Last year was very successful for Flexibity and the project now is widely recognized by the public:

• Main prize of the Oxford Entrepreneurs TATA Idea Idol 2011 competition
• Funding from the Russian High-Tech SME support program START 2011

Our technology is also moving forward and we achieved significant progress in development of all system components:

• “Connect” gateway is at the final stage of testing, additional features are being developed, such as Google integration
• “Control” sensors prototypes for home safety are created, including infra-red intrusion and water leak detection

We are currently raising financing to start production and sales of Flexibity Open Sensors Toolkit in Q2 2012. And we wish you a great success and happiness in the New Year!

Kind regards,
Flexibity Team

Fridges, cars and thermometers already exist – just the Internet link is missing. This is why we created Flexibity Connect – it helps turning dumb devices into “smart” and “connected” ones. For example, it can force your webcam to detect motion and upload snapshots to Picasa, creating a powerful video surveillance system.

To start with, you’ll need a Connect and some supported off-the-shelf USB webcam and WiFi adapter. I use the following:

• Zyon Viewflex 1.3 Megapixel Flexible USB Webcam (uvc)
• Siemens Gigaset USB Stick 54 (zd1211rw)

In Connect firmware we included GoogleCL, a command line interface to Google services. GoogleCL provides access to almost every Google service, including Picasa, from shell scripts. This allows integrate Picasa into our video surveillance system in a few simple steps.

Step 1: Prepare device and connect it to the Internet

In the following example, we use WiFi network for the Internet connection. You can specify WiFi access point settings on “Administration – Network – Wifi – radio0″ page and check that connection works using “Administration – Network – Diagnostics”.

Step 2: Authorize GoogleCL to access your Google account

In order to allow Connect upload images to Picasa, you shall first configure your Google account and make it accessible from the device. Login to Connect using telnet or ssh (if you use local USB connection, the IP address is 192.168.119.1) and check authorization with Google:

google -u username picasa list

If elinks web browser starts, just exit it with “ESC – File – Exit”. You will see a message like “Please log in and/or grant access…”, copy the link into your web browser and grant access. Now Connect can access the data in your Google account!

Step 3: Setup webcam to detect motion and upload snaphosts to Picasa

Actually integrating your home surveillance with Picasa is probably the easiest step – just go to “Flexibity – Configuration – Webcam – Commands” and set the “Command to be executed when a picture (.ppm|.jpg) is saved” to google-sync.sh google -u username picasa post --title=album --src=%f.

That’s it! Now check your Picasa album!

P.S. GoogleCL is a Python script and it is rather slow and resource consuming. A simple google-sync.sh script ensures that only one instance of GoogleCL runs at a time to avoid “out of memory” problems. The downside of this solution is that not all pictures will end up in Picasa due to GoogleCL performance and network throughput.

Flexibity Connect – our first product – is a part of DIY home automation platform. It is an Internet gateway for home sensor network, based on ROLL/6LoWPAN protocols, plus:

• wireless video surveillance system
• 3G/WiMax – WiFi access point
• autonomous torrents client

And many more – it all depends on your capabilities and connected USB devices And now let me tell you some details…

In a simple clear polycarbonate case with a size of 9 by 2,5 centimetres (we will tell later about particularities of it), absolutely not hidden a single board computer with the following specifications:

• 200MHz AT91SAM9260 processor
• 64MB SDRAM
• 8MB internal flash memory for bootloader and backup Linux image
• SD/MMC slot with Linux root filesystem
• 4 USB 1.1 host ports
• USB device port with Ethernet device function (can be also used for power supply)
• 5V power connector

The device works on Linux OpenWRT operating system, the same as probably installed on your router. Thus, almost all the functionality available with your router – available with Flexibity Connect.

Instead of internal flash memory we’ve decided to use SD/MMC card, so we almost have no limit on the number of installed applications. And all the design of the device is focused on modularity. You can easily take Connect with you and assemble necessary device anywhere – at work, in a country house or at a barbecue

For me personally, one of the most important functions of Connect is a some kind of tele-presence system. My main activity often requires discussions with scientific supervisor, located at a far end of the building and constantly absent for some meetings. Connected to university WiFi device with a camera I placed next to his office, so I always aware of his presence and save a lot of time

Or automation of experiments – Arduino, connected to Connect is always available. By the way, if you are more or less familiar with electronics – we’ve placed headers with SPI and UART on the board, so you can extend the system functions not only with software, but also with your own hardware.

To conclude, a few drawbacks – Connect uses Linux and inherits its limitations. For example, as a WiFi USB adapter it is better to use something based on zd1211rw – at the moment only this driver implements access point support. But you can also use it to build a mesh network And as a webcam, we would recommend to use something with UVC. In general, Connect at the moment is for people, who are familiar (or want to be familiar) with Embedded Linux.

And this is how our embedded web interface looks like – and greetings from the developer

In the next posts I will try to explain, how to build with Connect a simple video surveillance system with motion detection and upload of pictures to Picasa.

Also – what kind of wireless sensors we have and how well it works together with Connect, what is “sensor fusion”, “Internet of Things” and why it is so cool

Cheers!

The proud winner of TATA Idea Idol 2011 was Maxim Osipov – Flexibity: £10,000 TATA Cash Prize!

OE Reflections: Grand Final of TATA Idea Idol 2011

And now we are introducing Flexibity Connect – a way to get all your USB devices work for you while you away. What functions can you expect from this device?

• Surveillance Cam – See what is going on at home while you’re away? Easy – just Connect a Webcam, USB hard drive – and images will be stored if something moves!
• BitTorrent Client – Just Connect WiFi stick together with USB hard drive.
• Mobile WiFi Gateway – Need to setup a WiFi network using you WiMax/GPRS/CDMA USB modem? just plug it in!

Or, you can combine all features above together – we have space for 4 USB devices. And you can have features what you want – just plug in new devices!

Check out our shop (pre-orders will be available shortly) and check for updates, we will soon start publishing use-cases and screenshots.

See you later!

Using open interfaces and protocols, our products are friendly and easy to use. Regular enhancements of firmware and drivers will bring you more valuable functions. And in case if you want more – feel free to play with source code, it is all Open Source and supported by Community