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What if we took the leading sensor-based products currently being developed or already on the market, put them all under one roof, and added a typical American family? Would they just be the techiest family on the block, or would it have a significant impact on their lives? Here are six ways this Internet of Things family can see their lives change. They exercise more, save energy and water, budget better, know where their kids are at any moment, and they'll always have the right lighting for activities in the house. Sponsor Bank Account-based Motivation We
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6 Ways to Better Living: Inside an Internet of Things Home
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Earlier this week, Juniper Research published a report which said the market for location-based services (think mobile check-in games like Foursquare, social networks like Loopt, location-enabled apps like Google Maps, etc.) will bring in revenues of more than $12.7 billion by 2014. Spurring this growth are a number of factors, including the increased number of App Stores, handset improvements, access to high-speed mobile Internet and improvements to positioning technology. While it's clear that location-based services are on the move, pinpointing a dollar amount to their market is a trickier subject. Has Juniper overestimated? U.K.-based consultancy Broadsight thinks so. "These numbers are way overstated," says firm co-founder Alan Patrick , who concludes that's it's far too early to tell the market's true size at this time. Sponsor An Argument Against LBS's $13 Billion Market Forecast Presenting at a local event for digitally-minded professionals, Patrick's talk offered a dose of realism to what has been, until now, a well-hyped - perhaps overly hyped - technology trend. He claims that location-based services ("LBS") is one of those cyclical hypes that comes around every ten years or so. "Like all overhyped areas, it comes complete with way overoptimistic market projections," notes Patrick on the company blog . Although he doesn't call out analyst firm Juniper by name, he says that "$13 billion are the sorts of numbers being thrown around." (Juniper predicts $12.7 billion). So how much does Patrick think the market's worth? It's too early to tell, he says. Instead of focusing on what has influenced the market to grow thus far, Patrick examines the two determining factors that will impact the actual revenues LBS is able to generate: penetration and Average Revenue per User. Penetration of the LBS market can vary widely including everything from smartphone users all the way to consumer devices like cars and even low-cost "Internet of Things" devices. The " Internet of Things " refers to real-world objects getting connected to the web. It can also include other web-connected devices like sensors or those incorporating RFID technology . The point Patrick was making is that the actual market value will be greatly influenced by how many devices end up web-connected and using LBS over the next few years. If, however, only smartphone users are taking advantage of LBS, then the market retains only niche value. The second determinant is the Average Revenue per User. This also can vary between "free" - as when location services are given away as a part of something else - and those that are "paid for" outright. Users could "pay for" services either via subscription payments, software downloads or ad funding, for example. Based on these determining factors, the actual market value for LBS, as you can see, may vary widely. Assigning it the $13 billion price tag is "of the 'Panglos' school of forecasting," he says. That is, "assuming the best of all possible outcomes in the best of all possible worlds." Privacy Issues: A Limiting Factor to LBS Growth? Patrick also brings up the privacy issues inherent in using the types of apps that broadcast your location, an issue we discussed ourselves just last week . At that time, the potential dangers in location broadcasting were brought to the forefront of our minds when the new site PleaseRobMe launched , displaying real-time updates from members of mobile social network Foursquare who broadcast their check-ins on Twitter. Although the site's goal was simply to raise awareness of the issue, the news quickly spread until even local TV anchors were discussing it on the nightly news. Even among tech bloggers such as ourselves, there is disagreement as to whether or not these services represent a true danger. A discussion in our writers' chat room the other day had one writer positioning the services as tools for stalking, saying these types of apps "make it a heck of a lot easier for people" to do so. Meanwhile, another writer argued "well, having a knife around makes it easier to cut yourself, too." (Names withheld to protect the innocent!) The truth is, mainstream users will likely not jump on the LBS social bandwagon right away - unless Facebook launches something, that is. However, there's a reason they haven't done this yet - outside of the tech bubble, a good bit of the population is fairly concerned with protecting their privacy. You can argue that their fears come from an inherent lack of understanding about the realities of how LBS is used, but that won't necessarily convince them. Just like anything, true growth and acceptance will take time. And fears like these aren't exactly the sort that will go away over the next four years. All that being said, while Patrick presents his ideas as "rational prognosis" regarding this industry, it's possible that he's being a little too down on the market's potential. Maybe it won't reach $13 billion, maybe it will...but like he said, it's too soon to know. Discuss
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Location-Based Services: Hype or Hit?
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In part 1 of our interview with Adam Greenfield , author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing , we discussed the impact of the iPhone and other smartphones on the Internet of Things . In Part 2, we explore how the Apple iPad may also become a key device. Adam Greenfield thinks it may become the missing link between Internet-connected items in your home, for example the Internet fridge, and the Web. Sponsor In yesterday's post, we talked about how Asian cities are ahead of the curve in deployment of Internet of Things technologies. One reason is that quality of life can be more easily be delivered as a service in a country like Korea, because its citizens are more open to futuristic appliances like the Internet fridge . The counter-argument is that the Western market has never taken to the Internet fridge because of the poor utility of such appliances. The answer may be a device that acts as an effective intermediary between the fridge and the Internet. The iPad could be that device. Adam Greenfield explained to me that the iPad may become the kind of device that people carry around with them everywhere inside the house, from the lounge to the bedroom to the kitchen. That got me to thinking. Imagine this use case: you're feeling peckish, so you wander into the kitchen for a snack. Your trusty iPad is tucked under your arm, as usual, and you place it on the kitchen bench while you open the fridge. You guiltily pick up a chocolate bar and you're about to close the fridge door when your iPad beeps. You glance at the iPad, where a diet management iPad app has automagically opened and is flashing the message: "Hey buddy, you've already had too many calories today - put that back!" Blushing, you return the chocolate bar into the fridge and pick up a punnet of strawberries instead. You glance back at your iPad, which now displays a large green check mark on its screen! There are many other scenarios I could describe, but the point is the iPad may well become a linking device between Internet-connected appliances and objects in your house, and the Web. Adam Greenfield explained that the mistake we've made with Internet fridges in the past was to think of them like a dumb sensor. He remarked that it's not the instrumentation that is important in an Internet fridge - it's the network. The data will probably be collected by the fridge, in time via RFID-enabled food packaging. But the fridge itself is a clumsy interface to that data. Early examples of Internet fridges have tried to be an interface for the consumer. Although some have had tablet-like devices that could be disconnected from the fridge and used on the kitchen bench, users have not found even those very compelling. There are a variety of reasons, including limited utility of fridge-tablets, poor user experience, and the sheer awkwardness of attaching a tablet to and from a fridge. The iPad, however, will be used anywhere and everywhere by its users - inside and outside the house. So it's a natural device to use to connect (virtually, not physically) to your fridge - along with other appliances and objects. This isn't restricted to inside the house either. We've written before about cars as a service . This is where you, the consumer, can effectively subscribe to a car or a car provider. This is already happening with the American service Zipcars . Greenfield noted that cars will become a "network resource" - addressable, scriptable, queryable, and so on. And once again, the iPad may be the device which connects you to cars and all of the data that is pumped out by cars and connected web services. In the not too distant future, household appliances and other real-world objects such as cars will be connected to the Internet. The iPad may well become the connector to all of those things. Discuss
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Why The iPad May Save The Internet Fridge
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The Internet of Things , the growth and bringing online of sensor data to create a foundation for innovation, is expected to be a big trend in 2010. ReadWriteWeb has been covering it extensively and we offer below the three top stories in Internet of Things over the last 24 hours, from around the web. A new report on airport satisfaction points to opportunities for more sensors. RFID to track interactions between prisoners and guards? It's happening now. And a hospital that will use sensors to alert staff of the location and medical histories of patients in crisis, on a big electronic whiteboard centrally located. Those are our three top stories for today. (Editorial selection assisted by OneSpot .) Sponsor It's Time for Better Technology in Airports A Smarter Planet Blog IBM's Steve Hamm discusses J.D. Power's newest report on customer satisfaction with airports. "There have been some important technology advances in airports, such as near-ubiquitous wi-fi access and plenty of check-in kiosks, but it seems like two of the biggest headaches could use some more technology help. Those frustrations, of course, are baggage handling and security checkpoints." I feel an iPhone app or two coming along in the future, don't you? RFID wristbands used to monitor guard, prisoner interactions RFID News RFID News reports on a system to be implemented by an Illinois prison that will interface between "read/write technology" for "real-time, electronic recordkeeping, tracking, and reporting." Accountability for guards sounds good. Lossless RFID tags in prisons sounds like the end of believable jail-break movies though, doesn't it? Versus RTLS to Support Ministry of Health Performance Goals at Rouge Valley rfid-ready Rfid-ready reports on a Canadian hospital's use of an innovative "Real-time Locating System" to reduce the time patients wait for care, to respond to emergencies and to maintain continuity of care. The hospital was chosen by the Canadian government as one of more than 20 to focus on reducing Emergency Room wait times. Sounds like something that could bring some sanity to an insane situation - the emergency room. For a broad overview of this sector, see: Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: Internet of Things and 5 Companies Building the Internet of Things . Discuss
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Airports, Prisoners & Hospital Patients: Today's Top Stories on Internet of Things
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