We all know about smart devices – Phones, tablets, watches, AI gadgets for the home… The list is getting longer. We are even starting to make our home smart, with the ability to turn on the heating or lights via an app before we get home.

The network called the “internet of things” is ever expanding, with billions of objects now having wireless sensors of their environments.

As a society we are moving more and more towards connecting all of our objects to the internet – even our furniture and office supplies. Thus, the technology that enables us to do this is scaling up.

A new fabrication method developed by researchers at Purdue University and the University of Virginia involves makes tiny, thin-film electronic circuits that are peelable from a surface – Basically, smart stickers.

Not only does the technique eliminate several manufacturing (and thus costs – win!) but it also allows any object that it is stuck to, to be controlled through an app and sense its environment. That is one high-tech sticker.

In a paper recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers start to demonstrate the wireless communiccation capabilities these stickers could provide on various objects.

Purdue assistant professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering Chi Hwan Lee tells how a sensor sticker could be customised to be stuck onto a drone and go into environments too dangerous for a person – His example was to detect a gas leak.

We mentioned earlier how the method used her cut down manufacturing processes. Lee’s new “transfer printing” method is a new fabrication technique that means that the damage that occurs from high temperatures and etching in standard manufacturing are avoided, meaning only one silicon wafer is used rather than one each time.

Today, most electronic circuits are built individually on a silicon “wafer,” a flat and rigid substrate. Although it can withstand the high temperatures and chemical etching that are used to remove the circuits from the wafer, it gets damaged which means that a new wafer is needed for each manufacturing process.

Using Lee’s method, only a single wafer is used to build a nearly infinite number of thin films holding electronic circuits. These can then be peeled off at room temperature with just water. Energy saving and lower cost!

A ductile metal layer, such as nickel, inserted between the electronic film and the silicon wafer, makes the peeling possible in water. Virtually any object can then be granted electronic features by the thin-film electronics being trimmed and pasted onto any surface.

For example, you could place one of the stickers on a standard flower pot, and then enable that flower pot to sense temperature changes that could affect the plant within’s growth. Pretty clever!

What kind of sticker would you use and on what object? I think I’d stick one to the kettle so that it could switch itself on before I even get up on the morning.

This technology holds a non-provisional U.S. patent. The work was supported by the Purdue Research Foundation, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL-S-114-054-002), the National Science Foundation (NSF-CMMI-1728149) and the University of Virginia.

For more information head to https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180716164508.htm

A YouTube video is available at https://youtu.be/8tNrPVi4OGg.

This is our third and final blog in our Ubiquiti UniFi series. We’ve looked at what it is, as well as what the brains are behind Ubiquiti UniFi are – This time we’ll see the other elements to it are.

We have dedicated Wi-Fi experts working out of 3 locations across England, one of them being Cardiff in Wales, with a very varied client base. If this article gets you thinking that you could do with Ubiquiti UniFi for your business, our contact details can be found at the end of this blog.

So last week it was brains, this week it starts with the bread and butter…

The UAP-AC Range

UAP AC Range is Ubiquiti UniFi’s setup’s bread and butter. They might look like a UFO but don’t worry, it’s not aliens invading our hotels, universities and conference centres – It’s just a Ubiquiti UniFi invasion for the better connected business.

If you’re able to run a network cable to each of your devices, then this is the UFO, I mean device, for you. INn an ideal world, you would get best results from the following…

To stop bottlenecks and low latency, any device that is connecting to your network would need to have the least amount of ‘hops’ before it gets to the internet.

This is what the UAP ACs do. There is also various devices which cater to different needs. These include factors such as range, throughput, and bandwidth.

The four main devices in the UAP-AC Range are as follows:

• UAP-AC-Lite: Compact
• UAP-AC-LR: Long range
• UAP-AC-Pro: More throughput
• UAP-AC-HD: Most throughput, MU-MIMO

If you’re not able to run cables to each of your devices, then Ubiquiti UniFi Mesh may be able to help you.

Ubiquiti UniFi Mesh

If you need Wi-Fi in places that are tricky (or impossible) to reach with a cable, then Mesh networks are great. What’s brilliant about Mesh points is that they communicate wirelessly with each other to route traffic from connected clients.

image 7

The quality of the signal affects the way that traffic is routed. If you look at the diagram above, you’ll see that there a few mesh point options for the smartphone to connect to.

So there’s either Mesh Point 3 or Mesh Point 4. You might say that the smartphone is closer to Mesh Point 4, however, it actually has an additional hop to make before it can get to the internet and you want as few hops as possible.

In blog 2 we talked about the brains of the operation – The controller. The type of logic that decides which mesh point is best is just what the controller will handle for you.

Performance takes a hit for every hop that’s made. If running a cable really isn’t possible then the issue is solved with UniFi Mesh.

Unified Security Gateway (USG)

Looking less like a UFO and more like a familiar piece of internet kit is the Unified Service Gateway. While it looks like your conventional router, the USG does all of that and then some.

This devices functionality includes:

• DHCP
• QoS
• VPN
• Firewall
• Deep Packet Inspection

WAN Failover

You can either use your own router alongside UniFi, or you can cmoplete the Ubiquiti UniFi family and use the USG to let you manage all of the above through the UniFi Controller interface. Despite it being a modular system, you can control all of your devices through one single interface.

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI)

Also worth looking at, especially for your network administrator’s sanity, is the DPI. This can provide loads of information about your network. It examines data coming through your network and can even help in the detection of spam or viruses.

You can access the information via app, protocol or on a per-user basis. This kind of information can be invaluable, especially in shaping your network.

This enables a much better user experience overall. An example of this in action would be if you got people complaining that there was a slow network – Your netwok administrator could look at the DPI statistics and see where the most traffic is.

Conclusion

Over the 3 blogs, we’ve covered a lot on Ubiquiti UniFi and the many benefits it could provide for your business and network.

As with everything in life, it’s not perfect but really the main con would just be how complicated it can be to set up (although with organisations like us here at Geekabit, this can be done for you!).

The benefits more than outweigh the cons:

• They are scalable, stable and customizable
• Ubiquiti have a demo site where you can view all of the controller functionality
• There are a wealth of resources and support should you need it, via Ubiquiti forums and Ubiquiti subreddit
• Ubiquiti UniFi also has integrated products that can all work together like cameras and VoIP phones.

If this has caught your interest and you’re keen to find out how using Ubiquiti UniFi could help you, get in contact with our Cardiff based Wi-Fi Experts and find out how we could help with your installation.

If you need assistance installing, fixing, extending or hiring business Wi-Fi networks in or around Cardiff, our team are here to support you. You can email [email protected] or call 02920 676712.

With thanks to https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubiquiti-unifi-wifi-explained/ for the images. Find out more there.

At the end of Part 1 we looked at what Ubiquiti UniFi was, how this type of network differed from what you have at home, and the benefits of this in a business environment.

We work out of 3 locations in England, one of them being Winchester in Hampshire, with a very varied client base.

This blog will focus on the controller and UniFI Cloud Key.

UniFi Controller

This is the brains behind the whole operation – The Ubiquiti UniFi Controller. In essence it’s a piece of software that enables you to store all of the settings for your network. Impressively, this software is free of charge (yes, free! Unlike it’s competitiors…). It can also run on nearly any operating system.

What makes it even easier for network installers like us here at Geekabit, is that it can be installed in the cloud. This means that many different sites can be maintained from one single interface.

The controller can be thought of as a designer. You use the software to design your network, and then the controller looks for the devices that you’ve plugged in to make it happen. This means that you can configure things such as DHCP, IP ranges, wireless networks and much more.

When you plug in a UniFi device, they can be adopted by the controller, and thus the programmed settings will be pushed to that device.

The convenience of this doesn’t end there – It provides great functionality. For example, you can use a map in the controller where you can upload plans of your building(s). In this map you can draw walls, adding in to it such things as scale and wall thickness which enables it to to work out coverage and signal strength from where you place your UniFi devices.

If this isn’t something you would want running all the time, you can switch off the controller software apart from in the following cases:

1. Changes to network or device settings
2. Using the guest portal
3. Collecting Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) statistics
4. Using Ubiquiti UniFi Mesh
5. Upgrading device firmwareSome of these will be touched upon in Part 3, but essentially if you’re not using any of these, you can turn off your UniFi controller.

Perhaps one of the most useful things about this software is that the controller sports an amazing live chat function that has an actual real life human being waiting to talk to you on on the other end! What’s more helpful than that?

UniFi Cloud Key and PoE

One of the more unique devices in the UniFI family, this isn’t something used to start the internet (nor is it a stick of gum!). Designed specifically for the UniFi Controller, the UniFi Cloud Key and PoE is low powered with a Linux operating system on it.

Perhaps you didn’t want the controller running all the time because you’re mindful of the environment, however this worthy little contender means that you can have the controller running but don’t need to leave your workstation switched on. It’s special function is that it can be powered entirely using Power Over Ethernet (PoE).

What’s great about the UniFi range is that the majority of devices are PoE enabled. This means that they gets its network and power over a single cable. This means that there is less hassle when setting it up as you don’t need to run power as well as network cables to each device. As these switches are managed rather than the regular unmanaged switches, they are slightly more expensive but you can see why.

In order to prevent you forking out extra money fora PoE switch, UniFi does supply power injectors with some of their devices. While UniFi devices do adhere to the PoE standards, some of their legacy devices use passive PoE. It would be wise to ensure you check that your switch and UniFi device support the same PoE standard before purchasing. If not, that’s where the PoE injector comes in.

In our third and final blog on this subject, we’ll be looking at further elements including UAP AC Range as well as concluding what we know about Ubiquiti UniFi and how it could help your business network.

If this has caught your interest and you’re keen to find out how using Ubiquiti UniFi could help you, get in contact with our Winchester, Hampshire based Wi-Fi Experts and find out how we could help with your installation.

If you need assistance installing, fixing, extending or hiring business Wi-Fi networks in Winchester or around Hampshire, our team are here to support you. You can email [email protected] or call 01962 657 390.

With thanks to https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubiquiti-unifi-wifi-explained/ for the images. Find out more there.

This article will be the first in a series of 3 blogs on Ubiquiti and UniFi and how a business installation of this can aid your business. We work out of 3 locations in England, one of them being London with a very varied client base. In fact, Steve spent his Sunday there last weekend getting a hipster coffee shop in Central London back online!

Wi-Fi has become absolutely essential for everyday network needs in both a consumer and business sense. It’s useful for it’s convenience but occasionally very irritating as well, usually when it doesn’t give the functionality that is required.

The standard consumer devices are fine if you’re only running a few devices in your home, and you have little to no interference from neighbours. Particularly in a business environment, there can be issues and conflicting devices that make things tricky.

The solution may just be Ubiquiti UniFi.

The Benefits of Ubiquiti UniFi

The market for devices is varied with differing prices, but Ubiquiti UniFi have a place in the market with plenty of devices to choose from.
They can cover wider areas, are capable of being customised to meet individual business needs, and thus are a little more expensive than your standard consumer hardware.

The diagram below demonstrates the typical home.

Generally, this type of consumer will have one device to do various jobs in a small home network (modem, router, switch, and WAP).

In the home this is absolutely fine, and will likely work well over just a few devices, however in a larger building with multiple floors and more network traffic, a one-man-band of this nature isn’t going to cut it.

The next diagram illustrates how a Ubiquiti UniFi can solve problems for a larger network, by dividing the above roles into several devices.

This enables it to cover a wider area and prevent faults from happening.

We’ve spoken about access points in previous blogs; by having more than one around a large network, should one stop working it means only that point will need replacing without impacting the entire network.

In our next blog on this subject, we’ll be looking at how these elements all fit together.

But in the meantime, if this has caught your interest and you’re keen to find out how using Ubiquiti UniFi could help your business, get in contact with our London Wi-Fi Experts and find out how we could help with your installation.

If you need assistance installing, fixing, extending or hiring business Wi-Fi networks in London, our team of are here to support you. You can email [email protected] or call 0203 322 2443.

With thanks to https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubiquiti-unifi-wifi-explained/ for the images. Find out more there.

How many times have you left the house without your keys, or forgot to lock the door?

Maybe not that many, but after having 3 babies I can very much tell you that baby brain is real, and I could really have used a friendly reminder to grab my keys (or swap my slippers for shoes) on my way out the front door.

Luckily for people like me, Amazon has said that Alexa, it’s AI voice assistant, will now be able to guess what you’ve forgotten, or might forget, and even what you may be thinking.

Last week during an event in Seattle, the huge technology company revealed a new feature called Alexa Hunches. The aim is to use artificial intelligence to replicate human curiosity and insight.

Amazingly, technology has advanced enough to program intuition via deep neural networks and machine learning.

This Hunches feature is due to be launched later this year, when Alexa will be able to ‘observe’ (spooky) what it’s owners do in their home via smart devices (e.g. locks, lights, electricity outlets) and then once it thinks it’s detected a regular pattern, Alexa will remind it’s owners to do something they always seem to forget, like maybe turning off the lights before going to bed. It will even offer to do it for them.

They might be called smart home systems, but there is actually a lot of criticism of them being the complete opposite.

Some of the downfalls of the products on the market at the moment include needing to be a technical expert to set them up and program them, annoying glitches being commonplace, and worryingly the possibility of enabling corporate surveillance.

Amazon aims to overcome these downfalls and bring everything regarding the smart home system under it’s own umbrella.

New technology named Wi-Fi Simple Set Up is aimed to make it super easy to configure new smart home devices, says Amazon’s David Limp, Senior VP in charge of its Alexa service – All you’d need to do is plug it in.

Also on the agenda at last weeks event was a cheap-as-chips less than $10 chipset that can be built into electronic devices and household appliances during the manufacturing stage, meaning they would have Alexa’s voice control.

For example, they introduced a microwave, branded by Amazon, that had Alexa built in for just $60, paving the way for smart fridges, coffee makers, televisions, etc all with the power of Alexa.

The future that Limp and Amazon are envisioning is full of Alexa powered smart devices all around your home and car, from making your coffee to navigating your drive.

Their focus now is on making Alexa more human. Features like Hunches enables users to have deeper and longer interactions – She’s better at sustaining longer conversations will even whisper back to you if you whisper to her.

Along with being able to remind you to remember to lock the door on your way out, she will soon be able to alert you if she hears a suspicious sound while you’re not in the house, for instance the sound of smashing glass or the smoke alarm going off.

There’s a fine line between being helpful and being annoying, and whilst some people (like me) who would think it was brilliant for someone (or something!) to remind me to pick up my keys every time I was leaving the house, others might find it exceedingly irritating.

Of course, Hunches will only work with connected home devices for now, but the scope to build on this technology is huge.

Imagine getting home from work, walking through the door to your favourite radio station playing, a coffee brewing and and a list of your recorded TV programmes waiting for your perusal – all with a few voice commands. Or maybe even waiting for you all by itself!

This article has focused on Amazon’s Alexa but there will be plenty of others out there to rival them – Other brands are available…!

We can’t be the only ones who are excited by the prospects of future technology, and a bit of good old Wi-Fi, can bring.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/sep/20/alexa-amazon-hunches-artificial-intelligence

How often do you think ‘Thank God for Wi-Fi’? Well it’s not God you should be thanking, it’s Hollywood bombshell Hedy Lamarr.

Although better known for being the most beautiful woman in the world, you have the brains of Hedy Lamarr to thank every time you use your mobile phone, a Wi-Fi connection or any Bluetooth technology.

Hedy, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna in 1913, was keenly interested in science when she was a child, yet ended up being known as a star of Hollywood, featuring in films such as “Samson and Delilah” (1949), “Boom Town” (1940), “The Conspirators” (1944) and the Czechoslovakian film “Ecstasy” (1933).

She lived a life of sex and science, and although a brilliant actress, Lamarr’s greatest achievement and long-term contribution to society was not her role in Hollywood, but as an inventor of the very thing our generation cannot live without.

Along with composer George Antheil, she co-invented early techniques used for spread-spectrum communications and frequency hopping.
These technologies were originally designed and used for military purposes where they aided communication for decades.

Nowadays they form the core of many of today’s most popular wireless devices.

During the 1930’s, Lamarr witnessed first hand the potential dangers that came with the rise of the Nazi party whilst she was married to her first husband, Austrian arms manufacturer Friedrich Mandle. After escaping that marriage and moving to California, she became a Hollywood star and between shots and takes, began her practice of inventing things.

She viewed it as a hobby; she didn’t have to work on ideas, they just came to her naturally. Uninterested in partying or drinking, Hedy created an ‘inventor’s corner’ in her Hollywood home where she would focus on her projects between filming movies. With only a few movies to film a year, each one taking a month to film, Lamarr had plenty of time on her hands to devote to her fondness of science and technology.

Although few of her ideas came to fruition, the sinking of a cruise ship by Nazi U-boats in 1940 inspired her to action. She devised the idea of a radio signal that would hop between radio frequencies, preventing it from being jammed. This allowed airplanes to safely guide nearby torpedoes without being jammed.

After working alongside eachother on their idea for several months, Lamarr and Antheil sent a description of it to the inventors council in December 1940.

2 years later in August 1942, they were granted a patent for their “secret communication system” which they then gave to the U.S. Navy for no cost.

Frustratingly, the military did nothing with the idea or patent and nothing was implemented until the 1960’s, long after the patent had expired.
The military completely underestimated her brains, and instead focused on her body, advising that she’d contribute more to the war effort as a pinup, selling kisses. But she was so much more than that, and their invention has become the core technology behind Wi-Fi networks as well as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellphones and Bluetooth.

Despite the majority of us thinking multiple times a day ‘What on earth would we do without Wi-Fi?’ hardly anyone knows of the important contribution that Hedy Lamarr gave to this technology that nowadays we couldn’t live without.

Dubbing Lamarr’s innovative creation ‘spread spectrum technology’, The Electronic Frontier Foundation honoured her with its Pioneer Award in 1997, 3 years before her death.

Her invention was inspired by secret communications to win a war, but has given the world so much more.

With thanks to https://cynthiafountaine.com/2018/03/26/hedy-lamarr/ for the image.