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Sigsense is Making Interchangeable, Modular Sensors (Video)

Their main claim: "Sigsense Sensors are field-switchable sensing modules which replace the current generation of single purpose instruments. All Sigsense Sensors connect to the Sigsense Wireless Dock through a common interface. This portability and convenience allows workers to always carry the right instrument for the job." In other words, a technician in a food manufacturing plant doesn't need to carry a humidity-measuring tool, a multimeter, a signal strength meter, and four or five other measuring tools, to the point where he's got a backpack full of instrumentation or a rolling a cart full of measuring devices. That technician can now (in theory) carry a single, wireless sensor body, and put the sensors he needs on it as easily as you change heads on an electric hair trimmer. Check their blurb on AngelList for more about what this company is up to, and note that they are going way beyond making one measurement at a time. They're talking about collecting instrument data, along with tracking technicians, and sending all this data to the cloud, where you can do with it as you wish. But not today. The website says they will have products available "soon." (Alternate Video Link)

21 comments

  1. Humidity measurement tool? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Like, a hygrometer?

    Man this is a fluffy post.

    1. Re:Humidity measurement tool? by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 1

      Man this is a fluffy post

      Surely you mean "this is a tactily underloaded post".

      --
      "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    2. Re:Humidity measurement tool? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's not mince words. It's an ad.

    3. Re:Humidity measurement tool? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Let's not mince words. It's an ad.

      Yes, and it is an ad for proprietary sensors with a closed, undocumented, and uninteresting interface. If it was an open standard, where anyone could read the docs, and design either sensors or tools, that would be cool. But that is NOT what this is.

  2. slashvertisement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh how I have I missed thee. Let me count the ways.

    Er.

    I got nothing.

  3. Nice press release. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How about some real content?

  4. Newsflash: Slashdot and PR Newswire have merged by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 1

    The two company will strive to deliver PR rah-rah in a geeky way - or geeky news laced with PR, whichever way you look at it - for the enjoyment of discerning geeky PR rah-rah lovers the world over.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  5. Wireless tools? by Naut · · Score: 2

    FieldPiece has done the with interchangeable heads and wireless too http://www.fieldpiece.com/prod...

    --
    i have no sig
  6. Like supermechanical.com ? by Jack9 · · Score: 2

    I participated in the Supermechanical/Twine kickstarter. Apparently lots of people are making this stuff.

    --

    Often wrong but never in doubt.
    I am Jack9.
    Everyone knows me.
  7. F*king bullshit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This looks like a sponsored article to me.

  8. They just redefined the problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now instead of "a backpack full of instrumentation or a rolling a cart full of measuring devices" they've have "a backpack or a rolling a cart full of interchangeable wireless sensors." Look at the silly monkey!

  9. FAIL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They said "cloud". Go away stupid idiot company. They will to leech on and leak my data. Bye.

    1. Re: FAIL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >They're talking about collecting instrument data, along with tracking technicians, and sending all this data to my butt, where you can do with it as you wish.

      Sounds lewd.

  10. If Roblimo makes a video in a forest... by Slartibartfast · · Score: 2

    Does anyone care?

    I mean, really. Granted, I have some animosity toward him on general principle -- I think he's a bit of a jerk. But more seriously, he keeps putting out these videos that are essentially the multimedia equivalent of a vendor press release. Why should I care? There are so many cool things that videos could be made of, you gotta wonder why we should care about these even a little bit.

    Get Command Taco and Hemos on and have them talk like in the olden days. Get videos with interesting content from (say) a kernel conference, or an embedded conference. Get Google to give some down-low on Android development. Find a cool something that *isn't* vaporware. (Having worked for two failed startups -- both of which had really cool ideas on which they couldn't fully execute -- I'm far too familiar with just how ethereal vaporware really is.) Get some black hats to talk about root server DNS vulnerabilities, or real-life ways to fight DDoS attacks. Get a banker and a BitCoin guy in the same room and see who walks out at the end. Arduino! ARM! 64-bit ARM! IPv6 adoption rates and how to make use of it, especially since the country's largest cable provider, Comcast, has pushed it out to the majority of their subscribers -- something most people seem not to have noticed! Linux-based intro to robotics that's more than just video from a FIRST competition! Al Franken on Net Neutrality! Of course, this might actually take *EFFORT*, as opposed to asking vendors if they want to sell stuff. But that's kinda what journalists are, y'know, supposed to do.

    1. Re:If Roblimo makes a video in a forest... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a free slashvertisement mate, what's not to like

    2. Re:If Roblimo makes a video in a forest... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Friend, I approve of your views and would like subscribe to your newsletter.

  11. cool tech by ArcticBunny · · Score: 1

    I have seen this technology first hand last week in San Fran and it is very cool. It will change the way field technicians work. good luck to them

  12. wifi in a factory setting by Goldsmith · · Score: 1

    There's a big assumption here that large factories are wirelessly networked...

    That's not a great assumption.

  13. The real problem is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The real problem is idiot execs like Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman, who do not understand basic tech. (Did You see Whitman's pathetic talk on "The Machine?" I am tempted to think it was a Scott Adams inspired parody of a pointy-haired boss.)

    If our top execs knew how to use (all the functions on) a DMM, we would have decent test equipment. (For readers who attended business school, DMM stands for Digial Multi-Meter.)

    Unfortunately, idiots at big test equipment companies can not figure out how to merge a color LCD with a piece of test equipment.In the rare cases where they try, they reserve the color screens for high-end gear, when it's the newbies who need the clearest UI. If I can buy a $20 phone with a color screen, why doesn't a $35 DMM have a color screen?

    So now some start-up is going to make my DMM dependant on updates to an Android app? ICK! NO! GO AWAY!

    Build me decent (and small) equipment that has a standard interface, a color screen, and maybe then add in BT functionality, but only if all the devices work with one app, that is incredibly simple to maintain. I suggest a set of data files, one for each device, that tells the app how to handle it. That way, any idiot can update the app and just have it read the data file. The app should be an ISO, ANSI, SAE, or ITU standard so it will work with multiple brands of devices (I know I'm delusional.)

  14. Pluggable sensors by Issarlk · · Score: 1

    Such breakthrough. Much newsworthiness. Wow.

  15. Ironically... by Slartibartfast · · Score: 1

    I was instrumental in the non-launch of a Linux magazine. I planted the right idea in the right person's brain, and he was going to go with it... but then he kinda bailed on magazines altogether as part of his divorce.

    All things being equal, that was probably the best choice after all, anyway. I hadn't realized just how hard magazines were gonna get hammered by the web. (I used to live in a town that had a HUGE number of tech magazines published from it. The late 90's were not a good decade, there.)