Ivee: helping seniors “age in place” through Internet of Things

Posted on 28th May 2014 in aging, home automation, Internet of Things, seniors, SmartAging

I’m still not certain I buy the oft-expressed view that seniors are inherently anti-tech (I’ve seen too many of them at various Apple Stores buying iPads so they can do FaceTime with the grandchildren…), but it’s true that, as you get older, you’re less likely to want to squint at tiny displays, or tap tiny virtual keys, etc. And, truth to tell, if you can simply give a voice command to do something you’d otherwise have to do manually, who wouldn’t choose the easy way out (hey, I know I’m late to the game, but I’m just starting to use Siri to dictate texts).

iveecover iveeThat’s why I think the voice-activated assistant ivee can be a wonderful tool to help seniors age in place, by serving as the easy-to-use access point for a growing array of smart home devices, including hubs, thermostats, and, soon, locks and lights (including the Phillips Hue — why shouldn’t seniors be able to pick from 6 million different combinations of light colors???) from a variety of vendors that can control various home functions — and, BTW, some of those devices can also let nervous adult children know you’re OK.

ivee will work with both open and proprietary communications standards.

ivee meets one of my acid tests for IoT devices for seniors, in that “she” doesn’t give off any kind of sterile home nursing vibe that would stigmatize users — when she isn’t following your every wish and command she serves as an attractive clock. But speak to her from 10-15′ away, and she’ll:

  • adjust the temperature
  • turn on the lights
  • tell you stock prices
  • tune your radio
  • tell you the weather.

Interestingly, Interactive Voice, ivee’s parent company, doesn’t mention the senior market anywhere on its site, but I think it could be the killer device for seniors who want to stay in their home.

Whether or not your Mom and Dad are tech averse, why not get an ivee to control your own smart home devices, and then let them ask you how the heck that thing works — it won’t be long until they’ll ask for one of their own, and you’ll have launched them on the road toward safely and easily controlling their home — and aging safely in place.

 

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The Interactive IoT Strategy Guide for C-level Execs I Wrote for SAP Is Live!

Posted on 20th May 2014 in Internet of Things, M2M, management, manufacturing, marketing, retail, strategy

I’m very excited today, because “Managing the Internet of Things Revolution, I Guide Presented by SAP ,” the interactive guide to Internet of Things (IoT) strategy that I wrote (with astute editing from SAP’s Mahira Kalim!) is live!

"Managing the Internet of Things Revolution"

“Managing the Internet of Things Revolution”

It is aimed at C-level executives who will determine IoT strategy, and I’d really appreciate it if you’d pass the word to anyone you know in that category!

I think the guide’s most noteworthy aspect is that it doesn’t just dwell on the amazing transformations companies can achieve when the IoT is fully realized, but also places particular emphasis on IoT benefits companies can realize today, building on investments they have already made in transactional technology, to optimize their current operations:

  • add sensors to equipment and things to report their status in real-time, improving understanding of products’ performance and how they are used.
  • adopt predictive analytics, which will allow real-time decision making by combining data about things’ current state with past data such as sales, to optimize supply-chains, pinpoint demand predictions, and improve maintenance.
  • adopt big-data tools & cloud computing to manage the IoT’s quantum increases in data.
  • improve decision-making, by giving everyone who needs it real-time data.

It mentions my favorite old-school IoT early adopter, the Union Pacific Railroad, which has achieved 75% reductions in bearing-related derailments by placing sensors every 20 miles along its railbed, and has big plans to put sensors on every wheel once their price and size meet the “smart dust” goal.

The guide also looks to the future, when global implementation of the IoT will allow total transformation of companies. The benefits will include:

  • new revenues, from leasing of devices that includes giving customers real-time data to optimize performance.
  • delighting customers with products designed based on knowledge of how customers actually use them and rapidly refined based on data from the field.
  • creating synergistic partnerships between companies based on shared data.

SAP, I should emphasize, is a great partner for IoT initiatives. It delivers end-to-end real, repeatable, and scalable solutions for the IoT: connecting remote devices securely, integrating IoT data into business processes, and analyzing the resulting big data to generate actionable insights and optimize business in real-time. Here’s an eye-popping stat about them: SAP systems run 60% of the world’s GDP!

I hope you’ll enjoy the guide, and that you’ll pass it along. The print version was much longer than what the design firm was able to squeeze into the interactive version, so I’ll be releasing more of that in the blog in the near future!

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Now for Something Completely Different: launching my 2nd career, in voice-overs!

Posted on 16th May 2014 in voice-overs

Ever since I acted with arch-spy Aldrich Ames (how’s that for a piece of trivia?) in the McLean High production of Richard III when I was in 8th grade (people couldn’t believe such a big resonant voice was coming from such a pipsqueak!), people have complimented me on my speaking voice.

More recently, my wife and others have told me I really should do voice-overs, so I broke down and got some great training from Jordan Rich of Chart Productions, and today I’m officially launching my second career, as a voice-over artist.

As these samples will hopefully demonstrate, my forte is scripts where you need a real voice of authority: deep, resonant, and re-assuring. In particular, given my reputation as a leading thinker in technology issues such as the Internet of Things, open data, and mobile strategy, I’m ideal for technology promotions where it’s important to have someone who can not only read the words, but understands the concepts.

 

 

 

I’m also a passionate history buff, so I’d be ideal to voice your documentary: with authority and a tone that makes the past come alive.

And let’s not forget commercials: I can bring humor and a twinkle in my voice to your ad.

If you know a producer or director, I’d appreciate it if you’d pass the word! I’m open and ready to do business!

 

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Internet of Things critical to attack global warming

Posted on 16th May 2014 in cities, energy, environmental, government, home automation, Internet of Things, transportation

I haven’t understood for a long time why there isn’t universal support for serious — and creative — measures to reduce global warming.

I first did a speech on the subject in 1996, and suspect it’s because — wrongly — people confuse energy efficiency with sacrifice, when in fact it’s just using creativity and technology to reduce waste and inefficiency. Who, especially those who style themselves as “conservatives,” could be opposed to that (although recent polls show those Tea Party types just won’t look at the facts..)?

At any rate, as far as I’m concerned, debate on this issue and toleration of “deniers” is no longer an option — we must act, and act NOW — because of the reports by two esteemed scientific panels this week that even if we DO act, catastrophic melting of part of the Antarctic may already be irreversible, ultimately raising ocean levels by 10′ — or more:

“A large section of the mighty West Antarctica ice sheet has begun falling apart and its continued melting now appears to be unstoppable, two groups of scientists reported on Monday. If the findings hold up, they suggest that the melting could destabilize neighboring parts of the ice sheet and a rise in sea level of 10 feet or more may be unavoidable in coming centuries.”

(Aside to Senator Rubio: perhaps scuba expeditions around the former Miami may be a big tourist draw after the apocalypse …).

The Internet of Things can and must play a critical role in such a strategy.

The Environmental Defense Fund’s smart grid initiative, especially its demonstration program in Austin, TX, shows the promise for integrated, large scale programs to turn the electricity system into a truly integrated one where customers will be full partners in demand-side management AND in generation, through small-scale, distributed production from sources such as solar and wind.

Smart AC modlet

But each of us can and must act individually to reduce our carbon footprints, which brings me to a neat device from Thinkeco, the SmartA/C “modlet.” It plugs into the wall socket where you plug in your window-mounted A/C unit, then the A/C plugs into the modelet.

You create a schedule to automatically turn your A/C on and off to save energy. The thermostat also senses the room temp and turns your A/C on and off to maintain a temperature around your set point.  And, rather than keep the A/C on all day when you’re at work just so the apartment will be cool when you get home, you can regulate the temperature from the smartphone app, turning it down before you leave the office.

Several utilities, including Con Ed in NYC, now provide the units to their customers, and they can really make a difference: in New York City alone, there are 6.5 million room air conditioners, which account for up to 2,500 megawatts of demand, or 20 percent of peak demand in the city.  What could be better: an apartment that’s cool when you need it, lower utility bills, and a reduction in greenhouse gases?

Or, there’s Automatic, which plugs into your car’s diagnostic port, and, through Bluetooth, sends you “subtle audio clues” (evidently “SLOW DOWN, IDIOT” doesn’t modify behavior) when it senses you’re accelerating or braking too rapidly or speeding. It also compiles a weekly overall score for your driving — the higher the score, the more economically you’re driving. Hopefully, you’ll modify your driving behavior, save gas money, and reduce emissions (Automatic also has some nice additional features, such as automatically notifying emergency officials if you crash).

I’m a grandfather, and I’m sick about the world that we’re leaving our grandchildren. Let’s all resolve, whether through IoT technology or personal habit change, to tread lightly on the earth and reduce our carbon footprint. It’s no longer a choice.

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Failure to inspect oil rigs another argument for “real-time regulation”

Posted on 12th May 2014 in environmental, government, health, Internet of Things, maintenance, management, real-time regulation

The news that the Bureau of Land Management has failed to inspect thousands of fracking and other oil wells considered at high risk for contaminating water is Exhibit A for my argument we need Intnet of Things-based “real-time regulation” for a variety of risky regulated businesses.

According to a new GAO report obtained by AP:

“Investigators said weak control by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management resulted from policies based on outdated science and from incomplete monitoring data….

“The audit also said the BLM did not coordinate effectively with state regulators in New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Utah.”

Let’s face it: a regulatory scheme based on after-the-fact self-reporting by the companies themselves backed up by infrequent site visits by an inadequate number of inspectors will never adequately protect the public and the environment.  In this case, the GAO said that “…. the BLM had failed to conduct inspections on more than 2,100 of the 3,702 wells that it had specified as ‘high priority’ and drilled from 2009 through 2012. The agency considers a well ‘high priority’ based on a greater need to protect against possible water contamination and other environmental safety issues.”

By contrast, requiring that oil rigs and a range of other technology-based products, from jet engines to oil pipelines, have sensors attached (or, over time, built in) that would send real-time data to the companies should allow them to spot incipient problems at their earliest stages, in time to schedule early maintenance that would both reduce maintenance costs and reduce or even eliminate catastrophic failures. As I said before, this should be a win-win solution.

If problems still persisted after the companies had access to this real-time data, then more draconian steps could be required, such as also giving state and federal regulators real-time access to the same data — something that would be easy to do with IoT-based systems. There would have to be tight restrictions on access to the data that would protect proprietary corporate information, but companies that are chronic offenders would forfeit some of those protections to protect the public interest.

 

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It’s Time for IoT-enabled “Real-Time” Regulation

Posted on 7th May 2014 in automotive, environmental, government, Internet of Things, M2M, maintenance, management, manufacturing, real-time regulation, transportation, US government

Pardon me, but I still take the increasingly-unfashionable view that we need strong, activist government, to protect the weak and foster the public interest.

That’s why I’m really passionate about the concept (for what it’s worth, I believe I’m the first to propose this approach)  that we need Internet of Things enabled “real-time regulation” that wouldn’t rely on scaring companies into good behavior through the indirect means of threatening big fines for violations, but could actually minimize, or even avoid, incidents from ever happening, while simultaneously improving companies’ operating efficiency and reducing costly repairs. I wrote about the concept in today’s O’Reilly SOLID blog — and I’m going to crusade to make the concept a reality!

I first wrote about “real-time” regulation before I was really involved in the IoT: right after the BP Gulf blow-out, when I suggested that:

The .. approach would allow officials to monitor in real time every part of an oil rig’s safety system. Such surveillance could have revealed the faulty battery in the BP rig’s blowout preventer and other problems that contributed to the rig’s failure. A procedure could have been in place to allow regulators to automatically shut down the rig when it failed the pressure test rather than leaving that decision to BP.”

Since then I’ve modified my position about regulators’ necessarily having first-hand access to the real-time data, realizing that any company with half a brain would realize as soon as they saw data that there might be a problem developing (as opposed to having happened, which is what was too often the case in the past..) would take the initiative to shut down the operation ASAP to make a repair, saving itself the higher cost of dealing with a catastrophic failure.

As far as I’m concerned, “real-time regulation” is a win-win:

  • by installing the sensors and monitoring them all the time (typically, only the exceptions to the norm would be reported, to reduce data processing and required attention to the data) the company would be able to optimize production and distribution all the time (see my piece on “precision manufacturing“).
  • repair costs would be lower: “predictive maintenance” based on real-time information on equipment’s status is cheaper than emergency repairs.
  • the public interest would be protected, because many situations that have resulted in disasters in the past would instead be avoided, or at least minimized.
  • the cost of regulation would be reduced while its effectiveness would be increased: at present, we must rely on insufficient numbers of inspectors who make infrequent visits: catching a violation is largely a matter of luck. Instead, the inspectors could monitor the real-time data and intervene instantly– hopefully in time to avoid an incident.

Even though the IoT is not fully realized (Cisco says only 4% of “things” are linked at present), that’s not the case with the kind of high-stakes operation we’re most concerned with.  GE now builds about 60 sensors into every jet, realizing new revenues by proving the real-time data to customers, while being able to improve design and maintenance by knowing exactly what’s happening right now to the engines.  Union Pacific has cut dangerous and costly derailments due to bearing failures by 75% by placing sensors along the trackbed.

As I said in the SOLID post, it’s time that government begin exploring the “real-time regulation” alternative.  I’m contacting the tech-savvy Mass. delegation, esp. Senators Markey and Warren, and will report back on my progress toward making it a reality!

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New #IoT Health Paradigm: Partnership Between Doctor and Patient

Posted on 5th May 2014 in collaboration, health, Internet of Things, Quantified Self, seniors, wearables

With all the Internet of Things emphasis on making “dumb” things “smart,” we shouldn’t ignore how it will make all of us smarter as well.

Nowhere will that be as important as in healthcare, where I believe it will produce a dramatic paradigm shift in which patients will become empowered and will be full partners in their care, improving health, and cutting costs. Today’s post follows up on one I wrote recently focusing on seniors’ health care, which I believe will dramatically improve due to the IoT.

I was provoked to write by the annual report from the Partners (appropriately enough….) Health Center for Connected Health (full disclosure: my wife directs the women’s physical therapy program @ Brigham & Women’s Hospital, part of Partners, although her particular service isn’t working with the Center), which reports on a wide range of initiatives to address key issues such as reducing re-admissions, improving access to care, and helping with the transition from hospital to home.

IMHO, there’s an inevitability to this shift, because the current health care system is unsustainable, at least in the US. Costs are too high, many physicians will retire in the next decade, and the number of seniors is increasing dramatically. Oh, yea: we ain’t getting what we’re paying for either: our health is lousy compared to other nations.

But something amazing happens when people start to track and report their own health indicators, either on their own or as part of the fast-growing Quantified Self movement. As Dr. Joe Kvedar, founder and director of the Center  for Connected Health, says, “People can and do take very good care of themselves when you give them the tools to do so.”

We’ve got the essential tool for this transition right in our hands: the Center for Connected Health has found that 70% of patients in one of Partners’ community health centers have smartphones.

The apps  — there are now more than 100,000 health care ones! — and related devices such as Fitbits, Nike Fuels or Jawbone UPs to monitor health via smartphones still aren’t fully accurate, but they’re still valuable because they do accurately demonstrate personal activity trends, so you can compare your activity from day to day.

And they do change behavior:

“Can trackers really change behavior in people? Last year, Dr. Rajani Larocca, a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, conducted a six-week lifestyle program for 10 patients with diabetes ages 50 to 70 that included weekly sessions to encourage exercise and healthful eating; each participant also was outfitted with a Fitbit Zip tracker.

“‘Every single person increased their activity,’ Dr. Larocca said. ‘People felt more knowledgeable.’ Eight months later, about half the patients from the group still wear a tracker.

“Researchers at the Center for Connected Health in Boston have been giving activity trackers to subjects for six to nine months, then studying changes in their behavior. Dr. Kamal Jethwani, head of research at the center, said he saw three distinct groups of people among study participants.

“About 10 percent are ‘quantified selfers’ with an affinity for this kind of feedback; just by looking at the numbers, they are motivated to be more active. An additional 20 percent to 30 percent need some encouragement in addition to tracker data to effectively change their behavior.

“But most of the subjects observed by Dr. Jethwani don’t understand the data and need help making sense of it. For them, he said, social motivation from a friend or joining a team or workplace challenge may be more effective.”

As I wrote in my post about seniors’ health care, as soon as we have effective mechanisms to feed the data to doctors the quality of care will improve. It’s like with so many inanimate things whose real-time status we’re able to really observe for the first time with the IoT: doctors will no longer have to rely on our self-reporting (“um, I think that about two months ago I felt out of breath a lot”) or the measurement of vital signs in the artificial setting of a doctor’s office. Instead, they’ll have access to longitudinal data about how you actually live (in fact, Partners introduced a system last year that allows people to electronically upload data to their medical records gathered from devices such as glucometers, blood pressure cuffs, bathroom scales, and pulse oximeters.

It’s a bright — and healthy — new day!

Gotta go now: my Jawbone UP tells me I’ve got to walk to CVS and the post office to meet my 10,000 steps per day target….

PS: If you’re ready to test the waters, check out the Center’s Wellocracy.com site to learn about self-monitoring devices and how to use them!

 

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