IoT Modules Quicken Innovation

by R. Colin Johnson - EETimes

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 06, 2015 – 

Want to get a leg up on that great Internet of Things (IoT) idea of yours? Weaved Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif., may have just the answer to get you started. Weaved says it supplies not only the cloud connectivity and turn-key software you need for an IoT device, but also customizes hardware modules that do almost anything -- from 360 cameras to controlling sprinkler systems. Already in use by the big guys like Philips and Cisco, Weaved is making a concerted effort at the International Consumer Electronics Show, January 6 through January 8 in Las Vegas, to bring the little guys into their fold, with customized modules, colors, form factors, and free software to marry it all to their cloud.

"What we are announcing today at CES is that one of our partners, Jemtek -- a billion dollar original design maker (ODM) in Taiwan that has built the vast majority of product branded Linksys, Belkin, and many others -- is building for us a line of products for the Internet of Things: lighting products, smart plugs, web cameras, routers, and more coming in 2015," Ryo Koyama, chief executive officer (CEO) at Weaved told EE Times. "In addition to being pre-certified products that are ready to go they all have our cloud-based Internet of Things services built right into them."

If you have a great idea for a IoT device, Weaved will work with you to have it manufactured by Jentek Technology Co. Ltd. in Taipei, Taiwan, with your logo, your name, your form factor, and color, with Weaved's cloud-connectivity built-in for instant-on operation according to Koyama.

"With us you just need to define the hardware side of your Internet of Things device, and rather than having to build-out your own connectivity, we provide that service in the cloud," Koyama told us.

Say you have a great IoT idea. Rather than have it crowdfunded on Kickstarter and think you're going to have a product out in six months, which would really be a challenge, since you will need to do the custom engineering, find a factory to produce it, get it ready for production, then build out the cloud connectivity it requires.

"These are not the core competencies that every company necessarily has ready to go, and you are definitely not going to be able to build them up in six months," Koyama told us.

With Weaved's business model you just go to their website, pick the hardware modules you need for your application ready-to-go, use their software tool chain to make the product work with cloud connectivity, leaving the company to totally focus on its applications.

"Once you have the app working the way you want, you call us and say here's my logo, here's my company name, here's the colors I want the plastics and six weeks later you'll be in production," Koyama told us. "We provide all the software tools you need in the cloud, we give you an IP address, a DNS, all the networking software for messaging and notifications and even have finished apps that you can adapt to solve your particular problem," Koyama told us.

Today the Internet of Things is fixated on consumers products, according to Koyama, but over the next few years industrial applications are going to have to build-in these capabilities too. Weaved hopes that by then they will have turn-key industrial modules and software so that industrial users do not have to build-out all the capabilities they need for internal IoT apps, "leaving them the ability to just concentrate on their software and leave the rest to us," Koyama told us.

Weaved also supplied free a Rasberry Pi software tool kit that marries any local processing that needs to the done to the cloud connectivity and big data computational abilities available in the Weaved cloud. User controls are typically built into a smartphone app that communicates with the modules over Bluetooth or WiFi, to the Raspberry Pi or directly to Weaved's servers in the cloud.

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