Internet of Things starter kit from IBM and Libelium

IBM and Libelium released an Internet of Things Starter Kit to enable dozens of sensor applications ranging from monitoring parking spaces or air pollution to providing assistance for the elderly.

The kit integrates Libelium’s Waspmote wireless sensor platform with IBM’s Mote Runner software and 6LoWPAN, which allows every single sensor and device to connect directly to the Internet using the new IPv6 protocol.

IBM Mote Runner is an open software development platform that connects sensor and actuator motes within wireless sensor networks based on the IETF 6LoWPAN protocol specification. With the new Internet of Things Starter Kit, a real-time operating system is integrated in Libelium Waspmote nodes to support more that 60 different sensors available “off the shelf,” allowing developers to easily build any application on top.

The Internet of Things SDK also includes the source code of the 6LoWPAN libraries so that researchers can modify and add their own algorithms and improvements.

“If we can harvest the Big Data insights from all of the things connected to the Internet we can more precisely understand how our world actually works,” said Thorsten Kramp, a computer scientist at IBM Research. “By making Internet of Things application development easier, finding answers to the grand challenges of our age becomes more feasible.”