Wiliot Launches Its IoT Pixels Starter Kit, Aims to Kickstart the "Internet of Everyday Things"
Offering multiple cardboard-mounted samples plus a three-sensor fill-monitoring coffee cup, the $500 kit is available to order now.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) specialist Wiliot has announced general availability of a starter kit for what it's calling the "Internet of Everyday Things" — by strapping sensors to coffee cups, cardboard packaging, and more.
"This is a milestone in democratizing the Internet of Things [IoT],” claims Wiliot chief business officer Tony Small of the release. "[Our] vision – which is now a reality – is to transform the Internet of expensive Things to the Internet of everyday Things by adding intelligence and connectivity to everything from packaging to containers and clothing – for just pennies."
Originally launched via "controlled release" to selected large partner companies, Wiliot's starter kit provides an IoT coffee cup and two different examples of IoT-enabled cardboard packaging — one offering single-band connectivity and the other using dual-band connectivity. In all cases, the hardware is the same: a stamp-sized device dubbed the IoT Pixel, one per cardboard sample and three — one front, one back, and one in the lid — working in concert on the cup.
Each IoT Pixel includes an Arm Cortex-M0+ core running at just 1MHz, to keep power draw down, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity, 1kB of non-volatile memory, and antennas for Bluetooth connectivity and energy harvesting — the latter provided through a partnership with Energous. In addition, the dual-band models include sub-gigahertz connectivity in the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands.
The devices are designed to imbue whatever they're connected to with IoT smarts, offering the ability to report data from sensors including temperature, fill level, movement, humidity, and proximity. These data are transmitted to bridge devices, two of which are included in the starter kit, and then on to the company's Wiliot Cloud platform via a customer's own gateway — which can include, the company says, smartphones.
The starter kit is available to order now, with delivery in February, on the Wiliot website for $500, including one IoT Pixel-equipped coffee cup, five each of the single- and dual-band IoT Pixels mounted to packaging-style cardboard, and one each of the single- and dual-band bridges.
Purchasers also receive a six-month subscription to the Wiliot Cloud platform; the company has not publicly disclosed pricing for access beyond this time.