Today Wia, a leader in the IoT cloud infrastructure space, has announced Wia Energy, a new way for SMEs to start monitoring their electricity consumption across a building or entire campus so businesses can access scalable, secure and affordable real-time energy data to drive their efficiency and sustainability goals.

In an exclusive partnership for Ireland with deZem, Wia will be utilising the latest in energy monitoring technology to provide high accuracy measurements using self-powered hardware that harvests electricity from the electromagnetic field around the cables themselves — no batteries required and no maintenance after installation. The sensors can be easily installed in less than a minute by just clipping a small device around an electricity cable with zero interruption to supply. Data is then transmitted wirelessly via the long range LoRaWAN protocol to a gateway connected to the building’s existing Internet connection or independently via cellular.

The hardware will be paired with the Wia IoT Cloud which is used by IoT device manufacturers and solutions providers in Europe and the US to develop IoT solutions, rich visualisations, fleet management, rule based alerting, predictive analysis and system automation. The Wia IoT Cloud also gives businesses the ability to integrate existing smart meters, building management systems and other IoT devices to get a fully comprehensive view of how their assets are performing all in one place.

“There has never been a more important time to proactively manage and understand resource consumption. Wia Energy provides businesses with a toolset to enable a comprehensive energy strategy and extensive operational intelligence helping them to reduce costs and become sustainable enterprises.”

Conall Laverty, Founder & CEO at Wia

Sustainability & ESG

In an extension to their electricity monitoring solution, Wia is also partnering with Irish founded Sustainability and ESG reporting software provider Emex. The Emex platform easily integrates Wia’s IoT devices to deliver real time electricity readings for better understanding and management of consumption patterns and changes to deliver operational efficiencies.

“The demand for access to real time data for energy consumption and monitoring is a real challenge for companies today. Emex are thrilled to be partnering with WIA to solve this challenge by utilising IoT to automate the collection of energy data, providing real time monitoring and reporting at any interval, location, zone, or asset level.

This collaboration also enhances our CarbonGo reporting solution, enabling customers to efficiently monitor carbon reduction initiatives and streamline reporting to ESG industry standards such as SASB, GRI & CDP.”

David O’Shaughnessy, VP Product Innovation at Emex

Benefits

Enhanced awareness

• Electricity monitors show you in real-time how much you are using so can be more aware of your usage. 75% of those with energy monitoring technology were more proactive about their usage compared to those that didn’t.

Instant savings

• Instead of waiting for bills to arrive, see what you are using by the minute so you can react and make changes immediately.

Discover trends

• Appliances, lighting and equipment left on overnight can lead to an extreme increase in cost. Wia Energy provides the ability to look at consumption instantaneously whilst providing the tools to dive into historic data to compare usage over days, weeks, months and even years.

For more information, visit https://wia.io/energy.

Wia is an Internet of Things company based in Dublin, Ireland. Wia enables businesses by providing scalable, secure cloud infrastructure to build and integrate any type of IoT device. The company processes 100s of millions of data points each week across a wide range of sensors including air quality, agriculture and energy. It was founded by Conall Laverty in 2016 and is backed by investors Sure Valley Ventures, Enterprise Ireland and NDRC.

deZem GmbH, German company founded in 2003, develops tools for targeted and effective energy management and energy controlling. They enhance the energy and resource management of their customers through powerful data acquisition, visualisation and analysis tools.

Emex is an ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) and EHS (Environmental, Health & Safety) management platform, purpose built to help bridge the gap between our clients’ sustainability aspirations and their effective actions. Headquartered in Dublin, Emex has offices in London, Dubai, Lviv and Chicago with a global client base across a diverse set of industries including mining, retail, banking, energy, and logistics.

It’s 2022 and we’re only now starting to unlock the true potential of the Internet of Things. The entry to market and accessibility of the required components has been a deterrent to many businesses who whilst keen to embrace new technologies, are overwhelmed by the mammoth task that is required when deploying a new sensor based product or solution.

The IoT can be defined as a constellation of atomic sensors (“things” that do one thing very well such as monitor temperature, power, location, etc.) that are integrated and controlled over the Internet to help make lives and businesses more efficient, generate new revenue streams and to reach sustainability goals. It can be thought of as a collection of neurons that when connected together create a brain that is capable of producing datasets that can solve many of the world’s biggest challenges across any industry such as healthcare, insurance, agriculture and environment.

There are obstacles when transforming a business to utilise the IoT with key decisions having to be considered at both technical and commercial levels. Many of these issues are at the platform level, some of which include:

Long time-to-market

Typically it takes months, in most cases years, for an enterprise to produce a commercially ready IoT solution that they can extract value from — many don’t even reach that point. This impact on launch time puts companies at a disadvantage if a competitor is able to get its solutions out there more quickly.

Insufficient in-house experience

When considering to embrace the IoT, company’s have to determine their ability to design, develop, test, deploy and maintain a platform. If it’s not part of its core offering, finding the required talent and achieving a comprehensive product roadmap can be daunting.

Hard to secure

Meeting regulatory compliance and security requirements costs a lot of time, money and resources. Audit trails, access control, DDoS prevention and secure provisioning of devices are the fundamentals of any enterprise IoT platform — but are just the tip of the iceberg.

Difficult to scale

Each company adopting the IoT has to determine their willingness to provide on- going support and maintenance for the platform, meeting always changing expanding customer expectations. It’s hard to ensure a reliable, secure, scalable service with zero downtime.

In 2025, the number of IoT devices is estimated to be 75 billion (Statista) with 75% anticipated to be connected to an IoT platform (IDC). Key industries including healthcare, insurance, education, environmental and agriculture. 63% of organisations that made IoT investments think that they would obtain the expected financial returns in 3 years. (Gartner). According to an IoT Survey carried out by PwC, the biggest benefits of IoT for businesses have gained new capabilities (35%) and efficiency.

It is inevitable that every business in the world will be embracing the Internet of Things in the future. A key part of this is open eco-systems and partnerships to ensure ease of entry, reliability and flows of information through key stake holders.

To find out more about how Wia, IBM, Interxion and Sure Skills are partnering to solve this, register for the webinar on 16th June 2022 here.

Today, Wia has released the next iteration of the Wia Cloud, an Internet of Things platform designed to enable Real Estate, Operations and Facilities Management teams to understand the performance of their building and make data-based decisions.

This new update brings in a host of new tools and features, namely around three use cases;

• Occupancy and Space Utilisation
• Energy Utilisation
• Regulation Compliance

How it works

Wia offers end-to-end services for a range of smart building solutions including people counting, space utilisation monitoring, energy utilisation monitoring and air-quality monitoring. To achieve this, Wia deploys a constellation of IoT devices to accurately capture data wirelessly. These devices are then connected to a secure, private IoT network. The collected data is sent to the Wia Cloud platform where it is processed and can be visualised and used to make informed operational decisions. Building operators can also set up commands and notifications based on custom triggers such as creating an alert to clean the restrooms after it has been used 40 times.

Covid-19

This release coincides with a significant upheaval of the commercial real estate market caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Global lockdowns and the subsequently proposed return-to-work strategies have exposed a need for building operators to have greater understanding and control over their buildings. The new suite of tools released by Wia enables just that.

Benefits

Return to work

• The suite of tools offered by Wia forms an ideal solution for businesses now facing the difficult task of trying to allow their employees to return to the workplace. By using GDPR compliant people counting sensors, Wia can monitor capacity in real-time at a building, floor or room level and give office planners the information they need to ensure physical distancing and appropriate capacity.

Compliance

• Wia’s compliance-focused analytics help businesses identify when certain key metrics fall below the limits set within definable guidelines, including those set by the HSA regarding Covid-19. Keep track of specific infringements like extended dwell time in a communal zone or meeting room overcapacity.

Safety & Experience

• Investing in solutions like space utilisation or air quality monitoring can provide reassurance for employees that their health and safety is a top priority. Wia’s smart building solutions can also improve workplace experience, improving productivity and job satisfaction which is a key factor for employees deciding whether to work from home or come into the workplace.

Wia is an Internet of Things company based in Dublin. Wia enables building operators to get a holistic understanding of their space by using IoT. Founded by Conall Laverty in 2016, the company won the NDRC Investor Day prize and has subsequently secured investment from the Enterprise Ireland High Potential Startup Fund and Sure Valley Ventures.

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If you’d like any more information, quotes or interviews, please email conall.laverty@wia.io

The construction industry is ripe for disruption. While other industries have embraced the advent of digital technology, construction has fallen behind. Shielded from disruption over the last number of years by relatively inelastic demand, customer intolerance for sub-optimal output may soon force changes in the market.

This may come, as in the case with ‘classic’ disruption, in the form of new, innovative businesses that aim to displace large existing construction companies. This is not certain, however. Incumbent organisations have competitive moats that act as barriers to entry for new firms, and this offers incumbents time to find solutions to the problems in the industry. By acting decisively and being open to radical structural change, existing construction businesses can not only hold or potentially expand their market share, but they can also increase their long term profitability by improving their offering and lengthening their relationship with their customers.

Here are some of the pain points in the industry and the opportunities for innovation that they allow.

Technology Adoption

The most obvious area for potential improvement lies with the adoption of digital technology. Technology has been the most significant harbinger for advancement within an industry over the last 20 years, but the construction sector has remained largely untouched. Construction regularly ranks among the ‘Least Digital’ sectors, with only ‘agriculture and hunting’ labelled as less digitally advanced. There is still a heavy reliance on manual labour and mechanical technology.

Studies have shown that leaders in the construction sector acknowledge that other industries have benefited more from digitalization, but the lack of investment or action to rectify this discrepancy shows that there may be a sentiment of passive acceptance of the missed opportunities, rather than a realisation of the ‘burning platform’.

Technologies such as additive manufacturing (3D Printing) and drones are exciting solutions that would allow builders to be more effective and efficient in the construction phase, but technology with longer-term focus such as Data Analytics and Building Environment Monitoring driven by the Internet of Things could have an even greater impact on the value of their offerings in the long term, which we’ll look at in a moment.

Broken Processes

The need for modernisation goes beyond physical tools, many of the systems and processes within the construction industry haven’t kept up with advancements in other industries. This sector has consistently struggled with internal procedures weighed down by antiquated analogue processes, disconnected communications, and disparate systems.

Project management and execution issues have led to large projects running beyond financial and time budgets with such frequency that has become a common trope. Megaprojects like airport terminals or city highways that are finished on or under budget have become the exception rather than the norm. Where there is ineffectiveness there is opportunity, and the organisational issues plaguing the construction industry are a springboard for new, more innovative businesses or ideas to rise to the top. Digital project management and communication tools are an obvious route to improvement and combining these with more unique, domain-specific technology solutions could yield significantly improved results.

One such example is worker productivity and safety monitoring. Embedded devices in equipment like hard hats or high-vis vests that contain sensors like gyroscopes, accelerometers, location and temperature sensors could greatly improve worker safety by preventing, for example, workers overheating in hot environments, or by immediately detecting if a worker suffers a significant impact like falling from a height. These technologies may also help improve worker productivity by monitoring activity and allowing better allocation of human resources. This is an important issue for the construction industry due to the low rates of productivity compared to similar industries such as manufacturing; Labour-productivity in construction has grown at less than a third of the growth rate of manufacturing over the last 20 years.

Misaligned Stakeholders

Currently, stakeholder networks in the construction industry are highly fragmented and opaque. There is no natural alignment between the various actors within a project. The relationships between architects and contractors, suppliers and site managers, buyers and users etc. are murky at best, or often, at odds with each other.

Similarly, contract structures and incentives are often misaligned. Contracts typically do not include incentives for risk-sharing or innovation, and the relationship between the builder and the user ends much too early in the product life-cycle. Apart from a few contractual obligations, in most cases, the relationship between the design team and build team ends at design handover, before the construction phase even begins, and the relationship between the design & build teams and the user ends when the structure is completed, however, the lifecycle of the product is just beginning and is expected to last for decades more. The discrepancy between the short-term mindset of the design and build teams and the long-term needs of the client invites a conflict of motivation and misalignment of incentives which halts the progress of the industry. This ties in with other existing structural issues within the industry like a lack of transparency.

Market dynamics in construction have remained notably informal in comparison to the more structured nature of other industries. Combined with an opaque pricing structure and information asymmetry between provider and user, this can lead to an increased potential for issues like uncompetitive pricing. Ultimately, competition drives improvement and a lack of transparency can slow an industry down. Moving forward, new or incumbent organisations may be able to derive a source of competitive advantage by introducing a greater level of operational transparency.

Changing the Relationship

At their core, issues of ambiguity and incentive misalignment will have to be solved by changing the nature of the relationships construction organisations have with their customers. These relationships will need to be extended beyond the construction phase and into the long-term life of the structure being built. Businesses in this industry must adjust their view of their offering from a product to a purpose; their job isn’t to build a structure, their job is to give their customers a welcoming, brand-aligned space to run their business, or to provide a warm, comforting place to live, or somewhere secure and space-efficient to store their stock etc. i.e. people don’t want drill bits, they want ¼ inch holes.

A long-term or a full life-cycle focus is a primary component of that. This includes the adoption of new approaches to construction design with concepts like ‘designing for deconstruction’, providing ‘whole-life solutions’, and considering pricing in terms of ‘whole-life cost’ instead of just focusing on the construction costs. Extending a product offering beyond the construction phase with additional services powered by technology like IoT, enables the setting of mutual goals and objectives that allow for collaboration between all stakeholders.

While upon first impression, this may seem like a burden on construction businesses, this change of mindset will actually create opportunities for win-win situations for all stakeholders. Serving the entire spectrum of long term needs will increase customer satisfaction which in turn means increased loyalty. A unified solution i.e. one provider for the entire life of a building, is more cost-effective for both parties compared to a solution provided by a myriad of different organisations, which means higher potential profit margins. Long-term approaches are also generally less impactful on the environment which is good for society and future proofs against legislation like carbon taxes.

Activities like long term Structural Health Monitoring powered by embedded sensors also create opportunities to create new value for businesses by reducing business risk. Additional efficiencies can be created with IoT powered Energy Monitoring Solutions, or Occupancy Analysis. Introducing these technologies at the build stage may reduce installation costs and provide new routes of revenue for construction businesses, including options for continual revenue, while improving the offering they can provide for their users.

By embracing these new technologies, changing their mindset about the services they provide, and lengthening their relationships with customers, businesses in the construction industry can avoid being displaced by disruptive innovation, improve their value offering, and improve long term profitability.

Get in touch

If you want to start exploring the Internet of Things, discover applications of IoT in your industry, or develop your idea from concept to PoC to prototype and into deployment — get in touch with one of our team members by emailing team@wia.io.

As the story goes, a few years before the fall of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev sent a party of diplomats over to London to see if there were any lessons or insights that the Marxist-Leninist State could learn from a Thacher-run Government. The group was welcomed warmly by their hosts, composed of British politicians, economists, and other diplomats, and they set off to see all the sights and sounds of London. After several hours, which included visits to the London School of Economics and the London Stock Exchange, one of the USSR’s key diplomats, his face furrowed in confusion, interrupted his hosts, ‘We’ve been in London for a whole day now, and there’s one thing I cannot understand. Back in Moscow, our finest minds are working on the bread supply system, and yet there are such long queues in every bakery and grocery store’. He was amazed that after spending the entire day in London, he had not seen a single bread queue. ‘Please take me to meet the person in charge of supplying bread to London. I must learn his secret’ he demanded.

Obviously, it need not be said that there was no single person or group of people responsible for bread production in London, the supply was dictated by the demand of the free market. This anecdote is told in Yuval Noah Harari’s ‘Homo Deus’ as an example of the effectiveness of a market that is shaped by the decisions of a network of thousands, millions, or even billions of people as opposed to one deliberately planned by a select group. Understanding the point being made here helps us to understand the massive potential of the Internet of Things in the market.

There are several important ideas being explored in this anecdote about the role of governments, the prevalent mindset of the USSR’s leadership etc. however, the point of value I’d like to focus on is the demonstration of the wisdom of crowds.

Market Efficiency

A market is efficient when it is intelligent. Similar to the complex calculations required to accurately predict the weather, trying to centrally plan a market is very, very difficult due to the sheer volume of different variables and influences at play. As opposed to a group in Moscow dedicated to the management of bread supply, capitalism allowed the free hand of the market to work away with little intervention. The market is made up of millions of decisions made by all relevant stakeholders; if a baker cannot sell their bread and it goes stale they’ll make less tomorrow, if a farmer cannot sell their grain they will grow something else, if the bread is too expensive the consumer won’t buy it and so forth. In this way, the market becomes more efficient because the constituent parties become more efficient; they can quickly adjust their behaviour based on information and feedback. There was only so much information that the ‘finest minds’ in Moscow could process compared to the distributed computational power of an entire population with their much shorter feedback loops.

Digital Supply Networks

The more data within a market, the more effective that market becomes.

Enter Digital Supply Networks

Digital Supply Networks (DSNs) are an evolution of the traditional value chain which incorporates the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, big data, automation and other machine to machine (M2M) communication technologies to produce a more interconnected, agile supply chain. While sometimes thought of as just referring to digital goods, DSNs are also used for physical goods. These new approaches to operations are set to transform the traditional linear supply chain into an integrated system with multidirectional, real-time communication between nodes.

Source: Deloitte

DSNs don’t replace the current model of the free-market but enhance and enable it to become exponentially more intelligent and efficient. They integrate information from many different sources to optimize production and distribution. Just as a decision made by the many is better than a decision made by the few, a decision made with access to an order of magnitude more information is significantly better than decisions made otherwise.

DSNs in Practice

An interesting example of DSNs in action is found in Deloitte’s Industry 4.0 in Government Report:

In a make-shift garage at a remote army base overseas, a mechanic is working on a broken-down army vehicle. The mechanic scans the QR code on the side of the vehicle to bring up the schematics of the jeep in his wrist-mounted display and can immediately identify the issue — ‘The front strut brace is broken and will need to be replaced’ he reports to his sergeant. ‘We’ll need it fixed by tonight’ his commanding officer orders.

The mechanic’s cloud-based digital assistant overhears this conversation through the microphone in his watch, which it parses together with natural languaging processing and combines it with the other background information it can gather — the scanned QR code, geographic location, the capabilities of their base etc. The digital assistant connects other sources of information too: it contacts the inventory system of the vehicle manufacturer to see if they have the part — they do but their factory is thousands of miles away, much too far to reach. The assistant manages to find one in stock at the nearest army supply depot several miles away through a contested mountainous region — closer but still too far to reach before the deadline. Finally, the assistant learns that a metal 3D printing unit arrived on based last week for testing and based on the information in its datasheet, it would be capable of producing a temporary replacement part that should last for a few days.

The digital assistant relays this information to the mechanic who takes control and puts a plan in motion. 1) A CAD file is sent to the 3D printer to produce the temporary replacement part over the next few hours. 2) An order is sent to an autonomous drone to fly to the supply depot and retrieve the permanent replacement part. 3) A restock request is sent to the manufacturer to send over more strut braces to the supply depot next week.

While possibly a bit over-dramatic, the story does illustrate the power that Digital Supply Networks can have. Each decision made is much more complex and well-informed in this example than the previous bread line example, and thus, the market is much more sophisticated. It’s worth noting too that while the narrative is fictitious, the technologies mentioned are certainly not beyond the realms of what is commercially available today.

Let’s look at an example a little closer to home. Imagine a supermarket with a supply chain that processes so much data that it can accurately predict new trends in consumer behaviour far enough in advance to adjust production and make sure stock levels will meet demand. No more perishable stock being sold below cost or wasted.

The advantages of this example aren’t solely on the business-side, the customer will also benefit. A consumer could upload his specific weekly meal plan, which has been designed to fit his specific nutritional needs and tastes, into his smart fridge. The fridge communicates with the supermarket and automatic delivery is set up for the precise amount of everything necessary for each meal. The average Irish person produces over 200 kilos of food waste every year. Not only would this significantly reduce waste, but deliveries could also be scheduled so that each ingredient is delivered to be used at its freshest.

While these are just two off-hand examples, the most impactful use cases are ones that have yet to be thought up. It’s impossible to know the limits of this technology as we are still in its relative infancy, but one thing that we do know is that its impact is going to be significant.

Managing Change

The Internet of Things and other technologies within DSNs will have a profound impact on production and the open market. While certainly a positive change, there must be conscious and deliberate efforts to manage the effects of these changes to make sure the benefits are evenly shared.

The improved efficiency of DSNs will have significant effects on competition, with companies who have the resources to create these networks standing to rise substantially ahead of those who don’t. Antitrust laws and other policies will need to be introduced by legislators to prevent market oligopolization and governments may need to further increase their role as facilitators in order to build an arena in which free and competitive trade can take place.

Another issue arising could be the reduced need for humans. Greater access to data will improve automation and thus reduce human involvement in the value chain. While some forecast that this will not replace workers, but rather enable them to do more, it’s hard to imagine this not eventually creating redundancy and will likely mean fewer people employed in industries with established DSNs. It goes without saying that this may have a significant impact on entire societies. Further research and testing of solutions like universal basic income, automation tariffs, or very high progressive taxation need to advance quickly to reduce friction in DSN adoption.

While these problems may seem intimidating, the advancement of this technology is still absolutely worthwhile. The Industrial Revolution was rallied against by the Luddites, but it led to the greatest improvement in the standard of living in human history. The same can happen again with the increased use of IoT, automation, and big data analysis in the market.

Progress Underway

While discussing changes of this magnitude may seem like science fiction, the use of digital supply networks is already taking place. The Internet of Things is already beginning to revolutionize things like factory production lines and transport location tracking. These changes, while still of course at smaller scales, are indicators of more significant applications to come, including use-cases that we have yet to imagine.

At Wia, we help business build and deploy Internet of Things solutions. If you want to start exploring the Internet of Things, discover applications of IoT in your industry, or develop your idea from PoC to prototype and into deployment — get in touch with one of our team members by emailing team@wia.io.

Physical retail is an area which hasn’t historically been a hotbed of innovation or rapid adoption of new technology. This has made it all the more exciting over the last number of years to see the predicted rise in the use of IoT and a potential renaissance of brick and mortar stores.

But despite all the buzz, IoT has yet to take a substantial hold of the retail industry. The revolution certainly hasn’t been stopped in its tracks, but it has come slower than originally predicted. Let’s examine three significant use-cases for IoT in the retail industry — one poised for widespread adoption, one trudging through the chasm, and one that is just beginning its journey on the hype curve. For each, we can explore the reasons for their position in the technology adoption lifecycle.

(1) In-Store Analytics — Poised for Mainstream Adoption

In-Store Analytics is driven by connected devices like traditional cameras, passive infrared sensors, Lidar, or other sensors which gather data and paint an accurate, quantitative picture of the environment within a store. These data points can be used to find an array of actionable insights like heatmaps to identify dead zones, customer count over time, mean customer duration, conversion rates, etc. Peter Drucker’s ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it’ sentiment certainly applies here, so these insights are invaluable if retail managers are to effectively take action to improve these KPIs.

These concepts will be familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in digital analytics or e-commerce which is why this is a particularly interesting case study; It is an example of members within a disrupted industry learning from the innovations of the disrupter. Store managers are using analytics and iterative testing to improve user experience and conversions and in doing so are following the path of nearly every website and e-commerce store in existence. Retailers are finally beginning to reduce the information asymmetry that exists between brick and mortar stores and their online counterparts, which for many businesses, can’t come soon enough.

Unlike the other examples we’ll talk about in this article, in-store analytics technology is unlikely to suffer the cost of a long struggle through the chasm or the ‘trough of disillusionment’, as the benefits have already been established thanks to the popularity of digital data analytics. Early majority decision-makers have the reassurance of comparable successful use-cases that already exist in the e-commerce world that they can reference. Even more convincing, they themselves may already be using online data analytics and thus understand the positive impact that it can have — this technology is just an expansion onto that.

(2) In-store Bluetooth Beacons — Trudging Through the Chasm

Given the hype around what looked like a technology set to fundamentally change how people shopped, it’s remarkable how quickly in-store Bluetooth beacons have fallen into relative disuse. In 2013 Apple announced it’s iBeacon technology, which was met with reports detailing how it would alter the course of consumer shopping forever (see the Washington Post’s How Beacons Could Change The World article). The following year Macy’s announced a roll-out of beacons to all of their US store’s following successful trials in a handful of locations.

Despite this promising initial outlook, beacons have yet to make an impact with a mainstream audience. Considering the potential this technology has, it is unlikely that it will fade away or even remain in the chasm for much longer, but considerable changes will need to occur before it can begin to find the success it was promised. There are a number of smaller reasons why beacons have failed to take hold thus far, but ultimately, the most significant is that consumers don’t really want to use them.

For beacons to be effective, they require a substantial amount of opt-in from the user — users have to have the store’s app downloaded, have their Bluetooth turned on, have push-notifications turned on and, in some cases, have specifically enabled beacon notifications. What does a user get in return for all this effort? Usually just a bunch of ads with an occasional discount thrown in.

Unlike the previous example, the successful implementation of this technology relies on action being taken not only from the people within the company but also external stakeholders i.e. the customers. We can see a clear mismatch here between action and incentives; both parties have to make behavioural changes but only the retailer really sees any benefit.

Retailers have yet to crack a killer application that makes shoppers want to interact with the beacons, so unless this happens, or the friction can be reduced so much that it almost no action needs to be taken by the customers, then this technology will remain rebuked mainstream audiences for the time being.

(3) Checkout-Less Stores

A substantial portion of mainstream media coverage of IoT tech in retail in the last year has covered these ‘stores of the future’, the most notable of which is Amazon Go.

When a user enters an Amazon Go store, they scan a QR code on their phone to identify themselves as they walk through a turnstile. The in-store cameras then track that person, identify when they pick up and item, and charge it their amazon account, meaning the customer can simply walk out of the store — no checkout necessary. After a test run in their hometown of Seattle, Amazon has since expanded with stores in New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

While this example may seem like a great success, I’m cautious about getting swept up in the hype just yet. While certainly a shakeup to the traditional retail model, the mainstream adoption of this technology would require behaviour changes amongst a notoriously stubborn audience — the general public. Similarly to the previous use-case, we’ve noted that external action requires incentive. For mainstream consumers, the question remains to be seen as to whether or not the benefits associated with using a checkout-free store are great enough to overcome inertia.

Checkout-less stores must also overcome another obstacle, human emotion. Most consumers do not make purchasing decisions entirely rationally but instead, are motivated by a complex system of emotions and innate feelings. While potentially an improvement when shopping is viewed as merely utilitarian, stores without human workers may be viewed as unwelcoming for those seeking more experiential interactions. This could shape the direction that checkout-less stores take with sectors that revolve around rapid, low-involvement consumer buying decisions like newsagents being much more suitable for the adoption of this technology than sectors with very high-involvement consumer buying decisions such as wedding dress boutiques.

Personally, after the initial curiosity and novelty wanes, I don’t think that the marginal time savings outweigh the widely held aversion to changes in behaviour. With that being said, Amazon has a number of routes to try and motivate these actions. The most obvious is a simple one: money. There is a clear cost reduction in not having to hire checkout staff, so, in order to push this tech across the chasm, Amazon could graciously pass these savings over to the end consumer in the short term and gradually recoup these fees as use becomes normalized.

Again, in order to cross the chasm and avoid the trough of disillusionment, either the friction in using this technology should be reduced so much that it is negligible or the action required should become properly incentivised.

The Fruits of Technology

IoT is going to have a massive positive impact on the retail industry, but it doesn’t happen by accident. Retailers and technologists need to be deliberate in driving adoption into the mainstream and make sure that they thoroughly understand the motivations of their users.

Technology adoption is not a zero-sum game, benefits can and should be shared between the supply- and demand-side stakeholders. When this happens, technology is not only begrudgingly adopted but welcomed with open arms.

Have you had any experiences with these IoT use cases & do you think checkout-less stores are ready to cross the chasm and get mainstream adoption? Let us know in the comments!

About Wia

Wia is a Dublin-based IoT startup which helps people and businesses build smart connected things. Reach out to us at team@wia.io to tell us about your next IoT project

Requirements

You will need

• 1x Wia Dot One
• 1x Wia Button Module
• 1x Micro USB cable
• 1x Mobile device, ex. Smartphone
• 1x Wia Cloud

Connecting the components

Insert the Button module on top of the Wia Dot One. Take care to connect the module pointing in the correct direction as shown on the picture above. You will notice that the rounded corners of the boards correspond to each other when inserted correctly.

Now connect the Wia Dot One to your computer with the micro USB cable. A solid red light should appear on the board. We are finished connecting everything we need!

Configuring your Dot One device

Follow these steps to set up your Dot One:

• On your smartphone, head to the App Store. Search for the Wia App and install it on your phone.
• Once the app is installed, create an account or sign in and select one of your Lab spaces. Navigate to the Devices tab and click on Add Device.
• Select Wia as the device manufacturer and click on Next. Select Dot One as the device model and continue. If requested by the app, press allow for Bluetooth and Location access.
• Click the Scan button to begin the search for your device. You should now be able to see your device listed on the list — click on it and give complete WiFi access details so the Dot One can be controlled remotely later. Enter a name for your Dot One and head to your email — you should soon receive an invite to begin programming!

That’s it configured!

Programming your Dot One

Navigate to the Code tab on the left sidebar and select Create Code Project.

For this tutorial we demonstrate the Blocks Project feature — we recommend this option for all beginners as it is simpler and faster for our project. Wia will then translate your blocks into code for the Dot One. Feel free to select Code Project if you are more advanced and are comfortable with writing the code yourself.

You can now drag blocks onto the diagram to express what actions you would like the Dot One to perform. In this tutorial we want to send a Wia Event each time the button is pressed — later we will make the Wia Dashboard send us an email each time that the button has been pressed.

1. Go to the Comms tab and drag the block Connect to WiFi onto your diagram.
2. In the Logic tab you will find an If/Do block. This allows us to express a condition. Drag this block and connect it underneath your WiFi block.
3. Open Wia > Modules and drag the block Button Pressed onto your diagram. Connect it to the right side of the [If] word. You’re almost there!
4. Now in Wia > Cloud drag the Create Event block and connect it just right of the Do word.
5. Then change the event name from “my-event” to “ButtonPressed”. Complete!

You can compare your diagram with our version below. You will notice that while you were adding the blocks to the control diagram, Wia translated them in real time on the right to the code which will soon be uploaded to the Dot One.

Uploading your program

Still in the block editor, press on the rocket icon on the top right of the window. Select your device from the given options and hit the upload button.

When the platform confirms the code is deployed, press the Reset button — the button left of the USB cable — and wait until the LED stops flashing.

If the Dot One is still connected to the WiFi, the code will be automatically uploaded and start running automatically. That’s it!

Configuring Flows — Sending Emails

First, let’s confirm that you are receiving an event when the button is pressed. Navigate to the Wia Dashboard and select your Dot One in the Devices tab. Go to the Debugger, press the button and wait a few seconds for the event to come in. Try refreshing the page to update the list. Once the first event comes in, you can view the Event history in the Events tab. Great!

Now head to the Flows tab and create a new Flow for this project. A flow is a program which defines how the Wia platform will respond to incoming events.

Let’s start with placing the “Event Created” block. What this block allows us to do is start the flow each time that an event is created by a device. As we already sent an event previously called ButtonPressed, we select this event from the dropdown list. Next we select the device which will send the event, and press Update. This block is now ready.

The next block we want to place is found in the Action tab. We will use the Email block to specify that an email should be sent each time an event is created. After filling out all the details of the Email block, we connect the two blocks. Once you leave the Flow page, your new configuration will become active.

Congratulations! Your new IoT device is up and running!

Troubleshooting

Events send even when button is not pressed?

Make sure the board is connected in the correct way — remember, the corners of the module and the Dot One should correspond with each other.

Make sure you are not touching the bottom of the Dot One with your fingers — you may accidentally lead to electrostatic discharge, which will impact the proper operation of the devices. Some things which can happen include resetting the device, sending a false button input or even permanently damaging the device.

Dot One device is not appearing during scan?

It is possible your device needs to be reconfigured to a new WiFi. Try the below steps:

• Hold down both buttons on the Dot One for 1 second
• With the USB cable pointing towards you, release the left button and keep pressing the right button for 12 more seconds
• Click on the “Refresh” button to scan for your device.

In this tutorial, we will send an event to Wia using Android Things.

Components

• Raspberry Pi (We used a Raspberry Pi 3 Model)
• PIR Sensor
• USB Cable
• Jumper wires

You will also need Android Studio and a Wia account. You can download the latest version of Android Studio here.

Wia is a cloud platform to support your Internet of Things devices. You can sign up or login here.

Getting Started

First, we need to install Android Things onto the raspberry pi. Click here to go to the Android Things console, and sign in using a google account.

Create a product and choose Raspberry Pi as the SOM, name it what you like, and save.

You will be taken to this page. Click on your model:

Click on NEW and choose Start from scratch from the drop down menu.

Name your build. Keep all of the default settings by clicking Next on each step. Then click create build.

Your build is now available for download. Download the file and choose production.

Once the file has downloaded, unzip it. The file will take a moment to expand. You will get a .img file.

Burning the SD Card

Next, burn the image to the SD card. We used Etcher to do this. You can download Etcher here.

Insert the SD card into your computer and open Etcher. Select the image we just downloaded and select the SD card, then click Flash. Then, remove the SD card from your computer and insert it into the raspberry pi.

Connect the raspberry pi to an ethernet cable and use a USB to connect the raspberry pi to a 5V power source. Use an HDMI to connect the raspberry pi to a monitor and obtain the IP address. You will need the IP address later.

Wiring the Hardware

Use this diagram to help you connect the hardware:

Connect a USB to the raspberry pi and your computer. Connect the HDMI cable to a monitor and the raspberry pi.

Set up your space in Wia

If you don’t already have a Wia account, you can sign up here, it’s free.

In the Wia dashboard, click Create a New Space. In the left sidebar, navigate to Devices and click Add Device. We used the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. Name your device anything you like.

Once your device is added, navigate to the Configuration tab. Here you will find your device's secret key, which starts with d_sk. You will need this key later.

Development

Open Android Studio and start a new project. Fill in the required fields:

Click next. For the target devices, select only Android Things

Click next. Choose Empty Activity

Click next and then Finish.

In the left sidebar, click Gradle Scripts > build.gradle (Module: app), and enter this line of code in dependencies:

implementation 'io.wia:wia-android-sdk:0.3.1'

Your screen should look like this:

Now, it’s time to connect the raspberry pi to our project. You need to know the IP address of the raspberry pi for this step. In the terminal, run this command:

adb connect Your-Raspberry-Pi-IP-address)

Open Android Studio. Copy and paste this code into MainActivity.java:

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;

import android.util.Log;

import com.google.android.things.pio.Gpio;
import com.google.android.things.pio.PeripheralManager;

import io.reactivex.Observable;
import io.reactivex.android.schedulers.AndroidSchedulers;
import io.reactivex.schedulers.Schedulers;
import io.wia.Wia;

import io.wia.WiaEvent;

public class MainActivity extends Activity implements MotionsSensor.Listener {

    private static final String GPIO_PIN = "BCM18";
    private PirMotionSensor motionSensor;
    private static final String TAG = "TEST";
    private Gpio mGpio;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        PeripheralManager pms = PeripheralManager.getInstance();
        try {
            mGpio = pms.openGpio(GPIO_PIN);
            motionSensor = new PirMotionSensor(mGpio, this);
            motionSensor.startup();
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            Log.d(TAG, "failing", ex);
        }
        Log.d(TAG, "IN ON CREATE FUNCTION.");

        Wia.initialize(new Wia.Configuration.Builder(this.getApplicationContext())
                .server("https://api.wia.io/v1")
                .build()
        );
        //replace this with your own device secret key 
        Wia.accessToken("your-device-secret-key");

    }

    @Override
    public void onMovement() {
        Log.d(TAG, "in onMovement");
        Log.d(TAG, "MOVEMENT DETECTED");
        Observable<WiaEvent> result = Wia.createEvent("motion");
        result.subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
                .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
                .subscribe(response -> {
                    Log.d(TAG, "In onMovement function");
                }, error -> {
                    Log.d(TAG, "ERROR IN MOVEMENT EVENT");
                });
    }

In the code, locate this line, around line 45 in Android Studio:

//replace this with your own device secret key 
        Wia.accessToken("your-device-secret-key");

Change "your-device-secret-key" to your own device secret key. This can be found in the Wia Dashboard in your space > device > configurations. The key starts with d_sk.

In the left hand menu, navigate to App > Java and right click on the package name. Choose New > New Java Class and name it PirMotionSensor.

Then, copy and paste this code into the class PirMotionSensor :

import android.util.Log;

import com.google.android.things.pio.Gpio;
import com.google.android.things.pio.GpioCallback;

import java.io.IOException;

public class PirMotionSensor implements MotionsSensor {
    private final Gpio bus;
    private final MotionsSensor.Listener listener;

    PirMotionSensor(Gpio bus, Listener listener) {
        this.bus = bus;
        this.listener = listener;
    }

    @Override
    public void startup() {
        try {
            bus.setDirection(Gpio.DIRECTION_IN);
            bus.setActiveType(Gpio.ACTIVE_HIGH);
            bus.setEdgeTriggerType(Gpio.EDGE_FALLING);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("Sensor can't start", e);
        }
        try {
            bus.registerGpioCallback(callback);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("Sensor can't register callback", e);
        }
    }

    private final GpioCallback callback = new GpioCallback() {
        @Override
        public boolean onGpioEdge(Gpio gpio) {
            listener.onMovement();
            return true; // True to continue listening
        }
    };

    @Override
    public void shutdown() {
        bus.unregisterGpioCallback(callback);
        try {
            bus.close();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            Log.e("TEST", "Failed to shut down. You might get errors next time you try to start.", e);
        }
    }

}

In the lefthand menu, navigate again to App > Java and right click on the package name. Choose New > New Java Class. In the pop-up screen, change the field Kind to Interface instead of Class. Name the interface MotionsSensor.

Then, copy and paste this code into the interface:

public interface MotionsSensor {
    void startup();

    void shutdown();

    interface Listener {
        void onMovement();
    }
}

Click run and in the next screen choose Google_Iot_rpi3 as the device.

Go back to the Wia Dashboard. In the debugger tab, you can see your events appearing in real time! Each time motion is detected, and event is being sent to Wia.

To take this a step farther, you can use the Wia platform to send you a notification when motion is detected.

Wia Flows

In the left sidebar, navigate to Flows and add a new flow. Name it anything you like. From the Trigger tab, drag over a Create Event node. Name this node motion and select your device.

Next, in the Logic tab, drag over a run-function node. Copy and paste this code into the box:

if (input.body.name == "motion") { 
  output.body.data = "motion detected"; 
}
else {
  output.body.data = "no motion"; 
}

Connect the nodes by dragging the orange dots.

Then, in the Action tab, drag over a Notification node. Enter "Motion detected!" as the message. When motion is detected, this flow will send a notification to the Wia mobile app.

PIR Sensor Sensitivity Measures

The PIR Sensor allows you to change the Delay Time as well as the Sensitivty Level.

The PIR Sensor is a digital device. This means that it reads two values: HIGH and LOW. When the sensor detects movement, it reads HIGH. Otherwise, it reads LOW.

The Delay setting determines how long the PIR Sensor will read HIGH after it has detected a motion. The Sensitivity Sensor determines the proximity at which the PIR Sensor will register a movement. This sensor is more accurate when it is set to a lower proximity level. You can control these settings using the orange panels located directly across from the pins you used to wire your device.

Components

• Wia Account. You can create one here
• Sigfox Sens’It
• USB to Micro USB Cable

Connect the Sens’It to the Sigfox App

First, plug in your Sens ‘It to ensure it stays charged. Then, follow this link to Sigfox’s platform for the Sens ‘It. In the upper right corner, click Launch App.

Choose to Activate a Sens'It. The Device ID is written on the back of the Sens'It. Enter the Device ID into the box.

Continue and add your location. Follow the prompts to finish activating the Sens’It.

Get the PAC

Once the Sens’It is activated, launch the app. In the left side menu, select the name of your device. Then, in the upper right corner, select Sens'It details

On the right bottom of the page, click the blue button for Get my PAC. The next display will show your PAC. You will need this later.

Connect the Sens’It to the Sigfox Backend

Follow this link to register your device so you can configure it in the Sigfox backend. Enter your location and click Next.

You will be prompted to enter your Device ID and PAC. The Device ID is the number on the back of the Sens'It. The PAC is the sequence we found in the last step.

Continue to the Account step and create an account. Finish and confirm.

Now, follow this link to the Sigfox backend. Enter your login details for the account you just created.

Send events to Wia

Wia has a Sigfox integration available, so you can connect your sigfox device to the Wia platform.

CREATE API KEYS

• In the Sigfox backend, go to Group > [Your group name] > API Access > New
• Select DEVICES_MESSAGES [R]

Once checked, an API login and password will be created for you.

ADD API KEYS TO WIA

• Go to the Wia dashboard.
• Open the Space dropdown, by clicking on the Space name in the top left corner, and click Settings. Select Integrations in the sidebar.

• Enter your API Access Login and Password. Note: This is not the one you use to login to the Sigfox backend dashboard, it is the one you just created.
• You should now see your Inbound Key for Sigfox created.

SETUP YOUR SIGFOX CALLBACK

• Go back to the Sigfox backend
• Select Device Type, then under name column of the device type list you would like to integrate
• On the left, select Callbacks (If there are any Wia callbacks already there, remove them)
• Click New in the top left corner to create a new callback
• Select Custom Callback

Enter the values below in each of the fields:

• Type: DATA UPLINK
• Channel: URL
• Url pattern: https://api.wia.io/v1/events
• Use HTTP method: POST

Headers

• Content Type: application/json
• Body: Copy and paste the text below.

{
  "integrations":{
    "sigfox":{
      "id":"{device}"
    }
  },
  "name":"sigfoxDataUplink",
  "data":{
    "sigfoxData":"{data}",
    "time":"{time}",
    "duplicate":"{duplicate}",
    "snr":"{snr}",
    "station":"{station}",
    "avgSnr":"{avgSnr}",
    "lat":"{lat}",
    "lng":"{lng}",
    "rssi":"{rssi}",
    "seqNumber":"{seqNumber}"
  }
}

Click OK to save the callback.

Once your device sends an event it will automatically appear in the Wia dashboard.

Today we’re going to show you how to create a Sigfox mail notifier using Wia and the Pycom SiPy.

This tutorial assumes that you have already connected Sigfox to Wia if you haven’t, please click here to find a tutorial for initial Sigfox setup and publishing data to Wia.

Components

• Pycom SiPy
• Pycom Expansion Board
• Sigfox compatible antenna
• Mobile device (iOS or Android)
• HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor

Setup your board

• Connect the SiPy to the Expansion board. (The Pycom logos should face the same way)
• Connect the Sigfox antenna to the SiPy. The connection is the small gold circle on the bottom left of the SiPy board. Simply snap the antenna in place.

For the HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor, you’ll need to connect the following pins to the Pycom SiPy:

• HC-SR0 | Pycom
• Vcc -> Vin
• Trig -> G8
• echo -> G7
• Gnd -> GND

Setup Your Project

in Atom:

• Create a new folder for your project. I’m going to call mine sigfox-mailbox
• In Atom, go to File > New Window to open a new window
• Add your newly created folder by clicking File > Add Project Folder and navigating to it
• If the Pymakr plugin is not open at the bottom of your Atom window, click on the arrow on the right hand side to open it
• Select Settings > Project Settings. In the address field replace the value with the device name from the step above e.g. /dev/tty.usbmodemPy343431 (Mac OS X), COM3 (Windows), /dev/ttyACM0 (Linux) then save the file

Publish a sigfox Event for our mail

We’ll need three files for our application:

• boot.py which is run when the device is powered up
• main.py which is where our main code is
• ultrasonic.py is where is our functions for obtaining distance and calibration

In Atom:

• Right click on your project and click New File. Enter boot.py as the filename
• Copy and paste the code below into the file

from machine import UART
import machine
import os

uart = UART(0, baudrate=115200)
os.dupterm(uart)

machine.main('main.py')

• Right click on your project and click New File. Enter main.py as the filename
• Copy and paste the code below into the file

import time
import pycom
import socket
from network import Sigfox
from machine import Pin, Timer
import ultrasonic

pycom.heartbeat(False)

echo = Pin(Pin.exp_board.G7, mode=Pin.IN)
trigger = Pin(Pin.exp_board.G8, mode=Pin.OUT)
trigger(0)

# Get the chronometer object
chrono = Timer.Chrono()

# init Sigfox for RCZ1 (Europe)
sigfox = Sigfox(mode=Sigfox.SIGFOX, rcz=Sigfox.RCZ1)
# create a Sigfox socket
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_SIGFOX, socket.SOCK_RAW)
# make the socket blocking
s.setblocking(True)
# configure it as uplink only
s.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SIGFOX, socket.SO_RX, False)

calabrated_distance = ultrasonic.calabration(chrono, trigger, echo, 1)
mailed_distance = 0
while True:
    time.sleep(30)
    distance = ultrasonic.getDistance(chrono, trigger, echo)
    print("distance: {}, calabration: {}".format(distance, calabrated_distance))
    if distance < calabrated_distance:
        if distance != mailed_distance:
            s.send('') # Send 1 bit
            print("you got mail")
            mailed_distance = ultrasonic.calabration(chrono, trigger, echo)

• Right click on your project and click New File. Enter ultrasonic.py as the filename
• Copy and paste the code below into the file

from machine import Pin, Timer
import pycom
import time
import socket

def calabration(chrono, trigger, echo, led = False):
    if led:
        pycom.rgbled(0x7f0000) # red
    prev_distance = 0
    distance = getDistance(chrono, trigger, echo)
    print("calibration distance is {}".format(distance))
    count = 0
    while True:
        prev_distance = distance
        distance = getDistance(chrono, trigger, echo)
        while prev_distance == distance:
            count+=1
            print("count: {}".format(count))
            if count > 5:
                if led:
                    pycom.rgbled(0x007f00) # green
                    time.sleep(1.5)
                    pycom.rgbled(0) # off
                return distance
            time.sleep(5)
            prev_distance = distance
            distance = getDistance(chrono, trigger, echo)
        else:
            count = 0

def getDistance(chrono, trigger, echo):
    chrono.reset()
    trigger(1)
    time.sleep_us(10)
    trigger(0)

    while echo() == 0:
        pass
    chrono.start()

    while echo() == 1:
        pass
    chrono.stop()

    distance = chrono.read_us() / 58.0
    if distance > 400:
        return -1
    else:
        return int(distance)

    time.sleep(1)

Your folder structure should now look like this:

• ultrasonic.py
• boot.py
• main.py

Click Upload in the Pymakr plugin at the bottom of your window in Atom and send the code to your Pycom board. Now go to the Wia dashboard and you should see data appearing in the debugger section of your dashboard.

In order for the sensor to operate correctly, it needs to calibrate the distance inside you mail box.

CALABRATION

To calibrate the sensor, place the sensor in the mailbox where its suits best. Power the board; when the LED on the board is red, the sensor is calibrating; once the LED flashes green, the sensor has been calibrated. The sensor needs at-least 2cm of space in order for it to operate correctly.

Now when mail is inserted into your mailbox, the distance will be reduced from the calibrated distance and the code will publish an Event via Sigfox to Wia.

Send a Push Notification

Now for the next step, once we recieve the Sigfox event in Wia, we will send a notification to any connected phones that there is mail. For this we need to build a Flow.

Head over to your Wia dashboard and in the Space where your Sigfox device is held. From there click on the Flow icon in the left hand menu to go your Flows.

Now to create your Flow, you can name it whatever you like. Once you have created a Flow, you should be taken to the Flow studio.

In the Flow studio:

• Drag the trigger event node from the left hand side onto the canvas
• Click on the node and enter sigfoxDataUplink as the event name
• Enable your Sigfox Device as the event source

Now we are going add a notification for the Sigfox Event so we get notified of our inbound mail. To do this, you will require the Wia mobile app. You can download it for iOS here and Android here.

In the Flow Studio editor:

• Drag over a notification node and enter the following text

You've got Mail!

Now you should receive Sigfox data to your mobile device.

Build a Smart Mailbox with Sigfox and Pycom was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.