Just finished a delightful interview with three Echelon staffers for a forthcoming piece on its blog about my prognostications for the Industrial Internet of Things (AKA “Industrial Internet” ien GE-marketing speak). They’ve been around in this field since the dark ages — 1988, and are now focusing on industrial applications.
My main point to them was the one I made in the SAP “Managing the Internet of Things Revolution” e-guide, that even though the IoT hasn’t realized its full potential yet, that smart companies would begin creating and executing an IoT strategy now, “to connect their existing infrastructure and enhance key foundational IoT technologies,” optimizing their operating efficiency. Then they could build on that experience to make more fundamental transformations.
We touched 0n several other examples how the IoT could increase operating efficiency or make fundamental transformations:
- If something as 19th-century as railroads could make the IoT transformation, then anyone can! Cases in point: the Union Pacific’s network of sensors to catch and repair railcar “hot boxes” before they could catch fire and/or cause a derailment, and New York Air Brake’s integrated braking system.
- How the IoT can eliminate what I call “Collective Blindness,” in this case, our inability to communicate with the youngest among us, newborns. Examples? The IBM/Toronto Hospital for Sick Children project that allows doctors to intervene a full day before there is any visible sign of infection in the sickest newborns, or Echelon’s technology to avoid infant swaps.
- how “IFTTT thinking”— throwing open your APIs to allow crowd-sourcing of new ways to use IoT devices might be applicable to corporate operations.
At any rate, a fun time was had by all, and I’ll let you know when their blog post is up!
