We started the discussion with the recent large-scale DDOS attack, which was the largest DDOS attack recorded by Akamai (in terms of bandwidth). The botnet  included more than 150,000 connected devices, including IoT devices. The primary vector was hardcoded passwords in the devices. Within a couple of weeks, source code for the attack was published on github. On a related note, Akamai recently estimated that IoT devices accounted for ~ 20% of attack vectors in 2015, thus it’s important to consider safeguards against this in IoT product development.

The event continued with keynote speaker Professor J.C. Chiao of UT Arlington. The presentation focused on integrated wireless medical sensor systems. In looking at his list of publications, you’ll notice that the systems address issues in biocompatibility, power, RF transmission, and signal processing.

For example, the earlier part of the presentation focused on chronic pain management. One of the goals of the systems was to remove the subjective element of measuring “pain.” To do so, the systems capture the waveforms of a patient when the patient is in normal condition and when the patient is experiencing pain. Later, when the patient is being monitored, the sensor output is compared to the stored waveforms in order to recognize the pain signals.

You can contact J.C. Chiao to request the presentation slides or with other inquiries.

DFW Sensor Bytes – Local Tech News

ParkHub, a parking payment systems and logistics company, integrates NWave’s parking spot sensor into its upcoming American Airlines Center deployment.

John Lindsay releases the Smooth Ride beta, an Android app that uses a phone’s accelerometer and GPS to detect and map the positions of sudden stops in order to encourage drivers to average their speed through places where there are clusters of sudden stops.