Nerd Stalker

We look forward to some things to see at IoT Tech Expo Photo courtesy of IoT Tech Exposition N ext week, the IoT Tech Expo comes to Silicon Valley for two days from October 20-21. Here are some of our must sees at the conference.

Perseus Mirrors Launches Smart Mirror on Kickstarter Today Everyone’s favorite topic? Themselves, of course!  So it’s no surprise that a recent poll found that the average person spends more than 38 minutes in front of the mirror every day. Perseus Mirrors , a startup based in New York, is claiming that they can help users look and feel better by making the most of this time. The team has recently announced plans to release the world's first consumer focused smart mirror. This device features a built in display and wifi connection, allowing users to display relevant information and to stream audio and video straight to their mirror.

IBM and 360Fashion Network Team Up to Bring China's High Energy Show to San Francisco Photo Credit: GSMA 360Fashion & Tech Runway Show - Shanghai This is not CES. IBM and 360Fashion Network has teamed up to bring the high energy fashion & tech show from China to the San Francisco Bay Area, November 3 at the City View at Metreon . The production is quite amazing as the Nerd Stalker crew were given an exclusive preview to the event last night. In our first impression, a fashion show is part display, theatrics and with tech mixed in. Quite an interesting visionary mix that anyone would want to experience. With the wearable world exploding, this event promises to merge the two worlds meet more in the middle. Also, the event is highlighting San Francisco State University Apparel Design and Merchandising students in an area called the "Startup Garden."  Apply here to attend. For a more in depth look, we caught up with Anina.net, the founder and CEO of 36...

IoT Growth Hurdles Raised by Security, Software Interoperability amongst others Our friends at NJIT, aka New Jersey Institute of Technology, put together the following infographic on what the beginning of the next decade will look like for IoT. As the infographic state, 1.9 billion devices are connected today. But, in a recent Entrepreneur article " what could be limiting IoT growth will be Security and Software Interoperability ." As pointed in the infographic below, Security, Lack of Interoperatbility, Massive Data, Wireless Connectivity Costs, and Power Consumption are some of the hurdles that need to be solved in the coming decade. However, there will still be use cases driving IoT. For example, current use cases amongst municipalities will be through utilities and traffic. CIO of San Francisco, Mario Gamiño predicted that " Edge Computing ", putting algorithms into local devices, could drive IoT in cities in the area of transportation. The McKinsey Globa...

We follow a lot of the chip companies as they position for chunks and pieces of the IoT landscape. The players are the chip gorillas - Intel, Samsung and some are part of the ARM consortium. The chips or ICs lay the foundation for creativity in the IoT space and low power is the key. Some brands do it through education and some through engaging the IoT startup community and others both. Atmel seems to have a handle in the "both" category. We catch up with Atmel's Bob Martin and he takes us through some highlighted IoT Atmel-using startups at a recent Maker Faire.

The evolving IoT space continues to evolve as chip makers gear-up for more powerful yet lower power devices. Enter Cypress Semiconductor, who has spent years on the programmable  System-on-a Chip (SOC) technology which has enabled consumer items like your Sonicare toothbrush and the old but not forgotten selection wheel on an iPod . Cypress is trying to carve out a space in the IoT market with Bluetooth Low Energy(BLE) technology married to their PSoC devices. Too technical? This means your BLE device can be smarter and can control more complex things.  We caught up with Gagan Luthra of Cypress Semiconductor at the last Maker Faire Bay Area to discuss their latest BLE offering. Check it out!

Just within a short span of a few weeks the latest in Internet of Things (IoT) came to the Bay Area - IoT world and Wearable World were just a few big events happening. At the last Maker Faire Bay Area, we caught up with Zach Shelby of ARM to talk about what ARM sees as the latest in the IoT landscape. If you still don't know ARM, they are found in most Mobile and Arduino boards. Zach discusses what IoT currently looks like with some of the challenges that the industry is facing and how ARM is addressing it. Give it a view!

In our first year covering Dreamforce 2014, we stumbled upon a unique cloud service solution. At the NTT Group booth, we stalked an interesting IoT application - Intelligent toilets. Toto has conceptualized the intelligent toilet for years and now has partnered with NTT PC Communications to develop a pure secure cloud solution integrated with the Salesforce's service cloud. Egested gas is detected by a gas sensor and its data is sent to a middle-ware/IoT secured network called IP-WARP. This middle-ware in the secure IoT network can take the data, analyze the data and encrypts the data which can then be accessed by the user or by a cloud solution like Salesforce. 

Picture Courtesy of Founders Space If you are bullish on the Internet of Things,(IoT) you will love this.  In this video, we sat down with Founders Space CEO an angel investor, Steve Hoffman on why everyone is bullish on IoT and why you should be. Exciting times ahead. 

On September 24, Founders Space is holding a Venture Capital(VC) and Internet of Things (IoT) event at Pillsbury - Palo Alto. We talk with Founders Space CEO, Steve Hoffman on why everyone is bullish on IoT. Especially VCs like   Intel Capital,  SanDisk Ventures and more will tell you where they are investing.  Check out why you should attend. 

We continue our Kickstart Unboxed series on Kickstarter entrepreneurs and their stories. Earlier this year, a supposed unvalidated claim of a refrigerator sending spam email was reported. In the Internet of Things(IOT) era, security, virus and malware vulnerability is a possibilty. We found a product on Kickstarter, called  iGuardian , which stops viruses and malware before they enter your home network device. We speak with Jock Breitwieser (Bright-wise-er) and Daniel Ayoub of itus Networks and creators of iGuardian. Daniel and Jock give a glimpse of their so-far successful Kickstarter campaign. Listen to their learnings about Kickstarter.

ARM claims it is the "Architecture for the Digital World" and with its shipment of 10 Billion devices last year and claiming the long time held processor throne of Intel in the market, I would say they are spot on. ARM is now ready to take on the Internet of Things. ARM is in a great position as it licenses its technology. At the 2014 Maker Faire, we caught up with Dominic Pajak, Embedded Strategist at ARM as he talks about how ARMs architecture will enable the Internet of Things (IoT).