Treehouse Labs will reveal an asset tracking and control system operating through phones and web-enabled devices using IEEE802.15.4 low-power radio at CES next week.
The system is branded 'BiKN', and the platform includes customisable apps, web interfaces, gateways, routers, and end-to-end management and security, "allowing customers to build low-power wireless sensor networks that connect and control smart objects from a smartphone, iPad, PC and cloud server", claimed Treehouse.
Radio hardware is provided by wireless microcontrollers from NXP, acquired when it bought Jennic in Sheffield.
"Every company has 'endpoints' that they want to talk to or monitor," said Treehouse CEO John Howard. "Using NXP's low-power wireless technology, our BiKN Technology Platform enables the creation of large, scalable mesh networks. Built on standard protocols, BiKN interoperates through major smartphone OS software platforms, essentially eliminating the need for custom readers."
A consumer product called BiKN for iPhone will be unveiled at CES. It is a physical sleeve that certain iPhones slide into, that includes hardware which lets the phone track and control enabled objects close-by, or further away via routers and mesh networks.
Treehouse uses the JN5148 microcontroller and the JenNet-IP wireless network protocol stack which is optimised for low-power, low-data rate, applications.
Using a modified 6LoWPAN 802.15.4-based network layer, JenNet-IP is used to implement a self-healing network that can communicate with up to 500 devices.
JenNet-IP has an extensible API, DIPL (device interface protocol layer) for application developers.
There is a reference design and software development kit for 802.15.4-based smart objects "be it a light bulb, a temperature sensor, a RFID tag, or heart monitor", said Treehouse, plus ready-to-deploy tags and PCB modules, "or a customer's own hardware can work with our open-standard software stacks".
Through the JenNet-IP 6loWPAN stacks, gateways allow enabled objects up to 3km away to connect through Ethernet, WiFi; or talk directly to enabled phones.