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Atari Is Going To Build IoT Devices (pcmag.com)
angry tapir quotes a report from Computerworld: The latest entrant in the Internet of Things is legendary gaming company Atari, which plans to make consumer devices that communicate over the SigFox low-power network. The devices will be for homes, pets, lifestyle, and safety. Atari has signed a deal with the communications service provider, Sigfox. "The initial product line will include categories such as home, pets, lifestyle and safety," the companies said in a statement. "By connecting to SigFox's global network, the products will benefit from its competitive advantages: a very long battery life and a simple solution that does not require local Internet connectivity and pairing. As soon as the battery is inserted in the object, it is immediately connected to the network."
In 30 years or so, someone can discover the landfill where Atari buried all the failed IOT devices.
Atari ought to be good on customer privacy issues - the last time they brought out a product designed to "phone home", it took the whole company down. Doubt they'll want to go through that again. ;)
You're just jealous 'cuz the voices talk to *me*
The original Atari filed for bankruptcy in the 1980's. The IP floated around the industry for years until Infogrames bought Hasbro Interactive, moved their San Jose headquarters (previously known as Accolade) to Sunnyvale, and renamed the company to Atari. The name didn't help them survive the dot com bust. Eventually, after selling off studios that they paid two to four times actual value for pennies on the dollar, and exploiting every legacy property that they had on the books, the "new" Atari filed for bankruptcy in 2013.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari,_SA
I worked there for six years, starting off at Accolade in 1997 and leaving Atari in 2004. Three years as a tester, three years as a lead tester. Fun times. But I saw the writing on the wall when I became a lead tester, went back to school to learn computer programming, and got into IT support work for the rest of my career.
It's 12 bytes every 10 minutes. 96 bits. Not much for a tweet, but you can stuff quite a lot of data in 96 bits.
For example, say you're tracking fragile cargo :
2 bits - battery level (2 bits - 4 values, high / med / low / replace)
2 bits - status of 3 tamper switches (00 - all ok, 01/10/11 - a switch has been triggered).
6 bits - a temperature range of 64 degrees, in celsius, from starting from -14 to 50 degrees, 1 degree resolution.
6 bits - humidity (64 values stretched to 0-100, gives us about 1.5% resolution)
2 bits - whether temp or humidity has gone out of bounds since last transmission (and a spare value here).
6 bits - current speed 0-64 m/s (0 - 230 kmph/ 144mph)
6 bits - max speed since last transmission in m/s
48 bits - lat and longitude, good to about 11 metres globally.
18 bits - max g-force sustained in the last ten minutes (6 bits/64 values for x/y/z, scaled to 10g, so good to 0.15g)
Tada, 96 bits, full of info.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.