IoT Monitoring Makes

Smart Start for ResortSmart Start for Resort

For more information, please visit: www.ieiworld.com

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IoT Monitoring Makes Smart Start for Resort

For more information, please visit: www.ieiworld.com

Improving Efficiency and Guest Experiences with Intel® IoT Gateway Solutions

Figure 1. The IEI Smart Resort plan is an IoT design for a Weizhou Island vacation resort in Southeast China.

The Need for Business Intelligence

A new resort under development on Weizhou Island in Southeast China plans to entertain families and individuals with a hot-spring facility, mineral-water factory, water park, and a golf course. The resort will be able to meet the water and energy needs to both maintain the facilities and provide water-based entertainment even thou there is a limited supply of freshwater on the island.

The success of the project will also depend on the resort’s ability to respond to customer needs, deliver positive brand experiences, and win repeat visits.

Jordan Jiang, PhD, General Manager, IEI Integration Corp

Vacation resorts are looking for new ways to help conserve water and energy while improving the comfort and enjoyment of their guests. With the growing availability of IoT technologies for environmental sensing and smart building management, resorts have more ways to auto mate and excel in these areas.

This article will look at an island vacation resort project that is reducing water usage through the implementation of IoT technology. It also uses IoT technology to improve guest experiences, and enhance security throughout the resort (Figure 1). We will consider the role and value of a gateway solution based on the Intel® IoT Gateway. This technology provides seamless and secure data flow between sensors, edge devices, and the cloud. We will examine the use of IoT wearable devices and video surveillance to analyze guest traffic and improve customer service. Finally we will examine the importance of data collection and data analysis in a private cloud based on an intelligent network storage device in automating processes and improving conservation.

To achieve maximum efficiency, enhance revenue, and begin recouping building costs, the resort needs to monitor resources, customer behavior, to operate efficiently. The resort also uses IoT technology to collect data on the features guests use the most.

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IoT Monitoring Makes Smart Start for Resort

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A Versatile Connection to the IoT

Recognizing the value of building automation using the IoT, system integrators working with the resort engaged IEI for an edge-to-cloud solution. The project’s scope required connecting cameras, sensors, and control systems using a variety of wireless technologies to a private cloud providing solutions for analysis, storage, and centralized management.

IEI supplied its IQGATE-100 IoT Gateway based on the Intel IoT Gateway, to connect sensors and controllers throughout the resort. This platform incorporates a pre-integrated, pre-validated set of hardware and software building blocks from Intel, Wind River Systems, and McAfee. It is designed to securely aggregate and filter data from devices at the edge and communicate with the cloud. Intel IoT Gateways integrate technologies and protocols for networking, embedded control, enterprise-grade security, and easy manageability upon which application-specific software can run.

Figure . The IEI IQGATE-100 IoT Gateway is based on the Intel® IoT Gateway platform, a pre-integrated, pre-validated set of hardware and software building blocks from Intel, Wind River Systems, and McAfee.

Wind River contributes the software communications stack: the Wind River Intelligent Device Platform (IDP) XT2.0*. For developers, this software stack offers Lua, Java, and OSGi application environments to enable scalable and reusable application development.

For security, the Intel IoT Gateway platform uses the Wind River IDP XT’s built-in security features – such as a hardware root of trust – to secure communication channels, data, and end device. In addition, McAfee Embedded Control adds dynamic white listing that locks down the system to a known baseline, and offers a policy-based change-control feature that monitors files and prevents unexpected changes.

The Intel® Quark™ SoC X1020D powers the gateway without a graphics engine. Based on one of Intel’s smallest cores, the Intel Quark SoC X1020D boasts a thermal design power of just 2.2 watts and high levels of integration.

While the chip itself may be small, its significance for IoT is huge. By bringing Intel technology to low-power edge devices, the Intel Quark SoC X1000 addresses major challenges in the areas of software complexity, design scalability, and device interoperability. Code written for this processor can run on Intel® Atom™ and Intel® Core™ processors without recompiling. Conversely, code written for more powerful processors can be readily ported to the Intel Quark SoC X1020D. The IQGATE-100 uses all this technology to offer rich I/O communications, including RS-232, RS-485, USB 2.0, dual LAN support, PCIe Mini expansion for Wi-Fi and ZigBee, and an on-board SIM card slot for remote connection. The operating temperature of the IQGATE-100 is -40°C to 85°C, meeting requirements for harsh environments. Packed in a compact, fanless box, these features make the IQGATE-100 an ideal gateway for indoor and outdoor use.

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IoT Monitoring Makes Smart Start for Resort

For more information, please visit: www.ieiworld.com

Storing and Processing the DataAnalyzing and storing data on everything from water quality and soil moisture to guest traffic and electronic payments throughout a resort is a large undertaking. As is storing and processing all the video surveillance data. For this, IEI turned to a storage device, the QNAP TVS-1271U-RP (Figure 3), from its wholly owned subsidiary QNAP. Supporting 10GbE networking, flexible storage expansion, and high-level data protection features, the TVS-1271U-RP is a secure, reliable network-attached storage (NAS) solution with the capacity to perform as a private cloud providing rapid elasticity. The unit stores large amounts of data and provides plenty of processing performance for applications used to optimize the resort’s operations.

Figure 3. The QNAP TVS-1271U-RP is a robust networked storage solution supporting 10GbE networking, flexible storage expansion, and high-level data protection features,

The TVS-1271U-RP includes two Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports, which can be expanded with additional two GbE ports, or two 10GbE ports. Throughput is 1 GB/s. The unit can hold up to 12 hard drives. For high reliability, the unit supports comprehensive RAID configuration and hot-swapping – allowing hard drive replacement without system interruption. A simplified system setup process and well-designed graphical user interface enables easy setup with a private cloud, plus the addition of business applications.

Powering the TVS-1271U-RP’s performance is an Intel® Core™ i3 processor with Intel HD Graphics featuring Intel® Clear Video HD Technology. This suite of image decode and processing technologies built into the integrated processor graphics improves video playback by delivering cleaner, sharper images and a clear and stable video picture. Intel® Quick Sync Video, also enables fast video conversion for viewing on portable devices, such as handheld devices used by security staff.

Connecting It AllFigure 4 provides an overview of the sensor layer, service layer, and application layer involved in IEI’s IoT solution for resort monitoring and control. However, the best way to see how these IoT solutions come together is by looking at how the elements fulfill various objectives throughout the resort.

Figure 4. This diagram provides a view of the three layers in IEI’s Smart Resort design.

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IoT Monitoring Makes Smart Start for Resort

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Maximizing Guest Comfort

Guest Traffic, Money-less Transactions, and Facility Usage Analysis

To ensure guest comfort and energy savings, the IQGATE-100 collects data from temperature sensors, humidity sensors, and lighting controls that are installed in each room, and sends it to the TVS-1271U-RP. Custom software enables access to this data for monitoring and applying automated control settings from a central control room. When sensors “see” a guest enter a room, the heating and cooling system immediately engages to bring the room to a preset temperature. When a guest leaves, lights automatically turn off, and the heat or air conditioning returns to an energy-saving setting.

At check in, each guest gets a RFID wristband for accessing their rooms, the water park, bicycle rentals, and to pay for any food and service within the resort. These wristbands are rated IP67, waterproof to one meter, and dust-proof. RFID sensors strategically installed throughout the resort, as well as at vending machines and food kiosks securely send data to an RFID reader connected to the IQGATE-100. RFID data on a guests’ movement provides valuable insight for resort planners in tracking the popularity of each feature in the resort.

Figure 5. The IEI Smart Resort solution uses RFID sensors and readers, probably most creatively with the wristbands used to get access and make payments for services throughout the resort.

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IoT Monitoring Makes Smart Start for Resort

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Mineral Water Factory

The mineral-water bottling plant is set up with a fully automated production line that provides fresh and pure water for sale in China. For visitors, The IQGATE-100 enables wireless connection plays a self-guided tour accessible through smart phones. The IQGATE-100 also provides a feed for digital signage data stored in the TVS-1271U-RP.

Sensors monitor water quality and the filtration systems throughout the resort. The IQGATE-100 collects data and sends it to the TVS-1271U-RP for daily analysis and alerts operators when filters need to be changed. Altogether there are 12 steps to water quality management, each step is monitored by a sensor that sends alerts to plant managers if abnormalities appear.

The water park’s water treatment system runs a multi-stage filtration process. Here, the goal is to limit energy use for water treatment and still provide the appropriate level of water cleanliness for park usage. IP67 water-quality sensors collect data and send it via the IQGATE-100 to the TVS-1271U-RP. Through automated controls, a water pump starts treating the water whenever levels of certain contaminants exceed pre-programmed limits.

Figure 6. The IEI IQGATE-100 is also used to push data to devices, such as content for digital signage and a self-guided tour of the mineral-water bottling plant.

Water Park Smart Filtration System

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IoT Monitoring Makes Smart Start for Resort

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Video Surveillance

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The TVS-1271U-RP provides a built-in IP camera recording feature for service as a surveillance server. Compatible IP cameras make simple work of camera selection, setup and configuration. Selecting cameras that run on Power over Ethernet (PoE) are enabled with just one line to each camera. With two display outputs (HDMI and VGA), video can be viewed at each unit. It can be also transmitted video over the Internet to security-staff desktop PCs, or mobile devices anywhere on the island.

By providing the technologies and protocols for networking, embedded control, enterprise-grade security, and manageability, Intel® IoT Gateway solutions like IQGATE-100 enable the seamless and secure data flow between edge and cloud needed to build out the IoT. Using a single, integrated edge-to-cloud solution allows integrators to focus on new potential IoT-based services using the same data analytics and automated control capabilities. For a vacation resort, such a comprehensive solution with room for growth can truly be a gateway to delivering the kind of guest experiences that keep people coming back.

IEI Integration Corporation (intel.com/MR-iei) is an Associate member of the Intel® Internet of Things Solutions Alliance and a leading industrial computing service provider. IEI core service is integrating computing platforms and customizing services. They provide hundreds of industrial computer boards, systems and peripheral. They also reduce customer design time and accelerate product development thru OEM/ODM services.

A Gateway to Great Guest Experiences

Golf Course Efficient Irrigation and Water RecyclingTo conserve water the resort uses a sophisticated water recycling and irrigation system. Underground reservoirs throughout the resort collect rainwater for the irrigation system. In-ground sensors monitor soil moisture levels, sending the data through the IQGATE-100 to the TVS-1271U-RP for analysis. The water control application then instructs each individual sprinkler head to start spraying water at dry spots only, preventing the waste of water on wetter areas such as those shaded by a building. Estimates suggest the moisture-based irrigation system will reduce water usage by over 70% compared to a timer-based system.