I’ve yet to find a video introducing the Internet of Things to lay audiences that wasn’t a thinly-veiled ad for Cisco, IBM or GE. I’ve worked with the folks @ Medfield.TV to produce an easy-to-understand intro to the IoT that hopefully will not only build understanding among the general public, but also create a sense of enthusiasm about the changes it will bring. Let me know your reaction!
#IoT saving the Amazon
As a passionate environmentalist who’s always looking for economical win-win solutions to thorny environmental issues, this one caught my eye!
Chris Rezendes of INEX Advisors blogged recently about a great example of the IoT making a real difference, in this case in the Amazon (disclaimer: Chris is my co-organizer for a forthcoming Meetup for IoT people in New England, and he’s built me into a number of new business proposals), where two firms, Cargo Tracck and Gemalto, teamed up to catch thieves who had switched from their former clear-cutting to more selective processes aimed at only high value trees:
“M2M modules optimized to operate in austere network and harsh physical environments in protected regions of the Amazon. Devices are attached to trees. A number of mechanisms are embedded in the devices to notify authorities when a tree from a protected/ managed region is harvested. The solution operates in near-real-time, and has back-end services that have enabled authorities to more quickly apprehend poachers, keep the contraband off the market, and provide layers and layers of economic and quality of life benefits to a number of stakeholders.”
This reminds me of the project of creating a trillion-sensor “central nervous system for the planet” including the rainforests that HP proposed several years ago as part of its CeNSE project but has not been willing to discuss recently (when I attempted to interview personnel for the project when I was writing my e-book about the IoT the company’s PR department flatly refused. Hmmm…).
One particularly interesting aspect of the program is that it uses a RED (Radiation Data Exchange) technology “that boosts effective operating ranges in austere power and network coverage environments.” As Rezendes points out, using the RED system doesn’t rely on transmitting massive amounts of real-time data, which would create headaches in terms of big data processing and also would require larger energy supplies for the sensors. Instead, it reports “short bursty data” based on exceptions to the normal data, which would indicate out-of-the-ordinary occurrences such as harvesting of one of the trees.
Here’s how it works:
“Smaller than a deck of cards, the tiny tracking device is camouflaged in a resin case made to blend in with the trunks of trees. Ten of the devices were covertly installed in remote active harvesting areas deep in the jungle. In addition, specialized night vision cameras were installed in nearby trees to capture visual evidence of illegal logging activities. The sophisticated power management system of the Cinterion module provided superior power efficiency allowing the device to operate reliably in the field for over a year without recharging batteries. When lumber gangs harvested a tagged tree, the solution immediately began sending alarms to law enforcement officials. Cargo Tracck’s leading-edge geo-location algorithms, along with the R.E.D. boosters provided unprecedented location accuracy, delivering tracking data and alarm notification to officials as soon as harvested trees passed within 20 miles of a cellular network. This allowed officials to remotely track trees and intercept and arrest thieves in the act of selling timber at sawmills, which ultimately led to quicker prosecution.”
Is that kewl, or what?
As Rezendes points out, the system is a win-win one for all of the major publics concerned with the rainforests: residents, those licensed to responsibly harvest the trees, the government — and the planet.
Perhaps an ad hoc assemblage of discrete projects such as this one in the Amazon can achieve the vision of the “central nervous system for the planet” on the cheap.
Bravo, Cargo Tracck & Gemalto!
HAPIfork: simple IoT innovation with big implications!
Examining the breadcrumbs left after CES:
One of the Internet of Things devices unveiled at CES that got a lot of attention — much of it silly, IMHO — was the HAPIfork, from HAPILABS. Never mind that the device is still somewhat primitive: you have to connect it to your computer’s USB port to upload statistics — a Bluetooth version won’t be out until later this year.
HAPIfork
It still has a serious intent: measuring the length of time between your bites, and vibrating if you shovel the food in too quickly. I’ve seen how effective this technique can be for weight control. We have a family friend who lived with us for most of a year, and he was the most deliberate eater I’ve ever met: he took plenty of time between bites and thoroughly chewed every piece of food. Bottom line? One of the most wiry bodies I’ve ever seen!
With obesity a major problem, the HAPIfork might make a real contribution to making us all more conscious, conscientious eaters, and that would be no small contribution to reducing obesity.
So let Mr. Colbert laugh: I think the HAPIfork will soon have a place in smart people’s silverware drawer!
#IoT Gets New Consortium. Huzzah!
I find it personally distressing that there’s no umbrella organization advocating for the #IoT and building public awareness of its existence. Even more, a robust association would promote contact among #IoT companies, which I’m confident would result in more synergistic apps and collaborations (one indicator of the potential? Runkeeper now has more than 100 partners through its Health Graph API for tying together different health and fitness applications, services, and devices).
That’s why I was pleased to see that 10 firms in the field announced at CES formation of The Internet of Things Consortium. Most of them are startups, although the group does include Logitech. They are focused on home automation: “The IoT Consortium is primarily focused on those Internet enabled devices and related software services that directly touch consumers in the form of home automation, entertainment, and productivity.”
Their mission is to facilitate “cooperation between hardware, software, and service providers. One of the goals of the consortium is to see billions of connected devices that benefit from communication with other devices and services.”
The big boys in the field have the IPSO Alliance, but its mandate is limited to advocating for “the Internet Protocol as the network for the connection of Smart Objects.” When will we get an umbrella organization that will advocate for the IoT as a whole?
I plan to make my own small contribution to this effort by hosting a Meetup for all Boston-area researchers and companies sometime in February. Stay tuned for details!
#IoT Award winner: Rest Devices Infant Monitor smart onsie can avoid SIDS
As a father whose infant son came home from the hospital with oxygen and a heart monitor because he’d occasionally forget to breathe (Thanks for your concern: that crisis is ended. Now our big worry is how to pay for his freshman year of college next fall….) I was most excited by the winner of the Connected Products (Body) category of Postscape’s best Internet of Things products for 2012.
The prototype (it’s unclear from the company’s website whether the monitor is actually in production) Rest Devices Peeko
Infant Monitor (the adult SleepShirt, already on the market, can help with controlling sleep apnea) “uses sensor technology to provide a constant signal of an infant’s respiration, skin temperature, and body position. And, if, for some reason, your baby stops breathing, you are alerted through your phone or tablet.” Imagine the potential reduction in number of infants’ death from SIDS if it was in widespread use.
The company, Rest Devices, has a great mission in the spirit of the Quantified Self: “We’re obsessed with making monitoring radically simple for people. Fun even.” Rest Devices is an outgrowth of all the pioneering work done at MIT on wearable computing devices.
The company’s blog says the Peeko will be in production later this year.
GE paints rosy future for “industrial internet,” its take on the IoT
GE has just released a major report, “Industrial Internet: pushing the boundaries of minds and machines,” in which it projects what it calls the “industrial internet” marrying “smart machines” and Big Data analytics could add $10 to 15 trillion — the size of the current US economy — to global GDP.
The industrial internet — which equates to GE’s own strengths, such as electrical generation and health care (surprise! surprise!) is more limited in scope than the full Internet of Things, so the numbers also indicate a bright future for the IoT as a whole (but why did they feel the need to come up with a new term rather than just trumpeting their own area of the IoT?).
Co-authors Peter C. Evans, GE’s director of global strategy and analytics, and Marco Annunziata, GE’s chief economist, write that “the deeper meshing of the digital world with the world of machines holds the potential to bring about profound transformation to global industry, and in turn to many aspects of daily life, including the way many of us do our jobs.”
The report predicts radical increases in productivity in areas in which GE has major initiatives, including health care, fuel savings and more efficient and long-lasting physical assets.
Among the highlights of the report’s findings, it predicts:
- the industrial internet could increase average U.S. incomes by 25-40% over the next 20 years.
- just a 1% increase in hospital efficiency could save $63 billion worldwide.
- similarly, a 1% reduction in jet fuel use could save $30 billion over 15 years.
- a 1% efficiency gain in gas-fired power plants worldwide could save $66 billion in fuel costs.
To achieve the savings, the authors urge companies to deploy legions of smart sensors to gather real-time data, improve cyber security, and train a new breed of “digital-mechanical” engineers.
user-based insurance: great example of IoT’s pros & cons
Today’s NYTimes has a feature on the growing phenomenon of “user-based insurance,” in which your insurance rates are based on your actual driving behavior, not the proxies that insurance companies used in the past to make up for lack of information on your real driving behavior.
I was only aware of Progressive’s Snapshot, but the article reports that Allstate and StateFarm both offer similar services (I’ve read elsewhere that the concept is more widespread in Europe).
I think user-based insurance is a great example of the tradeoffs inherent in the Internet of Things.
First, the details: a small device clamps on to the diagnostic port on your car’s dashboard. Typically, the accelerometer then records data such as miles driven, time of day (the rate of accidents increases late at night), whether you make sudden stops, etc. (at least the Progressive one, and perhaps the others, does not include GPS, to avoid concerns about having your routes tracked). On the positive side, it can result in real savings for the driver, because the company can more confident that it can predict your likelihood of being in an accident than with some of the “proxy” indicators such as age that they’ve had to rely on in the past (my favorite: your credit rating. This avoids, as the story mentions, the crime of “driving while poor.”).
On the other hand, there’s the nagging concern about what a company, or, more likely, a rogue employee, could do with your information. Part of the concern is valid: Progressive mentions that the data could be subpoenaed in case of an accident. IMHO, this is one more reason why the US government must at least consider privacy and security protections for IoT users.
There’s already an important move afoot to maximize the benefits of the plug-in devices while protecting personal privacy. MIT’s CloudCar initiative is an attempt to create an open-source monitoring device whose users would be firmly in control of who could use their driving data and how. As I wrote in my e-book on the IoT:
“One current telematics research project is noteworthy not only in its own right, but because it addresses one of the prime obstacles to the IoT: lack of global communication standards.
“The goal of the CloudCar project, initiated by MIT’s Field Intelligence Lab, is to create a universal, open standard that can be used throughout the automotive telematics industry. That’s important, because currently there is a bewildering array of communications protocols, since each of the car manufacturers and other vendors are working on proprietary projects, ranging from Ford and Microsoft’s Sync to GM’s OnStar.
“If any of the truly remarkable telematics applications, such as ones that automatically warn of impending road danger proposed by BMW on their ConnectedDrive platform, are to become a reality, a common standard is needed. As Erik J. Wilhelm of the Field Intelligence Lab says, ‘Manufacturers have no compulsion to share with other manufacturers, so there’s no opportunity for really great applications such as hyper-accurate traffic mapping which would only work if everyone is talking the same language.’
“MIT is currently self-funding the CloudCar project, which resembles Arduino in several important ways: the heart of the system is a simpler controller, now in it’s fourth generation, which would plug into the car’s diagnostic port, would be user-friendly, and would allow streaming of data from the car to a wide range of 3rd party vendors, who could use it for everything from car sharing applications to automated roadside assistance systems.
“This hardware will be open-source, and the standard underpinning the data server will also be open. The Field Intelligence Lab hopes to have about 10,000 of the units in the field by the end of 2012. The users would pay a modest fee, with the remainder of the cost to be picked up by third parties that would be able to use the data the boxes yield if drivers grant them permission. ‘Everyone needs the same data for all of these potential applications, although some need it more immediately while other need to make certain it is more accurate. Safety and security is central to our design efforts because we have to make certain cars won’t just stop in the middle of the road,’ he says. If the CloudCar standard is widely adopted, application developers could be gathering and sharing information from millions and millions of cars.
“The mindset fostered by the CloudCar project could be as valuable as the standard itself.
“ ‘Ford and GM both have announced they were opening up their proprietary products such as OnStar, but they are only giving access to big companies, not the creative commons space. If you’re all speaking the same language, everyone wins and it’s still possible to have a survival-of-the-fittest application market that mobile phone users have come to expect, only this time with many more data streams and possibilities,’ Wilhelm says.
“Wilhelm hopes that the CloudCar standard will have value beyond telematics, since other crucial segments of the IoT, such as medical reporting and home applications are also handicapped by the lack of communication standards. ‘CloudCars are nearer term, offers the most immediate gains, and faster adoption rates than these fields,” he says. “We hope to further apply our learning to CloudHome and CloudMe.’”
Aside: why don’t companies promote user-based insurance more aggressively? Progressive does run ads for it (although I don’t think most people would understand the concept from the ad), but I hadn’t seen any promotion for the Allstate and StateFarm services.
Hurricane Hackers: using digital tools to recover from Sandy
As readers of my old blog know, I’ve done a lot of work on the use of social media and mobile devices in disasters. That’s why I was pleased to see that MIT students and staff have taken the lead in Sandy response, creating Hurricane Hackers to solicit and distribute ideas on responding to this horror.
(Important note: Heather Blanchard and the good people at Crisis Commons [THE go-to-people for this issue on a continuing basis] are lending their un-matched expertise by organizing a number of Sandy Crisis Camps this weekend. Crisis Camps are a great way of brainstorming creative disaster response tools!).
#IoT: “Smart grid” could reduce damage from storms such as Sandy
NPR ran a feature this afternoon exploring the “smart grid” concept from the standpoint of being able to speed recovery of the grid following a disaster such as Sandy. While the cost would be high, that should be seen in the context of the billions that it will cost to recover from Sandy.
Optimizing care & ensuring “human touch” through robotics
(Liveblogging the Partners Center for Connected Health Symposium)
*GeriJoy virtual pet through a tablet. The patient cares for “Buddy,” avatar which helps deter dementia, “Buddy” is compassionate. Can actually provide human contact 24/7 through the avatar.
*Tom Ryden, co-founder of Vgo Communications, formerly @ iRobot. Telepresence robot: “Skype on wheels.” In health care, use to replicate old-fashioned home visit. Pilot study with Boston Children’s. Kids became more engaged in their care (like Jerry the diabetic Bear). People become attached to it, realize it represents the doctor. Kids will name it, dress it, tell them how school day went.
Timothy Bickmore, assoc. prof. @ Northeastern,. they try to use an avatar as part of tele-med project to promote habit change. “Project RAISE” — targets UV exposure and sedentary behavior. Simulates human-to-human exchanges to encourage behavior change.
