The Everything IoT event in Sydney on 17 October featured an Australian IoT Innovation Showcase with quick pitches from a handful of Australian IoT startups, several of which also took stands in the accompanying exhibition space. Here’s a roundup of the presenters and what they offer, in alphabetical order.
Agersens is developing technology to create virtual fences for livestock. Each animal is equipped with a device that contains a GPS receiver. As the animal approaches the virtual fence it first receives an audio warning and if it continues on its path, a mild electric shock. The farmer manages the system from an app on a smartphone, tablet or PC.
While the technology might be fairly straightforward, the company claims its ‘secret sauce’ to be “animal friendly patented training software developed by CSIRO.” It has obtained an exclusive, global licence from CSIRO to commercialise the technology
Benefits claimed include: the ability to check the location of every animal at any time; removes the need for mustering using aircraft or ground vehicles; virtual fences cannot be damaged by fire or flood. The company is presently seeking funds to develop its first product.
Briometrix has developed what is essentially a Fitbit device for wheelchair users. According to the company, in the first year that someone is confined to a wheelchair they have a 70 percent chance of shoulder injuries, a 50 percent chance of poor cardiac health and they are likely to put on weight.
It claims that none of the current wearable devices are suitable for wheelchair users. The Briometrix system takes 64 measurements of the user and the wheelchair. It has even developed a ‘smashometer’ for the Australian Wheelchair Rugby team. To date it has 1000 users of its technology.
Elanation aims to get children exercising more by rewarding them for exercising with additional attributes in an online game. The child wears a Fitbit-like wristband that measures steps and heartbeat.
“Ten thousand steps in the real world unlocks a virtual dragon to fly your online avatar to the next planet. Five thousand skips in the real world unlocks a cool and inspiring video of a child your own age teaching you a new trick in gymnastics,” it says.
Elanation launched a beta trial earlier this year merging wearables, bike sensors and skipping ropes linked to an online portal and claims to have been overwhelmed by the positive response from parents, and children.
The company makes money today from the sale of devices and in app purchases but in the future hopes to sell anonymised data, and to include online advertising. It aims to generate in excess of $100m in consumer revenue by 2020 in Australia alone
In July this year it beat over 900 startups to take out the Best Lifestyle Consumer Technology Product award at an event in Beijing.
Levaux has developed SenseAgent, a cloud-based building asset management system that uses a network of wireless mesh-connected sensors for lighting, heating and air conditioning control. It enables building managers to monitor and manage their buildings via a web portal. My article for Computerworld has more details on the company and its technology.
Morse Micro is developing silicon chips for wireless communication to enable a robust internet connection to be powered for many years from a single battery. The company is only eight weeks old and three people. However all three have years of experience developing wireless chips for Broadcom, one of the largest manufacturers of wireless chips. It comprise Andy Terry – the RF & analogue expert; Dave Goodall – the media access controller and standards expert and Michael De Nil – the digital and software expert. The company’s web site has more details on all three, but little else, proclaiming that the company is still in stealth mode.
Terry told the EIoT audience: “The three of us have spent the last seven years designing WiFi chips for Broadcom. We looked at the IoT space and the technologies available and felt there was nothing that really filled all the requirements.”
He said: “Today we have a working system up and running and over the next few years we will be condensing that to a super low power extremely cost-effective silicon chip.
The company is presently in discussion with angel investors, Terry said it would need about $7.5m over the next three to four years.
Myriota is commercialising technology developed at the University of South Australia designed to provide two-way communication via satellites for IoT applications from a device the size of a matchbox that will be able to run for several years on a battery.
The company was spun off from the University in November 2015 with a $2m investment from Canadian low earth orbit satellite operator ExactEarth whose polar orbiting satellites it will use for the space segment of the service. It has been covered in detail on iotaustralia.org, here.
Reekoh claims to be the leading open integration platform purpose built for enterprise IoT and to be solving one of the biggest problems faced by enterprises wanting to adopt IoT – system integration.
The company operates an app store from which plug-ins are available to interface to a wide range of hardware and software systems to its platform and others will be able to develop plug-ins and make them available via the app store. To date it has 100 plug-ins available.
It aims to facilitate the movement of IoT data from devices to whatever systems its customers need that data in. It has been live running trials since January and says it is now signing up customers.
Smart Sensor has developed sensors for waste bins combined with route optimisation technology and predictive algorithms designed to ensure the most efficient and timely emptying of bins. It software is cloud-based and provided via platform as a service.
The company has been self-funded to date and claims to already have The City of Melbourne, City of Canada Bay (Sydney), City of Ipswich (Qld) and the City of Parramatta as customers. It does not appear to have a web site.
Safety Compass has developed technology for use in industrial facilities designed to warn workers and anyone else in the facility about hazards in their vicinity. The user gets this information via a smartphone app by pointing the phone at the potential hazard. Information on it is the presented on the phone, and more detailed info can be called up if required.
This information is retrieved from a central database and the hazard is identified from the phone’s location and the direction in which it is pointing. The app is available for both iOS and Android and the company has signed up several international distribution partners. A pilot installation has been deployed at a wind farm in Denmark.
Space Connect aims to make the booking and use of meeting rooms, desks and other space in office more efficient. It uses blue tooth beacons located around the facility that track users locations via an app on their smartphones. The system checks users into and out of meeting rooms and reminds them if they have not entered a booked room at the specified time.
Another feature manages and reports on the overall utilisation of space and a predictive algorithm running in the cloud using machine learning takes internal and external behavioural and environmental data to estimate future space utilisation requirements
A new beacon coming out in October senses temperature and can feed that back into building management systems. The company has been running customer trials for the past six months and says it is now converting some of these to paying customers.
SkyGrid is an IoT platform that is described as “an API for the physical world”. The company has developed its own LoRaWAN and Sigfox based boards that connect direct to its platform. The platform manages deployed sensors, collects and processes the data and provides security.
Its first customer was a provider of swimming pool monitoring services. It has also partnered with an Australian manufacturer of hot water systems. The connected hot water system uses the artificial intelligent capabilities of SkyGrid, to predict problems with the heater before it fails. SkyGrid also provide its technology and services to a number of companies to enable them to monitor their fleet activities.
