If you are like me, your home is riddled with smart devices that communicate with each other and maybe a master control app on your phone. Or maybe it communicates with an Alexa device or another name brand SmartHome system via your private network. Extending this control to the web, where you can access your lighting system at your home in Texas via the app from Tokyo, may scare the hell out of your wife and family.
Yes, I’ve done that. Not from Tokyo, but from down the street or in another city. I’ve turned on lights and dimmed others, started appliances and even talked through the intercom system in a low voice, “I know what you did last summer.” Yeah, that’s fun, until your wife calls and says, “Cut it out, you’re scaring me,” crying and promising vengeance when you get home.
All of these points of control are called Internet of Things (IoT) devices. These are everything connected to your private internet. Things you can control remotely via the web.
At home, these can be smart switches, outlets, appliances, swimming pool fountains, curtains and just about anything with a manually operated apparatus can be fitted with smart devices that can control them from afar. It has been a long time since the days of my dad’s remote control. Jonny, go turn the TV on; Jonny, go open the drapes; Jonny go get me a beer.
Well, they’re still working on that last one. That’s the only thing I do not currently have, one of those space age robots that can get me a beer from the fridge. I still sometimes ask my lovely wife or a nearby child to grab a beer from the fridge on their way back. But I’m sure technology is in the making. I need to talk to Elon about that.
Home automation has been around for a minute, but not everyone subscribes to this technology. It is frustrating at times. When it storms, my switches lose their connection and to restore them requires reprogramming every single @!#@%&* switch in my house. That’s about 30 different switches I need to visit to restore the connections.
As home automation becomes more reliable with advanced equipment and higher price-point devices, the frequency of resetting them is less and less. I am “middle of the road” in the available technology, and I often just get up and walk over to the device to turn it on and off. That might sound “old school.” It might be a sign of frustration over technology or I’m just getting older.
With better technology being deployed in commercial applications, we are seeing leaps and bounds in building automation capabilities. While we have had LAN building automation technology for 50 years or more, it is only now integrating with AI and the internet to leverage building climate environments, predict envelope patterns, and seamlessly and simultaneously control HVAC, lighting, water features, speaker and intercom systems and occupant experiences in a small format operations console, like an IPAD.
In industrial applications, devices usually are localized to an onsite private network, but data may be transmitted off-site or even off-shore to third party management services or data aggregation experts.
Many industrial applications employ the use of thousands if not in some cases tens of thousands of sensors that report data such as temperature, managing extreme heat or cold instances, or counting revolutions of a rotor, speed, vibration monitoring, frequency, noise, water infiltration, intermixing of substances, and myriad other machine operation and environmental logistics.
These data points are all brought to a processor and filtered through custom built monitors that display the data in a familiar format. Basically, imagine your kid building out one of those cartoon type cities or other computer environments that depict different communities or other situations.
Building out these screens to display different types of data is the same as that type of program. A computer specialist builds parts of the screen to display temperature, so he puts a thermometer or other depiction of a temperature sensor, either digital or analog.
Think of the dashboard on your car, it has these same sensor gauges that monitor the same types of parameters such as, heat, cold, engine performance, etc. Programmers customize screens to meet their clients needs. They can do everything from making it look like a cartoon interface to a more professional looking avionics interface with cool looking 3D graphics. The “world is their oyster” as they say.
Not only has IoT revolutionized the industrial sector and home automation, but it has crept into entertainment and media at an amazing pace to include things like the Sphere in Las Vegas, and in advertising and consumer data, shaping customer experiences. The Sphere, as mentioned above is a technological marvel of automation, programming and basically IoT technology.
The technology is capable of 500,000 Gigabytes of data and utilizes 160,000 speakers, a jaw dropping display of LED lights, inside and out, and delivers an entertainment experience unparalleled in the industry. Oh yeah, now that there is a precedent. We will see bigger and better in the coming years.
And all of them will rely on thousands of sensors, and data processors that transmit data across LANs and the internet, capturing AI and the vast knowledge of the cumulative world of experience to make things better and more efficient.
Oh, the potential
Enough about what IoT can do, has done, and where it is currently used, IoT has great potential for delivering personal content, gathering personal data such as age, location, interest and behavior. Your home television is a point of IoT for a vast industry of marketing that is shared through media groups and network services. (I opt out, and you can do that too.)
Through information gathering, marketers can tailor content to users and pinpoint pockets of interests for products, programs and services.
IoT can gather and transmit or “push” information to mobile devices at sporting events, grocery stores, retail markets, airports and other public places. Have you been to the local market and received a coupon on your phone for 10% off eggplants? They’re watching you. No, really, they are not literally watching you, but they have your IP. They are trying to sell you something. If they show up at your home later with a truck load of eggplant, well, I would worry.
As soon as you walk through the door, they have your mobile device IP and are targeting it for promotional products, specials, free gifts, and store holiday events. Wine specials, and Christmas carolling show up on your phone, always with an option to “Opt out.”
But the government is less interested in your activity with eggplants as they are with duct tape, rope and shovels.
So, don’t worry, you should take advantage of the percentage off.
The future includes almost everything IoT. RFID tags, biometrics, high resolution cameras, proximity based messages will create customer and visitor driven experiences that will enhance sporting events, movie and theme park experiences and provide better control of marketing to consumers and their interest.
I don’t like to talk a lot about facial recognition technology, because of the way the chinese have utilized it to control populations of people in a merit driven society. But it is evident that facial recognition is here to stay and develop in America. Clearly, the same technology being utilized at airports across the country to validate passengers in the airport system for travel is one such technology that uses facial recognition to whisk you through the line at the security checkpoint at most U.S. airports.
Bottom line, IoT technology, albeit sometimes frustrating, improves lives, creates efficiencies, speeds processes, enhances lifestyles and will ultimately be in just about every part of our lives.
The company, Alclear, is an american technology company that owns and administers the Clear kiosk at major airports. I’m not against this technology for good, and it does improve security and efficiency whereby thousands of people need to be screened in short order. But it could get out of control and be utilized for nefarious purposes. I’m not worried about that, but there are a lot of people who are.
Privacy concerns are at the top of the list for the utilization of technologies like this. But lawyers have figured this out. You must consent to the use of this technology or not attend the event. Yes, it seems inconsiderate, but unless you are a hardened criminal, or someone trying to subvert the law, what do you have to worry about?
Bottom line, IoT technology, albeit sometimes frustrating, improves lives, creates efficiencies, speeds processes, enhances lifestyles and will ultimately be in just about every part of our lives. Do we embrace it? Or try to hide from it with fear and loathing over privacy, government oversight or other global watchdog concerns? I’m not worried.
I don’t think any of this will impact my life other than make it better. If it comes to global monitoring of citizens or control over what I buy and sell, then I’ve clearly made the wrong choices in life about my relationships with a creator. Something to think about.
Jon Armour is a contributing editor/author to the line of design and construction publications and has 35 years of combined experience across the construction, real estate and IT Infrastructure industry. He is certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Construction Manager, IT Program Manager, and a published author of a popular Western Genre fiction novel. He lives in Magnolia, Texas.
