Your Financial Future and IoT

The Financial Services industry will not be immune to the transformative changes of IoT. In the past, we have briefly mentioned that the Insurance industry will be affected by IoT and the use of Telematics. Telematics refers to the wireless devices and technologies that transmit data in real time back to the company, usually in the context of automobiles.

As my colleague Mike mentioned in his previous post "Talking Cars, Talking About You", cars will soon enough start transmitting back your driving pattern and behaviors back to external parties - including your insurance company. For example, Toyota has recently released a range of safety technologies that allows the car to transmit data back to sensors and other cars on the road that could alert drivers when there is an accident or traffic jam. By reducing accidents and having more information available, insurance companies will presumably pass on the savings to the better drivers and thus put more money in their wallet.

Banking is one area that coupled with IoT will excite the majority of us. Imagine a world where as soon you step up to your Bank's ATM, the sensors installed on the ATM starts to recognize your identity by communicating with your phone. The ATM will then take a picture of you and runs a biometric scan to confirm your true identity. After this is completed, the ATM will greet you by your first name and ask what would you like to do today. No more plastic cards to take in your wallet. Now that is what I call convenient.

The commercial real estate industry will also be affected in a positive way. With multiple sensors installed in a commercial building, a landlord or management company is able to better manage energy usage and security. We have already starting to see buildings with motion sensors that detect when a person walks in the room, adjusts lighting, and regulates the temperature. This data is also helpful because it detects the flow of people within the building and allows the company to improve productivity by moving teams that work together more closely to certain areas on the floor.

Shopping mall operators have also been experimenting with IoT devices - sensors that detect smartphone activity through WiFi - that allows them to track and analyze foot flow traffic within the stores and shed more light on spending habits. By analyzing the foot flow traffic on its properties, the operators can recommend ways to increase the attractiveness of stores and thus receive higher rental income. Now there is always the question of whether stores are invading their customer's privacy, but that is a topic for another day.

Make sure to leave your comments if you found this post interesting. Thank you!

IoT Today: 3 Things You Should Know

Scouring the web for inspiration on my next blog post, I came across 3 different but interesting articles related to the Internet of Things.

These articles remind us that, even though a portion of us might think that our 'internet connected' world is still far away into the future, IoT is here - now. And perhaps most importantly, we should now start to consider how this technology will continue to shape the way we live.

The first article is from FastCompany and discusses how IoT will change our workplace, from optimizing our workspace to gathering/analyzing various amounts of data on the fly. One of the challenges, as the article correctly points out, is how do businesses connect their equipment/facilities to the internet without losing the human interaction. The robots are coming...

The next article on Furtune is about a new start-up called Helium who boldly claims it wants to be the Android of the Internet of Things. The company has launched a smart sensor platform for IoT targeting the healthcare, food, and beverage industries. The platform will allow companies to monitor sensors for industrial applications, use the cloud to store the data generated by the sensors, and ultimately make sense of all the data.

Finally, I found this story on Nextgov, which is probably the most fascinating out of the three (at least to me!) as it talks about what the U.S. government is doing to protect the various Internet of Things of being exploited by criminals and hackers. The Wired article referenced in the Nextgov article is just one of the reasons why this is an important topic and why you should be especially concerned if you own a Jeep as seen in the video below.

Be sure to leave your comments if you find these articles interesting. Until next time!

Why does IoT matter to me?

We live in a incredibly connected world already so how does the Internet of Things continue to revolutionize the way humans interact with technology? The answer is very simple: it changes everything. Humans have fantasized for years about home automation and now the future is finally becoming a reality.

Big tech companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM to name a few, have invested truckloads of money to be able to deploy IoT technology to the consumer. For example, as my colleague Francesco mentioned in his post, Amazon's Dash service allows a user to re-order more detergent, soap, paper, etc with a press of a button which, sends the information directly to Amazon and the product will be delivered straight to your home. How many times have you had to run out of the house just to get essential supplies that you forgot to buy? Exactly. Well just imagine a world where you never run out of toilet paper or run out of milk for your favorite cereal.

 

So what's exciting to me about IoT? Only the best thing in the world: Sleep. Did you know that humans spend about a third of their life sleeping, that's almost 25 years under the sheets! Fact.

Unfortunately, at this time, there aren't many companies competing in this important segment. The most promising product out there is Luna which wants to turn any bed into a smart bed. Imagine a bed that you can control the temperature with your smartphone and can communicate with your smart thermostat - Nest - what temperature to set when you're sleeping to ensure maximum sleep time. I'm already excited!

So what does the future hold for a comfortable sleep? In the not too distant future, there will be a single bedding ecosystem that records your sleep patterns, monitors heart rate, sets the thermostat ideal for sleep, locks your door, and wakes you up automatically to your favorite song. Then you have the pillows and sheets. These are not smart at all although there was a company who promised to have sheets that snap together with the duvet cover which would at least eliminate the need to make your bed everyday. 

And if you are badly missing your significant other for bedtime, there is even a product for that! It's called Pillow Talk and it was designed so you can feel (through a heartbeat sound or soft glow) that your long distance partner is sleeping next to you. However, there is one slight disadvantage to this product - you might creep out your friends..

Here's to a good sleep!

What Should I Wear Today?

For women “What to wear” can be the toughest question of the day, or the night before…. And lets be honest… sometimes you just want to repeat the same outfit that you wore before because nobody saw you. It was 20 years ago that the movie Clueless showed us this amazing software that helped you decided what clothes you should wear today.

Today, you can find apps that can help you with the process (but still not as cool as the one for clueless)

ClosetSpace

One of the cool features of this app is that it provides you with outfits according to the weather

It also links with your Google Calendar, so that you can know what you wore on a specific day. One of the selling points of this app is the discounts offered by ClosetSpace’s partners which include: Glam Squad and Rachel Zoe’s mobile Covet Fashion.

My Dressing

At the beginning it might take time to capture a picture of all your clothes, but once you do, this app allows you to combine and organize your own clothes into collections.

There are more similar apps out there that can guide you and make this process simpler, can help you to stay on style, and more importantly let you share your outfits because now days its all about sharing in social media.

But I can stop thinking about Cher’s Closet…..

 I was looking to see if maybe there were projects related to the internet of things because we now value our time more and finding what to wear can be a time consuming decision, and I will just love to have a program that could recommend me what to wear today according to today’s weather, event type, and more

Connected Closet

This closet is connected to the weather, and as soon as you open it the hangers that contain clothes that you can wear according to the weather will light up. Then you will make your first selection, and only the items that can match your outfit will stay light up. This takes in consideration that your hanger knows exactly what article of clothes are in it. So now we are talking… This is definitely closer it to the Cher’s Closet that I have been wanting for 20 years.

PHILIPS IntelligentWardrobe

Even though it is just a patent, this patent will make our everyday life choices easier. This intelligent wardrobe management system will show the user the options that they have for that day. Another feature of this closet is that you can record the meeting or occasion that you will be wearing this outfit to, and record who has attended the event, and this intelligent wardrobe management system will make sure that you do not repeat the same outfit.

Hopefully... We don't have to wait more years to be able to get Cher's Closet