Smart healthcare is one of the toughest but also fastest growing industries. A Silicon Valley start-up with a strong background in medical surgery and Thaumatec joined forces to bring IoT into the picture. The idea of developing a real-time device that could film surgeries, promptly became a reality thanks to Thaumatec’s extensive experience on IoT.

What is smart healthcare?

The world is changing every day and its fast growth and development influence each area of our lives – and smart healthcare is one of those areas. Our definition of smart healthcare is “a technology that can support better diagnostics, treatments, cures and everyday life of patients as well as the technology that can influence the whole industry itself – like a better way to educate medical students etc”. 

Smart healthcare can be developed in many different areas of medicine, as well as with different tools – online consultations, mobile health, smart home, more developed medical devices etc.

Smarter healthcare with Internet of Things

Development of the Internet of Things made smart healthcare inexpensive, effortless, and closer to the patients. Thanks to different ways of communication, now it’s much simpler to share the results taken by a sensor connected to the patient’s body and the doctor can have these results almost immediately. Image visualization can improve not only the process of 2D/3D analyze, but also the surgeon can educate students simultaneously during the surgery.

Surgery camera – a smart healthcare device

The smart healthcare camera can record the whole process, place more light or focus on a special spot or zoom and rotate the whole view on a screen. It records movies in Full HD resolution and can also manage all of the variables of recorded material. It also enables the transmission of the recorded material from one room to another, for medical students to view physically or online – all at the same time.

Developing a smart healthcare tool to support surgeons in a highly sensitive environment requires the application of different cutting-edge IoT technologies. The balance between providing real-time imaging of surgeries, being able to focus on certain detailed procedures and not limiting the surgeon in its freedom of movement was the challenge of this IoT solution.

Our way

A Silicon Valley start-up with a strong background in medical surgery identified the possibilities of IoT technologies supporting surgeons in carrying out and learning from the surgeries that were performed daily. Looking for a partner that could interpret this idea into a working technical IoT solution was no easy task. However, Thaumatec was selected due to its extensive experience of the whole IoT stack and the ability to quickly deliver results through agile development.

Thaumatec was responsible for writing the software for the smart healthcare device, which was responsible for all the processes – from coordinating the camera, recording, editing the material up to transmitting it online.

The City of Amsterdam has been very actively engaged in smart city development. Upgrading the street lighting infrastructure with new technology was high on the wish list of the city. Thaumatec was able to deliver a Proof of Concept within 6 weeks based on the new LoRa Technology resulting in modern possibilities and breaking from the traditional methods.

Smart management of smart cities

Smart cities are becoming smarter every day. The solutions implemented in smart city theories can help cities reduce costs and improve the quality of services. One of the most popular adoptions of this theory is smart streetlight management. Usually, lighting systems in the cities are old and ineffective. That’s why one of the most important goals of implementing smart streetlight management systems with IoT solutions was to reduce costs by decreasing the electricity wastage and manpower to manage it.

In an old-fashioned way, the manual streetlight system was working all the time with maximum intensity, even when it wasn’t necessary. In the new approach, smart street lights use wireless technologies (like LoRa, NB-IoT) and a set of sensors to monitor the amount of energy, level of lighting on the street and the necessity to increase it.

A problem to solve

The City of Amsterdam has been actively engaged in smart city development. Upgrading the streetlight management infrastructure with new technology was high up on their wish list.

The streetlight management network infrastructure for street lights, traffic lights and video cameras, dating from the 1960s. It was not designed for the amount of data it currently transports. Upgrading the infrastructure in a traditional manner was expensive and impacted the traffic in the city. New cables had to be dug in to replace the old cabling. The CoA was looking at how new technology could improve its business case for upgrading the infrastructure.

Our way

Upgrading the street lighting infrastructure with new technology was a must. The choice of the City of Amsterdam for Thaumatec was based on the fact that Thaumatec was able to deliver a Proof of Concept within 6 weeks based on the new LoRa Technology.

Thaumatec built a LoRa based connector that was integrated into the existing streetlight management infrastructure. This way the disruption was minimal and all infra were retrofitted as quickly as possible. The connector box communicated via the KPN LoRa network with the ThingWorx platform. The platform enabled users to control the streetlights, like turning them on/ off.

Our IoT based smart street-lighting system was cost-efficient, practical, eco-friendly and the safest way to save energy.

As a proud sponsor of Team Project Conference from the local university, Thaumatec helped to develop two student projects, one of those, was the winning project, our LoRaMiG – LoRa Main Independent Gateway and it was chosen as the Best Hardware Project. The competition was no piece of cake, the competitors presented amazing devices, however, Thaumatec conquered the day.

The story behind

For a couple of years, Thaumatec has been sponsoring Team Projects Conference at the local University of Science and Technology; this year, Thaumatec helped to develop two student projects. One of the projects was LoRaMiG – LoRa Main Independent Gateway, which was chosen as the Best Hardware Project by the jury at the Team Project Conference. It was a great honour for us because the competition was tough and all the teams presented amazing devices. That’s why we have the need to mention the importance and more details of LoRaMig.

What is a LoRa gateway?

To show it in the simplest way – the gateway is a bridge between devices and the LoRa network. Many of the IoT devices were designed to use a minimum of energy, that’s why they need to communicate with the low-powered network – like LoRa. A gateway, transform the data from devices send by a low-powered network into standard networks – like WiFi. In this case, we created a device who is using GSM signals to be available everywhere.

Why to build a solar-powered LoRa gateway?

Thaumatec built the solar-powered Lora Gateway because we believe, that this device can solve a lot of global problems and help many businesses. LoRa is a low power, wide-area networking protocol, designed to wirelessly connect battery operated devices to the Internet in regional, national or global networks. It doesn’t need much energy (as you can see, can be solar-powered), the network itself is perfectly designed for sending data from multiple sensors.

Why LoRa?

LoRa is the best solution for using a lot of sensors to monitor huge areas, for example, forests, crop fields and vast spaces. If we would have data from fire sensors from the whole forest we could predict it and prevent the destruction of natural environments. Another great use of solar-powered Lora Gateway is for optimizing agricultural results, an example of it would be measuring the humidity of soil for irrigation purposes and use less water.

The possibilites of LoRaMIG

• Long range and low energy network
• Energy efficiency
• Low-maintenance
• Data safety
• Powered by a photovoltaic panel
• Weatherproof
• Works without a service all year
• Can be placed in the hard environment
• Manageable from web application

Use cases

• Fire detection in forest
• River condition monitoring – predict flood
• Control and optimization of agricultural crops

The construction

The core of LoRaMig is Raspberry Pi Zero and LoRaWAN Concentrator IC880A to provide LoRa communication. To connect with the Internet we use Wi-fi or GSM module. With Bluetooth, we can configure working parameters. In future we plan to improve device – install GNSS module, Gyroscope and Accelerometer module for monitoring position. Want to point out, that is the probably the first gateway powered by solar panel, that’s why LoRaMiG opens new possibilities for the Internet of Things. Currently, the new gateway will expand Thaumatec’s LoRa network coverage that is provided by gateways deployed at SM Arka and University buildings.

Wrocław the smart(est) city

Thaumatec has a strong partnership with top-class universities like Wrocław University of Technology and Science and the most respected business networks like DSP Valley from the Netherlands. In cooperation with researchers from Wroclaw University of Technology and Wroclaw Academic Hub, Thaumatec is working on providing LoRa network infrastructure in Wrocław and enhancing LoRa technology with useful localization capabilities.

What is a smart city?

It’s not surprising that on the lists of “top 10 best smart cities” we can find mostly the biggest ones. Big, modern cities can have really big problems – traffic, waste management, high costs of electricity. But technology is giving us also some modern solutions.

In the top three we can find New York city with their Automated Meter Reading system who measure water consumption. Paris is also a perfect smart city example – city is developing a Grand Paris Express which will feature 127 miles of fully-automated metro lines and 68 new stations.

Also Tokio, as the organizer of the Olympic games will use the face recognition technology for the highest security standards and a system of driverless taxis to improve transport.

Smart cities – best examples

It’s not surprising that on the lists of “top 10 best smart cities” we can find mostly the biggest ones. Big, modern cities can have really big problems – traffic, waste management, high costs of electricity. But technology is giving us also some modern solutions.

In the top three we can find New York city with their Automated Meter Reading system who measure water consumption. Paris is also a perfect smart city example – city is developing a Grand Paris Express which will feature 127 miles of fully-automated metro lines and 68 new stations.

Also Tokio, as the organizer of the Olympic games will use the face recognition technology for the highest security standards and a system of driverless taxis to improve transport.

Smart cities and Internet of Things

The concept of a smart city is based on connecting different Internet of Things devices. Thanks to the newest technologies in connectivity (like LoRa or NB-IoT) we can put many low energy devices in one, big, smart city network. Usually, devices based on this technology can work for a very long time (even years) sending small packages of data to the long range.

How we helped to develop smart city in Wrocław?

Wrocław is one of the biggest and fastest-growing cities in Poland – full of young, dynamic people who love using modern technology in their everyday life. In cooperation with researchers from Wroclaw University of Technology and Wroclaw Academic Hub, Thaumatec is working on providing LoRa network infrastructure in Wrocław and enhancing LoRa technology with useful smart city features. This alliance of research and technology integration skills allowed to develop a complete solution with the potential to provide low-cost localization solutions for smart city IoT applications.

IoT applications have a great potential for improving the quality of life in smart city centres. However, connecting thousands of devices to the Internet is not an easy task. For instance, most GSM-based devices can operate on battery only for a limited time, GPS localisation fails in buildings and Bluetooth has a relatively short communication range. New LPWAN radio technologies such as LoRa are ideal for connecting sensors to the Internet. Firstly, we created a map of the city and identified the potential pain points.

Later, together with the city council, we found the three best places for Kerlink gateway stations, to provide the best possible range. Based on this structure (a part of TTN networks), we started to create different solutions to improve the processes in the city.

What is important for us, that the network can be used for free by the city, universities and normal people. Based on our local network, students of Politechnika Wrocławska developed the projects of smart trash bin – it is sending a notification when it’s a full and very good project of mobile, weatherproof LoRa gateway.

How Wrocław became the smartest city in the world?

According to the IESE Cities in Motion Index 2019 report, Wroclaw ranks to be in the top 100 list of Smartest-Cities in the world. We are very proud of our city’s recognition, #95 in the rank, however, we are even prouder that our services and technology have made a small contribution to Wroclaw’s success!

Without further discussion, AI is the most exciting field ever, especially since the creation of robots. Thaumatec was lucky (and qualified) to be assigned to work on a Household Robot for a prestigious company in Asia.

The vision

With the development of artificial intelligence and technology, robots start to play a very important role in our societies – in factories, military but also in everyday help. Our customer created a vision, where In the nearest future, robot caregivers can provide eldercare at home. They can support elders in everyday care (like cleaning around, bringing small objects, provide entertainment), but also due to a lot of sensors and online connections they can recognize when the patient feels bad and calls for help. It can be also used in eldercare facilities as the first tool of everyday care.

Smart robot for elderly care

Eldercare is a very important challenge for humanity – societies around the world are getting older and older – that’s a fact. Governments need to spend more and more money to care of the elders. Even though eldercare became a quite popular field of study, we experience a lack of qualified workers.

In eldercare, it’s important to provide high-quality services in the environment that the patient knows – that’s why eldercare at home is important. But it also creates costs and obstacles as it requires to send a qualified nurse each time to the patient’s place; aditionally it incurs other challenges, such as limited time for visits and the necessity to travel from one place to another.

A possible solution for this dilemma? – a smart robot for eldercare.

About the idea

As Thaumatec grows, so do our demands of projects. However, we got blown away when we were assigned to work on a smart robot for eldercare, yes a ROBOT. Not just your typical robots with a couple of sensors and a set of wheels with an antenna, instead, one that has arms, recognizes faces and can provide smart eldercare at home. Needless to say, building a robot is not as easy as it seems. Thaumatec was in charge of perfecting the vision of the robot, its complexity is due to the fact, that its a robot with face recognition incorporated with many other features, functioning all at the same time.

The smart robot for elderly care is designed to help elder people do daily chores such as laundry, clean up and more. Since the household robot took more than a 2-year process to built, its first production will be executed until the late summer of 2019. We can’t wait for it to come out to the market; however, one client in Japan already bought it, as expected, there was an exclusive report about the household robot on the local daily news of that country.

The future of household robot

As we eagerly await for the smart eldercare robot to come out into the market, we can focus on the benefits it will bring to its clients. The household robot will focus on helping elders have a constant hand around them, simple tasks as grabbing objects, like a laundry basket, will make a difference. Thanks to the help of Thaumatec, the evolution of this complex but fully equipped robot will create a great life change significance to whoever will need it.

The household robot was complex to build, simple tasks as grabbing objects and face recognition working simultaneously sound a lot easier said than done. Thaumatec, however, was able to surpass this challenge, who knows maybe in the near future we will produce a robot that has other functionalities than just a household robot. Stay tuned…

During the past years, sleep trackers have become quite popular, especially since they can provide fascinating and useful information for those who have trouble falling or staying asleep. The detailed analytics provided by the smart tracker may be easily read and understood by the customer however the building blocks are more complex but that did not stop us from building one. 

The consequences of sleeping deprivation can affect many, so a solution was formed for this problem and Thaumatec helped in the making. It’s amazing that such a small device can give out so much data and constantly keep updating itself and that’s exactly what Thaumatec did. Read our story about the smart sleep tracker.

What is a sleep tracker?

Imagine having a device that informs you, how many hours you sleep in a day, monitors your heartbeat while sleeping, indicates which is the best position for resting and detects stopped breathing events; all of this information is available on the palm of your hands (smartphone) through a little gadget that you place on your forehead. The first of its kind, integrated digital approach to help people understand and solve their sleeping disorders – a sleep tracking wearable device.

How does a sleep tracker work?

The development of sensors and wireless connections helped to build devices to track different activities of our bodies. Right now the sensors are so small that we can easily stick them to our body and feel comfortable with them. Also, it’s very easy to wirelessly send data from them (for example by Bluetooth).

Usually, a typical sleep tracker works by measuring things like heart rate, body movement, and the position of breathing.

Some of the more advanced ones can additionally measure brain waves, blood oxygen levels and/or eye movement.

The sleep tracking device is collecting and analyzing all this data to prepare a detailed report about the quality of your dreams – how many times you wake up and in which phase of the dreams you spend most of the time. Usually, the more days you sleep with the sleep tracking device, the better results you have.

Our way

Additionally, like many other digital products in the market, the use of Bluetooth is a must, Thaumatec helped create BLE (Bluetooth low energy) on the sleeping device. The difference between these two is that BLE remains in sleep mode until there is a connection established, meaning lots of battery savings and the average Bluetooth doesn’t. Last but not least, the use of algorithms on the sleeping device. Thanks to algorithms the device converts the data gathered from the sensor into medical details such as heart rate, blood oxidation, airflow and more.

The data that is gathered by the sleeping device, is saved and analyzed to improve the quality of sleep. The support and knowledge of Thaumatec made it possible for the sleeping device to work properly at producing results for sleep improvements.

Usually, a typical sleep tracker works by measuring things like heart rate, body movement, and the position of breathing. Some of the more advanced ones can additionally measure brain waves, blood oxygen levels and/or eye movement.

The sleep tracking device is collecting and analyzing all this data to prepare a detailed report about the quality of your dreams – how many times you wake up and in which phase of the dreams you spend most of the time. Usually, the more days you sleep with the sleep tracking device, the better results you have.

Our results

Thaumatec is constantly partnering with companies to help build their products that can change significantly peoples lives. Owning a sleeping device is like having a certified laboratory at home, indicating precise data about your sleeping conditions that can help you improve your quality of life.

Thaumatec is looking forward on working with customers that with our experience and knowledge will help them achieve their goals.

Lora is one of the most promising IoT technologies that deliver communication for areas where availability of power grid is limited or it doesn’t exist. Thaumatec had the pleasure to work with students to develop a project for research purposes and to create better results for a drone company.

The vision

Many of us are familiar with Lora Technology, especially since its getting so much attention due to its low-power, long-range operation, and relatively low cost and complexity to deploy the private network, where needed. Thaumatec had the pleasure to work with students from the local university of Wroclaw to develop a project for research purposes and to create better results for a company known for building drones, BZBUAS. Find out how we helped to develop a LoRa-based communication module for drones!

UAV for telemetry, transmission and tracking

The goal of the project was to design a communication module dedicated to the integration with UAV for telemetry transmission and tracking. The ideal solution was to include a PoC on-board device, a device for receiving and transmitting commands and heartbeat (LoRa modems can be considered). The on-board device needed to be powered from on-board battery, use low-power LoRa transceiver and communicate with other on-board equipment for data collection and transmission. The device should be as much inter-operable as possible with solutions used nowadays mainly GSM and RF (radio frequency) modems.

Why LoRa?

Lora is one of the promising IoT technologies that deliver communication for areas where availability of power grid is limited or it doesn’t exist. Most of the world by now, is also familiar with drones or aerial vehicles (UAV), that operate wherever possible. We had the feeling that due to the needs of reducing the drone weight (smaller battery), possibly long range of the network and low-power consumption of LoRa devices, those things (drone & LoRa) are meant to be together!

What is UAV?

UAV – unmanned aerial vehicle, is a flying machine for which is not necessary to have any human pilot onboard, it’s also impossible to carry passengers and it’s controlled manually from the ground or it’s flying by automatically planed route. It’s also the most important part of UAS – unmanned aerial system, which includes also controlling system, software, pilot or for example exchangable „cargo” for a specificic task.

Where UAVs can be used?

The possibilites of UAV’s are almost endless. UAV is a cost effective solution for everyone interested in different pictures made from high attitude – ortophotomaps, thermo maps etc. It can also be used to monitor wide area teritorries – like crops, farms, forests, boarders of different countries. The drone can be also a very useful tool for security systems – during mass events or search and rescue actions. It’s can be also used in military systems. Google together with their company Solar 60, are planning to create a chain of solar-powered drones, constantly flying 20km over the ground and delivering internet connections to the low-developed areas of the world.

The project

The project was realized with the support of two companies and engineer students. BZBUAS was one of the companies that are prestigious in its area and highly skilled in building drones, the other is Thaumatec an IT company with strong expertise on Lora Technology. The merge between the companies and the students led to great research development. Thaumatec gave students the opportunity to work directly with clients and dive deeply into the world of embedded systems. Thaumatec hopes to keep on building projects accompanied by experts and researchers in different fields for bigger developments and discoveries, after all “we make the future matter and connect it to you”- Thaumatec’s slogan.

Biometric identity products deliver effortless, fast, and highly accurate biometric enrollment and identification. Designed for high throughput identification and verification, in other words, these products are the future of identity access for traveling. As complicated as it might sound, Thaumatec built a group of engineers within a short notice period and decided to embark on this biometrics software development challenge.

Biometrics definition

“The term biometrics is derived from the Greek words bio meaning life and metric meaning to measure.” Biometrics is a science, based on measuring and analyzation unique physical and behavioral characteristics of people. With the broader availability of technology now it’s possible to use biometrics for identification or access control in many different areas of life – security systems, consumer electronics, biometric passports etc.

Biometrics scanner

The technology itself can use many different ways to identify people using devices known as biometrics scanners. It makes whole process easier, as it’s not necessary to remember any passwords or carry additional keys. Some of the devices can identify person without the direct contact.

One of the ways to identify a person is to use iris scanner. What is iris scanner? “Iris recognition is an automated method of biometric identification that uses mathematical pattern-recognition techniques on video images of one or both of the irises of an individual’s eyes, whose complex patterns are unique, stable, and can be seen from some distance.”

The challenge

Silicon Valley-based company that develops and deploys biometric identity products and solutions that excel in challenging real-world environments. Each year, tens of millions of people rely on the company’s biometric technologies for secure, seamless travel, public safety, and commerce.

The company was looking a partner with the biometrics software development expertise and capacity to build an airport security scanner. The choice for Thaumatec was based on the fact that Thaumatec managed to put together a skilled team within very short notice and combined with a high degree of technical leadership and ownership. Thaumatec builds up a team of different specialists that provide the development services according to the world-class quality and processes. The application of Agile and Scrum in an international setting, with large time zone differences, is a challenge that Thaumatec mastered.

Our way

The biometric identity products involve among others a lot of embedded software development, testing, maintaining and upgrading to stay ahead in the biometrics marketplace.

Being able to adjust the team size and composition according to the needs of the project, gives the customer the possibility to commit to the different wishes and deadlines of its customers.

Thaumatec builds up a team of biometrics software development specialists that provide the development services according to world-class quality and processes. The application of Agile and Scrum in an international setting, with large time zone differences, is a challenge that Thaumatec mastered.

Hago Next, a cleaning company that provides services to public places like train stops, was searching for the ideal partner to provide them with IoT solutions, for the safety of their employees. Fortunately, they found Thaumatec, together they built a smartwatch that enabled employees to send a silent alarm in case of any danger, help would arrive.

About smart security

One of the biggest challenges and responsibilities of every company is to provide safety to its employees – especially when they need to work in possibly dangerous areas. The development of new technologies like wireless communication and IoT made it much simpler.

Smart security became almost a separate industry and it’s delivering everyday safety to the places where its most needed – like airports, public services or simply – smart home security.

A need of smart security solutions

Hago Next is a cleaning company that positions innovation as one of its pillars to deliver the best sustainable cleaning solutions for its end customers. With technology supporting its employees, Hago Next provides full transparency in price and process, with the guarantee of a clean working environment.

The company provides cleaning services in many different public places, including trains and train stations. On occasions, the employees experience harassment from persons present in those locations. Hago Next posed the question how technology could be used to protect their employees better and how they could call for help quickly, without risking escalating the situation. We developed a smart security solution for them.

Our way

Being an innovative company, Hago Next was looking for a partner to provide them with solutions to capture the full potential of the Internet of Things development. As a System Integrator, Thaumatec has the expertise on the whole spectrum of Internet of Things technologies. With a wide experience in embedded software, wireless connectivity, and mobile applications, Thaumatec was able to act as the one-stop-shop for Hago Next with a smart security solution.

Based on a standard SmartWatch, Thaumatec developed different smart security features that enable employees to send a silent alarm to the central operations room, so that silently and immediately they receive help. By making this a silent feature, the employees avoid the situation to escalate because help has been called. Having these features built-in a SmartWatch provides security and reliability to its employees.

Once again we had the opportunity to work with Hago Next, a cleaning company with constant innovative ideas. This time we came up with a standard cleaning cart equipped with a sensor box for measuring air quality that through the connection of the IoT platform, the data was able to be measured and analyzed. Together we created a perfect smart facility management tool!

Smart facility management

Broad availability of Internet of Things technologies, can influence relatively old and stable industries as well as making it faster, healthier and cheaper. With the growth of the economy and the number of office spaces, we see a need for better and smarter facility management. 

We all know that the quality of the workplace directly impacts the productivity and comfort of every employee, that’s why it is important to implement modern technologies into it.

Smart cleaning solutions

Hago Next is a cleaning company that puts innovation as one of its pillars to deliver the best sustainable cleaning solutions for its end customers. With technology supporting its employees, Hago Next provides full transparency in price and processes, with the guarantee of a clean working environment.

The choice of Hago Next for Thaumatec was based on the fact that Thaumatec was able to create a business idea into a technical IoT solution and deliver a Proof of Concept of smart facility management tool within 6 weeks.

Our way

The ultimate goal of a clean office is to create a healthy environment for the people working in it. Thereby increasing job satisfaction and reducing the overall rate of sick leaves. However, there are many factors influencing the work environment. How to know what they are? How do they influence each other? How to measure them? These questions need to be answered before a solution can be provided.

In order to measure the status of the working environment, the Smart Cleaning Cart has been developed. A standard cleaning cart has been equipped with a sensor box for measuring air quality (dust, CO2, humidity, temperature, light). Through the connection with an Internet of Things platform, the data can now be measured and analyzed. Together we created a perfect smart facility management tool.