Chapter 1257 The Prototype of the Internet of Things

When Li Mu was reborn, China's Internet industry was at its peak, and the concept of Internet + was booming, which further gave birth to the fact that almost all industries in China at that time were integrating with the Internet as much as possible, and the same was true for the express delivery industry.

In Li Mu's impression, Shunfeng and JD.com at that time could provide users with real-time logistics information and real-time location. Users can see where their express delivery is, where it is, who delivered it, and how far the delivery person is from them. , This kind of perfect customer confidence service relies on the real-time communication between GPS and network.

Li Mu hopes that Taobao Logistics can also have such capabilities in this era. In this case, Taobao Logistics will be at least eight to ten years ahead of the logistics enterprises in the previous life in terms of informatization. Although Li Mu does not know much about hardware, he has sorted out the Some points, I feel that to achieve this in this era, the hardware should have enough basics, but a brand new product concept is needed to combine these hardwares.

That's why he asked Fang Xudong to bring hardware experts over and put forward some of his unprofessional but visionary ideas to them.

Li Mu said to everyone: "I believe that real-time positioning equipment should not be difficult to achieve, because the current GPS satellite positioning module and GSM mobile communication module are both ready-made, as long as the two are integrated, the device can pass the GSM communication module. , Real-time transmission of GPS coordinate position information The real-time positioning information of the container is equipped, this should be correct, right?"

As a communication expert, Hu Bo immediately nodded and said: "The more popular mobile communication technologies are GSM and CDMA, which can realize the function of real-time data transmission as you just mentioned, and the GPS module is relatively expensive, but in Many fields have also been popularized, so it should not be difficult to combine the two."

Li Mu nodded: "Since these two functions can be realized, then I will talk about my other ideas."

After a pause, Li Mu said: "The reason why I need to add the support of radio frequency technology to these two functions is that we hope that in the future, we will install such equipment on every vehicle, every trailer, and every large express package. , and then install radio frequency technology reading equipment for all logistics nodes to improve our operational efficiency."

"For example, we have packed ten large packages into the container of Beijing A555, and these ten large packages will be sent to the Shanghai Stock Exchange for sorting and transit. Then, when these ten packages are loaded, they will pass directly through The radio frequency technology in the car is automatically read, recorded and uploaded, and then the vehicle is on the road, and we can monitor the location of the 'Jing A555 hanging' in real time through the GPS coordinate data sent by GSM;"

"When the car's location is 20 kilometers or ten kilometers away from the Shanghai Stock Exchange Distribution Center, the system will automatically put the car's information on the big screen next to the staff who pick up the car at the distribution center to remind them that this is the case. The car is about to enter the station, and the staff can see its cargo information instantly,

It is loaded with ten large packages, and these large packages are going to the business locations in the surrounding areas of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The relevant information is also clear at a glance. In this way, our workers can get ready before the car arrives. As soon as the car comes in, the radio frequency reading device outside the door can immediately determine the identity of the car and the package in the car, and directly remind our pick-up worker that the car has arrived, and immediately prepare for work, and then the car arrives immediately. Being able to ship these ten packages immediately to the loading bays that are going to their respective destination locations should improve the overall efficiency a lot. "

Li Mu's hardware idea is basically equivalent to a set of GPS trackers, plus a set of equipment similar to highway ETC, but Li Mu does not know whether the current hardware-based development of such a device is realistic.

As a communication expert, Hu Boluo thought for a while, and then said to Li Mu: "Mr. Li, this set of hardware is achievable, let me take it apart first, because your ideas for these two sets of equipment include GPS and GSM, so I Let’s talk about these two first.”

After a pause, Hu Bo continued: "We can directly purchase GPS modules and GSM modules, and then buy a batch of SIM cards from operators that can run data, and use their network for support, which will involve some communication protocols. , but it is not a problem, the protocols are all open, and the cost is very low, and it can be easily realized by integrating the single-chip technology, the basic structure is GPS chip, GSM chip and single-chip microcomputer.”

"As for the radio frequency technology, because I am not an expert in this field, I am not very sure, but I have heard that there is a non-stop charging system in foreign countries. Although it is not popular in our country, there are already a small number of foreign countries. The country is using it, and this technology should be consistent with our needs.”

"The principle is based on a radio frequency technology called RFID. This technology generally requires two sets of hardware and a set of systems, one set of hardware is placed in the car, and the other set is placed at the highway toll station. Users drive in or out. There is no need to stop on the highway. When it passes through the toll station, the equipment of the toll station will automatically read the information of the equipment in the car, and then record its starting point in the system, and wait until it reaches the destination and leaves the expressway. At the same time, you have to pass through the toll station again, and the information is read again. Once the two data are combined, you can know when and where the car got on the high-speed, and you can also know what time and where the car is. Get off the expressway at the location, then calculate the amount to be paid, and then perform a set of cost calculations. I think the principle of this technology is enough to support the needs you mentioned before. We only need to associate this function with GPS and GSM modules. Integrate and you will be able to achieve all your needs.”

Li Mu nodded in agreement and said with a smile, "It's just that technology like this is needed for support. If all technical problems can be solved, then it shouldn't be that difficult to develop such a hardware product, right?"

Hu Bo said: "It mainly depends on what kind of hardware and solutions are used, and then integrate it, and also need to write a single-chip microcomputer program, and also need to carry out industrial design at the same time. Industrial design is easy to say, but it is actually quite troublesome. For mobile phones, we have to repeatedly find ways to reduce the size of the motherboard, and make compromises with the appearance design. After finally encountering a final disgust, we will find a foundry for mold production, but if we only use it for ourselves , the industrial design can be less refined, so our entire process can be much faster.”

Li Mu said: "This piece of equipment is mainly installed in truck tractors, trailers, containers, and large express packages, so it does not require too complicated industrial design, as long as it is reliable and practical."

After speaking, Li Mu said again: "But the courier hand-held terminal I said just now involves our corporate image, so we still need to design it better, with a sense of technology and high-end."

Hu Bo said: "In addition to the GPS and GSM modules you mentioned, you also need a set of code scanning equipment, but this is not a problem. Our current system for scanning code equipment already supports the whole line. The code gun quickly recognizes the code and uploads it to the server. We have solved this problem a long time ago, even if it is replaced by a handheld device, it is not very troublesome, that is, the data is transmitted from the network cable to the GSM mode wireless transmission. "

Li Mu nodded: "It is true in theory, but we can't just develop a blind code scanning device for our courier, we have to give him a screen and give them a system, so that they can have more Operation space, for example, we add a mobile phone screen to this set of equipment, and he can choose whether to scan the code for pickup, scan the code before delivery, or scan the code after delivery;"

"At the same time, we also want to make this device a remote business processing terminal. For example, if a user in our building places an order online and fills in the address here to send express, then our server is receiving After reaching his order demand, we must immediately look for the nearest courier through the location of the terminal device on our courier, and then send him a pickup notice and pass the order information to him in the form of SMS. "

"Alternatively, we can automatically screen the delivery process of the courier through the scan code record of the courier carried by the courier when he departs. If courier A is still far away from here at this time, he carries the destination in this building. and it has not been delivered yet, we can determine that courier A has delivery business in this building, so he will definitely come to this building, so that we can give priority to the task of picking up the parcels to him , which minimizes our labor waste and makes the entire process more efficient.”

Fang Xudong immediately said: "Mr. Li, I will organize a new project team today to tackle the hardware equipment you mentioned."

Li Mu nodded: "Communicate with colleagues in the patent department, don't let go of all the patents that can be applied for during the research and development process."

"clear."

Li Mu said: "Take this as the first key research and development project of our hardware laboratory. While you are developing the combined use of GSM and GPS modules, on the one hand, you must make the two sets of modules more compatible and adaptable. , on the one hand, think more about the effect they can produce when combined with other devices, GSM, GPS and single-chip microcomputer, as long as the three are well integrated, we can connect all possible things to the Internet, which is The Internet of Things in the future.”

In this era, the Internet of Things is just a phantom abstract concept, and even Western countries have not embarked on the real research and development and development of the Internet of Things, so when Li Mu talked about the Internet of Things, everyone present was at a loss. I've heard of this concept, but I don't know how to put it into practice.

Li Mu said: "The equipment we installed on the vehicle is actually the basic 'Internet of Things', but the future of the Internet of Things should not only be one-way transmission of information, it should have more practical Let me give you an example of the intelligent function. If I ask you to develop a new type of bicycle lock, this kind of lock does not have a key hole, but uses a GSM module and a single-chip module to control a set of miniature relays, and then connect the into the GPS module and use a lithium battery as the power source, in this way, the bicycle equipped with this bicycle lock is already connected to the Internet.”

Li Mu wanted to use the concept of remote unlocking of shared bicycles as a case of the Internet of Things to give a few people a popular science, but there is a very big problem that there is no smartphone, and there is no mobile phone scanning code, so Li Mu modified the logic. , Change the link of smart phone scanning code to ordinary mobile phone to send text messages through GSM.

Later, Li Mu continued: "I will give this bike a unique ID, and keep the matching information on the server, and then throw this bike on the street for our specific users to use freely. The specific logic is: if this The ID of the car is 6666, then when the user sees this car, he only needs to send the 6666 number to our server by SMS. , send an unlock command to the lock on this bicycle, and then the GSM module transmits the received command to the microcontroller, and the microcontroller controls the relay, you say, what will happen?"

Fang Xudong said excitedly: "The microcontroller receives the instruction to energize the relay and unlock the car in an instant!"

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