Microsoft @ IoT Asia 2016 by Izzat Khair

Introduction to IoT Asia 2016

IoT Asia is an annual event that is held across Asia and it is the region’s leading platform in the Internet of Things (IoT). As for IoT Asia 2016 held from 30-31 March 2016, Singapore was chosen to be the venue host for the event. The theme of the event which was “From Vision To Reality” which reveals new insights on emerging trends, new key technologies and directions for IoT’s proliferation in the region. The goal of the event was also to stimulate in-depth discussions to drive business collaborations in the region and undertake real nuts and bolts of IoT implementation.

Microsoft Singapore was pleased to be participating as one of the exhibitors for the event, and we had the opportunity to showcase a few of our IoT projects developed by members of the Developer Experience and Evangelism Team. We also held talks and presented some of the possibilities of building IoT solutions using Windows 10 IoT Core and Azure IoT Suite. This event is also a way to promote the Smart Nation Vision and Smart Nation Fellowship Programme that were recently announced by Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Singapore Government.


A Few Of Our IoT Projects

Chun Siong Demonstrating Magic Mirror
Chun Siong Demonstrating Magic Mirror

Magic Mirror

Magic Mirror

Magic Mirror is a project demo that is developed by Chun Siong, A member of the Developer Experience and Evangelism Team at Microsoft Singapore. This mirror aims to provide vital information to the user, every time the user takes a glance or stands in front of it. When the user is standing in front of the mirror, the app will be automatically launch and it will display the weather alongside with the location of the user. The camera will snap a photo which will then push out data to the cloud connecting to the Project Oxford Face Recognition API. The Project Oxford API will send information back to the IoT kit which will display information such as the name of the user and how much older/younger he/she looks. The Project Oxford API also sends out information such as the emotion of the user standing in front by applying Sentiment Analysis which is available as a part of the Project Oxford API.

As for this build, we are using the RaspberryPi 2 running Windows 10 IoT core as the primary operating system. The application is then remotely deployed from the Visual Studio Desktop. For the full list of parts needed and steps please visit the link below.

If you wish to try out the project yourself, please visit the link below for the full steps:

https://www.hackster.io/Emmuss/magicmirror-cb222b?ref=search&ref_id=magic%20mirror&offset=0

 

Rover

Rover

The Rover is a project demo developed By Chun Siong and I. This is a very simple demo that took us a few hours to complete. The purpose of the rover is for it to move on its own and detect if there is an object obstructing its path. If there is an object, it will automatically change the direction of its intended path. The ultrasonic sensors is responsible for sending data to the Raspberry PI 2 and using the data in the algorithm that have already been programmed. However, I do have to mention that the calibration of the sensors and the quality of the sensors does affect on how well it could detect objects in front of it. This is a very fun and interesting build for both Chun Siong and I as we are able to experiment with various boards and modify the code to suit the needs of our build.

Throughout the two days exhibiting at IoT Asia, There was a huge crowd that were really interested in learning more about the rover and how they are able to build one on their own. This is one of the project that really catches the eye of the public. There are multiple parts that are needed to be obtained if you are interested in learning or trying this project yourself.

If you wish to try out the project yourself, please visit the link below for the full steps:

https://www.hackster.io/peejster/rover-c42139?ref=search&ref_id=rover&offset=0

 

Voice Activated LED

Voice Activated LED

This project demo allows users to turn on and turn off LED lights using their voice. Commands such as “Turn On Red LED” will be sent to the Raspberry Pi from the microphone as data. The data will then be input to the algorithm programmed and could then carry out actions such as turning on and off the LED. The concept behind this build is to imagine applying the same concept to the light bulbs that we are currently using at home. Imagine if we are able to turn on and off our living room lights using our voice, that would be cool, wouldn’t it? The possibilities of what we can build with IoT are endless and it can be both applied at both consumer level and industrial level. It can also be used in other industry such as the security industry, to recognize voices and to identify if the person is a personnel or intruder or even helping out the disabled and blind in carrying out daily tasks much more efficiently. All of this could be possible with IoT alongside with Azure IoT Suite connecting it to an array of Azure cloud services.

Remote Monitoring

Remote Monitoring

This demo is meant to display the surrounding temperature on the LED Matrix and also to send data to the Azure Events Hub. The thermistor is the one that is responsible in sending data to the RaspberryPi board and the board could then send temperature data to the LED Matrix and also to the Azure Event Hub. The event hub is then responsible of receiving data and displaying the data that is received. The data collected could also be sent to other Azure analytics services such as Stream Analytics which provides real time analytics or even to Power BI. The app running on the Raspberry PI 2 is remotely deployed from Visual Studio, the Operating System installed is the Windows 10 IoT Core, which is a striped down version Windows 10 that is lighter and faster. The Windows 10 IoT core OS is able to run Universal Windows Platform applications. As for this build we are only using a thermistor, and there is a huge number of sensors that could be used to send data internally or externally to services such as the event hubs.

If you wish to try out the project yourself, please visit the link below for the full steps:

https://github.com/tanchunsiong/MakerDenWindows


Conclusion

It was a wonderful experience for all of us at Microsoft Singapore, to be given the opportunity to exhibit our projects to you. The days and nights of working on the various builds by our team members turned out to be to be worth it. We are able to meet multiple businesses and students that were interested on building IoT solutions and software using Azure IoT Suites, Azure Cloud Services and also using Windows 10 IoT core. There are even some businesses that wanted to learn more about the Microsoft Partner Network and the BizSpark programs that are offered by Microsoft for new businesses.

A few of the Microsoft staff were given the opportunity to talk on stage to promote and demonstrate the Windows 10 IoT Core alongside with the Azure Cloud Services. Personally, for me it was a great learning experience as I was able to learn more about Azure IoT Suite Services and also meet up with a huge crowd having the same interests and goals.

The DX Team At IoT Asia
The DX Team At IoT Asia
The Microsoft Singapore Team At IoT Asia
The Microsoft Singapore Team At IoT Asia

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