The Internet of Things

I was reading an article about technology recently and I was introduced to the term the "internet of things". I hadn't heard of this term before, and I was interested in its meaning. According to Wikipedia, the internet of things refers to the recent trend towards embedding identifiable computing devices within the infrastructure of the internet. The growing number of so-called "smart" products are just one example of this movement. Although, it could refer to something much larger like a smart power grid that uses streamlined information from suppliers and consumers to adjust and improve electricity output. It is the possibility of automating nearly every aspect of our lives through technology and the internet. According to a recent article from entrepreneur.com not all consumers would be okay with having their lives completely automated in their households. The article shows a list of some potential "smart products" and their uses and gives their desirability from a survey of consumers.

 What are some ideas for automated "smart" products that you think would be convenient?

What potential benefits could a future interconnected world provide for businesses?

What potential negative outcomes could come from the "internet of things"?

Activity Trackers

The company Jawbone, has created a new tracking device that will allow you to move more and get fit. Its the simplest way to credit your steps, exercise and the calories you have burned during, also allowing you to track your hours of sleep and quality of sleep.

The idea of creating this wearable heart rate monitor is called the UP3. It is said to be made comfortably that you will be able to wear in bed, easy to use and no need to change modes to capture the heart rate, and feed them knowledge that will better themselves when it come to making healthier choices to maintain that long-term health. With this new technology, Jawbone stands out better than any other company because they made their product do something that others couldn't. Everything comes down to how long a product can last. As a consumer you don't want to buy something that you plan on wearing throughout the day that is just going to die within a few hours. Battery life was the big factor in this creation. 

Another way the UP3 stands out is because this invention can now monitor your heart rate during activity, resting heart rate which is then broken into sub categories like long term health, energy, and metabolic efficiency, and the measure your heart rate throughout the day. whether that's based on the food you eat, if you are staying hydrated or not, if you have stress or anxiety, and lastly the amount of coffee you drink.

Creating this heart rate monitor as advanced as it is to me is very smart. The way technology is today people are becoming more lazy than how it use to be. With this wearable monitor, it is helping us develop those healthy habits for long-term heart health. For all those who aren't able to sleep at nights, the UP3 can track and determine your REM and deep sleep stages. With how advanced this world is becoming, I really hope people start taking advantages of products like these to really benefit themselves in the long run.

New Commercial Rocket Descent Data May Help NASA with Future Mars Landings

NASA has captured thermal images of a rocket launch.  This doesn't sound like much but these thermal images could provide critical engineering information for future missions. NASA plans to have missions to Mars' surface.  Robert Braun, principal investigator for NASA's PDT project, states, "Because the technologies required to land large payloads on Mars are significantly different than those used here on Earth, investment in these technologies is critical.  This is the first high-fidelity data set of a rocket system firing into its direction of travel while traveling at supersonic speeds in Mars-relevant conditions. Analysis of this unique data set will enable system engineers to extract important lessons for the application and infusion of supersonic retro-propulsion into future NASA missions."


The NASA's PDT project manager, Charles Campbell says, "NASA's interest in building our Mars entry, descent and landing capability and SpaceX's interest and experimental operation of a reusable space transportation system enabled acquisition of these data at low cost, without standing up a dedicated flight project of its own."
Micheal Gazarik, NASA's associate adminitstor or Space Technology goes on to further explain,
"Through our partnership with SpaceX we're gaining access to real-world test data about advanced rocket stage design and retro-propulsion.  Through this partnership we're saving the taxpayer millions of dollars we'd otherwise have to spend to develop and test rockets and flights in-house. This is another great example of American companies partnering with NASA to enable our future exploration goals."


I have always thought of technology to be expensive.  And it can be, but to think about all the information it provides.  Here we see how NASA has gained new data and information about design, saving millions of dollars.  Technology may be expensive but the pay off and gain of information is worth it. 


For more information click here.

Technology changing diaster relief

Disasters around the world have spurred on technology to increase the importance of them. With the Haiti earthquake, many were homes were destroyed, communication was lost, and lives were taken as well. Dr. Paul Gardner-Stephen who is a researcher at Flinders University in Australia, created technology to help reach out to those in affect from the Haiti earthquake. With tents, water, and the main items needed to survive, planes dropped over 1,000 solar powered lanterns that were attached to chargers for your mobile devices. This allowed communication amongst the people even though there was no network coverage. People were allowed to send text messages, make calls and send files.

With the Haiti earthquake, projects have been born to help situations like this one. Tera (Trilogy Emergency Relief Application), is a program that allows a person to realize when a major crisis has come about and able to send a message of 140 characters to every phone user in that given area such as flood warnings, or any natural disasters, medical help, shelter, etc. This was invented due to the Haiti earthquake.

 

To me its crazy to think that something that we use when we go camping or if the power goes out, can be used to help survival of a country. I never would have thought that a simple lantern could impact lives so much. Its good to see that we have this new technology not only for the gadgets, but surviving a purpose and saving countries.

Glasgow Community Experiences Break-Through In Medical Technology

This technology is a more advanced version of Skype.  It's a way for a special doctor to see and diagnose a patient without having to be physically there.  Hospital staff and patients like this new set up.  Patients are able to see the specialist they need for their condition.

"Tele neurology is going across the country for hospitals that have a shortage of a certain specialty. In this case, our shortage is a neurologist," said Bud Wethington, T.J. Samson CEO.

"It is secure on our side and actually on the other side as well. There is no problem with us losing your personal information to anyone. Starting Monday morning, we'll have this service fully operational. Where today, we're having to transfer some patients out of here, quite possibly to Nashville, Bowling Green, Louisville or Lexington. we will not have to do that going forward because we have the technology here to take care of our patients," said Bud Wethington, T.J. Samson CEO.

I like this method.  I am surprised they have not developed it sooner.  This is one way of outsourcing among hospitals.  What may some of your concerns be about this set up? 

For more information click here.

Connecting To India

 

Many companies and leaders are beginning to realize the untapped potential and future of connecting to the rest of the world through technology. In a recent news article it is explained how Mark Zuckerberg realizes that his company is suited well to meeting this need and helping in connecting a developing country like India with technology. Technology is only becoming more affordable so the future of developing nations that have huge populations that are disconnected beginning to use technology will soon be realized. Connecting India with technology would help their economy but, could also boost the world economy.There are many challenges to these developing nations face when implementing the use of technology on a wide scale that tech companies can help with. Companies like Facebook and Ericsson are already at work on meeting these needs to help.

Some questions I have are:

1. What problems could developing countries face now or in the future in their pursuit of becoming technology based?

2. What could the impact of these countries becoming connected with technology have on the future?

Feel free to add any other comments or concerns.

US Air Force Develops “Fly-Bot”

The United State Air Force has been working on the development of a drone that looks like an insect.  Their original goal was to create a bird-like drone.  In hopes that it would blend in with nature and go undetected.   With technology advances the Air Force was able to produce something much smaller than a bird-like drone.  An insect size drone was made.  As shown in the picture below, it is smaller than your finger tip.  

This drone is still controlled by a trained pilot at a remote terminal.  These drones could release small amounts of gas.  Another option would be that these drones could be packed with high power explosives.  These drones could do damage if there were a swarm of them.

I think this is a good idea.  I certainly would not think something so small would oppose much of a threat.  Do you think this is worth investing in?  How effective do you think these new drones would be?

Screenless Display Technology

Screenless display technology is on the list of the next big technologies that anticipated to be here soon by many. There are many different forms that this technology can take place and many companies that already have workable prototypes as can be seen by clicking here. There are three main forms that this technology will shape in. They are visual image, retinal display, and synaptic interface.

Visual Image - Examples of these are holographic images, HUD's (Heads Up Displays), and virtual reality glasses.

Retinal Display - With retinal display no real image is produced. A beam of light will hit our retina and the projected image will seem as if it is floating in front of us. Examples of these are certain glasses that will use light beams and bionic contact lenses. 

Synaptic Interface - These are visual images that are given to the brain directly. They will most likely be the farthest off of the three from being usable technologies anytime soon.

The visual image of this technology seems to be close with the famous Tupac appearance at the 2011 Cochella festival and can be explained by watching this video.



Below is are survey questions to get a feel for which technologies might be most useful and how people feel about their anticipate arrival. Please answer the questions and feel free to ask questions and leave comments also.                       

"Shellshock" Bug to make an Impact

Bash (Bourne-Again Shell) is a piece of software that is built into over 70 percent of machines such as servers, computers, routers, and some mobile phones. Rumor has it that Bash contained a software bug (Shellshock) that could be used to take over millions of machines around the world. Shellshock is the offspring of the Heartbleed bug that was discovered last spring in many software’s. The key difference between the two crucial bugs is that, Heartbleed stole passwords from servers, while Shellshock is much more of a threat than that. It can take over an entire machine. According to New York times, click here Heartbleed "went unnoticed for two years and affected an estimate 500,000 machines, but shellshock was not discovered for 22 years." Many think that it’s surprising that a bug could go unnoticed for two decades, but not to programmers. Researchers say it would be more difficult for this bug to reach your personal laptop rather than one that is connected to the server due to the fact that people would have to join a public network that hackers knew you were connected to in order for them to work. In order for these bugs to be fixed, Mr. Bellovin, a computer science professor, states that in order for this bug issue to be solved, the open source community has to be less consumed with the new features rather than quality. Quality is more important than the new features and those skills need to be developed or it’s going to fall behind the quality race and technology will start to decline drastically.

RFID Technology

I read a recent article from September 16th on a European clothing manufacturer and retailer that is using RFID technology to improve it's business processes, (specifically it's inventory management) and improving its inventory turnover ratio and gross profit. I found this article interesting because, I have been hearing more and more about different uses of RFID technology and they seem to be growing in popularity, not only in the the U.S. but, in other countries as this article shows as well. For those of us who haven't heard RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and is essentially a system used for wireless tracking using radio waves. You can learn more by clicking here. Some of the general suggested uses of this technology online are the tracking of goods, persons, or animals, toll collection and wireless payment, machine readable travel documents, tracking logistics, and use with sports events.
There seems to be numerous uses and when thinking inventively and it seems popular with business planning for the future so my questions to you are these:

1. What innovative or creative use of RFID technology can you come up with?

2. What direction can you see this being used in business settings in the future?

3. Do you think it will be a sustainable technology of the future and why? If not how long do you think a trend toward using this technology will last?

Feel free to bring up other questions or point on the topic that I may have missed or haven't thought of also. I'm open to an engaging conversation on this topic.
Thanks!

Audi's Next-Generation Car GPS Interface

 

Audi brings new meaning to GPS.  Audi was striving to redefine the way we look at navigation systems.  The article states "The AIDA 2.0 system adds to the current location-destination-waypoint model with the analysis of driver behavior to identify goals the driver would like to achieve. That means it tries to help you locate food you like when you're hungry, movies you might like to see, or places you might like to shop." There is a display on the dashboard and side mirrors of three dimensional graphics.  It shows a detailed map of businesses, shopping malls, residential places, etc.
Audi states; "This is just a technology showcase investigating potential ways to innovate such systems for the future."  To see a video of this click here.

I find this very fascinating but scary.  While watching the video all I could think about was how much of a distraction it seems to be.  What do you think?  How much of a regulation should there be about distractions in the car?

Apple Unveils New iPhone 6, Health App

There are all kinds of health apps out there. All these health apps help people monitor their calories, exercise, etc. This app was developed by doctors of the Mayo Clinic. However this information will sync with the Healthkit. The program stores your nutrition, fitness and other vitals into an electronic file for doctors or other family to access. Mayo Clinic already uses this technology while treating their patients. The article states, “The grand vision would be once the information is contained within HealthKit, patients can take that on their iDevices or eventually Android and transfer that to wherever they are in the world or country,” Wald said. “That information will be put into HealthKit, then we’ll be able to pull that information into your electronic medical record.” Fortunately, security has been a top priority from the beginning. The app also provides information to users about their privacy rights and the best way to protect their information.

 

Click here to view the article and video provided by CBS Minnesota newsite. 

This is an easy way for doctors to see your health information electorinically.  As mentioned this would be in all parts of the world.  What concerns do you have with this app?  Would you use it?

Are Tablets a bad tool for little kids

It’s safe to say that over the past few years technology has really been a driving force in the US. Who
would have thought that between the ages of 2-5, two thirds of the US children use tablets in their
everyday lives, while one third of that group have a device of some sort that they call their own. Steve Jobs, the brains behind the IPad and IPhone, has banned the usage of these items in his own house. Believing that it’s better for his kids to engage with the family and sit around the table for discussions. Is the digital world taking away from the kids’ lives? In recent studies, there been reports that kids are not in fact being sucked into the digital world. A study from multiple countries show that 76% of children that have tablets or smartphones still read a book every week, 72% take part in sports on a weekly basis, and 37% analogue games. SO think that technology takes away from a kid’s life, but in all actually, it can make the kid more social able, less friendship issues, and less hyperactivity compared to the kids who don’t play video games.

http://news.yahoo.com/tablets-hit-kids-experts-worry-152240175--finance.html

Theres those that argue tablet time takes away from activities such as sleeping, interacting with others, and just stting down and reading a book. Social developement is key for kids growing up and kids need to spend more time with parents and care givers. The million dollar question is what is the approriate age for a kid to be able to use a tablet? Do you believe that the advanced technology today is affecting the kids health in anegative positive way?

http://news.yahoo.com/tablets-hit-kids-experts-worry-152240175--finance.html

Technology and Privacy

It's been a little over a year since former CIA computer professional Edward Snowden leaked evidence that the U.S. Government has data collection systems in place for telephone and computer information. Since, there has been some public outcry and speculation as to privacy with technology. Also, within that year time frame there has been more related stories being brought to our attention with big businesses being breached for consumer credit information all the way to explicit celebrity photos being leaked. Just recently Yahoo made headlines with their claim that the government will fine them $250,000 for every day they hold private information from them. With the many ways we store personal information using technology growing everyday it makes you raise the question "how secure is our information?" We seem to only becoming increasingly dependent upon technology for our lives so it's seems to be a topic worth talking about. I want to know what you think. Should we trust our government with gathering endless personal information? Are there things we should or shouldn't trust using technology for? Could it be possible that none of our online activity or information is incapable of being breached, stored or used? Should we even worry?

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29169722

Bioprinting

Printing machines have been around for a long time. In 2000 bioprinting was thought of and starting to be developed. Now bioprinting works and is at the stage of testing on mice. Their goal is to start human clinical trials in the next couple of years. Bioprinting works similar to an ink printer, only instead of ink, human cells are placed in the cartridge. The human cells are "printed" out in a pattern. Scientist can make tissue, organs, and even bones using this technology. Below is a very basic diagram showing how bioprinting works.

























Below is a link to a video on CNN website giving some incite on what bioprinting is and the man who started this.



CNN Tech Bioprinting Video


When I first heard about bioprinting I was very skeptical and didn't like the idea of it. Now, knowing all the good that it can accomplish, my stance on the subject is changing. But now I ask you all, do you see anything bad with bioprinting? Do you see any problems or ethical issues arising from this?

Smartwatches: Fad or Future?

In the last two years consumers in the tech market have been brought the early stages of a unique and futuristic piece of technology; Smartwatches. The idea of them alone has been around since at least The Jetsons. They were once thought of as unimaginable technology of the future. Since those days technology like Apple's iPhone have blown our minds with what they are all capable of doing and have a functional and fundamental place in our everyday lives. So with so many companies dumping capital into this new product development it makes you wonder what they are capable of. What functional roles could a smart wristwatch play in our future? Samsung's Gear S has fairly large data storage, 3g connectivity, a vibrant display, and fairly good navigation considering how small it is. Could a watch like the Samsung Gear S have some functional use that would give these watches a competitive advantage and a sustainable market or are most of our pressing demands already met with technology like the iPhone, making this smartwatch boom, a bust?

http://mashable.com/2014/09/06/hands-on-samsung-gear-s/