The northern part of Spain, which is full of villages, vegetation and wildlife, is prone to wildfires. In fact, nearly 40% of the land was burnt back in 2015. Unfortunately, whenever a fire breaks out in a remote area, it often goes unnoticed or reached before damage occurs. With these instances becoming more common, insurance company Generali decided to find a better solution for early detection.

Their answer to the problem? Birdhouse Alarms. Each wooden (recycled, of course) birdhouse features an Arduino, a solar panel, a rechargeable battery, a smoke sensor and a 3G network connection, enabling it to send a geolocated signal to local authorities in the event of a fire.

The prototypes, which were designed by Ogilvy & Mather, are currently being tested.

read more

Libelium, with its open source hardware division of Cooking Hacks has come out with a new 3G module for arduino.

The new 3G shield for Arduino enables connectivity to high speed WCDMA and HSPA cellular networks allowing transfers up to 7.2Mbps (20 times faster than with GPRS technology). The module also counts with an internal GPS that enables the location of any Arduino both outdoors and indoors, combining standard positioning data from satellites with mobile cell triangulation in the assisted mobile mode (A-GPS).

The new Arduino 3G module also includes a small camera for video recording in high resolution and a complete audio interface that enables Arduino to run with all the functionalities of a smartphone device.

And just to remind our readers about cooking hacks? They were the people who created the XBee shield for arduino.

Further information regarding this new 3G/GPRS module can be found here.

Via:[EMSnow, cooking-hacks, memristor]

Arduteka lanza su último tutorial!

En él nos descubre el nuevo módulo 3G para Arduino de Cooking Hacks con el que podremos construir una divertida alarma que nos enviará la foto de nuestro intruso directamente a nuestro correo, además de avisarnos por un mensaje sms a nuestro teléfono móvil sin necesidad de tener conectado nuestro Arduino a internet constantemente, pues lo hace todo a través de la red móvil.

Vamos a construirnos una alarma totalmente casera, a través del sensor de ultrasonidos, escanearemos continuamente el espacio situado enfrente suyo con un radio aproximado de 30º, cuando algún objeto o persona se sitúe en su campo de actuación a una distancia inferior a la que establezcamos, haremos sonar una alarma, tomaremos una fotografía, el Led RGB que antes estaba verde, pasará a color azul y daremos 10 segundos para poder desactivar la alarma a través de nuestro teclado matricial, si la desactivamos, volverá de nuevo a escanear el campo, pero si no!! Reproducirá un sonido contundente y se dispondrá a mandarnos un sms a nuestro teléfono móvil y la fotografía a nuestro correo electrónico.

Via:[Arduteka]