Nowadays, an average urban human spends nearly 90% of the time in a building - be it a workplace, school, hospital or home. Conditions in buildings even those outside must be well-kept to achieve a conducive lifestyle for everyone. Whether the room is well lit, the temperature comfortable, or the air too humid or dry, are all factors that may disrupt your living and productivity if left unmaintained. Companies and community organizations have realized this challenge and begun the hunt for solutions through the idea of smart buildings. 

Smart buildings are infrastructures that use technology to share information about their internal and external conditions via a communication system to optimize the building's performance. One technology that smart buildings can leverage is the Internet of Things (IoT). Researchers have long projected the future of revolutionizing traditional building automation and management systems with the continuous development of IoT. Even today, thanks to this evolution, people enjoy automated comfort from a smart building's system while administrators enjoy heightened efficiency, less work, and minimized costs.

However, not every building has upgraded to such advanced operations. The vision for a building ideally begins even before its construction so, modern architects and engineers must be aware of the increasing possibilities of automation and take them into account at the design stage. It is much easier to implement a smart system if you have already laid the foundations for it. Expanding this system would also be much easier and aesthetically pleasing if it were to be anticipated during construction.

Since this is not the case for every old building in cities, IoT can still be of help as the flexibility offered by wireless devices now allows placement anywhere in a building without pre-planning sensor locations or even seeking permission from the building owner in some cases. And among the technologies in IoT, LoRaWAN is an ideal one.

LoRa is a protocol designed to wirelessly connect battery operated devices to the Internet in wide networks. It is usually used for situations that require deep indoor coverage and long battery life. In numerous projects that tested this technology, LoRa has optimized leak detection, sub-metering, smoke detection, intrusion and presence monitoring, rodent trap monitoring and predictive cleaning and maintenance in buildings. Developers have also discovered how LoRa can cover outdoor areas cost-effectively to enable activities such as smart parking, smart lighting, asset or vehicle tracking, and smart irrigation. Safer evacuation systems for tenants in a building have also been continuously innovated by LoRa.

And to make use of LoRa in any of its applications, especially in smart buildings, LoRa nodes or sensors are placed in remote areas, where coverage is hard to ensure and where access for battery replacement is difficult. LoRa nodes are devices in IoT that capture information from the environment for analysis. Without them, the operations will not start as no data will be gathered. On the internet, many high-precision LoRa nodes have been made easily available by leading IoT solutions providers. Among these nodes is RAK7204 from RAKwireless, a LoRaWAN node that is known for its integrated design that allows its easy assembly.

Nodes, however, are not enough for a system to work. The data they collect must go to an information processor - the gateway. When a node is used in conjunction with a LoRa gateway , take the RAK7258 Indoor Gateway as an example, deploying a LoRa sensor network becomes a breeze. You only need to mount the nodes on a wall or the ceiling, power them on and start monitoring the working conditions of the building. You also need not worry about the LoRa gateway's coverage as its coverage is found to be significantly wide. In a test done by RAKwireless, the horizontal coverage of RAK7258 (which was placed on the third floor of a 17-store building) covered the whole floor of the building and its vertical coverage reached about half of the 17 stories of the building. Should your gateway come with a built-in LoRa server like RAK7258, the time from deploying the gateways and nodes to having a functioning LoRa network is further reduced.

As seen, LoRa has made it easy for buildings to achieve aut

 Science and Information Technology (IT) have been evolving with each passing of the day. The developments are seen in many ways-and most importantly, the innovative approaches that bring Science into everyday life are worth knowing in the current context. Here we bring before you some significant Scientific developments as latest Tech News that you must know to remain well informed: 

1. The photos and videos of Amazon's new home robot emerge: 

Amazon's new home robot that goes by Astro is seen for the first time in the real world. The robot is in its early stages of development, and it is being given only on an invite basis. The gadget was sent last November, and about a couple of images and videos have been shared just recently.

Those who have received the smart home gadget have begun posting images and videos of the robot fulfilling the commands given to it by the owners. One such owner is Bob Rekieta, whose video of the robot can be seen fetching a can of beer for him.

Someone would have kept the beer in Astro's onboard cargo holder as it doesn't have advanced physical or technological abilities to do such a thing just yet. In another video by Matthew Nereim, Astro is seen following Nereim around, who has said that he likes that the robot can be controlled from his phone.

There are quite a few features that make the robot a delightful addition to any house. It can be used for home security apart from making video calls, playing music, answering questions, and showing the weather. Amazon has said that it is ideal for taking care of ageing people. Astro is currently priced at $1499. This latest Technology News is indeed worth knowing.

2. Apple introduces anti-stalking measured for its new AirTags: 

Apple launched the updates to iOS 15.4 that aimed to prevent the misuse of AirTags as stalking devices and a warning that the AirTags are linked to Apple IDs.

Earlier, news reports informed how individuals were tracked without their consent using the AirTags. The new safety features were added soon after. The new features include an alerting system that would inform a user of an unknown AirTag in its vicinity. Earlier, this same system was confusing, and the ability to preemptively disable safety alerts has also been removed. The airbag will also be able to make an alert noise to be brought to attention.

Another feature added to the iOS 15.4 is that it has an American Siri voice so that is more gender ambiguous. There is also the feature of using Face ID while wearing a mask and the new Universal Control feature. The new iOS 15.4 will be released sometime next month.

3. Frontier has added 2-gig speeds to its fibre network: 

The fibre-optic network of Fiber Communications will see an addition of 2 - gig speeds in the six states of its operation-California, West Virginia, Indiana, Connecticut, Texas, and Florida. The new plan is priced at $149.99 per month and will include a free installation of a Wi-Fi router and its extender.

Frontier has made its new plan even more lucrative by offering the first 1000 customers a free 43 - inch Amazon Fire TV and a Logitech Webcam.

4. The Google Chat will replace the classic Hangouts for Workspace fully 

The Hangouts messaging service will undergo a complete transition to Google Chat in the next month, in March. Google Chat will become the default chat application, and those who visit Hangouts will be redirected to Google Chat.

Google has constantly engaged in rebranding its messaging applications, even though it often gets confusing to keep up with the changes. For instance, Hangouts had initially replaced GChat or Google Talk, which was first integrated into Gmail, and now Google Hangouts is being replaced by Google Chat.

The transition of Google Hangouts to Google Chat is not without its problems. In a statement, Google has informed that the histories of the conversations will not be maintained in a few cases. Google was not clear what is meant by "few cases."

Google has also made clear that no user will opt out of the transition. For now, the growth will only happen for the Workspace users, G Suite Basic and Business customers. Therefore, the change will affect initially those who pay for the services of Google. It has not spoken about the transition for the free users clearly but has indicated earlier that it would be across all Google services.