News

Noema, a DSR Corporation company, and Vivotek, a global leader in security surveillance, demonstrated a solution for effective, real-time detection of gun-related security events, in a recent webinar hosted by Security & Safety Things (S&ST).  The application is integrated with Vivotek’s advanced AI Box and Video Management System.

The app utilizes the latest Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence technologies to identify, in real time, if someone in front of the camera is holding a gun in their hand. There are two alarm types that can be triggered: the first triggers if a gun is detected in any frame and the second averages alarm confidence across recent frames.

The demo footage below shows the simple application integration with Vivotek’s Data Magnet App and VMS, along with two real-life gun-in-hand scenarios.  The Gun-in-Hand detection application triggers alarms from the real footage, and shows them in a clear and useful interface.

The full version of the S&ST webinar is available here. 

The above End-to-End Security Solution includes:

• S&ST open IoT platform for security cameras
• Noema’s Gun-in-Hand Detection app
• Vivotek’s OSSA compliant smart cameras
• Vivotek’s Data Magnet App and VMS integrated with Noema’s application

The above components enable the solution to effectively detect any gun-related security events in real-time and trigger alarms automatically. You can check out the demo version of the app in the S&ST app store.

Noema leverages more than 20 years of DSR’s proven experience in custom software engineering, encompassing projects of all scales and across many industries. The company is focused on delivering the most up-to-date and reliable AI and Computer Vision solutions for security, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and smart homes & cities.

If you are looking for a reliable and experienced software partner in the Computer Vision space, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Nordic Semiconductor shared why they recently decided to join ZOI (dsr-zoi.com) on their blog.

Read their blog here.

The ZBOSS Open Initiative (ZOI) is a community of companies with a shared understanding of the necessity to have a common Zigbee® PRO software platform to overcome, together, the challenges around interoperability, security, testing, and optimization of Zigbee®-enabled products and solutions.

Due to the pandemic situation, DSR Corporation took the entrance testing for our annual Practical Training program online. More than 200 students registered for entrance into our training program, which will be taught online this year by DSR’s experienced software engineers. The number of students who took the entrance exam this year was almost double that of last year.

DSR’s practical training covers the following areas of company expertise:

• Java
• Web
• C#
• C
• Android
• iOS

In order to gain admittance to DSR’s Practical Training program, potential trainees must complete a battery of tests in the selected area. Such extensive testing is required to select only the best of the best talent.

24 students successfully completed the exam and became official trainees of DSR Corporation. They will test their theoretical knowledge and beef up their practical professional skills under the guidance of hardened software engineers over a 4-week period. All of the workshops and seminars will be held online.

Usually, about 20% of trainees receive an invitation to join DSR’s team of engineers after successfully completing the practical training.

DSR Corporation is always eager to share the experience our team has accumulated over 20 years of custom software development. Our team boasts more than 1000+ successful projects for major brands like Panasonic, Sony, Seagate, Netflix, Oracle, SaltStack, Toshiba, and other well-established international companies and promising startups.

DSR Corporation announces that Rafael Micro, a fabless IC/IP design company in Taiwan focusing on high-end RF technology and wireless IoT connectivity, has officially joined the ZBOSS Open Initiative (ZOI), a first of its kind community of companies working on a common Zigbee® PRO software platform, ZBOSS, with a goal to overcome, together, the challenges around interoperability, security, testing, and optimization of Zigbee®-enabled products and solutions.

Read the full press release.

Learn more about ZOI.

DSR Corporation announces that Nordic Semiconductor, a global leader in short range wireless and low power cellular IoT technologies, has joined the ZBOSS Open Initiative (ZOI), a community of companies with a shared understanding of the necessity to have a common Zigbee® PRO software platform to overcome, together, the challenges around interoperability, security, testing, and optimization of Zigbee®-enabled products and solutions.

Read the full press release here.

Learn more about ZOI here.

Nordic nRF52833 SoC based on DSR ZBOSS v3.3 firmware has been officially certified by the Zigbee Alliance as compliant with Zigbee PRO 2017 (R22) specifications. The chip has successfully completed the Zigbee Compliant Platform Certification Program’s extensive testing. The manufacturer has been granted the right to use the “Zigbee Compliant Platform” term and all associated logos.

The nRF52833 is a general-purpose multiprotocol SoC with a Bluetooth Direction Finding capable radio, qualified for operation at an extended temperature range of -40°C to +105°C. It supports a number of wireless technologies: Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth mesh, NFC, Thread and Zigbee. The SoC is built upon 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 with FPU, and has 512 KB flash and 128 KB RAM memory. The nRF52833 is an ideal device for a wide range of commercial and industrial applications, including professional lighting and asset tracking.

ZBOSS is a hardware agnostic, cross-platform, high-performance Zigbee software protocol stack developed by DSR Corporation. ZBOSS features cross-platform support, multi-tasking, fixed memory footprint, OS-less configuration, and easy-to-use API.

It is an official Zigbee stack for Nordic Semiconductor and ON Semiconductor and also supports multiple SoCs, MCUs, and transceivers from Texas Instruments, Qorvo, ARM, Telink, UBEC, Microchip, and other chip vendors. Moreover, multiple Zigbee 3.0 certified products are powered by ZBOSS. Over 200 smart devices from more than 40 vendors have been tested, successfully, for interoperability with ZBOSS.

DSR Corporation also announced the ZBOSS Open Initiative (ZOI) at CES 2020 with the goal of creating a shared software platform, utilized and maintained by chipset vendors and consumer product companies. The common platform will allow for collaboration across the industry stakeholders and help ensure interoperability, security,  and the advancement of the ZBOSS stack.

DSR blockchain expert, Alex Shcherbakov, gave a presentation on Hyperledger Indy on behalf of Evernym at the Hyperledger Global Forum in Phoenix, Arizona.

Alex’s presentation, “Understanding the Hyperledger Indy Distributed Ledger” can be viewed below:

More information on the Hyperledger Global Forum can be found here: https://events19.linuxfoundation.org/events/hyperledger-global-forum-2020/https:/events19.linuxfoundation.org/events/hyperledger-global-forum-2020/

• Wireless
  • Embedded Systems connectivity (BLE, ZB, WiFi, Mesh, NB-IoT)
  • Custom Protocol Development
  • Bridges for Different Protocols (Dali to ZB)
• Edge Algorithms
  • Computer vision on the edge
  • ML at the edge (inference/training, decision trees)
  • Effective, hardware specific models
  • Distributed systems (cloud learning, edge inference)

• Embedded development
  • Osless, RTOS, Linux
  • Wearables, Sensors, Gateways, BSP
  • Development for mission critical systems
  • Development for systems with constrained resources (memory, power, CPU)

• IoT Services and Solutions
• Embedded Systems
• Wireless Expertise
• Legacy System Modernization
• Interoperability Expertise
• Integration Expertise
• And much more… seriously.

Undoubtedly the world’s largest consumer electronics show, CES is a great indicator of where the IoT market is heading and what we can expect to see in the coming 2-3 years. Out of about 4500 exhibitors at CES 2020, more than 1000 companies were “internet of things” related, including smart home and city solution providers, wearables vendors, sensors, biometrics, and vehicle automation firms. The DSR team attended the show, and we are excited to share some of our impressions.

1. IoT Will Stand For “Intelligence of Things”

Venus Mirror by ICON.AI

The IoT universe is constantly expanding and new types of devices are connecting to the internet. At CES 2020, a smart frying pan was announced. SmartyPans are equipped with weight and temperature sensors and can record recipes as you cook (https://smartypans.io/). An Interactive smart makeup mirror, ICON.AI, is able to diagnose skin diseases, helps to choose makeup, and supports Amazon Alexa (http://icon.ai/). However, the most intelligent device for smart home ecosystem was presented by Samsung. It’s called Ballie and is described as a “life companion”, not just ordinary smart assistant (see video below).

A Rolling ball-shaped robot, unlike Apple’s Siri or the Amazon Echo, doesn’t wait for a voice command, instead, it constantly monitors your actions, behavior, and activities. Ballie is proactive. For example, it can wait and take a photo when the lightning is favorable, or give a command to the smart vacuum cleaner to clean up the dog’s mess without bothering its owner.

Google Assistant now supports a wider range of compatible smart devices and gives an option to turn them on and off on a timer. You can say: “Hey Google, run the coffee machine at 7 a.m.” Moreover, you can now connect compatible smart devices with just a few taps as well as use smart digital sticky notes across smart displays. Google also has enhanced the translation capabilities of Assistant. Now the AI-driven voice assistant is able to translate text from more than 40 languages.

Plume demonstrated a motion detection system which operates without sensors and cameras (https://www.plume.com/). Plume Motion AI analyzes Wi-Fi signal delays between compatible OpenSync nodes and Wi-Fi connected devices to identify moving objects. This AI also helps to eliminate the problem of false home alarms, such as the detection of pets.

Prima Touch from Hogar Controls

As demonstrated at CES 2020, multi-functional smart switches and displays are going to be one of the top home automation market trends, in the coming years. One Example is the Prima Touch Switch from Hogar Controls(https://www.hogarcontrols.com/). Prima Touch allows the user to configure a set of touch-sensitive buttons to control different smart devices and switch between predefined scenes. It supports Z-Wave and Zigbee protocols. More advanced smart displays are able to stream video, help to monitor household energy consumption, and quickly adjust smart home settings for the current occupants’ needs.

CES 2020 has demonstrated that the smart home ecosystem and smart devices themselves are becoming more intelligent. Increased connectivity, along with AI-driven solutions, allow the smart home ecosystem to provide much more utility, without the user’s direct involvement.

2. Power Shift Towards Interoperability

According to Statista estimates (https://www.statista.com/statistics/471264/iot-number-of-connected-devices-worldwide/), there are more than 26 billion connected IoT devices. With this vast quantity, comes complexity. Each IoT solution offers its own IoT infrastructure, APIs, and data formats, which leads to interoperability issues. Several initiatives aimed at enhancing interoperability were announces at CES 2020.

Lots of manufacturers’ smart devices are compatible with the OCF 2.1 standard (https://openconnectivity.org/developer/specifications/). The new version of the standard was released in November by the Open Connectivity Foundation, which boasts more than 300 members (Cisco, LG, Samsung, Intel etc.). OCF 2.1 provides detailed implementations for Bluetooth, EnOcean, Zigbee, and Z-Wave.

In December, Apple, Google, Amazon, the and Zigbee Alliance announced the creation of Connected Home over IP(https://www.connectedhomeip.com/). The goal is to create a working group for the development of a new open standard for smart home products, with a heavy focus on security.

Moreover, just over a month ago, Silicon Labs and the Z-Wave Alliance announced plans to open proprietary Z-Wave standard (https://z-wavealliance.org/z-wave-specification-press-release/). Before the announcement, Silicon Labs was the only manufacturer of MCUs with Z-Wave support. In the near future, other manufacturers will be able to produce Z-Wave chips. This is the first step to make the standard fully open.

DSR Corporation also contributed to this shift, as we announced the ZBOSS Open Initiative (ZOI) at CES 2020 (http://dsr-zoi.com/). This is a community of companies with a shared understanding of the necessity to have a common Zigbee PRO software platform to overcome, together, the shared challenges around interoperability, security, testing, and optimization of Zigbee-enabled products and solutions.

3. Wi-Fi 6 to boost smart home

Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) will increase the throughput and speed of IoT networks, decrease delays, and make smart homes more secured. Thanks to the support of OFDMA и BSS Coloring technologies, smart home and office solutions based on Wi-Fi 6 will manage network traffic more efficiently, especially in a radio dense environment.

WPA3 will significantly improve the security of IoT networks in comparison to WPA2 thanks to the Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) protocol, which is used in Wi-Fi 6, instead of Pre-Shared Keys (PSK). The new standard will make IoT networks a lot harder to hack.

What’s more, Wi-Fi 6 routers support up to 1024 connected devices simultaneously, whereas current Wi-Fi generation is able to support only 250. This is a great step forward for smart home and office automation, hence just one Wi-Fi 6 enabled router will be able to manage more than thousand smart devices.

Two-piece router D-Link COVR X1872 supports Wi-Fi 6 and enables to setup mesh IoT networks

Quite a number of manufacturers announced routers with Wi-Fi 6 support, including D-Link, TP-Link, Linksys, and Netgear. Comcast also revealed the xFi Advanced, an IEEE 802.11ax certified gateway.

4. 5G – the first generation of cellular networks for IoT

According to an Ericsson forecast (https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobility-report/internet-of-things-forecast), over 1.5 billion IoT devices will be connected to cellular networks by 2022. 5G is the first generation of mobile networks designed with IoT industry requirements in mind. Apart from a tenfold speed increase (up to 15-20 Gbit/s) in comparison to 4G, 5G supports 250 times more connected devices — over 1 million devices per 1 square kilometer. The capacity of 4G is limited to a mere 4,000 devices per square kilometer. CTA forecasts that more than 50 mobile network operators throughout the world will launch 5G in 2020 (https://cta.tech/).

Connected devices (billions). Source: https://www.ericsson.com/

For the IoT market, the 5G network deployment means the increased use and efficiency of cloud services, significantly lower latency (down to 1 ms), and greatly increased throughput. All of these improvements will allow for the creation of a robust smart city infrastructure, an industrial IoT solution with hundreds of thousands of smart sensors and devices.

Significantly lower latency in 5G networks will allow for the control of automated vehicles and industrial machinery, remotely, from another part of the world. 5G can also can be used by farmers to oversee massive areas of land with the help of a drone fleet equipped with a variety of sensors. Drones can identify diseased plants or areas than need to be watered. It’s a great example of how 5G based IoT systems will help to solve very real-world problems.

5. Biometrics for smart home and office

Blurams Smart Doorbell with face recognition technology

Face recognition technology is making its way into the smart market. More and more devices are capable of using face recognition for access. Blurams revealed a smart doorbell at CES (https://www.blurams.com/). The doorbell sports AI facial recognition, a 1080p camera, motion detection, and 2-way talk function including hands-free calling. Faces are identified in real-time, with all of the data stored in company’s cloud storage. Blurams’s app allows users to register up to 16 people for identification.

ADT presented a range of smart cameras (https://www.adt.com/). Sophisticated computer vision technology helps to not only identify authorized users, but also distinguish between strangers and burglars. The smart camera system will notify its owner about suspicious strangers around the house via push notifications in the app and voice messages via Amazon Alexa. Cameras are equipped with a microphone and speaker for voice communication, as well as a light sensor.

Additionally, several companies at CES 2020 revealed smart door locks equipped with fingerprint scanners.

6. Wireless Charging for Smart Devices

A few companies announced wireless chargers for smart home devices at CES 2020.

Wi-Charge Powerpuck R1 wireless charger

Wi-Charge revealed the Powerpuck R1 charger with AirCord infrared beam technology (https://wi-charge.com/). It can be plugged into a wall or screwed into a lightbulb socket. The charger is able to charge compatible smart devices from a distance of up to 9 meters, covering almost 2.5 square meters. The receivers measure just 1×1 cm and can be embedded in the charged devices. R1 initiates the charging of compatible devices right after the installation without any additional configuration.

Ossia’s Cota is able to charge smart devices via Wi-Fi like a radio

Unlike the Powerpuck R1, Ossia’s wireless charger, Cota, doesn’t require direct line of sight to power smart devices (https://www.ossia.com/cota/),. Cota measures 30×30 cm and transmits power via 5.8 GHz radio signal. Just like Wi-Fi, but instead of data, the chargers send power to the connected devices.

Ossia’s Cota Home Transmitter

Receivers with Cota wireless charging support can be embedded in smart speakers, thermostats, cameras, smoke detectors, and other smart devices. The charger transmits power up to 9 meters, doesn’t require direct line of sight, and is able to charge notebooks, smartphones, remote controls, and other gadgets.

The variety of wireless chargers, demonstrated at CES 2020, will help to solve one of the main smart home ecosystem problems – battery changing and power limitations. However, the solutions currently have some drawbacks, like the need to embed a specific supported receiver in the end-devices and significant power loss during transmission.

Voice assistants are used in smart home solutions more and more often, and their advancement will allow to for more sophisticated automation scenarios and features. So far, voice control is widely adopted in English-speaking countries, but thanks to significant improvements in speech recognition they’ll be used in other countries in 2020 as well. Juniper Research predicts that more than 8 billion smart devices will support voice commands by 2023 (https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/press-releases/digital-voice-assistants-in-use-to-8-million-2023).

Kohler Numi 2.0 — an intelligent toilet with Amazon Alexa for easy voice control

Voice assistants are supported by a wide range of smart devices including fridges, toilets, shower cabins, door locks, and garage gate openers. However, the most recent trend in IoT is not only voice, but sounds recognition. Audio Analytic, a startup at CES 2020, announced “the second generation” of audio recognition technology for smart devices based on its extensive Alexandria library (https://www.audioanalytic.com/). The library contains more than 15 million labelled sound samples. This technology enables smart devices to identify different sounds and act accordingly. For example, a security system with Alexandria support will be able to identify the sound of shattered window glass in the house and set-off the alarm to notify the owner about a possible break-in. Or, smart home will be able to “hear” child cry and notify parents, play soothing music for him or her, and turn on the lights in the corridor leading to the child’s room. Audio Analytic’s sound recognition technology uses AI and neural network to accurately identify different sounds. It’s already supported by some smart hubs on the market, including Hive Hub 360.

8. Smart home security and privacy are in the spotlight

CES 2020 showed that in the coming years more and more efforts will be devoted to making smart home systems and IoT devices significantly more secure. The Amazon Ring cameras hack last December sounded the alarm for manufacturers and service providers to pay a lot more attention to the security flaws of current IoT solutions. The number of hackers’ attacks on smart home and office systems will only increase since they are still easy targets.

To address the issue, Comcast revealed the free app, Xfinity xFi, for it’s smart ecosystem. The app monitors and controls traffic, blocks suspicious activities and notifies the user about abnormal data sent from end devices. Apple attended CES for the first time in 28 years to discuss users’ data privacy issues, while Google Assistant will now erase data if activated accidentally. One just needs to say “Hey Google, that wasn’t meant for you”. Moreover, users can open a new dashboard to see how the service uses recorded data, view privacy settings, and delete any record from the last 18 months.

Amazon also enabled the option to erase records for Alexa with the help of the phrases: “Alexa, delete what I just said” and “Alexa, delete everything I said today.”

9. Office Automation is the Next Big thing

2020 will be the year for wider office automation systems adoption even by mid-sized companies. The systems will help to make office workspace more comfortable, controllable, safe, and energy efficient.

Smart offices will be able to automatically adjust lightning and temperature depending on the weather outside, making the workspace not only more convenient for employees, but also less energy consuming. Smart doorbells, motion sensors, door locks, and cameras will help to identify strangers and grant employees access to the certain areas of the office.

Office automation will help to book meeting rooms more efficiently, control lighting, and manage other key routine activities.

The Kwikset Halo Touch smart door lock with Wi-Fi support and fingerprints scanner (https://www.kwikset.com/halo-touch).

A great number of smart devices presented at CES 2020 will be used for office automation, starting with smart touch switches, all the way to wireless chargers for smart devices.

10. AI-Driven Smart Energy

A connected smart home not only makes smart device management a breeze, but also helps to reduce energy consumption. For example, there is no need to heat the house if there’s no one present. With the help of a connected thermostat and smartphone app, the owner of the house can create optimal scenarios or leave it to an AI-powered service which analyzes user’s habits and behavior patterns and can offer the most energy-efficient temperature control scenes without any impact on comfort. Lighting and other variables can also be controlled automatically in a similar way.

The use of AI makes smart home solutions more intelligent. Moreover, the geolocation capabilities of smartphones allow, for example, for the AI to prepare a certain scenario (temp, lights, coffee, music, etc.) when the user is commuting home.

DSR Corporation is participating in Wondrwall intelligent living project(http://en.dsr-corporation.com/news?id=630). Different temperature modes have already been implemented, and in the nearest future users will be able to connect solar panels and automatically buy and sell energy for the most competitive prices.

DSR was excited to meet with the Open Security and Safety Alliance (OSSA) in Singapore. This was great opportunity to learn more about the members and initializes of this group.

The OSSA promotes a framework for companies to use a common approach around operating system, IoT infrastructure, data and security management, and more, so that companies can focus on adding value for their customers.

These initiatives are important to DSR as we recognize the need for collaboration and cooperation across the industry, for both the safety of consumers and the advancement of the technology.

DSR already has applications on the S&ST app store and plans to add more in the near future.

DSR is excited to continue and increase our involvement with the OSSA.

DSR Corporation was honored to once again sponsor the Zigbee Alliance Member Social at CES 2020. The night was filled with great and productive conversation over drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

DSR was also proud to announce the ZBOSS Open Initiative (ZOI) to the Zigbee Alliance community.

ZOI is DSR’s solution for Royalty-Free Zigbee PRO Stack Software. ZOI aims to generate collaboration amongst IoT market players with a proven, reliable, and highly interoperable Zigbee® software protocol stack, along with the required development tools and infrastructure to establish a solid ground for effective joined work on the unified Zigbee® PRO software platform.

To learn more, visit dsr-zoi.com.

DSR Corporation announces the launch of a community for Zigbee® PRO software platform, ZBOSS Open Initiative (ZOI), which aims to provide a collaboration for IoT market players with a proven, reliable, and highly interoperable Zigbee® software protocol stack, along with the required development tools and infrastructure to establish a solid ground for effective joined work on the unified Zigbee® PRO software platform.

One of the main challenges currently facing the IoT market is to achieve interoperability across the vast ecosystem of smart devices and manufacturers. The key solution to this problem is a shared software platform, utilized and maintained by chipset vendors and consumer product companies, in a collaborative environment. This joint effort will greatly reduce compatibility issues and simplify development for manufacturers, while providing the opportunity to optimize R&D costs and decrease time to market for products.

DSR Corporation will share its market-proven ZBOSS stack source-code base with ZOI members and provide all the necessary, modern tools and support to make it easier for participating companies to integrate new chips and consumer products. Joined efforts will allow for the development of a unified software platform for Zigbee®-enabled smart devices and make it the most interoperable solution on the market.

ZBOSS is a Zigbee Alliance certified, hardware agnostic, cross-platform, high-performance Zigbee® software protocol stack developed by DSR Corporation. ZBOSS features cross-platform support, multi-tasking, fixed memory footprint, OS-less configuration, and easy-to-use API. It is an official Zigbee® stack for Nordic Semiconductor and ON Semiconductor and also supports multiple SoCs, MCUs and transceivers from Texas Instruments, Silicon Labs, Qorvo, ARM, Telink, UBEC, Microchip, and other chip vendors. Moreover, multiple Zigbee® 3.0 certified products are powered by ZBOSS. Over 200 smart devices from more than 40 vendors were tested successfully for interoperability with ZBOSS.

With validation and support from several silicon vendors and product companies, DSR Corporation is excited to launch ZOI on February 7th, 2020, but interested parties can join before the official launch by contacting DSR Corporation. ZOI is just one of the steps to provide a common Zigbee® PRO software platform to address the current market needs.

If you are interested in getting involved or get additional information, please visit http://www.dsr-zoi.com.

About DSR Corporation

DSR Corporation (DSR) is a professional products and services software development firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. DSR Corporation has been developing products in wireless technology since 2001, releasing cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) systems since 2006. DSR is the ultimate end-to-end IoT partner for many companies around the world and within different IoT verticals. DSR has delivered solutions in enabling wireless communications in products, embedded software for gateways and sensors, application integration layer, cloud backend, end-user apps (mobile and web), and general technology consulting with niche expertise. DSR is one of a handful of companies around the world that develops solutions covering the entire product spectrum – from the lowest level (hardware layer) to the top level user apps. DSR is a big supporter of open standards and flexible development, making us technology and vendor agnostic because we understand that not all solutions fit all use cases and business models. We are able to do this because of our extensive experience in different areas and our commitment to quality, recognized by our work in the Japanese market.

http://www.dsr-iot.com | http://www.dsr-zboss.com

Nearly 1.6 billion smart home devices will be shipped in 2023, thanks to the market’s double-digit growth, according to IDC’s latest forecast. Affordable and easy-to-use solutions drive the adoption of new technology that makes our houses and offices more intelligent, comfortable, and eco-friendly. One such device is the Zigbee Dongle Gateway Enabler (Z-Gate USB Dongle) by DSR Corporation. All you need is a slick and lightweight USB-stick and an Android-powered set-top box (STB) or smart TV.

Zigbee is the only complete IoT solution, from the mesh network to the universal language that allows smart objects to work together. It was developed by companies from the Zigbee Alliance, which was established in 2002. Numerous Zigbee products, ranging from motion sensors to smart speakers, are used in home automation, security and monitoring systems, smart energy, and other smart building and environment solutions.

Due to its low power consumption and the ability to operate in a low data rate environment (250 kbit/s), the Zigbee standard is widely used to create wireless sensor networks, intruder warnings, smoke detector networks, and smart lightning.

Z-Gate USB Dongle

The Zigbee Dongle Gateway Software developed by DSR is a cost-effective and easy to use smart-home solution. Service providers can benefit from its affordability and transparent set-up process for the end-user.

The device is powered by the Nordic nRF52840 SoC which is certified as Zigbee Compliant Platform. DSR’s Z-Gate USB Dongle with Nordic SoC supports both Zigbee and BLE protocols concurrently. Nordic’s nRF52840 SoC helps enable this outstanding functionality.

The key advantage of the Z-Gate USB Dongle from DSR is the accompanying full-fledged Zigbee Gateway app running on an Android-powered STB, smart TV, or any Android device. No need to buy, install, and setup cumbersome traditional hardware gateways, adding more wires to power them on. All you need is an inexpensive Zigbee Dongle and an Android set-top box which Customers usually already have in their homes.

The IoT gateway is a device between the edge system, i.e. controllers, sensors, and the cloud. It processes, filters, and stores data, secures connected devices, and translates protocols. All data moving to and from the cloud goes through the IoT gateway.

Sensors are able to generate hundreds of thousands of bits of data per second. The IoT gateway preprocesses the gathered data locally in order to greatly reduce response times and network transmission costs by minimizing the volume of transmitted information.

DSR’s Zigbee IoT Gateway

DSR is a hardened veteran of the Zigbee ecosystem. Our company is one of the oldest members of the Zigbee Alliance and a well-established Bluetooth SIG participant. The Zigbee Interoperability Demo Wall at CES demonstrates, annually, the variety of Zigbee supported devices. The Demo wall was powered by a DSR IoT Gateway for three consecutive years and all the devices were integrated by our company.

DSR’s extensive experience with Zigbee enables us to proactively resolve any integration issues. Due to the vast range of companies and products available in the Zigbee marketplace, not every single device can be integrated with an IoT gateway seamlessly. Our engineers have been mastering their skills and troubleshooting techniques for many years, in order to quickly resolve integration and interoperability problems.

Differences in the realization of Zigbee specifications by companies developing smart products sometimes leads to interoperability problems with the gateway solution. DSR’s team knows how to deal with technical challenges in a time-effective and cost-effective manner, ensuring interoperability for all Zigbee enabled devices.

DSR’s IoT Gateway guarantees seamless support of more than 200 Zigbee devices from more than 40 manufacturers.

DSR IoT Gateway Advantages:

• Interoperability proven by Zigbee Alliance
• Optimized memory usage, small resources footprint
• Automatic channel selection for radio-dense environments
• Dynamic Zigbee device commissioning
• Local APIs in Java and C
• SDK for Integration with any 3rd party clouds including Amazon, Google, and Azure Clouds

Z-Gate USB Dongle Use Cases

Home Automation with STB

An STB (cable box or smart TV) can be used to connect various smart devices like LED bulbs, smoke sensors, power switchers with dimmer and meter, and smart wireless thermostats with the help of a single DSR Z-Gate Dongle. The user simple plugs the dongle into a USB port on the STB, installs the Z-Gate application, and controls the smart home system with the help of a mobile app for Android or iPhone. Apps are developed by DSR for specific project requirements. The fully-featured Zigbee IoT gateway runs on the user’s Android-based STB and transmit all the data to DSR’s IoT Cloud.

This solution not only eliminates the service-providers’ need to buy and setup an IoT hardware gateway, but also facilitates its integration into users’ device ecosystem. The functionality of the STB remains intact and fully available to users.

For example, DSR’s Zigbee dongle can be used as a white label solution for a smart home. The service-provider picks up from a wide range of Zigbee-enabled products (smoke detectors, water leakage sensors, roller shutter controls, motion sensors, power switches with dimmer and meter, smart electric bulbs, window shade motors, temperature sensors, smart plugs, wireless dimmers, smart locks, etc.) to configure into product bundles. Tbe DSR team of mobile software developers then create easy to Customize white label apps for Android and iOS to manage the desired smart home infrastructure. The end-user is presented with easy-to-use, customized home automation kit which includes:

• The Z-Gate Dongle
• A user-friendly mobile app
• A wide range of smart home elements
• A Zigbee IoT Gateway Android app for STBs, available for download on the Play Store.

Other Possible Use Cases

STBs are frequently found in hotel rooms around the world. With the help of a Zigbee dongle and IoT Gateway app, hotel rooms can be easily be turned into smart ones. End-user apps can give the guests control over the room’s temperature, lightening, window shutters, and power switches.

The Z-Gate Dongle can be also used to automate lightning in office buildings and meeting rooms, as well as booking systems, and other various corporate and home solutions based on Zigbee-enabled products.

DSR was proud to support the 2019 Russian Internet Forum, one of the major IT events in Russia, with over 5000 registered attendees this year. The forum agenda addressed such topics as blockchain usage in everyday life, starting you career in IT, mobile development, UX/UI development, and other areas of expertise from 110 speakers. DSR Corporation was on the RIF program committee for the first time this year. Four of the company’s employees shared their extensive experience as speakers in the following areas: Blockchain and self-sovereign identity, IoT QA automation, and starting a successful career in IT.

Alexander Shcherbakov, DSR Lead Software Engineer, talked about using cutting-edge blockchain platforms to create highly secure, yet easy-to-use, solutions for digital identity. One of the main advantages of such ID systems is the ability of the user to control and protect their private data.. Alexander also gave insights into Hyperledger Indy, one of the major open-source blockchain platforms.

Mikhail Glazun, DSR Lead Software Engineer, addressed general IoT QA Automation issues and Zigbee-enabled devices, in particular. He gave some really useful techniques for deploying QA automated systems for smart home components testing.

Anastasiya Smotrova, DSR HR Manager, and Konstantin Kudrin, DSR Project Manager, gave a few working tips on how to start you IT career and stay competitive in the rapidly changing software development job market.

“RIF 2019 is one of the major regional IT events and a great place to increase our brand awareness, share DSR Corporation’s broad expertise, and attract mass audience to the new trends in IT. We were really excited to enter the program committee and be a part of RIF organization process. Thanks to our speakers for the great presentations!” – Anna Koltakova, PR Manager.

About DSR Corporation

Headquartered in Denver Colorado, DSR Corporation is a global leader in custom enterprise software development. With over two decades of experience, DSR possesses rich and proven expertise in IoT, Big Data and Analytics, Wireless, Blockchain, Embedded System Development, M2M, UX/UI, Computer Vision, and Mobile development. Among DSR’s own products are Zibgee stack for smart home devices and industrial sensors as well as white-label smart home cloud solution zHome. DSR’s customers include Bosch, Casio, Netflix, Panasonic, Evernym and other established brands.

The company has offices located around the world including the USA, Russia, Portugal, and Japan. Contact DSR today to learn more about what we can create together.

For eight years running, DSR Corporation and Voronezh State University have partnered to provide free training for future programmers and experienced developers who want to grow their skill set and knowledge base. Under the guidance of hardened IT veterans from DSR, anyone can establish a solid theoretical basis in C, grow their knowledge of Java applications, delve into the world of C++, master world-class QA practices, and gain exciting, practical knowledge of cutting-edge IoT and embedded systems technologies.

DSR is happy to announce that training groups for the 2019/2020 academic year have been already formed, with more than 600 future programmers applying during registration.

DSR’s industry experts are eager to share their knowledge and proven expertise, so that anyone can join training courses in the following areas, free of charge:
• Java
• C
• C++
• Embedded systems and IoT
• QA Engineering

The C programming language is essential for any software engineer. The DSR training course arms students with a comprehensive knowledge base as well as strong set of practical skills. At the end of the training, students are able to create their first advanced program in C.

Being one of the most popular programming languages for client-server web applications, Java is a great way to start skyrocketing your IT career. DSR’s experts know how to get things rolling, and in no time, students are equipped with the tools and knowledge to create their own Java programs from scratch.

DSR C++ School is an excellent starting point for diving into the vast world of software development. The free course covers not only theory, but also the practical programming skills that will equip students for success with C++ going forward.

QA engineers are key to any software development process. DSR QA School provides students with carefully-distilled practical knowledge, real use cases, and professional feedback on practical tasks. Diligent students who pass the final exam will receive an electronic QA certificate from DSR.

The Embedded Systems Training Center (ESTC) was established in 2011 in collaboration with the Japanese company, OTSL Inc. Experienced developers from DSR share their proven expertise on microcontroller programming, wireless technologies, and industry-grade software development. Upon finishing the course students are able to develop their own IoT device. ESTC has trained more than 100 future embedded developers over the past 8 years.

The DSR Training Center provides a great opportunity to learn fundamental programming skills and build a solid theoretical basis for free. Under the guidance of experienced IT professionals anyone can test their newly acquired knowledge in real-world scenarios.

The most successful students have a chance to join DSR’s international team of developers.

About DSR Corporation

Headquartered in Denver Colorado, DSR Corporation is a global leader in custom enterprise software development. With over two decades of experience, DSR possesses rich and proven expertise in IoT, Big Data and Analytics, Wireless, Blockchain, Embedded System Development, M2M, UX/UI, Computer Vision, and Mobile development. Among DSR’s own products are Zibgee stack for smart home devices and industrial sensors as well as white-label smart home cloud solution zHome. DSR’s customers include Bosch, Casio, Netflix, Panasonic, Evernym and other established brands.

The company has offices located around the world including the USA, Russia, Portugal, and Japan.

DSR Corporation is currently in attendance at the Connected World Summit in London, UK. The team has a booth where they are exhibiting new IoT and smart home technologies.  DSR’s Zigbee based solutions are highly interoperable, with an ecosystem of more than 200 supported products from 40 supported manufacturers.

Home automation is a cutting-edge solution to make our houses more comfortable, energy-efficient, and secure. The global smart home market is forecast to grow to 53.45 billion U.S. dollars by 2022 and one of the key drivers of home automation adoption is easy-to-install and easy-to-use solutions like UK-based Wondrwall. DSR Corporation is pleased to announce that all of the primary goals of the Wondrwall project have been achieved, including the device commissioning issue, resolved thanks to the broad IoT experience of our engineers.

Wondrwall is an intelligent living system allowing for control of various smart home functions via a mobile application or via voice using Amazon Alexa (AWS) integration.

DSR’s role on the Wondrwall project was to create user-friendly and feature-rich iOS and Android apps, backend solutions for mobile applications and a Smart Node, as well as a web-based administration console for viewing and managing devices on the network.

The Smart Node is the heart of the home automation kit. It replaces a standard light switch without additional changes and can be easily integrated with traditional electric bulbs. Each node is able to control up to 3 light sources and, thanks to light sensors built into the Smart Node, can intelligently adjust lightning in the house. A built-in microphone and speaker also allow for control of the node via voice commands using Amazon Alexa (AWS). Smart, wireless thermostats can also be connected to the Smart Node via Zigbee to allow for climate control via the mobile app.

The Wondrwall Kit can easily be turned into security system since the Smart Node is equipped with motion sensors. With the use of an additional Zigbee-enabled siren. When the user sets their status to “Away”, the Smart Node will detect any motion, set-off an alarm, and notify the user via the mobile app.

The Wondrwall apps for Android and iOS developed by DSR Corporation help not only with device control, but also make the smart home system intelligent. The applications allow users to create settings for 3 common scenarios: “At home”, “Away”, and “Sleep”.

For example, when no one is home, a user might turn off the lights, decrease heating/cooling, and activate their security system. A scenario’s rules can be modified for every room and day of the week, so with the help of the mobile app a user can create comfortable and energy-efficient home with just a few clicks.

DSR’s software engineering team also enabled a proximity-based smart home system that switches between the “Away” and “At home” scenarios with the help of the geolocation capabilities built into your smart phone. Sonos smart speaker systems are also supported by the Smart Node, allowing users to control their home speaker system and play music via the mobile app.

In future iterations of the Wondrwall project DSR Corporation and its’ partners will enable solar panel and smart plug support, making the home automation system even more eco-friendly, secure, and comfortable.

About DSR Corporation
Headquartered in Denver Colorado, DSR Corporation is a global leader in custom enterprise software development. With over two decades of experience, DSR possesses rich and proven expertise in IoT, Big Data and Analytics, Wireless, Blockchain, Embedded System Development, M2M, UX/UI, Computer Vision, and Mobile development. Among DSR’s own products are Zibgee stack for smart home devices and industrial sensors as well as white-label smart home cloud solution zHome. DSR’s customers include Bosch, Casio, Netflix, Panasonic, Evernym and other established brands.

The company has offices located around the world including the USA, Russia, Portugal, and Japan. Contact DSR today to learn more about what we can create together.

Most think of it for securing cryptocurrency transactions, but blockchain is making great progress toward practical applications in a whole new variety of industries – from healthcare to supply chain management. Due to its’ decentralized nature, blockchain is one of the most efficient ways to protect users’ privacy while keeping access control solutions convenient and secure. DSR Corporation’s engineers have created a demo video showcasing a blockchain IoT security scenario using the ZigBee IoT stack.

DSR demonstrates how to set up an easy-to-use access control system for the guests of a hotel using blockchain technology, an  IoT Gateway, and a user’s mobile phone with and designated app installed. In this case, they are operating a lock that might be found on applications such as a hotel minibar.

The showcased access control solution has couple of undeniable benefits, enabled by blockchain integration with the IoT system:

1. Thanks to a zero-knowledge proof, the verifier receives only required and non-specific information about the user. In this case, only the proof that the user is old enough to access alcohol is provided, rather than exposing any of their specific or private information.
2. The showcased access control system does not require direct communication between the prover and authority (credential issuer). The zero-knowledge proof can be verified by the verifier (minibar) via the blockchain. The issuer can even be offline, but verification will still work.

DSR was proud to announce the NEW Z-Gate Dongle, created with our hardware partners, at this year’s IBC in Amsterdam. This USB stick transforms existing STB boxes or routers into Zigbee Smart Home Gateways. This dongle works with an ecosystem of more than 200 Zigbee devices from 40 Zigbee device manufacturers.  

• Complete Zigbee gateway functionality, including:
  • Device provisioning
  • Device control
  • Device analytics
  • Over-the-air updates (for supported devices)
  • Device status and data
• Device interoperability guaranteed by the Zigbee Alliance. This device has been used to represent Zigbee on their Interoperability Demo Wall for several consecutive years at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
• Connectivity SDK for integration with 3rd party IoT cloud solutions, including: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure