Australian IoT startup Xped has become an ASX listed company following the completion of a backdoor listing via former geothermal exploration company Raya Group (ASX: RYG).
Raya announced completion of its acquisition of Xped on 24 March and said it had received ASX approval to change its name to Xped.
John Schultz and Christopher Wood have been appointed directors. Schultz is describes as “a serial entrepreneur founding and successfully growing several companies over the last two decades specialising in the design, manufacture and business development of electronics systems.”
Wood is billed as “a domain expert in the areas of GPS, inertial sensors and communications.” In 2003 he founded Neve Technologies, which developed and commercialised an augmented GPS system for positioning vehicles in areas where GPS signals are severely degraded.
As IoTAustralia reported earlier, Xped was founded in Adelaide and still maintains all R&D there but is now headquartered in Singapore. It has developed an Auto Discovery Remote Control (ADRC) technology to enable any devices incorporating its technology to be monitored and controlled from a smartphone app, once the phone has been paired with the device using near field communication.
It hopes to sell the technology to both chip and equipment manufacturers for incorporation in their products. A module for incorporation in equipment by IoT DIY enthusiasts can be bought from its web site, and the company says it has sold several hundred of these.
The heart of its system, however is the ADRC Hub. This manages the initial setup of a new device and maintains the direct communication with it. The smartphone app then communicates with the device via the hub using WiFi or, remotely, the cellular network.
IoT for data centre monitoring
Xped has recently branched out into data centre monitoring and incorporating wired devices into its hub. According to Xped the new system allows wired nodes (sensors, displays, NFC tap points, etc) to be wired into a hub that can connect to a mobile device or remote server.
“The system allows plug and play of industrial or commercial nodes that the hub can identify and simply connect and control,” the company said. “Plugging in a sensor or node will automatically bring up a user interface on the mobile device and is an extension of the wireless ADRC technology. This system provides a simple solution to a very low power wired network and has a variety of uses including industrial, medical or other applications where wireless can be problematic.”
Xped said it was working to field trial the system in a Singapore data centre in the coming months and upon successful trial planned to roll out the solution into further data centres across Asia.
Partnering with Vital Xense
On 1 March it announced that it was partnering with Vital Xense –- a Singapore company founded in August 2015 — to deploy a range of advanced industrial sensors developed by Xped into Asian data centres, beginning in Singapore.
“Vital Xense identified Xped at a trade show in Singapore in 2015 and quickly realised that ADRC technology was the only system that provided all the functions and features they require to deliver highly differentiated and competitive products for the rapidly expanding data centre industry,” Raya Group told the ASX.
It explained: “Data centres pose a difficult environment for wireless communications systems and so most use CAT6 cabling to connect equipment to the IP switches and routers that provide the connectivity back to the control centre. For a large data centre the cost of installing and provisioning the IP equipment and cabling can be typically around $500,000.
“Using Xped’s unique technology, data centres can now install hundreds of sensors for measuring the temperature, humidity and door open status in each individual rack and at several points inside the rack. Sensors and local display panels can be quickly connected to sensor hubs that relay the information wirelessly back to the main IP router. Installation takes a faction of the time of traditional solutions as the wired nodes feature plug and play provisioning based on the patented ADRC self-describing system and cabling is only required locally within a rack.”
Battery monitoring to save big dollars
It added: “Vital Xense is specifying an advanced battery monitoring system to be jointly developed with Xped that will allow batteries to be used until they reach a known state of degradation. This system is expected to extend the useful life of some batteries up to 10 years, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary replacement costs.
“Xped and Vital Xense are in the process of finalising both licensing and manufacturing agreements to incorporate Xped’s technologies into the new range of sensors based solutions for data centre and other applications. These commercial agreements follow on from a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) entered into by both parties in late 2015.”
Xped will be exhibiting at the IoT Asia event in Singapore on 30-31 March. “As part of the IoT event, Xped will display Xerts capability, which is patented technology that can create and transfer digital coupons using its one-tap process to the mobile device and remains dormant until it receives a specific trigger to activate,” the company said.
