Wireless beacon firm Netclearance has announced an Internet of Things (IoT) sensor the size of a penny that comes with five embedded sensors.
Named the mBeaconSense sensor, it can measure acceleration, light, magnetic force, temperature, and vibration. The sensor also has a clock, an RFID tag, and a coin battery that lasts for several years.
See Also: London startup SAM Labs wants everyone to try out IoT
Netclearance says that the sensor can be used in all types of IoT systems, everything from wearables to city furniture. One use case includes being able to monitor houses built on or near fault lines, like in San Andreas.
“The launch of mBeaconSense addresses a gap in the market by offering a tiny IoT device that can be used alone or with our suite of gateway beacon devices to make it a fully internet capable device,” said Jonathan Duffy, executive director of EMEA at Netclearance.
Netclearance now complete solution?
Adding an inexpensive sensor to its line of software and services might make Netclearance an complete solution for some companies. The company already provides servers, analytics, and gateways.
For IoT to work, it requires sensors, servers, and devices of all shapes and sizes. Having such a small sensor could be useful for all sorts of projects, especially since the company can leave it to run for years, which could be useful for wearable manufacturers that want to trim a few millimeters off the size of their devices.
That said, the battery life is still a factor that is negating the opportunities of small sensors. A few researchers are attempting to create sensors that can create energy to last forever, one project uses RFID tags, but no commercial product is available at the present time.
