The document outlines the concept of 'Smart Blitzmerker', a frugal metering solution utilizing various smart technologies for improved energy monitoring. It details components, value propositions, signal chains, and potential applications, emphasizing collaboration among local colleges, developers, and government entities. The project aims for efficient data management with minimal investment, focusing on accessibility in underdeveloped regions.

1. 1
Smart Blitzmerker
A smart frugal metering solution,
for a smarter world
Author: Rolf Hemmerling, hemmerling@gmx.net
Date: 2015-09-18
Slides: http://slideshare.com/hemmerling
License: Creative Commons - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
Generic http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

2. 2
Smart Blitzmerker
1.Components
2.Business Canvas
3.Signal Chain by Functions
4.Signal Chain by Data Islands
5.Scenarios
6.Focus Principles
7.Personal Objectives
8.Resume
9.Resources

3. 3
2 Business Canvas

4. 4
VALUE
PROPOSITIONS
CHANNELS
CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIPS
CUSTOMER
SEGMENTS
KEY
PARTNERS
KEY
RESOURCES
KEY
ACTIVITIES
Cost efficient
alternative to traditional
smart metering, less
money investment
needed
Time
Local colleges. local
developer
Contracts / jobs as consultant, to
implement a customer solution
Time for development,
developer skills, ability
to create customer
solutions
Software development,
finding customers,
implementation of
customer solutions
Colleges with its people
( students, lecturers,
professors ) and their
projects ( this one! )
influcence local deciders (
local government, local
city council, companies
with facliities and plants)
and influencers ( i.e.
Governmental and
municipal institutions )
Crowdfunding,
Communication
between the local
colleges & local
developers with their
local authorities and
customers
1. Local decision
makes nd
authorities ( local
government, local
city council,
companies with
facilites and plants )
2. Govenmental
and municipal
institutions in 3rd.
World countries
and other low-price
low-developed
countries, 2. Non-
governmental
organisations
(NGOs) 3. Local
citizen
societies,e.g.
Citizen science
allience

5. 5
2 Components 1/2
1. Embedded Device, to be plugged mechanically to the analog meter
( by magnetism, vaccum, electrical or optical interface... ), either
permanently or temporary
2. Smart mobile device, e.g. a smartphone with built-in cam(s) and
some electronic and wireless interfaces
3. Digitizer ( an electronic or optical interface, e.g. fieldbus bus,
optocoupler, cam, scanner ) - part of (1) or (2) respectively
4. Tagger – part of (1),(2),(3),(6), (7) or (8) respecitively - , a data
converter which converts the digital data ( e.g. an image taken by a
cam ) to a "Tag" ( e.g. by optical character recognition ). A "Tag" is a
date with minimal size ( e.g. a "data word" of 2 Bytes, not a 100
KBytes image ).

6. 6
2 Components 2/2
5. Interface to Device Manager and Configuration Manager, or own
tools or adoptions of such tools. The management tools might be
based surprisingly on advanced technologies and leading-edge tools
like OpenStack, Chef / Puppet / Salt, Windows Desired State
Configuration ( DCS ), FDT/DTM, PLCs with OPC UA, ...
6. Interface to Programmable Logic Control ( PLC ), Supervisory
Control and Data Aquisition ( SCADA ), Distributed Control System
( DCS ), Manufacturing Execution System ( MES ), Laboratory
Information Management System ( LIMS ), Enterprise Resource
System ( ERP ) Facility Management System or any other PC- or
Cloud based Energy Management System ( EMS ) for energy
monitoring and energy data manageme
7. Interface to Cloud Services ( IBM BlueMax,... )
8. Own implementations of Cloud Services ( at Heraku, AWS, Azure... )

7. 7
3 Signal Chain by Functions 1/5
– The 5 Powers
1.Sensing
2.Embedded Processing
3.Connectivity
4.Reporting
5.Management

8. 8
3 Signal Chain by Functions 2/5
1. Sensing
• Digitizing ( e.g. analog/digital conversion, optical to digital
conversion, image generation like by photography )
2. Embeddded Processing
• Pre-, final, post processing of data
• Tagging – Reducing the size of a digitized data to a minimum
( e.g. getting a "data word" from an image, by optical character
recognition ), which can then easily processed by other systems
( e.g. by an OPC server, a Data Logger, a Historian )

9. 9
3 Signal Chain by Functions 3/5
2. Embeddded Processing ( cont. )
• OCR - Optical character recognition
• Character recognition by a pixel image ( e.g. by OpenCV )
• Vector based recognition
1.Create a pixel image file
2.Enhance contrast
3.Create character vectors from a pixel image, by quite
simple self-developed ( embedded ) software – by
detection, use and simulation of direction changes in the
character vectors
4.Conversion of the vector data to the format of "Microsoft
OneNote"
5.Vector based recognition by the free "Microsoft Ink
Recognition Toolkit"

10. 10
3 Signal Chain by Functions 4/5
3. Connectivity
• Serializing – Bi-directional conversion of binary data (e.g. jpg/png
image ) to a serial object ( e.g in JSON, BSON, XML format )
• Creation, processing and transportation of serial data records
( e.g. in JSON, BSON, XML format ). Transfer of data records by a
signal chain from source to destination, by protocols ( MQTT,
CoAP, UDP, TCP, TinkerForge, wireless, ... )
• Synchronous and asynchronous data communications, contract-
based communications, following the push and pull principle

11. 11
3 Signal Chain by Functions 5/5
4. Reporting
• Final, post processing of data
• Business Intelligence ( BI )
5. Management
• Configuration Management
• Device Management

12. 12
4 Signal Chain by Data Islands 1/2
Analog Digitzer EMS Cloud
mechanical
meter Pre- Final Post-
processing

13. 13
4 Signal Chain by Data Islands 2/2 -
Implementation Options
# Stage Option
1 2 3 4
1 Digitizing Embedded
System or
Smart Mobile
Device
Embedded
System or
Smart Mobile
Device
Embedded
System
Embedded
System
2 Pre-
Processing
Smart Mobile
Device
Smart Mobile
Device
3 Final
Processing
PLC / SCADA
/ DCS / MES /
LIMS / ERP /
EMS or Cloud
PLC / SCADA
/ DCS / MES /
LIMS / ERP /
EMS or Cloud
PLC / SCADA
/ DCS / MES /
LIMS / ERP /
EMS
4 Post
Processing
PLC / SCADA
/ DCS / MES /
LIMS / ERP/
EMS or Cloud
Cloud

14. 14
5 Scenarios 1/2
1. Connectivity
1. The embedded device is kept permanently at the analog meter.
2. Temporary data connections, when a device has access to a
wireless network or the Internet, respectively. The devices may
collect and keep the data of several analog meters, one-by-one.
– The embedded device ( or the smart mobile device ) is just put
temporarily at the analog meter, for communications,
– And / or the embedded device ( or the smart mobile device )
later communicates to a docking station

15. 15
5 Scenarios 2/2
2. Data volume
1. Minimum data volume transfer ( data records with Tags or with
character vectors ), to save time, energy, bandwidth
2. Sometimes you need to transfer high data volume ( e.g. a data
record with an image,as reference, e.g. once a month, so that
future data might be validated by the image, by humans )
In either cases the communciations between components has to be
designed, that it either must be synchronous, or may be
asynchronous. So a device with temporary connection to either a data
source or data destionation, or to both, must be able to buffer the
data

16. 16
6 Focus Principles
● "March separately, strike together" ( Helmut Graf von Moltke ) -
Different teams of our project may each create different applications,
by using different system platforms, different programming
languages, different hardware, but with a common objective: Smart
frugal metering!
● "Size matters" – The "Tagger" is important for our project, as it
enables efficient data storage
● Data communications
● Synchronous and/or asynchronous
● Push and/or pull principles
● Contract-based

17. 17
6 Personal Objectives
● "Live long and prosper" – The project is about to achieve broad
reputation
● The result of the project (data, code, documentation, physical
prototype ) is a good reference, in case of job application as
engineer or software developer
● The proof to have worked in an international project, beeing able
to negociate and work together in distributed multi-cultural teams
and organisations, is also a good reference, with any task done in
the project ( not just engineering and software development, but
also project management, quality management, product design,
Web design, marketing, photography, accounting,.. )
● Keep in mind: Your work is and will be unpaid, as there is no
paying customer, no work contract, no startup company with a
business model, no investors – you work for "yourself" in the
project, it's up to you how much you contribute.

18. 18
7 Resume

19. 19
8 Resources
● Project homepage
http://www.hemmerling.com/doku.php/en/smartblitzmerker.html