ZIGBEE ON MARS!
Share this story
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Today I learned that the Ingenuity drone copter twirling about on Mars communicates with the Perseverance rover using 900MHz Zigbee radios. Not Wi-Fi, GSM, or something exotic like fission-powered lasers or space algae, but the same consumer tech you use to turn on a Philips Hue lightbulb.
I came across the news via an incredulous tweet from Ben Bromley who discovered it on the Linux Unplugged podcast with guest Tobin Richardson, CEO of the Zigbee Alliance, recently rebranded the Connectivity Standards Alliance.
According to Richardson, Zigbee is the ideal wireless protocol to transfer telemetry data between NASA’s Perseverance rover and the semi-autonomous flying drone. “Looking at really extreme environments, like Mars, it’s good to have a very lightweight purpose-built standard,” said Richardson, “where it’s essential to get the basic information across and makes it possible for extended battery usage.”
Google brings smart home standard Matter to Android, Nest
Adv.
San Francisco, May 20 (IANS) Google has announced to bring interconnected cross-platform smart home standard called ‘Matter’ to Android and capable Nest products, powering them with interoperable control and enabling simpler setups.
Earlier called Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), ‘Matter’ is a unified smart home standard partnership between Google, Amazon, Apple, Samsung, the Zigbee Alliance and others.
At its I/O developer conference, Google said on Wednesday that Android will be one of the leading operating systems with built-in support for ‘Matter’, letting users quickly set up devices with Google and link their favourite Android apps.
Google is looking to really simplify the smart home experience, not solely for buyers of its own branded products, but virtually all smart home device users. Introduced this week is Matter, a new.