Tech Trends
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Help, they’re taking over!
How machines run our lives.
The IoT vision is taking shape and gradually moving from “whoa, this is unreal“ to “so, where do I get one?”.
The IoT market will soon enter every aspect of our lives, with a trillion dollars worth of transactions expected in 2015 and the near future.
What will it look like?
It seems that at any given moment, dozens of application are being developed, that will change every area of our lives: our bodies, our homes, our commutes and our shopping experiences.
There is, for instance, an application developed to prevent crib death by monitoring the baby’s body through unobtrusive sensors and alerting the parents of the baby’s breathing, body temperature, activity level and other parameters.
The city sanitation department will make waste collection more efficient by placing smart trash cans in the streets! The trash cans will inform the authorities of their fullness, thus saving gas, manpower and, of course, money.
Still praying to the great goddess of parking? Soon, smart sensors embedded into the sidewalks and near curbs will detect the presence of nearby cars and guide you to available parking spaces. Salvation is at hand.
Fact or fiction?
One real, interesting and very useful IoT application is WeFind, an Israeli invention that has already been demonstrated in a real environment and received quite a bit of praise and applause.
WeFind what? WeFind is a wearable band that helps parents maintain contact with their rampaging children in large playgrounds and other recreational complexes.
How does it work?
Before the kids are loosed upon the giant complexes (and promptly forget that any such things as parents had ever existed), the parents can download the app, pair the band, lean back and relax, all in under a minute. Now, they can see where their child is at any given time.
Thanks to the app’s location tracker, the family can also enjoy a number of personalized solutions fed directly into their smartphones. These are location based, and include, among other things, coupons, time limited and location specific sales, interesting offers and a photo sharing feature.
And there is more.
Thanks to the smart link, the app is able to track the behavior of vacationing families and learn their favorite destinations. This allows the company to offer site operators critical, real-time information about each family member’s consumption habits, including time spent at each attraction.
This feature can greatly increase a resort’s sales potential by allowing it to buy a list of prospective clients and offer them an interactive, beneficial vacation experience.
Yet another step
towards becoming
couch potatoes
“How is the traffic on Ayalon highway looking right now?”
“How do you spell ‘antelope’?”
“What was the name of Jacob’s fourth son?”
And “(Help! I’m in the middle of kneading!) How many cups make 1 kg of flour?”
While it’s true that all these questions have answers online, getting these answers requires you to take action. This consists of finding your mobile, entering the question and selecting the best answer.
That is a lot of precious time wasted (and don’t you wish you could avoid getting dough all over your keyboard?)
Imagine having a little helper who takes care of all of life’s minor tasks (like adding toilet paper to your shopping list), answers all of your kids’ endless questions and does it all instantly, with you not having to lift a finger.
How does it work?
Amazon has developed an obedient little gnome, a kind of personal assistant that serves the entire family. The Amazing Echo is a crafty, little, voice activated device with a huge list of features.
The speaker is connected to the cloud, wherefrom it gathers all the information required by each family member. Moreover, the device evolves and becomes more efficient over time, as it learns the needs of the family.
The device is small and has a long reception range that allows it to be called upon from anywhere in the house to provide information, play music, get weather updates and more.
Fact or fiction?
Fact. The Amazon Echo is available right now for the price of $200.
Understanding the
language of the human
body, from within
In most cases, illnesses are not treated until they are in full swing and acutely felt by us. But what if we could detect the disease before we feel its symptoms?
In universities around the world, many researchers are working hard on the development of nano-particles which, once implanted in the body, send highly accurate, real-time information about its internal processes.
Want an example? Here’s some Israeli pride.
Researchers at Bar Ilan University have developed gold particles that can be used to diagnose certain types of mouth and tongue cancer… by being gurgled. When the patient gurgles the particles, the cancerous cells change color, allowing the doctors to single out patients who require monitoring and treatment.
This new, non-invasive diagnostic method is a hopeful breakthrough that changes the way we perceive the world of modern medicine.
Further meetings between technology and advanced diagnostic methods will yield very accurate and very fast medical solutions.
Fact or fiction?
The gold particles were successfully tested on animals in the Israeli lab. The experiment sent ripples of excitement throughout the world and will be repeated, this time in collaboration with researchers from King’s College, London.
Who doesn’t want more clothes, more gadgets, more leisure and more fun?
Unfortunately, in a reality where most of our income goes towards funding… well… blocks of concrete, that is impossible.
No way!
Many developers are now concentrating their efforts on minimizing the amount of cash spent on house maintenance. It’s called a “smart house”, but it is nothing like the smart house we know today.
How does it work?
The developers are utilizing our third arm, also known as the smartphone. They are stuffing it chock-full of technologies that allow us to control everything that happens in our homes, without, of course, being present in them.
Thus, for instance, an app currently in development processes meteorological data, climate readings within the house and your personal preferences to create more efficient climate control. The app allows users to control the temperature in each room (how nice for the cat currently sleeping on your bed) during specified hours.
Anyone who has never gone back home to check that the oven is off, the window is closed, the cat hasn’t run off – raise your hand! WeMo is an app that will help you manage your anxieties, turn off home appliances and so much more – even long after you leave the house.
And for the extremely neurotic, the Ninja Block app is an efficient little helper than alerts the user of home disasters on all scales, including floods, fires and unwanted or unexpected motion.
Fact or fiction?
Fact.
We have recently completed the branding of Multilock, the company that developed ENTER – a smart locking solution that eliminates the need for keys.
Enter combines the advanced, mechanical cylinder locking technology with remote locking using a smartphone, or a code or fingerprint protected remote control.
Think of a world without keys; no more staring at a locked door, no more wondering incessantly whether you locked the door when you left. In one word: smart. In three words: go buy it!