Got an IoT concept to prototype?
Sure you do. Last night you were thinking about a mobile app and sensor combo that would remind you to buy more milk and eggs depending on how many times the refrigerator door is opened. That million-dollar idea is out there for the taking, but how do you get started with the whole hardware angle?
The ex-Nokia team at Oulu-based iProtoXi has hit Indiegogo with the Aistin range of some small wireless devices to allow you to put together your own IoT solution to fit your needs, or to prototype for a product you’ve got in mind.
There’s some solid tech behind it all. At the heart of their solutions is the Aistin Bus24 interface, which they’ve released for free as an open standard. “We really believe it will be included on all microcontroller boards in the future, and that the number of available add-on boards will increase exponentially,” they write on their Indiegogo page.
Their reasoning is simple. As IoT blows up, there’s currently no connector standard for add-on boards. For instance, Arduino and manufacturer specific boards don’t play well together. And if you are using Arduino chips, you may find them bulky and clumsy when adding on more sensors and actuators, which doesn’t work well for wearables.
As you can see, the sensors are quite small and can fit in a milk carton’s cap. If you’re looking to temperature, movement, air pressure, humidity, magnetic fields (like electricity) or ultraviolet, they can fit in these milk caps, which works well enough for prototyping.
“Sensor devices need covers,” they write. “Normally, manufacturing of the covers requires an expensive and complex planning process and the implementation of plastic molds. In this idea iProtoXi thought there might be a possibility for some ecological recycling.”
The team is hoping to raise $56,000 in at least 30 days. It’s been a long time since I’ve played with any hardware, but Aistin looks like a fun way to prototype with some IoT hardware. More info can be found on their Indiegogo page.
