by David Slade.

Netflix’s video-streaming catalog is now available directly through Sony’s Bravia HDTVs and Blu-ray Disc players.

The Netflix “Watch Instantly” streaming feature, available for no extra charge to most of the company’s 11.1 million DVD-by-mail subscribers, now provides some 17,000 titles on demand. Content partners include Starz Entertainment, MTV Networks and ABC and Disney Channel.

Separately, last month Netflix and Sony Computer Entertainment America announced a partnership to enable the streaming feature available on the PlayStation 3 gaming console.

Netflix’s Internet video-on-demand service is available on an array of other devices, including Microsoft’s Xbox 360, TiVo DVRs, LG Electronics televisions and Blu-ray players, and the Roku Internet set-top box.

The Sony Bravia US models now available to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix include the W5100, Z5100, XBR9, and XBR10 series in 40-inch, 46-inch and 52-inch screen sizes, which are priced from $1,100 to $5,000. Sony’s N460 Network Blu-ray Disc Player, listed at $250, is also able to access the Netflix service if connected to the Internet.

Posted in Internet video-on-demand service, Blu-ray video | 1 Comment »

Connecting Smart Buildings to the Smart Grid

20/11/2009 by David Slade.

Suggesting turning off the lights in our buildings has been a constant theme. Saving or conserving energy, especially when the cleaning crew and security personnel are the only ones occupying a 250,000 sq ft office tower, makes sense at a very basic level. You would think that a simple concept such as conserving energy in our built environment would be easy to deploy. Given that energy, and thus our independence, is on everyone’s mind, combined with the fact that buildings use 40+% of the total daily energy spend, one would expect it to be a high priority.

Over the years engineers have introduced a number of different ideas, concepts and technologies that would help building owners conserve energy. Even to this day, adoption of these “common sense” ideas have been met with great resistance. In trying to better understand why this remains such a low priority I’ve summarized the common client drivers  / observations:

1) during the boom times, making money trumped every other priority,

2) in many situations tenants paid the utility bills and the landlord had no motivation to conserve,

3) real estate companies have struggled with “who” in their organization should take responsibility for this issue (IT,PM,FM,Energy),

4) while executives promoted “green” for marketing purposes, commitment and execution was superficial and

5) many of these technologies involve CAPEX or in some cases initial impacts to OPEX investments and without the motivation of a “return”, never made it past the budgeting process.

There have been bursts of interest in this topic by the built environment over the last 5-7 years. In fact there are case studies of real estate companies who have implemented sophisticated technology solutions to monitor and manage their energy consumption with a much greater level of accuracy. Over the last 24-30 months, many of our trade associations have also joined in the battle to conserve and begun to aggressively educate their memberships on conserving energy. While all of these “green” initiatives have been positive, there has been little discussion on the role that technology, automation and innovation can play. While insulated windows an important part of the strategy so is a lighting strategy that can reduce energy costs by 50%.

Enter the Smart Grid discussion.

About 2-3 years ago the discussion of the Smart Grid started to heat up. Major companies like GE, IBM, Siemens and, most recently Cisco and Google, started to beat the drum on the benefits of being able to manage electricity in more sophisticated ways. Instead of producing power in big old clunky power plants and “broadcasting” the energy down very old “asynchronous” (one way) power lines, the idea has emerged of a “networked”, very smart, easy to manage electrical infrastructure that connects both your refrigerator to the network as well as the solar panel or wind turbine that you have in your backyard or the roof of your office building. The idea is big, the benefits are big, the issues are big, and so are the challenges. While the marketing of many of these large smart grid companies would lead you to believe that the technology is in place and everything has been figured out, there are a mountain of questions ranging from privacy issues to standards and everything in between.

One of those big issues to be figured out is how to we “connect” a smart building to the smart grid and what if we’re starting with a building that is not so smart. One of the most basic questions that need to be answered is “who in a building takes charge of this issue.” Buildings have many number of different tenant landlord relationships, from owner occupied to multi-tenant. The relationship in many cases will influence who takes the lead on this important topic. Once the “business” side of the equation is figured out, then you move to the building technology and ultimately the relationship with the smart grid. These are very big questions and in many respects are the primary reasons that so many building owners have not initiated an energy plan. The other major reasons for slow response to this issue is the maturity of the technology (still evolving) and the regulatory role of local, and national government agencies.

If you break the smart grid into three distinct categories it is a little easier to understand.

We have the:

1) “middle infrastructure” i.e. the transmission lines, sub-stations etc.,

2) the power plants - both traditional as well as the emerging technologies, and

3) the end user, which in our world translates to the building.

These make up the major components of the smart grid. When we isolate the building’s role it’s easy to understand why this is such a complex issue. It’s not only the connectivity of the building to the smart grid, but also the internal infrastructure of the building that needs to be automated in order to create a completely digital, transparent connection. Connecting a building to the smart grid without considering the tenant space will leave you with less than desired results. The topic gets even more complex when you consider all the other building technologies that need to be considered for integration into the building network such as security, tenant communications etc. at the same time you are trying to figure out the connectivity into the smart grid for the purpose energy management and conservation.

The benefits of the smart grid begin to get very interesting when you start talking about how a commercial building owner could gain financially from this concept. Just imagine you’re at 30,000 feet looking down on a major city and picture all the buildings being turned into individual solar and other renewable energy source power plants that could sell unused energy back to utilities via smart grid technologies. There are some who have speculated that this could be a significant income stream for owners and operators once the idea is adequately developed.

The bottom line is that the idea of smart buildings connecting to the smart grid is an idea whose time has come. Whether adoption is fueled by financial opportunities or by strict legislation, this idea is not going away. In the early stages, as with all new technologies and ideas, there are more questions than answers. However, last week’s announcement by the US Obama administration on their 3.2 billion dollar commitment to the smart grid is sure to advance the topic and produce real results.

The question remains how will BUILDINGS CONNECT to the SMART GRID, with technology companies developing products and exploring this new major industry (as it will become). Which company will become the brand leader, but even more important is which real estate owners will become the  known  to champion this technology, and get an competitive edge on its rivals.

Posted in Siemens, Smart Buildings, General Electric, IBM, Smart Grid Technology, Cisco, Google | No Comments »

On Hold Considerations

20/11/2009 by David Slade.

An important part of spending wisely in a harsh economic climate is establishing where to stop spending. All IT and building projects are fair game in this process, whether they take the form of custom applications, software maintenance, support services, infrastructure, networking or telecommunications. Remembering that placing a project on hold implies that you intend to resume it at a later point, take a look at what criteria you should consider before choosing which projects to put on ice.

The cost factor
The bottom line is without doubt the biggest and most important consideration factor. For a project to be successful from a business perspective, it should ultimately result in increased revenue, decreased expense, and reduced risk. A project needs to meet at least one of these requirements to be kept going, and it needs to do so within an acceptable time frame. Sunk costs should not be considered when deciding whether or not to pull the plug on a project; these will never be retrieved and should be written off as such.

The time factor
To ensure sustainability, it follows logically that smaller projects with shorter return periods should be prioritized over larger projects with longer return periods. Resources locked into longer-term implementations could be better employed on shorter quicker projects.

The stakeholders
Often overlooked and underrated, make a point of gaining buy-in from the relevant business community when putting a project on ice. Having on hold buy-in will go a long way to gaining stakeholder trust. You should aim to have as much support for putting a project on hold as you would for kicking it off.

Consider the key personnel involved in a project and assess the likelihood of their availability when the project would foreseeably be re-introduced. Relying on an irreplaceable member who may not be around at recommencement could possibly be the only reason not to place a project on hold.

Consider also, the effect on dependent projects of placing a project on hold. For example, the management team might have plans for executive reporting functionality from an ERP. Plan around mitigating the effects on these and ensure the relevant people are kept in the loop.

Structure your stop
Make a point of mitigating future risks when putting a project on hold. Where the impending absence of a critical member is a factor, ensuring knowledge transfer to replacement project members before the project is placed on hold is essential. All processes and research to date and should be fully documented, and interim work-arounds implemented. A structured stop thus reduces the expected ramp-up time for recommencement, making the option more attractive than if the project ended suddenly.

What is your investment strategy?
While it may be the last item on the minds of most, a downturn can be a great time to gain competitive advantage. Where a company has some capital in reserve, and an aggressive investment strategy, it might be worth outlaying the cost in favor of competitive gain. While an enterprising idea is coupled with substantial risk in a volatile climate, the long-term return of a well realized initiative might place you ahead of the game when things recover.

What to do when you’ve hit pause
Remaining effective when things are quiet shouldn’t be difficult if you plan correctly:

Go internal

– A quiet period is a good time to hammer out those items which require internal resources and relative stability e.g. hardware or software upgrades.

Don’t lower quality

– While the immediate need is to cut cost, this shouldn’t be at the expense of quality of service.

Make a ‘Play’ checklist

– Decide what the core criteria are for assessing how to take a project off its ‘on hold’ status, and establish interval check points.

Identify key personnel

– Identify the key personnel involved in ‘frozen’ projects and consider their availability when it kicks off.

Ensure you’re set for the upswing

– Where you don’t have the ability to seize the opportunity to excel in a downturn, it’s worth preparing yourself internally for the recovery of the economy. By fully documenting projects on hold, making internal processes efficient to facilitate future growth, and finessing the lower priority processes, you will ultimate make the revival easier.

Posted in Project management | No Comments »

Two more utilities join IBM-backed smart grid coalition

20/11/2009 by David Slade.

Two new utility companies have joined The Global Intelligent Utility Network (IUN) Coalition, which is a group formed by IBM that is pushing best practices for smart grid technologies and installations.

The new members are CPFL Energia (Brazil) and Liander (The Netherlands). The four U.S. members (CenterPoint Energy, Pepco Holdings, Progress Energy, and San Diego Gas and Electric) collectively were granted $3.4 billion last month in federal funding for their various smart grid pilots and projects.

The collective mission statement of the Global IUN is to use “digital intelligence” to help reduce outages and faults, manage demand and integrate new sources of energy such as wind into the power grid. The group was responsible for developing the Smart Grid Maturity Model, which is now being used by more than 60 utilities as part of smart grid strategy and planning.

Posted in IBM, Global Intelligent Utility Network (IUN) Coalition, Smart Grid Maturity Model, Smart Grid Technology | No Comments »

EPA’s Energy Star program 1 million homes now “qualified”under the Energy Star program for energy efficiency.

20/11/2009 by David Slade.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports this week that more than 1 million homes have been “qualified” under the Energy Star program for energy efficiency. That means the people who have worked to have their homes labeled or checked against the Energy Star recommendations have saved $1.2 billion on their energy bills and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 22 billion pounds, according to the EPA. This year, the annual savings in electricity costs will be about $270 million, with emissions reductions equipment to approximately 370,000 vehicles.

What goes into an Energy Star home?

There are about 6,500 builders around the country that can represent the insulation, high performance windows, duct work, heating and cooling equipment, lighting and appliances that are part of the rating process. An inspector can come in and rate your home for you. The top markets for Energy Star are pretty much which you might expect: Major cities around the country. Three midwest communities that have made this a priority, including Des Moines, Iowa; Indianapolis and Oklahoma City.

Posted in Energy Star program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | No Comments »

More evidence of the coming collision between home broadband and the smart grid

20/11/2009 by David Slade.

One trend that will pick up steam in 2010 is technologies and alliances that bring the current home broadband infrastructure (Home Automation network) and the emerging smart grid infrastructure closer together. After all, as more homes embrace high-speed Internet access (wired OR wireless), it makes sense that smart meters and other smart grid devices communicate via what is already in place.

Anticipating this convergence of interests, iControl Networks has come out with a platform called ConnectedLife Energy Management. The technology, which is intended for broadband operators, utility companies and other service providers, will allow for the development of demand response systems and other energy-efficiency services. The company expects Connected Life Energy Management to be commercially available to consumers sometime in 2010. It would allow for applications such as scheduled energy usage that is tailored to meet certain efficiency or carbon footprint goals.

Here are some of the consumer-level applications that will be possible:

• Real-time energy usage monitoring
• Remoted management of thermostats from an Internet browse, iPhone or other mobile phones
• Automation applications that, for example, would let you set up thermostat configurations for your air-conditioning or heating systems
• Ability to manage your account against certain cost parameters

Posted in Smart Grid Technology, Home automation network (HAN) | No Comments »

Google - Chrome OS: Some Early Preview Videos

20/11/2009 by David Slade.

Today Google released a number of early introduction/preview videos regarding their upcoming Chrome OS.

While the software does not currently appear to be in an easily installable state, requiring developers to build their own Chrome OS environments for the time being, the OS does look quite promising and Google’s “Stateless” objective where all user data resides in the cloud reflects an extremely modern concept in OS design.

What is Chrome OS?:

User Interface Concept Video for Chrome OS:

Chromium OS and Open Source:

Do these videos provide encouragement or interest in Google’s stateless, cloud-based OS offering?

Posted in Chrome OS, Google | No Comments »