Humanity has come a long way from the invention of the first monolithic computer, to 1.5 billion personal computing (PC) devices, to 8 billion smart phones (SP) in hands of 2.7 billion people, covering ~35% of world’s 7.7 billion population (source: SP, PC). Computing like any great invention (think wheel) has brought in the benefits of doing daily human tasks quickly, effortlessly and with consistent quality.
But have the benefits of computing, truly reached every human being? Surely a big NO in the developing world where penetration is still limited due to multiple reasons. But even in a developed nation, is it helping everyone across their everyday chores? Some would say yes, as we are able to get more stuff done – example - shopping, learning and communicating, in new ways which were impossible few years earlier. But, what if you didn’t know how to operate a smartphone or PC?, what if your work wasn’t amenable to use of smartphone (e.g. working with fast moving industrial machinery)?, or you simply couldn’t afford one of those smarter devices (yes, Japan has 51%, US/UK has 70% SP penetration - source)? For all of those people, computing will only increase the digital divide, unless the intelligence it provides gets embedded in the everyday things (e.g. watches, industrial machinery, even clothes) and those things are able to magically interact with them through more human ways i.e. speech, vision or hearing.
Things have slowly started to change primarily due to three reasons - a) exponentially decreasing cost of computing, especially w/ advent of Microcontroller units or MCU’s [in simple words they are low cost, low power computers integrated on a single chip that connect to network – go deeper here], b) combined with low cost sensors or actuators that can read the surrounding for situational awareness and c) more pervasive connectivity, which is going to get a further boost over the coming years, by 5G roll-out & standardization of Low power wide area network (LPWAN) protocols (IoT connectivity options).
These MCU’s are getting embedded into everyday products from speakers, to thermostats, to refrigerators, to vehicles, to industrial machinery, making those things more aware of surroundings, increasingly intelligent day-by-day, as well as ready to interact with humans in more natural ways of speaking, vision and hearing. That’s where computing has tried to take a giant leap and come meet humanity where it is every day through advent of IoT (Internet of Things). IoT at its fundamental level, has extended the paradigm of internet (restricted to humans via smart phones/PC’s) into everyday used things, creating a backend nervous system that extends the computing capability of these menial things (MCU based) multifold. When combined with other complementing technologies of edge & cloud computing as well as natural language processing, IoT has immense potential to bridge the gap between computing and humanity as we know it today. IoT is bringing computing to our services through everyday things, increasing their intelligence as well as situational awareness, at a fraction of the cost and ready to interact with us in more natural ways (speech, vision, gestures).
On the business side, these benefits are translating into higher operational efficiency, high quality output in lesser time, as well as new possible business models (e.g. as-a-service). Manufacturing (example), Retail, Agriculture (use-cases), Transportation and Government are just a few key industries that have started seeing the operational benefits of this technology, extending to everyday used things. Some commonly repeating use-cases include - real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance and business process automation. Examples of more disruptive changes include taxi-as-a-service & autonomous vehicles (transportation) and Amazon’s checkout-free stores (Retail).
But wait a minute… are we saying that we intend to connect every possible thing in this world to internet? While IoT (at least theoretically) does give us a technical capability to do so, I would say we don’t need to go that far. This is still one area open for interpretation. My personal stand – I don’t need connected devices in my home unless its advantages, far exceed the associated challenges/risks .. why? A home security camera is a good example, it can help monitor the home 24/7 and trigger notifications based on any suspicious activity. It’s very helpful provided it has all checks and balances in place, such that an intruder cannot hack into it and use it against the purpose it was installed in the first place, thus turning the security camera as a security hazard.
As is very well known that a good technology is identical to magic, but it’s equally well-known that every technology has the other side, the darker side, which can turn its potential on its head, as we saw in the security camera example above. The world today is thronged with stories of compromised cameras and even something as innocuous looking as fish tank thermostats causing havoc, for humans and by humans with wrong intentions. So, If the thought of getting everything IoT-ed around makes you feel creepy, join the gang 😊. Hence, we need to approach this with extra caution and security, collectively as device creators, software developers, connectivity providers, lawmakers and customers. I will go deeper on the topic separately (stay tuned..), but for now let’s be aware of the yin-yang that comes with every technology, so that we approach it with a balance of caution and zeal.
In summary, IoT has provided a framework to extend the benefits of technology to ultimate scale, in an economically viable manner through use of remote computing power (still lying underutilized in many cases) and sharing of intelligence with other smart things in the network creating an intelligent network inclusive of things & humans. This has accelerated the process of bridging the gap between computing and humanity at the final frontier and making computing truly ubiquitous.
Originally published on my LinkedIn blogs: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iot-internet-things-bridging-gap-between-humanity-computing-bawa/
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments, Suggestion or thoughts are most welcome !