In the late 1990s, CyberThinc undertook research into the use of 1-wire sensor networks for more detailed climate monitoring of both internal volumes for house and commercial structures, and also for external environmental purposes (weather and pollution). At that time, the need for a central PC for almost any networking capability meant a PC which was generally bulky and had noticeable power usage. This was essentially a precursor to what is now known as the Internet of Things.
It took the best part of a decade for cost effective and relatively user friendly solutions to become commercially available, and having already carried out the previous research, CyberThinc was able to leverage the practical knowledge and data gained to develop cost effective networked solutions.
Practical Internet of Things R & D.
For practical R & D, CyberThinc makes use of Arduino based embedded systems and Raspberry Pi based systems – both of which are low cost but very capable and flexible for testing services and products for the Internet of Things. We are researching the use of networked sensor systems for structural, environmental and health monitoring uses, by building and testing prototypes to determine the commercial opportunities that may be realised. This gives CyberThinc a significant advantage in the advisory and consultancy space, since we are not just talking about the Internet of Things as a theoretical subject, but from deep practical knowledge through hardware R & D. In fact, this enables us to offer effective Internet of Things consultancy and Internet of Things services.
Internet of Things Standards and Protocols.
There are a wealth of standards and protocols being used within the Internet of Things space, and we are looking into and testing the practicality of Zigbee, Z-Wave and 6LoWPAN, although still using the home automation standards of INSTEON, Home Easy and even the older X10 aswell, since we have found that they can be engineered to work in internet of things applications too.