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thethings.iO introduces you to the Tactile Internet

Tactile Internet

Is it possible to touch your daughter’s cheek while you are talking to her via Skype? Or to take a piano class from Tokyo if you’re in London? In a near future, it will be.

What exactly is Tactile Internet

Developers are working on the 5G, which is expected to come in 2020. Much faster, much longer and much better than the 4G we have nowadays. What might surprise you is that by 2020 about 26 billion devices will be connected to the Internet.

Tactile Internet goes further. The term ‘Tactile Internet’ was first introduced by Professor Gerhard Fettweis from the Technical University of Dresden in Germany in 2012, while working on control robotic systems remotely and in real time.

It was King’s College London professor Mischa Dohler that made ‘Tactile Internet’ something more than “remote control”. His idea was to close the data cycle in order to improve communications. So it is not about just seeing or hearing things far away, but also the opportunity to transmit accurately the equivalent of human touch using the bits and bytes of data networks.

The role of the Internet of Things

To make Tactile Internet possible, there is the need of having devices that can read and understand the codes to be able to make the functions we want. Those devices or “things”, must be connected to the faster Internet we have mentioned before. It is necessary to find a way to encode touch, then transmit the data and at the end make the user able to receive the sensation he or she is looking for.

Users are demanding a world in which they’d be able to feel the emotions and sensations that in a past, they were not able to. The world we live in changes fast and the Internet is no exception. Tactile Internet allows users to experience new sensations in perfect synchronization with no time-lag.

Think about a daily example of it: the e-commerce applications of Tactile Internet. You would be able to touch and see what you are about to buy on yourself without having to actually have purchased it already. This may sound like something out of a Star Trek movie but just wait a few years and you will not be thinking about it because you will be using it.

When Tactile Internet meets thethings.iO

Which is the relation between Tactile Internet and thethings.iO? thethings.iO connects devices to the Internet. To make Tactile Internet possible we must have Internet-connected “things”. Do not you see the relation yet?

2015-07-27/0 Comments/by Marc Pous

_Featured Posts, IoT

IKEA joins the IoT revolution

IKEA joins the IoT Revolution

Internet of Things is now a reality, and lots of companies have to face it. Companies from many different fields (as we have seen: housing, decor, gardening…) have to improve their offers in order to survive in the new technological era. That’s why the famous Swedish company IKEA has decided to adapt things into the IoT’s world and also create new connected things to make our lives easier.

IKEA’s idea is to make a more sustainable life at home, so that is the reason why in the next decade the brand is going to create and develop new connected things, such as the whole kitchen. In a collaboration with IDEO, a global design company, and design students from Lund University (Sweden) and Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherland), IKEA has created the named Concept Kitchen, which was shown at the Milan Design Week.

2015-07-22/0 Comments/by Marc Pous

_Featured Posts, IoT

thethings.iO on Think Big: From Futuristic Ideas to the True Reality

Last June, we appeared on Think Big blog (a project of the company Telefonica). The post was about the growth of wearables in the last couple of years, and how they are changing the entrepreneurship world. The movement started with the Apple Watch, and now the scene is looking to explode with not just wrist products but anything imaginable.

Marc Pous, thethings.iO CEO, says that the revolutions will not be just with the wearables, but with lots of internet-connected devices, the number of which will increase in the next 5 years.

“If we compare it with the forecast of connected devices by 2020, when the number of those devices will be 7.000 milion, can you visualize the number of business models that a technology which is 4 times bigger than the mobile era will generate?”, says Marc Pous.

Lots of entrepreneurs and startups have taken this opportunity to jump into the industry, developing new projects and products that will forsure be part of the new technological revolution.

Marc Pous adds, “The most important thing is to create a product that offers value or a need that can not be covered without a wearable”.

To create and make all those wearables useful, there must be other companies that connect the things to the Internet. That is the reason why we are beginning to see Internet of Things as its own market, and companies that offer exactly this service. The IoT devices are changing the way we understand our cities, houses, cars, kitchens… making our work that much easier. thethings.iO appears in here in order to make the process of connecting things to the Interner easier by offering a Cloud solution service.

“Nowadays, companies that connect things to the Internet do everything from scratch, and that costs too much. We let them focus on building the product and with our technology we connect their devices to the Internet in real time. In addition, we not only accelerate their development, our technology also allows them to save money. Our pricing system allows them just to pay if they sell the devices”, explains Marc Pous.

You can check the whole post (in Spanish) by clicking here!

2015-07-16/0 Comments/by Marc Pous

IoT

How IoT will change our gardens

In this blog, we have had a quick look at different ways that Internet of Things is going to change our lives soon, like houses, cities, workplaces and even animals! As you see, Internet of Things is going to change absolutely everything, and your garden could not be less. In this post, we are going to know new connected garden equipment that will help you improve it.

It is commonly said that most people do not have many time to take care of their garden. Then, you need to ask yourself if you prefer to have a poor garden, or better hire a gardener who will care of it for you.

Firstly, you need to know that, as well as there are thermostats that can help you control your house temperature or humidity, there is also the garden version. Edyn Garden Sensor is an IoT device that tracks environmental conditions, such as light, humidity, temperature… and then recommends you which plants will thrive or the optimal time for planting, among others. You can see all the information just by using its app. Isn’t it easy?

Edyn Garden Sensor

Other IoT devices can also help you save lot of water, for example RainMachine, which is synchronized with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and other international weather data sources, that sends information to the app about temperature, humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, amount of precipitation… This device also calculates daily evapotranspiration losses and, at the same time, auto-adjusts the watering duration depending on the needs of the plant. The main purpose of RainMachine is protect and nourish your garden to perfection.

Koubachi offers a new point of view in tracking and controlling your plants. It offers a plant sensor (there are the indoor and outdoor options) and measures vital plant parameters, like light level (sunlight or artificial), soil temperature, humidity… With it, your own plant will tell you when you should to water it or if you need to change its position. In your app you will have an inventory of your plants.

Koubachi Plant Sensor

For all those that have tried to have a little vegetables’ garden at home, Click & Grow is the option they were looking for. Their first internet-connected device was Smartpot, a connected pot that allows you to watch how your plants grow. As they describe themselves, the process is simple: “plug it in, add a little water and let it take care everything else”. By using an innovative NASA-inspired technology, they make plants grow faster, but still 100% naturally, without pesticides, insecticides… Can you believe it?

Even the brand Parrot has been interested in the connected devices, specially with a garden product, so similar to Koubachi. It is called Flower Power, and measures the needs of your plants and sends it to your phone. Available indoor and outdoor, it controls fertility, humidity, temperature and light. When it detects a need, it advises you automatically, so you will know in real time when to water your plants, add fertilizer…

Even if you are a garden-lover or a garden-forgetful person, IoT is going to change the way you look at your garden for sure! Now, any excuse is going to be accepted.
thethings.iO connects all those devices to the Internet, as most of you know. Actually, some months ago we connected a Koubachi Plant Sensor here at thethings.iO’s office! If you want to know more about IoT world and thethings.iO stay tunned!

Discover how we can help you to connect wearables and devices to the Internet.

Try for free now

2015-07-13/0 Comments/by Marc Pous

IoT

What Media is telling about thethings.iO

It started with our appearance in Forbes and VenturesBeat, and now there is even more! After closing our first-round of investment, many important blogs and Newspapers have spread the word. Do you want to know which ones are we talking about?

Firstly, the news from

TechCrunch

. With the heading “thethings.iO Pulls In $270k To Expand Its IoT Platform” the tech most important blog about startups talked about our first-round of investment, and made Twitter buzz with it.

Other spanish blogs such as

WWWhat’s New

(“250.000 euros de inversión para thethings.iO, startup española especializada en la “Internet de las cosas” – “€250k of investment for thethings.iO, spanish startup specialized in the Internet of Things”),

Barcinno

(“Barcelona’s thethings.io Raises €250K To Power The Internet Of Things Movement”),

ESADE News

(“La start-up thethings.iO cierra una primera ronda de inversión de 250.000 euros con la aportación de 190.000 euros de ESADE BAN” – “The startup thethings.iO closes a first-round of investment of €250k with a €190k contribution from ESADE BAN”)
or

Loogic

(“thethings.iO realiza una ronda de inversión de 250.000 euros” – “thethings.iO makes a €250k round of investment”) also published the good news about thethings.iO!

But there are more! The Spanish Newspapers

‘El Economista’

(“thethings.iO cierra su primera ronda de financiación con 250.000 euros” – “thethings.iO closes its first-round of investment with €250k”),

‘La Vanguardia’

(“La empresa emergente thethings.iO capta 250.000 euros en ronda de inversión” – “The startup thethings.iO recieves €250k in a round of investment”),

‘Expansión’

(“ESADE BAN lidera la primera ronda de thethings.iO” – “ESADE BAN leads thethings.iO’s first-round of investment”),
and

‘CincoDías’

(“thethings.iO cierra su primera ronda de financiación con 250.000 euros” – “thethings.iO closes its first-round of investment with €250k”) have also published the news.

We have no words to express the satisfaction and happiness while seeing all these appearances in such these important Media. Thank you all!

If you want to know more about thethings.iO don’t forget to visit our website and follow us on Twitter!

2015-07-09/0 Comments/by Marc Pous

IoT

Press Release: thethings.iO closes its first round of investment with 250,000 euros

thethings.iO team working

thethings.iO, a startup accelerated by Wayra in Barcelona, helps businesses connect their devices to the Internet in a quick and easy manner so they can interact with other “connected things”.

Barcelona, July 6, 2015 – thethings.iO, the Spanish startup of ‘the Internet of things’ that currently resides in Wayra Barcelona, Telefónica Open Future’s startup accelerator, has closed its first round of investments with 250.000 euros. In this round, investors such as 101 startups, Toubkal Partners, Taurus Fund, Wayra and other business angels of ESADE BAN participated.

Marc Pous (CEO), Jose Manuel Pérez (CTO), Marti Zamora (Data Scientist), Alfredo Sanz and Mischa Dohler (advisor), are the founders of thethings.iO, the startup that came to life in 2014 under the slogan ‘You create cool things, we connect them to the Internet’. This startup strives to become the ‘cloud’ for IoT businesses at a global scale.

In order to connect devices to the Internet, there needs to be a platform in the cloud that allows these devices to interact with other devices, monitor them in real time, manage them, and reprogram or control these devices remotely. thethings.iO helps businesses connect their devices to the Internet in a quick and easy manner so they can interact with other “connected things”.

Companies that develop new hardware must design, create new prototypes, produce them and sell them. But in order for these objects to be connected to the Internet, there needs to be a mobile app and a platform in the cloud to manage and store the data generated by these devices. thethings.iO reduces the time and cost of this process, offering the developers, users and any company already operating on this platform, the visualization and data analysis such as remote management of devices and interoperability between them.

The platform of thethings.iO, that already has more than 2,500 registered users and thousands of connected devices, works with companies such as Telefónica, Econais, and Sigfox. Any company that works with IoT and needs to connect devices in wearables, homes or industries are their target market.

The capital generated will be invested in business development, marketing and communications in order to start their growth and expansion at a global scale. Also, this money will go to further their technical development of their platform ‘the Internet of things’ of thethings.iO.

Discover how we can help you to connect wearables and devices to the Internet.

Try for free now

2015-07-07/0 Comments/by Marc Pous

IoT

How IoT will change our animals

Could you ever imagine that Internet of Things is going to change our animals? Yes, this is possible, just keep reading and you will discover it!

Pets

Basically, the most common IoT devices for dogs or cats are the animal tracking-kind. Many companies have created a similar FitBit bracelet, but for dogs’ neck. It is commonly said that the dog is the best friend of the human, so why not start understanding it?

Some examples are WÜF or FitBark, which monitors the dog’s everyday activity and allows you to track its progress. By using FitBark, the dog’s master can understand its health, changes in behaviour, share experiences with friends and family, automatically share data to its vet, etc. It fits in all kind of dogs.

2015-07-06/0 Comments/by Marc Pous

Collaborations, IoT, Libraries

thethings.iO library for Electric Imp

We love Electric Imp, its simplicity and how it works. This is the reason why this is the very first tutorial explaining with detail how to connect Electric Imp with thethings.iO. The ElectricImp + thethings.iO library that we implemented let you read, write and activate things through the REST API from thethings.iO.

From now if you need to store data from your Electric Imps you will be able to use our Electric Imp class to access the thethings.iO services.

Electric Imp board

Keep reading if you want more information about the Electric Imp + thethings.iO library…

2015-07-02/3 Comments/by Marc Pous