Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reader Forum section. In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers we have created this forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but we maintain some editorial control to keep it free of commercials or attacks. Please send along submissions for this section to our editors at: [email protected].
Most consumers are now familiar with the concept of the connected home, and some are even utilizing it today through services like Verizon’s Home Monitoring and Control offering. Even at the International Consumer Electronics Show, the connected home was a hot topic and advancements abound. Most consumers are also familiar with “the cloud” and many are using it to make everything from their calendars to their music available from anywhere. As technology continues to improve though, two newer concepts – machine-to-machine (the exchange of information between one piece of hardware and another) and “big data” (the rapid analysis of large amounts of data to derive insights) are converging with the cloud to push beyond the connected home into something broader: connected lives. As processing power in the cloud increases, the ability to analyze mountains of data gathered from connected sensors inside and outside of the home means that we can now make real inroads into areas such as energy management and health monitoring.
In the case of home energy management, the cloud, M2M and big data will make it possible to rapidly process electricity consumption data and allow consumers to see how much electricity is being used by each device in the home, practically in real-time. This, coupled with pricing information from the utility, would allow consumers to see the cost of running the clothes dryer, or how much the air-conditioning costs to run per hour.
There is ample evidence that simply presenting users with data about their consumption can incentivize them to use less energy, thereby saving them money. Consumers could see up to 15% saving in their electricity bills, just by knowing how much energy they use. Even a 10% reduction in consumption over a large number of homes would have a profoundly positive impact on the environment and the utilities, and would generate new business for service providers.
Imagine multiple sensors placed around the home, constantly measuring and transmitting temperature, humidity, occupancy, lighting level and air-flow information to the cloud for analysis. In the short term, this type of information, coupled with information on the occupants’ current location, could be analyzed and used to more efficiently control existing heating and cooling systems in the home. In the longer term, the aggregated data from multiple homes could be utilized to design more energy efficient layouts for homes and provide opportunities for utilities to manage peak demand, reducing the strain on the electricity supply grid and, with that, the risk of blackouts.
But it goes beyond energy management. Recent advances in health monitoring equipment make it possible for doctors to monitor a patient’s status remotely. Blood pressure and heart rate can easily be monitored, almost in real time, with devices available today. This type of data is likely to be far more insightful for a doctor than data taken at their office or at a clinic because the doctor could see details such as blood pressure spikes and where the patient was at that time. The doctor could be alerted if preset limits were breached for any parameter, allowing patients with chronic health issues to lead a more normal life outside of the doctor’s office. This also provides yet another new business opportunity for service providers.
In both of the above examples, the intersection of M2M technologies to gather data, the cloud to store it and then analyze it using big data, is being used to implement continuous cycles of measure, analyze, and improve, potentially on a massive scale. The ability to leverage these technologies exists now and it is providing and will continue to provide service providers with opportunities to develop new businesses in partnership with companies who specialize in handling, storing and analyzing medical data or energy consumption patterns. The benefit to consumers and society has the potential to be profound. Perhaps 2013 is the year in which we will see more of this collaboration taking place, to the benefit of us all.
