This Far-Reaching Wireless Platform May Support the Internet of Things
An in-the-works project called Flutter would provide an inexpensive, power-efficient alternative to Wi-Fi and could cover an area a hundred times larger—that is, if it gets off the ground and flies.
Flutter is an open source ARM-powered wireless development platform for Arduino with a usage range of more than half a mile, making it ideal for communicating with devices over a greater distance than Wi-Fi allows. It’s equipped with 256-bit AES encryption and cryptographic hardware, keeping the networks private.
Flutter boards talk directly to each other without the need for routers or servers. They could potentially be used for controlling the lights and temperature inside your home, monitoring environmental systems, connecting outdoor projects such as digs or construction sites—or building a mesh network of quadcopters, if that’s your thing.
The more devices you want to interact, the more Flutter boards you’ll need, but the kits are inexpensive enough that they should scale to support pretty sizable projects.
On its Kickstarter fundraising page, Flutter offers two prototypes. The basic option is a small circuit board with a micro USB for power and programming, an LED, a button, and digital and analog I/O for twenty dollars. The Flutter Pro version adds a screw-mount antenna, battery charging, an additional button, and more memory for more code and is available for thirty dollars. The Pro version is shown in the product’s promotional video:
Robotics engineer Taylor Alexander is behind Flutter. “We have Wi-Fi in our homes, but it’s not a good network for our things,” he said—and Alexander wants his creation to be the first step in using the potential of the “Internet of Things,” or the idea that nearly every object nowadays is connected and can be controlled via the Internet.
His goal is to use the current crowd-funding effort for Flutter to pay for the coding of the software protocol that will run Flutter, since the microchips it uses are already available from manufacturers. The resulting software will allow Flutter to create a “mesh network,” which would allow individual Flutter radios to re-transmit data from any other Flutter radio that’s in range, potentially giving hobbyists or startups the ability to cover whole cities with networks of Flutter radios and their attached sensors.
The project is ambitious, and there are still some things Alexander would like to work out, including gaining FCC certification for the wireless hardware, developing supporting software, and making mobile apps for iOS and Android. But as more and more objects in our lives are connected, enabling technologies for the Internet of Things is becoming a real area to get into.
People are all about efficiency and convenience. With the prediction that 24 billion devices will be connected by 2020, some of those devices surely will be in your house. And if Flutter can help you monitor and control them, it’s bound to take off.
