“The past several years have seen rapid growth in Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and they’re only poised to grow faster in the near future. With 7 billion IoT devices worldwide in 2018, the figure is expected to more than triple to 22 billion by 2025.”
I recently took trip to the San Francisco Bay area and attended IoT World 2019. I was able to get a good look at some of the key development areas, currently implemented solutions, and the challenges that exist. There were representatives from a variety of industries showcasing how they were using IoT to solve problems in their fields. Here are some highlights from a few areas.
Maintenance and Reliability
I was able to ask a lot more targeted questions in this area due to my experience here and most of the company reps were not really familiar with specific hardware implementations. They were primary focused on the software and API. This would be how the specific hardware sensor transmits the data, how that data is processed, and then presented to the company. IBM had the best demonstration in this area utilizing a 6-axis robotic arm that was equipped with torque and machine vision sensors. They could detect whether the equipment was getting in a bind somewhere and inspect the parts it was assembling for quality assurance. This data was transmitted to an interface that alarmed, wrote work orders, and shut down the equipment at various limits. The data could either be on the companies cloud, a third party’s cloud, or on the company servers.
The coolest part of talking with them was when they explored the idea of having the maintenance workers using a Google Glass type device to present instructions to the worker, tell them what order to take things apart depending on what it sensed wrong, and even be able to call a support engineer who could log in to see the same thing a worker was. This could be the key to maintaining a productive workforce as the number of skilled laborers becomes scarce. This interface could also have detailed drawings with an exploded view, interact with a storeroom to indicate if the parts are there or not, and possibly have infrared or other smart augmented reality interface with various sensors in a industrial environment. The possibilities are endless here and can be an awesome solution for removing the burdensome paper trail in a maintenance process. Work verification and work order completion can be as simple as the software verifying the task was performed via machine vision in the glasses and having the worker leave voice notes. No more paperwork and finger pointing if something goes wrong. A simple video of how this could work is shown here: Augmented Reality Maintenance
Healthcare
I attended a workshop presented by Brian Lubel of Integron. It was titled “IoT in Connected Health: Bringing the best technologies to life”. Some of the major roadblocks preventing implementation of this technology were the initial cost of the hardware needed and the security/privacy of the data on these networks. The rest of these reasons are shown in the picture.
The workshop then went through the stages needed to implement an IoT solution in the field and explored its use in drug delivery, specifically delivering various drugs worldwide. This supply chain relied on keeping the prescription drugs and vaccines below 8 degrees Celsius (cold chain). This proved particularly challenging when the drug can go from a truck to a cargo ship, plane, or even the floor of a stockroom somewhere. How could they monitor the temperature 24/7 and be able to fix any potential problems before the drugs became damaged goods? An IoT solution would be a perfect fit if it could be implemented and allow continuous monitoring. Some of the challenges faced are having the right networks in place in some of the lesser developed countries. Right now they know when the drugs are not kept at the temperatures at some point in the supply chain via a monitor inside of the packages, but with an IoT solution they would be able to pinpoint the exact point it became compromised and address the issue.
This provides amazing value for these companies. In 2017 , half of all new FDA approvals were cold chain drugs. If this trend continues, an IoT solution in this industry will be even more important.
Another interesting health area where IoT is being introduced is in patient monitoring. Insurance companies are exploring the idea of specific patches that detect whether a patient has taken his or her specific drug. This can be beneficial to maintain support to the patient and ensure they are following the guidelines given for the drug. I could see this also being used for family members or other caretakers supporting patients. They could get an alert when a patient was stopping medication and take action before an incident occurs. This could also be used to cut down on the black market selling certain prescriptions and overdosing. The sensors would be able to track the precise amount of the drug taken. The key challenges here would be getting patients consent, being able to maintain their privacy of the data, and having the right networks/hardware in place to transmit the patient data. There are many possible areas to implement IoT solutions in the healthcare sector, but privacy will likely be a major concern as the discussion of how much data we allow companies to use and protect heats up.
Safety and Security
I stopped by the Itron booth and explored a few different areas they were working in. One of them was Safety and Security. The main solutions being piloted that the rep talked about were acoustic sensors in street lights for gunshot detection. These were being piloted in Tampa and Chicago. They could detect certain acoustic signatures and be able to triangulate the shooters position and alert the authorities. They could be used with cameras to begin recording in that area and provide live feeds to nearby officers. This was an awesome solution for security in urban areas and for use at high profile events.
We discussed potentially using these for things other than gunshots such as outside of bars listening for broken glass, or people screaming for help. I am looking forward to seeing the results of the pilot. This solution was able to be utilized with the current street lights and minimal modifications were needed.
One other safety aspect being demonstrated at the booth was the use of synthetic environments for use in earthquakes or other natural disasters. They created a synthetic environment of the people and vehicles in that area and were able to simulate how they would react when presented with certain disasters. I could see this being used for emergency services to adequately disaster plan for different scenarios and times of day. Building accurate models will be key for using these synthetic environments effectively.
Outside of safety, these synthetic environments were currently being used by AT&T to model how their customers react to certain ad campaigns. The key here is to have adequate customer data that realistically predicts how your customers will react. They were using historical data and customer profiles to build this model.
