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You’re enjoying a meal at a restaurant when you accidentally tip over your drink. You reach for a napkin to begin cleaning up the mess, but a waiter appears immediately with a towel. The accelerometer in your cup registered a spill event, and a battery-powered wireless device notified the restaurant staff of the incident. Throughout the remainder of the meal, your drink never gets fully empty thanks to the liquid level sensor in your glass and the same wireless connection. When you get home that evening, you use an app to check your calorie intake for the day and note your beverage consumption at the restaurant has been recorded accurately.
What sounds like a scenario out of a science fiction novel is actually possible using today’s technology. In the near future, the cost of the required electronic components and the interconnectivity of our devices may make developments such as this a feasible reality. Industry insiders call it the Internet of Things, and local Utah companies are helping to build it.
The "Internet of Things"
When you hear the word “Internet,” you may think of websites you visit, videos you recently watched, or an app you frequently use on your smartphone. But more and more, the Internet is being used to allow machines to talk with people or even other machines.
Scott Lemon, founder and CEO of Heber City tech company Wovyn, explains, “The Internet of Things is really this acknowledgement of moving into a whole new realm of machines and devices connected to the Internet.” Machines could be anything electronic, from your bathroom scale to an industrial furnace. “Even your Redbox DVD rental,” he said. “Those are machines connected to the Internet.”
The Internet of Things is being driven by the lowered cost of connectivity, improvements to battery and low-power technologies and the increasing miniaturization of electronics, also known as Moore’s law. Phil Windley, CTO and founder of Lehi-based Kyntex, feels it is only a matter of time before these concepts come to fruition.
“The idea that everything will be connected is, I think, inevitable,” he said.
The price of technology
Windley recently installed a device in his car that uses a 3G cellular phone connection to upload data from his engine computer. The data is sent to a space in the cloud where he can view it, manage it or utilize it in software applications. While devices like these typically cost $30-$100 now, advances in technology and economies of scale are already driving wireless chip costs down.
“When a [wireless phone system] costs 30 cents or even $3, for that matter, it’s not going to be the same phone that you have right now, it’s going to be like a Bic pen,” predicts Windley. Devices that are equipped with wireless connectivity will be ubiquitous. “They’re going to be lying around all over the place. You’re just going to pick them up and use whichever one happens to be lying nearby you.”
Indeed, major tech companies are working to make that vision a reality. Chip giant Intel announced in February of 2012 that it has developed a Wi-Fi radio composed almost entirely from the same digital transistors used in its popular microprocessors. That could ultimately mean much lower unit costs than are possible with traditional analog semiconductor processes. Other major tech players like Texas Instruments and Freescale Semiconductor are releasing chips targeted specifically toward the Internet of Things market.
'Immersed in computing'
Windley’s company, Kynetx, runs a software platform that provides personal clouds — personal online spaces for everyone. As complex, wirelessly connected devices crop up everywhere, they will produce more and more data. Kynetx creates solutions to manage and utilize that information.
Communication can flow the other way, too. For years, manufacturers have sent firmware updates via the Internet to devices like computer routers and digital video recorders. Increasingly, this may be done via a cell phone network connection, with the device user completely unaware of the download. This functionality is already being pioneered in higher-ticket items like dishwashers.
“We will be essentially immersed in computing,” envisions Windley. “Computers won’t be things we interact with; computers will be the environment we live in. We will live in an environment that is completely connected and computerized.”
But we aren’t there yet. The cost of the necessary components is still too high for many applications. Recognizing this gap, Kynetx created a tangible product, SquareTag, to make everyday items smarter. SquareTag attaches QR code labels to physical objects to connect them to a virtual data space. When a user scans that code with their smart phone, an event is triggered in the Kynetx system. A custom application can receive that event and provide a screen for data entry.
For example, SquareTag has a program for keeping track of maintenance schedules. You attach a SquareTag to, say, your bicycle, and scan the tag every time you perform a routine service on it. You could record how often you lubricate the chain, store a copy of receipts for parts you have purchased, or even schedule a reminder to replace your bearings annually. Other applications include keeping track of your items when they get lost, tracking the fuel usage in your vehicle or turning your standard bathroom scale into a smart scale that keeps track of your weight over time.
There are many situations where wireless connections make sense already. Wovyn founder Lemon sees a lot of need today for smart devices in business processes. One of his clients wants to use sensors and wireless systems to monitor industrial lighting fixtures. When a bulb goes out or a ballast malfunctions, the system would record the details of the event and automatically create a repair ticket in the employee management system. A repair person would be sent to the location already understanding the problem and equipped with all the tools and parts needed to make the repair.
Enthusiasts for the Internet of Things are connecting things around their house, “but I think the big things are going to be coming in efficiencies in business,” Lemon opines. “We will become more and more driven by machines that are coordinating activities. I actually think the Internet of Things will become more and more foundational and important as humans are out of the way.”
Making connections
Lemon created Wovyn after a hobby led him to get involved with connecting sensors to the Internet. He found it complicated to connect the low-level electrical signals of the electronic devices to the abstract, high-level environment of web programming. Drawing on both his hardware and Internet backgrounds, a combined toolset many developers lack, he eventually got everything interacting correctly.
That communication barrier is what attracted Lemon to the Internet of Things. “As I started to build some hardware technologies to connect to the Internet, I realized how much I was doing to create this connectivity,” he reflected. “I started to realize that there is real opportunity in easing the integration of hardware technology, devices, sensors and control systems into the Internet.”
Wovyn’s products include wireless hubs that create a network to gather data and sensors that measure and detect anything from light to humidity. But the secret sauce is in connecting everything together electronically, then translating it into formats that are easily accessible to web developers. Sensors can be configured to send data based on certain events, or they can provide updates at regular intervals.
The data can be sent using any number of protocols — something as simple as an email, SMS text or Facebook update, or as advanced as REST, ThingSpeak or an evented API. In essence, the solution weaves together the disparate realms of hardware engineering and web application development.
Like many great technologies before it, a lack of technology standards is currently inhibiting growth of the Internet of Things. Companies of all sizes and types are entering the field, and many are touting their own proprietary protocols as a complete solution. Lemon likens the phenomenon to his experiences with the early development of computer networking, where it took several years for the market to cooperate and select interoperable standards like Ethernet and TCP/IP. He says collaboration is needed to make it easier for systems to talk with each other.
Windley has a similar opinion: “We’re in a little bit of a technological cul de sac at the moment where web applications have been built as silos.” He says that like email and the roots of the Internet itself, applications need to be designed as open, interoperable platforms.
“That’s what’s really going to allow the Internet of My Things to develop,” he said.
That distinction, an Internet of My Things as opposed to just an Internet of Things, is one that is important to Windley. He foresees two possible future worlds: one where our data is governed by one-sided terms of service which essentially make it the property of various business entities, and another where our data is under control of the person who generates it.
“In a world where data is being controlled by the user, it starts to feel a lot more like the real world,” he posits. “The user has natural boundaries of public and private data that are understandable and controllable by the user.”
Windley believes the march of technology is inexorable, but the exact path it takes is not. “I think technologists have a special, even moral obligation to help build the world that they want to live in. I think we have a choice about which of those futures we want to have.”
Dan Florence is a high-tech product manager/marketer, humor blogger, photographer, and a bunch of other impressive stuff. Drop him a line at dan@danoftheday.com or visit danoftheday.com.
