With the announcement, Microsoft says this is a major step towards a more connected environment. Indeed, the company seen integrating spatial intelligence in a meaningful way as a major hurdle to overcome. Because of this announcement, Azure IoT customers can understand more about space and location within their devices. Microsoft confirmed Azure Maps APIs can be integrated with special analytics to help track events as they happen in terms of space and time. As an example, customers would be able to monitor how assets move, showing how they move within a geographical context for IoT. Perhaps this is a refrigerator foods delivery truck moving from city to city, which could be tracked through Azure Maps. As the goods are refrigerated, moving off course could have monetary consequences. If the truck deviates from its route, the event could be tracked and viewed through an included IoT device and notifications sent through Azure Event Grid. Chris Pendleton Principal PM Manager, Azure Maps, explains how this new cross-integration can help customers: “Location is a powerful component of providing insights. If you have a means of providing location via your IoT messages you can start doing so immediately. If you don’t have location natively, you’d be surprised at how you can get location associated with your sensors and device location. RevIP, Wi-Fi, and cell tower triangulation all provide a means of getting location into your IoT messages.”
IoT Development
This year, Microsoft has been frequently updating its IoT capabilities. In May, the company launched its Robot Operating System for Windows 10 IoT. It is robotics framework that allows developers to write software for robotics hardware in an open source environment. Developed by Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Willow Garage, ROS allows improved performance in robotics hardware. The framework is maintained by Open Robotics.
