La douche à recyclage d'eau, pour réduire la facture énergétique

Après la cabine de douche en circuit fermé, une nouvelle solution permet d’intégrer cette notion d’économie d’eau dans chaque intérieur. La douche à recyclage d’eau a ainsi fait son apparition, permettant une réduction de la consommation d’eau estimée à 80 % par rapport à une utilisation traditionnelle.

Le recyclage de l’eau, facteur d’économie important pour l’habitat

C’est connu, le poste le plus coûteux concernant la consommation de l’habitat est l’eau. Le premier lieu de dépense se situe dans la salle de bain, avec plus de la moitié de la consommation qui en est issue. Aussi, agir sur sa facture revient d’abord à trouver des solutions d’économie d’eau à ce niveau.

C’est le cas depuis quelques années avec la mise en place de réducteurs d’eau sur les robinets. Lors d’une rénovation ou d’une construction neuve, il est aussi possible d’opter pour l’installation d’une cabine de douche à circuit fermé. Sur ce même principe, un nouvel équipement est aujourd’hui disponible : le receveur EcoVéa. Celui-ci est proposé par la société Jedo, spécialiste des cabines hydromassantes à circuit fermé.

Une économie de 80 %

Cette solution comprend un receveur avec une mini-centrale de traitement des eaux. Ainsi, celle-ci trie l’eau savonneuse, jugée « souillée », et l’eau recyclable. Cette dernière subit une première désinfection en passant sous une lampe à ultraviolets, avant d’être renvoyée vers la pomme de douche.

Il est possible de régler la température et le débit d’eau qui s’appliqueront systématiquement. Le système s’adapte alors à la demande, réinjectant de l’eau au gré des besoins, notamment avec l’évacuation des eaux souillées, ou pour ajuster la température souhaitée en circuit fermé.

Après chaque utilisation, l’équipement opère un cycle de nettoyage avec un produit déjà intégré. L’ensemble des tuyaux est vidangé, de façon à éliminer tout stockage d’eau entre deux utilisations.

Cette solution permet ainsi une économie d’eau équivalente à 80 % de la consommation normale. La mise en place de cette solution a cependant un coût élevé, le prix à payer pour réduire, sur le long terme, sa facture énergétique.

Source : ETI-Construction

SOLAIRE : UNE CENTRALE SUR RAILS EN CONSTRUCTION

Des ingénieurs espagnols étudient la possibilité de placer les panneaux réfléchissant sur des rails pour maximiser le rendement des centrales solaires à concentration.

Le Centre Technologique Avancée des Energies Renouvelables (CTAER), en Espagne, explore une nouvelle possibilité pour engranger un maximum de rayons solaires avec un minimum de panneaux. En construction depuis le début 2012 dans le désert deTabernas, sa centrale solaire thermique d'expérimentation alignera des panneaux réfléchissant montés rails. Disposés de manière concentriques autour de la tour, ils pourront ainsi optimiser leur placement face à la course du soleil. D’après les simulations du CTAER, la production globale d’une telle centrale à géométrie variable serait dopée de quelque 17% par rapport à une centrale classique.

Le concept de centrale solaire à géométrie variable détaillé en vidéo (en espagnol).

La technologie du solaire thermique consiste à concentrer les rayons solaires, via des surfaces réfléchissantes, pour chauffer un fluide. Ce fluide chauffe ensuite de la vapeur et entraine une turbine couplée à un générateur électrique. Dans ce type de centrales, très dépendantes d’un ensoleillement direct, l'orientation optimale des surfaces réfléchissantes est capitale.

Des systèmes de « tracker » - une motorisation bi-axiale de chaque panneau – gèrent déjà cette orientation en temps réel. Mais le caractère fixe des panneaux empêche encore de capter la totalité du rayonnement à certaines heures. Le système de rails imaginé par le CTAER pourrait donc compléter le dispositif à condition que les coûts d’entretien restent limités. Essais à suivre…

Hugo Leroux

Source : Industrie & Technologies

Des robots poseurs de panneaux solaires pour réduire les coûts

Reducing labor costs could help make solar power more affordable.

As the price of solar panels has plummeted, the amount of solar power being generated worldwide is soaring. Yet solar still accounts for less than 2 percent of the world's total electricity capacity. And small wonder. Each square meter of solar panel generates around 145 watts of electrical power, enough to turn on just two or three light bulbs.

That means you'd have to cover the National Mall in Washington, D.C. five or six times over to match the peak capacity of a large fossil-fuel power plant. What's more, every one of those panels needs to be installed by hand.

Now companies such as PV Kraftwerker and Gehrlicher in Germany are developing mobile robots that can automatically install ground-mounted solar panels day and night, in all sorts of weather. PV Kraftwerker's robot is designed to assemble power-plant-grade solar panels, which are four times the size of the ones you'd see on a home.

The main idea is to save money on labor, which accounts for a growing fraction of the cost of solar power as panels get cheaper. According to PV Kraftwerker, a construction firm specializing in solar parks, installations that used to require 35 workers can now be done with just three workers in an eighth the time.

For a 14-megawatt solar plant, the company estimates, it might cost about $2 million to install the panels manually. Using the robot could cut that cost by nearly half. The company says that the robot, which lists for $900,000, could pay for itself in less than a year of steady use.

Robotic help could be a plus given Germany's ambitious plans to get a third of its electricity from renewable sources within eight years and 80 percent by 2050 (see "The Great German Energy Experiment"). Germany led the world in solar installations in 2011, putting up panels capable of generating around 7.5 gigawatts and covering an estimated 50 square kilometers of ground and rooftops.

PV Kraftwerker built its robot from off-the-shelf Japanese components. The machinery consists of a robotic arm mounted on an all-terrain vehicle with tanklike tracks. Suction cups grip the glass face of the solar panels and the arm swings them into place, guided by cameras that give the robot a three-dimensional view of the scene.

The robot's limitations give a glimpse of how hard it's going to be to completely automate the installation process. Much solar power in Germany is generated by rooftop arrays, but the shape and orientation of roofs is too varied for robots to handle. Even for small solar farms and those using ordinary-size panels, human workers are both faster and cheaper than the robot, says Markus Gattenlöhner, head of marketing at PV Kraftwerker.

Christian Hoepfner, a scientific director at the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (see "Redesigning Solar Power"), agrees that the role of robots will be limited. "But I can see the beauty of it for large, ground-mounted installations," he says. "When you think of huge fields covered with identical panels, you think, 'Why not have a robot do it?' As the size of installations increases, it's unavoidable."

So far, the PV Kraftwerker robot can only do one thing: lay panels on a metal frame that humans have already installed. Two people walking along beside the robot screw the panels to the frame and make electrical connections.

Yet robotic installation may become more common as other components get adapted to automation. PV Kraftwerker and other companies are also developing robots that, guided by GPS, can pound poles into the ground and then mount panels on them, eliminating the need for workers to install frames. Newer solar modules can be snapped or glued into position instead of being screwed in. Special plugs could even allow robots to make the electrical connections (see "New Solar Panel Designs Make Installation Cheaper").

Robots like these could be useful in bringing electricity to inhospitable environments. The government of Japan commissioned PV Kraftwerker to develop a version of its robot that could install a solar power plant largely on its own in radioactive areas near the site of the Fukushima nuclear-plant disaster. Gattenlöhner says the Japanese government wants the robot within six months.

Source : MIT Technology Review

In Brazil, prisoners’ pedal power shaves time off their sentence

The Santa Rita do Sapucaí prison is harnessing the green energy produced by its cycling inmates, in exchange for a reduced stay.

Film lovers in the UK have already experienced screenings projected the environmentally friendly way with the pedal-powered Cycle-in Cinema. In Brazil, the Santa Rita do Sapucaí prison has taken a similar approach in its attempts to produce green energy – harnessing the pedal work of its inmates.
According to reports, two exercise bikes have been placed in the courtyard of the penitentiary and are hooked up to batteries. Cyclists’ kinetic energy is converted into electricity which charges the battery and a device on the handlebars alerts the rider when it’s time stop. The fully charged batteries are then taken into the city and used to power street lamps – one day’s cycling can provide enough energy to run six light bulbs.

On a mass scale, the country’s prisoners could be a source of alternative energy for illuminating a city’s worth of street lights. In order to incentivize use of the bikes, city judge José Henrique Mallmann is waiving a day off the sentence of prisoners for every 16 hours pedalling they complete. The facility aims to install a further eight bikes following the success of the scheme.

The idea enables prisoners to keep fit, wardens to benefit from occupied detainees and offers a source of sustainable energy. One for expansion and adaption near you?

Spotted by: Judy McRae
Source: Springwise

Infographie sur l'étendue des champs d'action de l'internet des objets et du MtoM

This guest post comes from my colleague, Joseph A di Paolantonio.  His coverage of the Internet of Things is part of Constellation Research’s Data to Decisions business theme.

Click for Full Size SVG

Will You Be Ready For the M2M World?

The Internet of Things, the Connected World, the Smart Planet… All these terms indicate that the number of devices connected to, communicating through, and building relationships on the Internet has exceeded the number of humans using the Internet. But what does this really mean? Is it about the number of devices, and what devices? Is it about the data, so much data, so fast, so disparate, that will make current big data look like teeny-weeny data?
I think that it’s about change: the way we live our lives, the way we conduct business, the way we walk down a street, drive a car, or think about relationships. All will change over the next decade:

1. Sensors are everywhere. The camera at the traffic light and overseeing the freeway; those are sensors. That new bump in the parking space and new box on the street lamp; those are sensors. From listening for gun shots to monitoring a chicken coop, sensors are cropping up in every area of your life.
2. Machine to Machine [M2M] relationships will generate connected data that will affect every aspect of your life. Connected Data will be used to fine-tune predictives that will prevent crimes, anticipate your next purchase and take over control of your car to avoid traffic jams. The nascent form of this is already happening: Los Angeles and Santa Cruz police are using PredPol to predict & prevent crimes, location aware ads popping up in your favorite smartphone apps, and Nevada and California are giving driver licenses to robotic cars.
3. Sustainability isn’t about saving the planet, it’s about saving money. Saving the planet, reducing dependence on polluting energy sources and reducing waste in landfills are all good things, but they aren’t part of the fiduciary responsibilities of most executives. However, Smart Buildings, recycling & composting, and Green IT all increase a company’s bottom line and that does fall under every executive’s fiduciary goals.

Making Sense of Inter-Connectedness – Introducing My Internet of Things Mind Map

As you can tell from the mindmap associated with this post, I’ve been thinking about the Internet of things quite a bit lately. It’s a natural progression for me. I’m fascinated by all the new sensors, the Connected Data [you heard it here first] that will swamp Big Data, the advances in data management and analytics that will be needed, the impact upon policy and regulation, and the vision of the people and companies bringing about the Internet of Things. But more, as I’ve been reading and thinking about the SmartPlanet, SmartCities, SmartGrid and SmartPhones, and that ConnectedData, I realized that I can never look at the world around me in the same way again.
Let’s look at some of the “facts” [read guesses] that have been written about the IoT.

Looking to the future, Cisco IBSG predicts there will be 25 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2015 and 50 billion by 2020. From The Internet of Things: How the Next Evolution of the Internet Is Changing Everything by Dave Evans, April 2011 [links to PDF]

Between 2011 and 2020 the number of connected devices globally will grow from 9 billion to 24 billion as the benefit of connecting more and varied devices is realised. The Connected Life: A USD4.5 trillion global impact in 2020, [links to PDF] February 2012 by Machine Research for the GSMA.

Two different estimates, one of 24 billion devices of many different types, connected by wireless broadband, and one of 50 billion mobile devices using different types of cellular networks, all by the year 2020. And neither of these estimates include the trillions of other types of things that will deployed over the next eight years. Trillions, not billions, using a variety of personal, local, and wide-area wireless networks.

(See the full post at Constellation Research, Inc.)

Source: Forbes.com

Square propose le paiement par la voix en magasin physique

Le service transformant les tablettes en terminal à cartes bancaires se dote d'une fonctionnalité futuriste : il permet l'iPad du marchand d'afficher automatiquement la photo du client, qui n'a qu'à prononcer son nom pour payer.

Square permet aux marchands physiques de transformer en terminal de paiement leur smartphone ou tablette Apple ou Android, en leur adjoignant simplement un tout petit lecteur de cartes bancaires via la prise jack. Ce qui permet à n'importe qui d'accepter les paiements par carte, sans autre frais qu'une commission de 2,75% de la transaction perçue par Square. Son nouveau service "Pay With Square" passe à la vitesse supérieure : le terminal reconnaît désormais automatiquement l'acheteur.

Concrètement, le client entre dans la boutique. Son nom et sa photo apparaissent sur l'iPad du caissier. Le caissier renseigne sur l'iPad les articles que lui présente l'acheteur et présente la tablette au client. Pour payer, celui-ci ne sort pas de carte bancaire, pas de liquide, pas de smartphone et ne tape pas de code : il se contente de dire son nom à haute voix. Le caissier compare son visage à sa photo et tape OK pour finaliser la transaction. Une fonctionnalité assortie d'une page d'analytics montrant les produits achetés, les quantités et les dates.

Préalablement, le consommateur doit avoir renseigné une photo dans l'application Square téléchargée sur son smartphone et lié ce compte à sa carte de crédit. C'est le GPS de son smartphone qui permet à l'application de lui indiquer les petits commerces alentours qui proposent Pay With Square (pour l'instant 75 000 selon la société). Côté boutique, c'est évidemment aussi grâce au GPS et à d'autres services de géolocalisation que le marchand sait quand un client Square passe le pas de sa porte. Ce qui permet également au marchand d'affiner son service client, par exemple en proposant une remise pour la première visite ou une récompense pour la dixième, qui apparaissent sur l'application du consommateur lorsqu'il passe dans le quartier.

Source: Flore Fauconnier, Journal du Net

How Facebook could change the game for sustainability

With Facebook’s 900 million monthly active users spending hours sharing, commenting on and “liking” photos, using apps, and connecting with friends, the social media giant has essentially the world’s biggest platform by which to influence its users. And the future of Facebook’s influence will increasingly be focused on sustainability, if the company’s new(ish) manager of energy efficiency and sustainability, Bill Weihl, has anything to say about it.

In an interview last month, Weihl told me that one of the reasons he joined Facebook from Google — where he was the search engine company’s Green Energy Czar — was because of the massive opportunity to help deliver sustainability through Facebook’s social platform. Over the next six to 12 months, we’ll increasingly connect with third party app developers that can help us deliver this goal, and “the potential there is just enormous.” said Weihl.

The first of these types of third party partnerships is a deal announced late last year with energy software company Opower. Opower created a Facebook application that enables users to check out their energy usage compared to friends and national averages, get energy efficiency tips and, down the road, play games that make energy savings competitive. The app was launched in April in beta with 16 utilities (representing 20 million h0useholds).

While there is plenty of this type of energy efficiency software out there, building an energy app on top of Facebook’s social platform has unique opportunities to change people’s behavior. Because the app can compare their energy usage to their actual friends, it “is much more personal and seems likely to help people pay attention more and make a change,” explained Weihl.

The open social graph could be a fundamental key to cracking the code for behavior change — everything from turning off lights, to lowering air conditioning to buying LEDs, to participating in utilities’ energy efficiency programs. People are influenced by a variety of things, explained Weihl, but most people can be covered under some combination of: saving money, competing with peers, and doing good. Beyond energy efficiency apps, Weihl says Facebook has been looking to work with developers building apps around things like recycling and electric cars.

In 2010, Facebook says it “woke up” to using its platform for sustainability, and increased those efforts in 2011. The company has been working with environmental groups like the Environmental Defense Fund, and came to an agreement with Greenpeace last year to move up clean power on its list of criteria for siting where it builds data centers. Facebook also has an industry-leading project to open source the energy efficiency hardware for its data centers. However, the work with third parties around delivering sustainability apps for social good has been relatively modest at this point.

Weihl will also help Facebook monitor and manage its overall company energy usage and carbon emissions. Weihl also intends to help Facebook work with utilities to find more options for clean power for data centers.

Source : GigaOM

5 smart energy projects with big potential

Today’s itinerary takes us to Arizona, where researchers have developed a mirror technology they hope can make solar competitive. Next stop is Lowell, Massachusetts, a poster child for energy efficiency savings that other cash-strapped cities may find instructive. Keep reading for details on a transmission project in Vietnam that’s using GE’s latest fuseless technology, a metering trial with a twist in the UK and a geothermal conversion in Indiana.

In Arizona, it’s mirror, mirror on the sun

On the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, researchers are using $1.5 million from the Department of Energy to improve a mirror-making technology they’ve developed with the aim of producing solar electricity at a price competitive with non-renewable energy sources. How? A house-sized frame of crisscrossing steel tubes referred to as the tracker is mounted onto a swiveling post in the concrete bottom of an empty swimming pool.

The tracker supports two curved, highly reflective glass mirrors, each measuring 10 feet by 10 feet. “We use mirror-making technology we developed at the UA to make highly concentrating solar mirrors,” said Roger Angel, Regents’ Professor of Astronomy and Optical Sciences and director of the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. “Our technology holds the promise of getting the price of solar energy down to where it can be used on a large scale without depending on subsidies and be competitive in the electricity market.”

Cities, take a lesson from Lowell

With news of cities going bankrupt, it may be wise for cash-strapped burgs to take a look at what’s going on in Lowell, Massachusetts where an energy efficiency project is expected to save the city $1.5 million annually over a 20-year contract. Due to on-going budget constraints and increasing operational costs, Lowell was facing needed infrastructure upgrades with limited funding. By partnering with Ameresco in an energy savings performance contract (ESPC), Lowell officials say they were able to replace outdated equipment and aging municipal infrastructure, lower utility costs and partially fund a city energy manager position, all on a budget-neutral basis without any upfront capital investment.

In addition, as a result of the energy efficiency measures implemented during the first phase of the project, Lowell is expected to save the equivalent of 6,158 tons of CO2 annually or equal to removing 1,023 cars from the road per year. The city-wide initiative included 47 of Lowell’s municipal buildings and over 23 energy conservation measures, including electrical, mechanical, weatherization, water and operational upgrades, and installation of photovoltaic arrays on several municipal properties.

Getting the geothermal ball rolling in Muncie

In the shadow of two outdated smokestacks and four antiquated coal-fired boilers, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, has started the second and final phase of converting the university to a geothermal ground-source heat pump system – reportedly the largest project of its kind in the United States. “When costs began to escalate for the installation of a new fossil fuel burning boiler, the university began to evaluate other renewable energy options,” says Jim Lowe, director of engineering, construction and operations. “This led to the decision to convert the campus to a more efficient geothermal-based heating and cooling system.”

The conversion began in 2009 and today provides heating and cooling to half the campus. Ball State is installing a vertical, closed-loop district system that uses only fresh water. The system uses the earth’s ability to store heat in the ground and water thermal masses. A geothermal heat pump uses the earth as either a heat source, when operating in heating mode, or a heat sink, when operating in cooling mode. When the system is complete, the shift from fossil fuels to a renewable energy source is expected to reduce the university’s carbon footprint by nearly half while saving $2 million a year in operating costs.

Radio communications for smart meters on trial in the UK

An 18-month trial involving 1,000 homes in England’s Suffolk region is an attempt to prove that a long-range radio communications network is a better proposition than a mobile network for connecting smart meters wherever their location. The project involves SmartReach, a collaboration of Arqiva, BT, BAE Systems Detica and Sensus, as well as ScottishPower and Siemens.

According to a press release, reaching meters with a single communications technology means that the installation process can be simpler and less expensive, with minimal repeat visits required and that costly, secondary communications solutions can be avoided. SmartReach is using Arqiva’s existing tower infrastructure and Sensus’ FlexNet smart metering communications solution. Siemens will coordinate, plan and manage the installation of smart meters into participating homes and will also provide data to ScottishPower on a range of metrics to assess the speed and success of installation, as well as ongoing performance for scheduled and on-demand meter reads

Doubling transmission capacity in Vietnam

With Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on hand to witness the contract signing earlier this month in Hanoi, GE will work with Vietnam National Power Transmission Corp. to double to double the country’s existing power capacity by upgrading its national backbone transmission system. GE’s series capacitor banks will be installed as part of the upgrade of the 500-kV Pleiku–Phu Lam transmission line to increase power capacity from 1,000 amps to 2,000 amps. The project utilizes GE’s latest fuseless technology to enable a 100 percent increase in the current capacity of the existing transmission line and installed infrastructure. GE said it will partner for the first time with a local corporation, 3C Company, to provide local content for the project.

Source : SmartGridNews

GM opens up OnStar with peer-to-peer car sharing service

The around 6 million subscribers to GM’s OnStar connected car service can now rent out their cars to other drivers via a deal between the auto giant and peer-to-peer car sharing startup RelayRides. The partnership was announced back in October of last year, and the service is live as of Tuesday.

RelayRides — which raised money from GM’s venture arm — says it is the first third party to use OnStar’s API, and later this Summer GM plans to open up the API to other third party developers, too. OnStar uses satellite-connected on-board units to offer connected services, but the primary application to date has been to summon help in the case of an accident or other emergency. GM offers the service to car buyers free for a few months to try out before initiating a monthly fee — the service can cost $200 to $300 per year — and is looking to offer more services to retain those trial customers.

Using the OnStar system, RelayRides members can use a mobile app to reserve a car and unlock and lock the door. Owners of the vehicles can earn money from renting out their cars, and set the price for how much they want their cars to be rented. Depending on the location of where the car is parked, car owners can earn hundred of dollars per month, says RelayRides.

RelayRides, which first launched in the Summer of 2010, has been building a network of car owners and drivers interested in using cars a service. For much of the time, RelayRides has been installing a communications device in the vehicles to facilitate the reservation process, which can be a somewhat expensive and labor-intensive process. But in the GM cars, the OnStar system acts as that control gadget. RelayRides also won’t be installing communication devices in its customer’s cars in the future, but will use a combination of the OnStar system and will facilitate key sharing for non-OnStar subscribers.

RelayRides isn’t the only peer-to-peer car sharing company out there. Getaround, which sells a kit to its car owner customers, and Wheelz, which has an investment from Zipcar are two other ones. The service can be envisioned as sort of “car sharing 2.0″, in contrast to traditional car sharing networks like Zipcar and CityCarShare, where the organization owns the fleet of cars.

One of the major hurdles with these services is security. HiGear, a high-end luxury peer-to-peer car sharing company was the target of thieves and shut down. Investor Sunil Paul backed away from his idea to launch peer-to-peer car sharing via a startup called Spride Share because of his concerns over insurance and the business model. RelayRides says the OnStar system makes its peer-to-peer service more secure, as the OnStar vehicles can be controlled and tracked in the network.

Auto makers have an interesting relationship with car sharing. Car sharing has been proven to lead to fewer cars being purchased, so in a small part, car sharing is cannibalizing the auto maker’s business. But a variety of automakers are realizing they can benefit from car sharing in various ways, including getting their cars in front of the young and urban who normally wouldn’t be test driving their cars. Other companies, like Daimler, and Volkswagen, are trialling their own car sharing pilots.

RelayRides is backed by over $13 million in venture funding from investors including Google Ventures, August Capital, Shasta Ventures and General Motors Ventures.

Source : GigaOM

Vélo électrique : Le Smart e-Bike est disponible à la vente [100 km d'autonomie]

Le vélo électrique de Smart, le E-Bike arrive sur le marché et il sera proposé dans les concessions Smart dès ce mois de juillet.
Il s’agit d’une bicyclette à assistance électrique, et pardonnez-moi l’expression : mais quelle assistance ! 100 kilomètres d’autonomie, c’est tout simplement énorme pour un vélo de ce type.

Revers de la médaille, il y a un côté moins réjouissant à ce magnifique joujou : son prix de 2900 euros (prix canadien sur le site de Smart : 3240 $CAD). On peut se dire que cela vaut bien ce super design futuriste et cette autonomie hors du commun qui vous permettra d’aller à votre maison de campagne et de revenir (ou alors d’aller au boulot tous les matins). Mais bon, quand même… c’est pas donné ^^

La batterie du e-Bike est facile à recharger sur une prise classique. Sur le guidon, un petit écran permet de paramétrer le niveau de l’assistance voulue, voir l’état de la batterie (km restants) et la vitesse à laquelle on roule.
Le ebike est disponible en deux coloris : blanc/vert (ci-dessus) ou gris/orange.

Caractéristiques techniques :
Puissance de 250W, couple de 35Nm et vitesse maximale de 25km/h (ou plus en combinant avec un pédalage). Changement de vitesse avec moyeu à vitesses intégrées SRAM i-Motion 3 (transmission à 3 vitesses). Intelligent, ce vélo zéro-émission récupère de l’énergie au freinage (cool!) et possède 4 niveaux d’assistance.
La batterie au lithium-ion pèse 3,3 kg, a une capacité de 423 Wh nominale (réf. Allemagne ; 250 W pour pays européens et Suisse). Il est possible de charger 80% de la batterie en 3 heures seulement et la totalité en 5 heures.
Le cadre est en aluminium (designé par Smart) et construit pour des personnes mesurant entre 1m60 et 1m90. Poids du vélo : 26,1 kg. Il peut supporter un passager avec bagages d’un poids total de 114 kg.


L’écran sur le guidon :

Ce vélo semble vraiment sympathique et tout ce que je recherche… si ces messieurs de Smart Canada passent par là, je suis prêt à l’essayer quand vous voulez!!

Source: Vincent Abry

Four Trends In The Public Technology Market

Editor’s note: Tom Tunguz is a principal at Redpoint Ventures, and previously a Google product manager, who worked on social media monetization.
Tom blogs at tomasztunguz.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @ttunguz. 
Over the next five weeks, I invite you to journey through an analysis of the public and private technology markets. Each weekend of the subsequent month we will uncover trends in the private technology markets and ultimately seek predictive factors to inform fund raising decisions. We begin by placing the broad technology market in a historical context.
Chart 1: It’s been a wild ride
Over the past 30 years, technology companies have boomed, busted and boomed again. In 1980, the global market cap of technology companies totaled $50B, 1.7% of all global equities. Ten years later, tech market caps tripled to $176B. Then, technology companies entered hyper-growth, registering 140% annual growth rates for ten years surpassing $8T in global market cap in 2000. At its zenith, IT companies represented one-fourth of all equity value in the world – pure euphoria. At its post-2000 nadir three short years later, technology market caps deflated 63% to $3T. Today, the sector has settled: technology equity is worth $7T and represents 14.7% of the total global market cap. [1]

Chart 2: The technology market has fragmented
In 1990, technology oligarchs controlled the industry. The largest 10 IT companies represented over 80% of the value of the entire IT sector. In 2000, at the height of the boom, that figure dropped to 5% due to the overzealous IPO glut. In 2012 the top 10 companies’ share rebounded to 30% of total IT market cap, marking a healthy and competitive industry. [2]

Chart 3: The largest IT market cap in 2000 exceeded Apple’s market cap today
At its peak Microsoft’s market cap eclipsed $640B in 2000, 14% larger than Apple’s current value $565B. Simultaneously, Docomo and Cisco each amassed market capitalizations of $360B, which equalled Apple’s market cap in January 2012 and bested the second largest tech company, Microsoft, by 65%. Today’s tech industry has its share of titans, but at an average 17 price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, these giant’s valuations fall within the current market norms and are a distant cry from the 70 P/E characterizing the bubble. [2] [3] [5]

Chart 4: The constitution of the technology industry changes every 10 years
In 1990, telcos and computer makers dominated the ten largest companies. IBM represented more than 35% of the sum of the top 10 market caps and the top 4 companies exceed 75% share. Software maker Microsoft appeared in the top 10 for the first time. NB: Verizon was then known as GTE, the entity at the time.

In 2000, software dethroned hardware as market leaders. Growth in IT spending fueled this boom as enterprises clamored to install new technology stacks. Microsoft surpassed IBM, who fell off the top 10 list. Oracle trailed closely, growing with the demand for enterprise databases. Networking and telecom remained at the table as PC sales boomed as telcos deployed the networking infrastructure to interconnect millions of terminals.

In 2012, mobile became the zeitgeist. Samsung and Apple rocketed to the fore. Mobile carriers form the largest bloc comprising ATT, Verizon, China Mobile and Vodafone. A reinvigorated, software-services-focused IBM joined Microsoft and Oracle representing enterprise software. Google cracked into the rankings as the sole entrant embodying pure Internet. [2]

Through it all, Microsoft and Intel are the only companies present the top 10 market caps each decade, a testament to technology’s relentless pursuit of invention and innovation.

Vertical Capital Updraft

The technology sector has never been better diversified, providing a huge vertical updraft of acquisition capital. The top 10 IT companies’ cash current positions of $250B are 18 times greater than the total value of annual venture backed M&A transactions (approximately $17B annually), presenting a lush environment for startups to thrive. [2, 4]
Sources:
[1] CapitalIQ research for technology sector data. IMF and US Census for global market cap figures, 2010.
[2] CapitalIQ research, 2012.
[3] Yahoo Finance, 2012.
[4] National Venture Capital Association, 2011.
[5] Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco analysis of S&P technology stocks, 2001.

Source: Techcrunch

Book printed in ink that vanishes after two months

Argentina-based publisher Eterna Cadencia has released El Libro que No Puede Esperar – which translates as ‘The Book that Cannot Wait’ – an anthology of new fiction printed in ink that disappears after two months of opening the book.

We’ve seen a few innovations that have offered a twist on traditional reading habits, from offering short works by new authors based on the duration of train delays to temporary edible and smokeable books. Taking elements of both of these ideas, Buenos Aires-based bookshop and publisher Eterna Cadencia has released El Libro que No Puede Esperar – which translates as ‘The Book that Cannot Wait’ – an anthology of new fiction printed in ink that disappears after two months of opening the book.

Silk-screened using a special ink, the book comes sealed in air-tight packaging that, once opened, allows the printed material to react with the atmosphere. The result is that after two months, the text vanishes. With much discussion currently centering on portable electronic readers and e-books, deemed to be bringing about the death of the physical novel, the creators aimed to add a bit of magic to the anthology, as well as encourage buyers to actually read it once they’ve received it instead of leaving it in their ‘to do’ pile. As the authors inside are all previously unpublished, the concept, developed with help from ad agency Draftfcb, acts as a way to ensure that readers engage with as much of the material as possible while they have the chance. As the video below explains: “If people don’t read their first books, they’ll never make it to a second.”

El Libro que No Puede Esperar adds an element of urgency to reading — motivating readers, promoting authors and benefitting physical book publishers; according to one report, the first edition sold out in one day. Is this a business model that is as shortlived as its product, or could this be developed into something more sustainable?

Website: www.eternacadencia.com
Contact: info@eternacadencia.com.ar
Spotted by: Hemanth Chandrasekar

Source: Springwise

Why we need a standard for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things is supposed to connect every aspect of our lives from our homes and cars to the objects we wear and the goods we consume. It’s evenconnecting ice machines. But one thing the Internet of Things lacks is a unifying standard.

Devices will be connected by different radio technologies: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and a host of 2G and mobile broadband cellular technologies. There’s really no way of assuring your ‘thing’ will connect to the network or networks available at any given time.

The mobile industry is trying to rectify the problem at least as it pertains to cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies. The bigger issue of fragmentation between bands and technologies isn’t going to get worked out anytime soon — you’re not going to connect a GSM wristwatch to a CDMA or Wi-Fi network. But often you can’t connect that GSM wristwatch to a GSM network either. Roaming between networks that use the same technology requires not only a business arrangement with each carrier, but a common protocol.

A group of global wireless standards bodies are trying to tackle that problem. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) in the U.S. are working with their counterparts in Japan, Korea and China to develop a common “service layer” which can be embedded in every M2M device, making them compatible with M2M application servers hosted by any global operator.

At the end of the day, that means many of the devices in our Internet of Things suddenly become untethered from specific networks. That wristwatch could work on AT&T as well as T-Mobile’s GSM network and then connect to Rogers Communications’ GSM towers when you fly into Toronto. Shipping containers embedded with M2M modules connect to whatever network is available at any port of call. The same wireless smart meter could be deployed in Kansas City or in Marrakesh without having to completely reconfigure its software.

Many things, many internets

Roaming between networks is possible today. The problem is that those arrangements tend to be ad hoc deals put together by M2M service aggregators like Kore Telematics, which sort out all of the underlying carrier deals and manage each networks’ various protocols. Some operators have started taking matters into their own hands.

On Tuesday, seven major operators – KPN, NTT DoCoMo, Rogers, SingTel, Telefónica, Telstra and Vimpelcom – formed an alliance to create a common M2M management platform allowing for the “delivery of a global product with a single SIM, eliminating roaming costs in the countries of participating operators.”

It sounds like a standard, but it’s not quite the same thing. All seven providers use the same M2M management platform supplied by Jasper Wireless, so they’re able to bridge their difference through a common vendor. Still, the effort is admirable and could lead the creation of ad hoc interoperability between a large section of the world’s carriers. Jasper has many other customers besides those seven, including AT&T and America Movil.

A good example of a problem such cooperation could solve is the Kindle’s international predicament. Even though Amazon sells the Kindle all over the world it has one “home” network, AT&T. That means any Kindle user either living in or traveling to another country has to pay international download – read “roaming” – fees to buy a new book or access a periodical subscription.

It’s fairly ridiculous that a multinational retailer like Amazon can’t support its flagship device internationally without resorting to such single-carrier arrangements. But if Amazon were to broker a deal with this new alliance, the Kindle would find itself ‘at home’ on whichever of these seven networks it wandered on to.

There’s a possibility that the industry will coalesce around a single proprietary technology such as Jasper’s, creating an ad hoc standard much like we see developing in the public cloud space around Amazon Web Services. But an ad hoc standard isn’t a standard.

What we need is for the industry to get together and sort out a way to make every M2M device carrier and network agnostic. A gadget maker should be able to build a device that connects to the Internet of Things without a specific carrier, a specific management platform or a specific application server in mind. The business deals with individual carriers would still need to be sorted out, but first we need remove the technology barriers. Otherwise we won’t wind up with a single Internet of Things,  rather many internets, each with their own separate sets of things.

Source : GigaOM

New York starts turning payphones into free Wi-fi hotspots

Payphones, those relics of the pre-cellphone era, may just get a new lease on life in New York. The city is testing a pilot program in which it installs free Wi-Fi on select payphone kiosks.

The hotspots are initially coming to ten payphones in three of the boroughs and will be open to the public to access for free. You can see a list of sites here. Users just agree to the terms, visit the city’s tourism website and then they’re up and running. Currently, there are no ads on the service, but there could be in the future.

The effort is part of the city’s larger goal of providing more digital inclusion for residents. And it’s also aimed at helping figure out the future of the city’s payphones, which are a source of complaints from many residents because they attract crime or are just plain ugly.

The payphones have been outfitted with “military grade” antennas, that provide service up to 300 feet away. The $2,000 installation is being provided for free by Van Wagner Communications, which owns many of the city’s payphones. The plan is to eventually spread the Wi-Fi hotspots to more of the city’s 13,000 payphones with the maintenance and ongoing costs paid by the payphone companies.

New York is already flush with a lot of great free Wi-Fi options. AT&T has been lighting up many of the city’s parks as part of a five-year plan. The city has been installing more Wi-Fi at schools, libraries and senior centers. And providers like Towerstream are providing sponsored Wi-Fi for users who are willing to view a selection of daily deals. I don’t think the payphone companies will keep providing a completely free service. It’s likely ads will be inserted at some point, something AT&T is testing as well.

I think it’s a good start for re-using payphones, which serve less and less need in our mobile centric world. And it speaks to our addiction to Wi-Fi and data, which is now even more popular than cellular. The use of more Wi-Fi can also lessen congestion on busy cellular networks, which can get bogged down in dense cities like New York and San Francisco. I can’t recall the last time I’ve used a payphone but I’ll be glad to see them around if it means more free Wi-Fi.

Source : GigaOM

L'audio s'installe doucement sur les réseaux sociaux

uWhisp permet de partager des messages vocaux directement sur Facebook, Twitter et d'autres sites internet. Une initiative de plus qui marque un début d'ancrage du message audio sur ces sites.

L'audio serait-il une nouvelle corde à l'arc des réseaux sociaux ? TweetVox propose ainsi un système de partage de messages vocaux géolocalisés via les médias sociaux. Dans la même lignée, un nouvel outil a été mis au point par quatre étudiants de la UPC Barcelona School of Informatics. Baptisé uWhisp, le système permet également d'envoyer des messages vocaux via Facebook, Twitter et d'autres sites. Avec une différence : il faut passer par un plug-in installé sur le navigateur web. "Cette initiative est intéressante car elle utilise le format audio sous-utilisé sur les médias sociaux", dit à L'Atelier Erwan Le Nagard, expert des médias sociaux chez Orange Group.

L'oral sur les réseaux sociaux

Le plugin installé crée des boutons et un player pour enregistrer et envoyer du contenu audio directement intégrés sur Facebook par exemple. Mais il fonctionnerait également sur d'autres sites. Il suffit d'être enregistré sur le site uWhisp pour bénéficier d'une barre d'outils intégrée dans son navigateur internet permettant d'enregistrer et de diffuser son message audio. Tous les contenus enregistrés, une fois validés par l'utilisateur, sont stockés sur les serveurs uWhisp. Un lien est fait sur Facebook. "Avec un tel outil, de nouvelles pratiques vont apparaître et les consommateurs vont pouvoir interagir d'une autre façon avec les marques par exemple", nous dit Erwan Le Nagard.

Un canal à s'approprier

Le but étant de donner plus de poids à l'oral sur le web. "En terme de positionnement, on observe une tendance à se rapprocher du marketing conversationnel", dit-il. Toutefois, c'est un contenu qui est limité en terme d'accessibilité. En effet, il est difficile de le référencer sur les moteurs de recherche, à moins d'apporter en complément un fichier texte décrivant son contenu. Tout dépend de l'utilisation qui en sera faite. "Globalement, il faut considérer que l'audio est un format sous-exploité par les marques en terme de création de contenus et qu'il doit trouver sa place sur les réseaux sociaux", conclut-il. Pour l'heure, "il pourrait être utilisé comme un canal de complément, mais son rôle reste à définir".

Source: L'atelier

Serious Games : définitions, enjeux et facteurs clés de succès

Lien vers les publications d'InnhotepInnhotep - Serious Games : définitions, enjeux et facteurs clés de succès

View more presentations from Innhotep

Services Financiers Mobiles pour les masses

Lien vers les publications d'InnhotepServices Financiers Mobiles de masse - 2011

View more presentations from Innhotep

Des micro-transactions pour solliciter les médecins sur mobile

L'application mobile HealthTap connecte les utilisateurs à un réseau de médecins, que le patient peut solliciter en échange de micro-transactions.

Le Web déborde de conseils, forums et services médicaux en tous genres au point de former un brouhaha permanent. Pourtant, obtenir de l'information de spécialistes a toujours beaucoup de valeur, surtout quand on est en déplacement. Les startups ont donc démocratisé l'accès aux conseils d'experts et beaucoup d’applications mobiles permettent aux utilisateurs de demander conseil à des experts via leur smartphone - Localmind propose des réponses localisées, alors que Advice for Life donne aux utilisateurs iOS des suggestions sur les relations, la responsabilité de parent et bien plus encore. HealthTap, basée à Plo Alto, a développé une application pour iOS et Android dans le même esprit, qui connecte patients et médecins via mobile.

La plupart des patients ne trouvent pas de réponses satisfaisantes en ligne
Les patients cherchent de l'information sur l'application HealthTap en posant des questions qui peuvent paraître inutiles étant donnée l’influence des forums et sites d'assistance qu'on peut trouver en ligne aujourd'hui. Pourtant, les données du Pew Internet & American Life Project depuis 2010 citées par Health Tap montrent que la majorité de ceux qui recherchent une réponse à un sujet médical n'obtiennent aucune aide de ses sources. Plus de la moitié de ceux qui souffrent de maladies chroniques ne reçoivent pas de réponse, tandis que seulement 24 à 33 % reçoivent une assistance utile. Mais avec l'application HealthTap, les utilisateurs peuvent poser des questions privées à des médecins selon leur domaine de spécialité et leurs notes « DocScore, » un modèle qui semble plus efficace que la plupart des ressources en ligne.

Une application mobile de santé avec un modèle « freeimum »
HealthTap répond à un besoin réel d'informations médicales et les met à portée des consommateurs de la façon la plus accessible qui soit : l'appareil mobile. Bien que le service gratuit soit costaud et efficace, Health Tap offre maintenant des fonctions Premium disponibles par micropaiement. Ces fonctions permettent aux utilisateurs de se connecter au médecin de leur choix pour poser une question privées ou obtenir un message en temps réel via le chat et des médias enrichis : les patients peuvent partager leurs données médicales, des images et des documents avec les médecins. Les questions privées et l’option de suivi sont facturées. Ce réseau à l'avantage pour les médecins de créer une évaluation transparente et une présence sur l'application et donc d'attirer de nouveaux utilisateurs dans leur patientèle.

Source: L'atelier

Lien vers nos publications
Energies marines renouvelables en France - 2011

View more presentations from Innhotep

Boson de Higgs