Everyone has heard about IoT. The Internet of Things is a hot topic. It means different things to different people. The idea of a world filled with a network of smart things that sense and react to our environment and help us to live better is a sort of long term elixir goal.
In EyeSpyFX we have been working on IoT projects since 2002. Most of our work was and continues to be about building software for security cameras and access control systems.

Recently, we have been applying our experience and expertise in a slightly different, but related project area. We have turned our attention to the factory production process of IoT products. We have been building systems for safety, functional testing and digital identity christening of IoT products.

As each product (object/appliance/thing/device) approaches the end of a factory production line it is tested for functional performance and it is christened. Our new software, developed for a special client, manages the entire testing and christening process. It performs electrical safety, electronic and computational functionality tests. When the functional tests are complete, our software christens the product with its unique digital identity. It then generates a complete product report.

To perform the safety and functional tests our software uses computer vision to locate objects and read screens. It integrates with electrical safety equipment, robot arms and sensors and is sequenced with production line PLC’s (Programmable Logic Controllers).

This sort of end of line testing is common to most electronic goods as part of the factory Quality Assurance process. However, the christening operations are more characteristic of IoT products.
Each IoT product, although mass produced is made unique by the christening process so it can be identified as a singular individual. EyeSpyFX software christens the product with its date of birth, unique name, encrypted gateway pairing credentials and all aspects of its digital identity. A full report is then generated and sent to the manufacturers central product information repository.

When the christening operations are complete the product can be put in a box and shipped. When the box is opened and the product is switched on for the first time it will send a message to various systems saying; “I am on, my sensor data report is…etc”. The product will make contact with the utilities from which it draws power, the service centres where it sends health reports, the other products and sensors in the neighbourhood whom it syndicates with and via an app, with the people who own it.

And so another smart thing is added to the global IoT population. Maybe some day the elixir goal will be achieved.

Smart interacting things