Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future: M2M

Showing posts with label M2M. Show all posts

Silicon Valley Series: Digital Precision with IIoT, Analytics, AI and Digital Transformation

In this Silicon Valley Series I have the privilege of interviewing very smart and experienced Silicon Valley veterans on a variety of important business trends, technologies and strategies. I hope you find this series of short interviews interesting.

In this episode, experienced Silicon Valley CEO Tom Thimot and I discuss the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation, and how it all plays a role in operating a more precise business that leads to competitive advantages.

Analyst Kevin Benedict Interviews OSIsoft's Sam Lakkundi on Industrial IoT Platforms

What makes an Industrial Internet of Things platform different from any other IoT platform? How is real-time data treated differently from data that can be archived and analyzed later? What role does AI play in IIoT? All these questions and more are covered in this interview with OSIsoft's Sam Lakkundi. Enjoy!

Read more articles and watch more interviews at C4DIGI.com.

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

President, Principal Analyst, Futurist, the Center for Digital Intelligence™

Website C4DIGI.com

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Technologies

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Day Big Data Analytics Died

The Huffington Post gave Donald Trump a 2% chance of winning, The New York Times 15%. The best polls, prediction markets and analytics predicted a Hillary Clinton victory in the days before the election, yet they were all wrong. The national media’s predictive analytic systems failed catastrophically. Why?

Analytic systems require timely data on all the variables that impact a system and measure its performance. Analytics requires support from an optimized information logistics system (OILS), which describes the a system that manages the full lifecycle of data from collection, transmission, processing, analysis, reporting, data driven decision-making, action and archiving. An OILS is only as good as the data. It can only function correctly if it is collecting the necessary data inputs. For example the sensors in an Internet of Things (IoT) system must be attached to the right “things” that impact operations, to provide full system visibility and insight. The pre-election big data analytics systems used by pundits, media and prediction markets used incomplete data that resulted in operational blindness, a massive failure for those responsible.

A simple phone poll may not measure the degree of sentiment, neither does it measure those not on the phone. It appears from reports this morning that large numbers of folks whom rarely if ever voted - voted. This unmeasured, invisible group, that was an important data input, was not measured and analyzed in the OILS.

When I meet with business and IT strategy leaders and discuss data analytics and OILS, I always ask them, "What data are you NOT collecting that potentially could be important to your plans and operations?" Many have never considered this simple question. They look at their available data, but not their data gaps. Today in a world of hyper-connectivity, bots, real-time operational tempos and decision-making, having the right data at the right time is critical. What data are you not collecting?

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Center for the Future of Work, Cognizant Writer, Speaker and World Traveler

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Interview: Robots, Digital Transformation and Intelligent Process Automation

Robots bring to our minds images of dangerous humanoids, but business process robots look different and behave in very positive ways. In this important conversation with three robot and automation experts, they reveal the presence of robots all around us, and their expanding roles in companies today. Enjoy!

Read the report - The Robot and I: How New Digital Technologies Are Making Smart People and Businesses Smarter. ************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Monitoring an Ear of Corn with an IoT Sensor?

Once upon a time, farmers would walk through a field or ride a horse around it to determine the amount of fertilizer and water their crops required. I have done this myself. Today agricultural drones with sensors and analysis software can fly over large fields and analyze the crops and their needs precisely in seconds. If we wanted to get even more ambitious, we could place an IoT (Internet of Things) sensor next to every stalk of corn to monitor and optimize its growth. Although these steps are all feasible today, some are not yet economically advantageous. That might, however, soon change. In the past, we treated crops in aggregate. Today, we can customize how we treat each section of a crop due to the benefits of sensors.

Globally, we will need to feed 8 billion people by 2030 and 9 billion by 2050. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) projects that, under current production and consumption trends, global food production must increase 60 percent by 2050 in order to meet the demands of the growing world population. That's only 35 years away!!!

Another fact, over 25-40% of our food spoils or is lost before it can be consumed (source http://www.foodwastealliance.org/about-our-work/assessment/). This is a massive amount of waste and inefficiency that no one wants and IoT sensors can help us reduce food waste.

Do you see, as I do, the need for a digital transformation in agriculture, food processing and delivery? The Internet of Things is not just the newest gadget for us to play with, it can mean the difference between life and death for many people. Data collected through sensors and analyzed to help optimize growth, harvesting, processing, delivery and consumption may just be the solution we need.

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Mobile Apps, Blind Spots, Tomatoes and IoT Sensors

Master Tomato Gardener

A lot is written on mobile technologies, the Internet of Things, social media and analytics, but little is written on how all these might work together in a retail environment. I think best by writing, so let's think this through together.

Blind spots are defined as, “Areas where a person's view is obstructed.” Many business decisions today are still made based on conjecture (unsubstantiated assumptions), because the data needed to make a data-driven decision lies in an operational “blind spot.”

Smart companies when designing mobile applications consider how they can personalize the user experience. They ask themselves how they can utilize all the accumulated data they have collected on their customers or prospects, plus third-party data sources, to make the experience as beautiful and pleasurable as possible. To start, they can often access the following kinds of data from their own and/or purchased databases to personalize the experience:

Name
Age
Gender
Address
Demographic data
Income estimate
Credit history
Education level
Marital status
Children
Lifestyle
Social media profile and sentiment
Job title
Purchase history
Locations of purchases
Preferences, tastes and style
Browsing/Shopping history

This data, however, is basic. It is merely a digital profile. It has many blind spots. It is often not based on real-time data. As competition stiffens, the above profile data will not be enough to deliver a competitive advantage. Companies will need to find ways to reduce blind spots in their data so they can increase the degree of personalization.

Sensors connected to the IoT (Internet of Things) will play an important role in reducing blind spots. Sensors, often cost only a few dollars, and can be set-up to detect or measure physical properties, and then wirelessly communicate the results to a designated server. Also as smartphones (aka sensor platforms) increase the number of sensors they include, and then make these sensors available to mobile application developers through APIs, the competitive playing field will shift to how these sensors can be used to increase the level of personalization.

Let’s imagine a garden supply company, GardenHelpers, developing a mobile application. The goal of the application is to provide competitive differentiation in the market by offering personalized garden advice and solutions. The GardenHelpers use the following smartphone sensors in their design to provide more personalized gardening advice:

GPS sensor (location data)
Cell Tower signal strength (location data)
Magnetometer sensor (location of sun)
Ambient light sensor (available sunlight)
Barometer sensor (altitude)

GardenHelpers combine the sensor data with date and time, plus third-party information such as:

GIS (geospatial information system on terrain, slopes, angles, watershed, etc.) data
Historic weather information
Government soil quality information
Government crop data, recommendations and advice

GardenHelpers also encourages the user to capture the GPS coordinates, via their smartphone, on each corner of their garden to input the estimated garden size, and to capture the amount of sunlight at various times of the day through the ambient light sensor. This information is compared with area weather data and the amount of shade and sunlight on their garden is estimated.

GardenHelpers now understands a great deal about the gardener (mobile app user), the garden location, size, lay of the land and sunlight at various times. However, there remain “blind spots.” GardenHelpers doesn't know the exact temperature, wind speeds, humidity levels, or the amount of water in the soil of the garden. How do they remedy these blind spots? They offer to sell the gardeners a kit of wireless IoT sensors to measure these.

With all of this information now the blind spots are now greatly reduced, but some remain. What about local pests, soil issues and advice? GardenHelpers adds a social and analytics element to their solution. This enables gardeners to share advice with other local gardeners with similar garden sizes and crops.

GardenHelpers can now deliver a mobile app that is hyper-personalized for their customers and prospects. The products they offer and recommend are not selected randomly, but are now based on precise smartphone and sensor data. The mobile app combined with the IoT sensors become an indispensable tool for their customers which leads to increased brand loyalty and sales.

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Sensors - Sensing and Sharing the Physical World

Global Sensor Data

We spend a lot of time talking and writing about the IoT (Internet of Things) in the macro, as a giant worldwide network of objects and things, communicating with themselves and others. That is indeed interesting, but the most interesting components of the IoT, in my opinion, are the sensors. Sensors are defined as, "Devices that detect or measure a physical property and record, indicate, or otherwise responds to it." In the context of IoT, sensors detect or measure a physical property and then communicate the findings wirelessly to a server for analysis. Sensors are our digital fingers that touch and feel the earth and environment!

Just last week I read this about a new iPhone patent, "The patent is titled “Digital camera with light splitter.” The camera described in the patent has three sensors for splitting color. The camera would split colors into three different rays. These would be red, green and blue. The splitting of colors is designed to allow the camera to maximize pixel array resolution." This patent potentially could help Apple improve the image quality of its mobile cameras, especially in video. In other words, it will help iPhones better capture, display and share the scenes on our planet for viewing.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year I saw demonstrated an iPhone add-on from the company, Flir. It was a Personal Thermal Imagery Camera. You connect it to your iPhone and then you can find leaky pipes in your wall, overloaded electrical breakers, or even spot live rodents hiding in your walls. You can use it in your boat to spot floating debris in the water in the dark or use while hiking in the dark to spot hidden predators preparing to devour you. I WANT ONE NOW!

Sensors measure and collect data and can be connected to just about any piece of equipment. Satellite cameras are sensors. There are audio and visual sensors. There are pressure and heat sensors. There are all kinds of sensors. One of the most interesting sensor technologies I have been researching of late is hyper spectral remote sensors.

Hyper spectral sensors combined with GIS (geospatial information systems) information and Big Data analytics are a powerful mix. These sensors can be integrated into very powerful cameras. Hyper spectral remote sensing is an emerging technology that is being studied for its ability to detect and identify minerals, terrestrial vegetation, and man-made materials and backgrounds. I want one!

Hyper spectral remote sensing combines imaging and spectroscopy (spectroscopy is a term used to refer to the measurement of radiation intensity as a function of wavelength) in a single system, which often includes large data sets that require Big Data analytics. Hyper spectral imagery is typically collected (and represented) as a data cube with spatial information collected in the X-Y plane, and spectral information represented in the Z-direction.

hyper spectal imaging

What can be done with hyper spectral remote sensing? Using powerful hyper spectral cameras one can detect unique noble gases (each unique gas emits a unique color on the spectrum), different inks, dyes and paints (each have different characteristics that can be uniquely identified). You can detect, identify and quantify chemicals. You can detect chemical composition and physical properties including their temperature and velocity all with a camera!

Taking a hyper spectral image of an object, connected to real-time Big Data analytics, can tell you an amazing amount of information about it. Theoretically, a hyper spectral image of a person combined with facial recognition can identify a person, their shampoo, make-up, hand lotion, deodorant, perfume, the food they ate, chemicals they have been in contact with and the materials and chemicals used in their clothes. OK, the implications of this technology for personal privacy are really creepy, but the technology itself is fascinating.

Theoretically hyper spectral remote sensing systems can be used for healthcare, food monitoring, security at airports, for public safety, in intelligence systems and integrated with drone and satellite surveillance systems.

Today, luckily, these cameras are far too expensive for me.

Related Articles: http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2015/04/iot-sensors-tactile-feedback-iphones.html

Related Video: http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2015/03/iot-and-sensors-from-ams-at-mwc15.html
************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

IoT Sensors, Tactile Feedback, iPhones and Digital Transformation

IoT sensors extend our physical senses beyond our physical reach and communicate the results from afar. They also allow us to share experiences remotely, not just mentally, but also tactilely. That is the first time I have ever used the word “tactilely.” It means to tangibly or physically experience something. For example, AMS’s MEMS gas sensor allows people to hear, see and smell inside their home remotely from an iPhone app. The Withings Home camera sends alerts to an iPhone if it detects movement or noise in the house. Its night-vision sensor mode enables the remote viewer to even see in the dark. The viewer can also talk through the camera to ask questions like, “Who are you, and why are you carrying my big screen TV away?”

Today you can combine 3D modeling apps for smartphones and tablets with sounds, vibrations and colors so you can augment your reality with tactile experiences. Wireless sensors and 3D modeling and visualization tools enable you to see and monitor conditions at distance - in real-time. A combination of sensors, analytics, visualization and tactile feedback tools can alert and inform you of changing conditions, patterns or variations in activity or data patterns. This experience can truly augment your reality.

The new Apple Watch enables you to signal somebody on the other side of the world with tactile vibrations that you customize. For example, while on the road I can signal my wife that I miss her by sending five quick “pulses” that vibrate on her wrist.

Digitally modeled realities enable experts, from anywhere in the world, to work and manage factories, farms and other kinds of operations from distant locations. The obstacles of the past, lack of information and monitoring capabilities, that resulted in operational blind spots are quickly disappearing as more sensors are put in place. Most of us either own or have seen noise canceling headsets. Sensors in the headset capture the incoming noise and then instantly counter with anti-sound that matches the sensor data. This same kind of sensor technology can capture noise and transmit it to distant locations where it can be recreated and listened to by others.

I can image near-term scenarios where entire factory floors are digitally replicated and real-time operations can be viewed and managed from great distances. Every component of the operation can be monitored via sensor data. Aberrations, out of compliance data, and other faults would instantly cause alerts, notifications and remedies to be implemented.

In the military arena, acoustical sensors can now pin-point the location of incoming bullets, rockets, missiles, etc., in real-time and activate various instantaneous counter measure technologies. Data means power.

Today's competitive marketplace requires companies to collect more data, analyze more data and utilize more data to improve customer interactions and engagements. Mobile devices are exceptionally designed to assist in this effort. Apple's iPhone and Apple Watch come with an array of sensors for collecting data about your surroundings:

Touch/Multi-Touch screen sensor
Force Touch sensor– measures different levels of touch (Apple Watch), determines the difference between a tap and a press
Taptic Engine sensor – tactile feedback via gentle vibration(Apple Watch)
Audio/Voice sensor
GPS sensor
Bluetooth sensor (supports iBeacon)
WiFi sensor
WiFi strength sensor – help track indoor activities
Proximity sensor - deactivates the display and touchscreen when the device is brought near the face during a call, and it shuts off the screen and touch sensitivity
Ambient Light sensor - brightens the display when you’re in sunlight and dims it in darker place
Magnetometer sensor - measure the strength and/or direction of the magnetic field in the vicinity of the device – runs digital compass
Accelerometer sensor- measures the force of acceleration, i.e. the speed of movement (uses movement and gravity sensing), steps counter, distance, speed of movement, detects the angle an iPhone is being held
Apple Watch sensors measure steps taken, calories burned, and pulse rate
Gyroscope – 3 axis gyro (combined with Accelerometer provides 6 axis motion sensing), Pitch, Roll and Yaw
Barometer sensor – altitude, elevation gain during workouts, weather condition
Camera sensor with a plethora of sensors and digital features: face detection, noise reduction, optical image stabilization, auto-focus, color sensors, backside Illumination sensor, True Tone sensor and flash
Fingerprint identity sensor
Heart rate sensor (Apple Watch) - uses infrared and visible-light LEDs and photodiodes to detect heart rate Sensor

Other sensor add-ons: Personal Thermal Imagery Cameras sensor (Flir)

I attended a defense related conference and listened to an IT expert in the CIA present on how they can use sensors on smartphones to uniquely identify the walking style and pace of individuals. For example, the intelligence agency may suspect a person carrying a phone is a bad guy. They can remotely switch on the smartphone's sensors and record the walking style and pace of the person carrying the phone and match it with their database records.

Sensors help bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds. They convert the physical world into data. Tactile feedback tools convert the data back into physical experiences – like a Star Trek Transporter.

Mobile apps can also be considered the API (application programming interface) between humans and smartphones. Sensors are the API between the phone and the physical world. For example, a mobile application for recommending local restaurants may start by asking the user what kind of food they prefer. The human queries their stomach for pain and preferences, and then inputs the results into mobile apps by touching the keypad or using their voice. Suddenly a server in an Amazon data center knows your stomach's inputs! That is one powerful sensor and API! Given the vast array of sensors in the human body incredible things can be done once those sensor convert them to data.

Until recently, the data from natural sensors in the human body were mostly communicated to analytics engines via human's touch, typing, drawings or voice inputs. The emergence of wearable sensors and smart devices, however, change that. Wearable sensors can bypass the human in the middle and wirelessly communicate directly with your applications or healthcare provider.

Sensors and computers are also connected to the non-physical. Applications can react differently based on recognized time inputs. Once time reaches a specified location (place?), an alarm can be activated sending sound waves to your physical ear. That is converting the non-physical (time) into sound waves that vibrate our ear drums.

The challenge for businesses today is to envision how all of these sensors and available real-time data can be used to improve sales, customer service, product design, marketplace interactions and engagements so there are more profits at the end of the day.

In the book Digital Disruptions, James McQuivey writes that for most of history, disruptions (business and marketplace transformations) occurred in a physical world of factories and well-trod distribution networks. However, the disruptors of tomorrow are likely coming from digital disruptions - sensors, code halos, big data, mobile devices and wearables.

The task and challenge of every IT department is to understand and design a strategy that recognizes the competitive playing fields of tomorrow are among the digits.

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

The Library of Kevin Benedict's MWC15 and Chennai Videos

Kevin Benedict & Mani Bahl
Chennai, India

If you missed, ignored or somehow avoided watching the video series I filmed circumnavigating the globe these past two weeks talking about mobile technologies and digital transformation, then you have one more chance for redemption. Here is the complete library for your enjoyment. This series is also very good for healing insomniacs, and for ending a bad date. Enjoy them or not!

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

IoT and Sensors from AMS at MWC15

Last week, at the Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona, I had the opportunity to learn some very interesting details about IoT sensors. In this short video interview I ask AMS to demonstrate and explain how their IoT sensors work. Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/JWY7UGOjWMU?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Managing and Cultivating Mobile and Digital Transformation

I have been attending and learning at Cognizant's "Go Digital" Innovation Days in Chennai, India this week. I have seen some very interesting technologies, learned from experienced strategists and interviewed a number of very talented technologist this week. In this short video I summarize some of my learnings for those not able to attend. Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/vsHJbABbuJY?list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

IoT Sensors Extend Our Physical Senses Beyond Our Physical Reach

IoT sensors extend our physical senses beyond our physical reach and communicate the results from afar. 3D modeling, 3D printers, and sounds, vibrations and colors on your smartphones can then provide tactile experiences augmented by real-time status data to bring a digital version of reality to you, anywhere in the world via a standard smartphone.

Wireless M2M or IoT sensors and 3D modeling and visualization tools enable you to see and monitor conditions at distance - in real-time. Visualization tools like those from SVS Innovations make it possible to digitally model in 3D, with great accuracy, an object or a building and to see the sensor data in real-time. Visualization and tactile feedback tools can then be used to quickly inform you of changing conditions, alerts, patterns or variations in activity or data patterns. Sensor data, visualization and tactile feedback tools can truly augment your reality all on your smartphone or tablet.

Combining sensor data and 3D visualization tools can even take you beyond 3D (longitude, latitude and altitude). With the addition of time/date, tactile feedback and real-time sensor data, you can begin adding more dimensions. Instead of simply viewing a static 3D model of an object, changing colors and other means of visualization can begin communicating actual real-time events, activities and behaviors on the 3D model. This is powerful and all real today.

Digitally modeled realities enable experts, from anywhere in the world, to work and manage factories, farms and other kinds of operations from distant locations. The obstacles of the past, lack of information and monitoring capabilities, that resulted in operational blind spots are quickly going away as more sensors are put in place.

I can image near-term scenarios where entire factory floors are digitally replicated and real-time operations can be viewed and managed from great distance. Every component of the operation can be monitored via sensor data. Aberrations, out of compliance data, and other faults would instantly cause alerts, notifications and remedies to be implemented.

In the military space, acoustical sensors can now pin-point the location of incoming bullets, rockets, missiles, etc., in real-time and activate various instantaneous countermeasures.

We live in crazy times.

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Kevin Benedict's Connected Globe News Weekly – Week of January 11, 2015

Welcome to Connected Globe News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to M2M (machine to machine) and embedded mobile devices. I aggregate the information, include the original links and add a synopsis of each article. I also search for the latest market numbers such as market size, growth and trends in and around the M2M market.

Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Cyber Security News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Looking for an enterprise mobility solution? Read the Mobile Solution Directory Here!

Earlier this year, GSMA in its Intelligence Study Cellular M2M report said there will be more than 1 billion M2M connections by 2020. Read Original Content

According to a new report from the research firm Berg Insight, shipments of connected wearables reached 19 million in 2014, up from 5.9 million devices in the previous year. Read Original Content

Over the next few years, Samsung will ramp up its already aggressive efforts in the booming Internet of things, ensuring that within five years all of its hardware will be able to connect to the Internet and investing $100 million this year in its developer program. Read Original Content

B2M Solutions’ mobile software delivers valuable insight and actionable analytics for enterprise customers. Business leaders and managers within the mission critical, rugged mobile enterprise now have operational views of key business and technology analytics affecting performance and productivity. B2M software is developed with specific functionality to help organizations identify and unblock mobility problems as soon as, or even before, they occur, allowing customers to sustain critical business processes and gain competitive advantages. To Lean more visit www.B2M-Solutions.com. This newsletter is sponsored in part by B2M Solutions

Market watcher 451 Research reported on January 6 that IoT-related mergers and acquisitions were north of $14 billion in 2014 as more than 60 companies were snapped up by Google, Samsung, Intel, Cisco, Qualcomm and others. The spending spree represented an eight-fold increase in IoT-related mergers and acquisitions over the previous year, 451 Research estimates. Read Original Content

By 2017 Samsung Electronics co-CEO Boo-Keun Yoon has said 90 percent of Samsung products will be IoT devices, and the company will hit 100 percent within five years, according to GigaOM. Read Original Content

The China Smart Meter Industry Report says the advancing smart grid construction in China spurred the constant growth of smart meter demand. By the end of 2013, 370 million smart meters had been accumulatively installed in China, and the figure is expected to hit 500 million in 2015. Read Original Content

A new report forecasts global revenue from smart meters will increase over the next decade from $5.1 billion in 2014 to $6.6 billion in 2023. The data from Navigant Research examined the worldwide market opportunities for smart electric meters. Read Original Content

By 2024 there will be an installed base of nearly 1.1 billion smart residential meters worldwide, or 57 percent market penetration according to a new dataset published by Northeast Group, LLC. Read Original Content

In Europe where a European Union directive requires 80 percent of households to have smart meters installed by 2020, penetration stood at 22 percent at end-2013 and is expected to rise to 60 percent by 2019, according to a Berg Insight report. Read Original Content

Latest Articles on http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com

Kevin Benedict Interviews Corning Inc.'s Digital Transformation Expert Grace Alcivar
An Interview with World Traveler and BI Expert Mico Yuk
Robotics and Business Process Services - The Interview
Interview with Digital Marketing Expert Will Reese
The State of Mobile Enterprise Collaboration: Challenges and Opportunities
Is Email Destroying Productivity? Hear from Expert Jack C. Crawford
Kevin Benedict Interviews Social Media Expert Gerry Moran
Kevin Benedict Interviews Digital Transformation Expert Ved Sen

Whitepapers of Note

Don't Get SMACked - How Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud are Reshaping the Enterprise
Making BYOD Work for Your Organization

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

The Internet of My Things and How It Works

IoT MyThings

In this article, my ever brilliant friend and colleague, Ved Sen, shares what the IoT (Internet of Things) is really about and the processes, technologies, systems and strategies behind it.
***

So there’s been all this talk about the Internet of Things. What the heck is it? You may well be cautious. Especially since it’s currently perched at the peak of the Gartner Hype curve for 2014.

So I started thinking about this by listing all the ‘things’ I interact with. From my house & home to the trains I take and from the clothes I wear to the hotel room I might live in on my travel. Obviously you can get many levels in the hierarchy. The home is a complex construct, and comprises many sub-things. Example – rooms, walls, plumbing. Some of these, such as ‘heating’ may have further sub-components – radiators, boilers, etc. The resultant picture looks something like this, at a very high level. Of course, this is hugely inadequate for detail, but you get the conceptual model.

Then I started thinking about an appropriately benign and traditionally less intelligent ‘thing’ – like a window. Everybody has windows at home and they affect our everyday lives. They have states (open/ shut), based on the environment and conditions. For example we associate safety, air-conditioning and sunlight with windows being open or closed, and based on the weather, time of day, etc. So I drew this table of the different emotions and feelings we derive, the specific benefits they deliver, the activity or state associated with this and the conditions under which these states need to be enabled.

IoT State and Benefits

At this point, I came to an important realisation. Products can be smart and controllable, they can even react to the environment, all without the help of the internet. For example, we have some Velux(TM) windows on the skylights. These windows come with a remote control, they can be opened and closed and they can also react to weather conditions and close if left open when it starts to rain. So they are actually smart, in some way, and possess the capability to communicate. They’re just not on the internet. The challenge of this model is that my ability to control these outcomes is limited to the pre-set automations and my being in close proximity – i.e. at home. (Disclaimer: I’m obviously referring to the specific models we have installed. Velux does not have any IOT proclamations on it’s website, but this is not to say that they don’t have or are planning to launch models that come with their own smartphone apps, which allow control of windows from anywhere.)

This excellent article by Michael Porter & James Heppelman posits that all products in future should have:

Mechanical/ electrical components
Software components
Communication components

These three collectively make products smarter and ultimately evolve to product systems (e.g. home security) and then to a ‘system of systems’ model (e.g. connected homes) – which spans an entire problem domain, according to the authors.

The kind of activities that we can perform on smart products evolves from monitoring, to control, optimisation and then to autonomy. Ultimately this leads, according to the authors, to improved competitive performance via operational efficiencies and strategic positioning choices. Often, forcing the question ‘What business are we in?’

So for example the Velux windows we have installed, have a rain sensor, which allows them to automatically close if it starts to rain, they don’t have a sun-sensor, which allows them to re-open when the sun comes out again. Of course, I may not want them to open just because the sun is out. So it needs my intervention. I can only do this from home, currently, which is a constraint. Putting the Velux windows to one side, for all my windows, I would also like to be reminded if ground floor windows are left open at night or when I’m away. If I had pollen allergies, I would probably like to be alerted if the pollen count is too high, or have the windows close. I would like to be able to open all multiple windows or close them, even if I’m not at home, based on weather conditions.

So you see, we have a need for state information (monitoring) as well as control. I might even have settings for ‘sunny day’ which applies a set of commands to all windows. This is the optimisation that the article above refers to. These control should extend to blinds (effectively these are a part of my window settings). This is where we consider windows as a product system, whereas currently, we tend to have completely different suppliers for these 2 products (windows and curtains/blinds). Any maker of smart windows must therefore consider blinds and curtains as a part of their product system.
Now, considering any smart and connected product, we could argue that they have sensors, which generate data, which are used by apps, which enable access and control of the product, and provide additional functions that ultimately deliver a benefit. The sensors are obviously on-board the device/ product. But the data generated could be anywhere, typically on a cloud, so that the apps and the access can take place through any connected control point (such as a mobile phone).

IoT Data Access Function Layers

This is where the internet of things really kicks in. In my previous example of the Velux window models which we have installed, the data, access, applications and controls all sit within a closed system involving the window and the remote control. You could argue therefore that a true IoT model requires a cloud based data and access model and an ability to use the data and control/ monitor the product from any device and application that is authorised.

Of course, everybody looking at the Internet of things should bear in mind Bruce Sterling’s SPIME model (derived from space + time). According to Sterling, the SPIME object has 6 facets:

identification
location
data mining
computer aided design & construction
prototyping
lifecycle management

Using these, we can track the history of any object from concept to grave.

Stepping back a bit, the Internet of Things seems like a catch-all neologism to encapsulate a number of related concepts. It involves:

smart and connected products
multiple types of open and closed networks
robotics
cloud based access
decision analytics
functions ranging from monitoring, control and optimisation

It can also involve single products or groups of products. Many smart products today are autonomously capable of performing advanced functions which have nothing to do with the internet of anything. The Roomba vacuum cleaner is a great example of an exceptional product that doesn’t really need to connect to the Internet.

Most individual products also tend to ignore or be indifferent to the network effect, which kicks in when we consider multiple elements in the same network. For example, my windows may be rain-sensitive, but I might have other devices, products and appliances at home which may be influenced by the occurrence of rain. Does each product need to have it’s own rain sensor? In my IOT wish list, my smart windows can communicate to other appliances at home. So for example, the washing machine can run an extra spin cycle when it rains, so clothes dry in the same time, and conversely when it’s sunny, it can reduce the spin cycle to conserve energy. For this to happen, I need a network standard for my connected home network that multiple devices can connect to (i.e. my window can ‘talk’ to my washing machine). A problem that the DLNA among many others, has been seeking to solve for years.

The true value of the IoT thus seems to become clearer when we step into the details and away from buzzwords. Much like anything else really! And the winners as always will be those businesses which are able to truly focus on:

design thinking
benefits
elegance of use
great experiences
excellent engineering

Companies who will be bold enough to rethink their business models and honestly answer the question ‘what business are we in?’ – allowing them to move from selling a product to delivering a composite service which may include a physical product. It might even mean changing the commercial model where the product is only ‘leased’ to the consumer who actually buys the service rather than acquires an asset.

Meanwhile I will dream about smart, connected windows which can deliver safety, sunshine, comfort to my home. As far as consumers are concerned, the I in IoT should really stand for ‘invisible technology’.

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Senior Analyst

Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

Silicon Valley Series: Digital Precision with IIoT, Analytics, AI and Digital Transformation

Analyst Kevin Benedict Interviews OSIsoft's Sam Lakkundi on Industrial IoT Platforms

The Day Big Data Analytics Died

Interview: Robots, Digital Transformation and Intelligent Process Automation

Monitoring an Ear of Corn with an IoT Sensor?

Top 11 Articles on IoT, Mobility, Code Halos and Digital Transformation Strategies

Mobile Apps, Blind Spots, Tomatoes and IoT Sensors

Sensors - Sensing and Sharing the Physical World

IoT Sensors, Tactile Feedback, iPhones and Digital Transformation

The Library of Kevin Benedict's MWC15 and Chennai Videos

IoT and Sensors from AMS at MWC15

Managing and Cultivating Mobile and Digital Transformation

IoT Sensors Extend Our Physical Senses Beyond Our Physical Reach

Kevin Benedict's Connected Globe News Weekly – Week of January 11, 2015

The Internet of My Things and How It Works

Interviews with Kevin Benedict

Get new posts by email: