Is there a city you are especially fond of?
Carlo Ratti: There isn’t a single city, in particular, that I would consider my “perfect urban space” or that I am especially fond of. My ideal city would be a collage: the climate of Naples, the topography of Cape Town, the fusion cooking of Sydney, the architecture of Manhattan, the frenzied pace of Hong Kong, and the exuberant nightlife of Rio de Janiero!
But I am always discovering and falling in love with new cities and spaces around the globe. I generally find myself living between the cities where we have offices – London, Cambridge, Turin and Singapore – and the places where we are doing projects at any given time. Perhaps that is a collage as well.

How has the conception of the modern city changed in recent years?
C. R.: “Modern” is an interesting word. Its definition, or rather, the concept of what modern is, constantly undergoes dramatic change. The modern way of thinking about cities is more dynamic, more active than Modernism ever was.
What does that mean for the future city? I think, superficially, the city of tomorrow will not be so different from what we see today. Just as the Romans did 2000 years ago, we will need shelter, horizontal surfaces to stand on, ways of transporting and moving, etc. However, because of the new innovations in collecting and sharing information, we will lead radically different lifestyles – this, I believe, will be the greatest challenge for tomorrow ’s architects and designers. How does architecture delicately weave with new modes of living?

What role has the Internet of Things played in this?
C. R.: The Internet of Things is an exciting idea. It is only just starting, but already we can see how it will change the day to day interactions between people and their environment. Because of new technology, such as RFID tagging, we can essentially connect any object or person – from cargo ships to soup spoons – with the Internet. This might eliminate waste, for example, when we know precise product consumption information, or change how we understand ownership: why buy a new hammer when your neighbour owns one he isn’t using?
We recently did a project called Trash Track, where we tagged thousands of random pieces of trash in the city of Seattle (sneakers, coffee tins, banana peels, cellphones, etc.). Over the next weeks, we sat back and watched as the waste was transported all across the United States, revealing a shocking waste removal network. We know a great deal about the product supply chain, but hardly think about the transportation energy that goes into the things we toss out. This is the sort of data that becomes possible through the Internet of Things.
Basically, what we are beginning to see is a ubiquitous blanket of digital technologies – an enormous, intelligent, real-time infrastructure, supported by increasingly affordable smartphones and tablets. Parallel to that, open databases that anyone can read and add to are aggregating all kinds of information, and a growing network of sensors are passively generating data. As these are woven together more and more tightly by innovations in both private and public access tools, our cities are quickly becoming “computers in open air”.

Why is it so important to capture city life in so many facets as you have done in various projects at your institute?
C. R.: Knowledge of the urban environment is the only starting point for changing it. Thanks to recent technological advances, we have an unprecedented knowledge of what is happening around us, particularly in the context of the city.
Today we know how people are moving, we know where they prefer to have dinner, we know how they shop, and where their trash goes after it is thrown out. Based on these vast quantities of data, we can start to make informed decisions and design smart systems for metropolitan function. That is what we call “Sensing” and “Actuating” – a constant loop, where one feeds back into the other.

What fascinates you personally about the interactive city?
C. R.: Why must the things that surround us – the bricks, the countertops, the sidewalks – be mute? When they are designed and installed, their half-life is predetermined, and they begin the slow process of impotent decay. What fascinates me is the potential for those things to respond: a dynamic environment where, for example, your shopping cart has the same power as your iPhone to help you with groceries. What we see now is the potential for the objects and products that fill our lives to become useful tools in augmenting our every experience. Not only for efficiency or sustainability, but for community and sociability. Technology can, and must, bring people together.

What information will be recorded in the city of tomorrow?
C. R.: It’s exactly that. The information we are gathering is not about the city, per se – it is about human lives. It is the fingerprint of each and every person living in a shared space.
Almost everything we do is recorded digitally, in some form. Yet most of this data is ignored. Unless it is directly marketable, this tide of sensed human behaviour is generally forgotten, taking up server space somewhere.
What we have created is an unprecedented condition of “total recall”. We have a digital copy of the physical world, and if we choose to instrumentalise it, can find innovative ways of incorporating that fingerprint into the built environment.

How much privacy will the people in such a city sacrifice?
C. R.: Data is not strictly confined to the city – it is a broader, cultural trend. Today we spend as much time on the Internet as we do in conversation, and that offers an incredible opportunity to expand, aggregate and share ideas, no matter where you are physically located.
Each of those interactions leaves a digital trace, whether it is Facebook, Gmail, Skype, credit cards or cell phones. This shouldn’t necessarily cause worry about privacy or “big brother” – a hot-button question after events of this year. Behavioural data can be powerful when considered on the aggregated, macro scale – the larger patterns of activity and signatures of humanity – rather than individual cases of privacy.
But it does raise new questions, of the sort that our society and political system have not yet contended with: Who has access to the data? Where is it stored? Is it ever possible to forget?

Sensors everywhere – isn’t that a rather scary scenario? Do you really want to live in a city where every detail gets measured?
C. R.: Again, sensing data and making it useful for the city is a process of aggregation. In our lab we research broader trends – flows and patterns and flux – that show how humanity is collectively behaving or responding. It really has nothing to do with single bits of personal information. There isn’t anything we could do with one person’s twitter feed or their day of shopping, and we aren’t interested in recording or singling out that data.
In fact, most of what we look at is already publicly available. We are simply asking the question: How can we make the best use of existing data? How can it empower people?

What possibilities do your projects offer for improving city life?
C. R.: The common denominator for all of our projects is that they are focused on people, rather than technology. The new data or systems or digital innovations we use are nothing more than a tool for understanding people and their behaviour, and ultimately for creating more environmentally friendly and sociable cities. The bottom line is people.
In fact, we hope to partner with governments, organisations or companies to put in place “ground-up” or “open source” systems. These would allow the users themselves to become agents of change and to guide the dynamic functioning of the spaces around them. If we can create the right technical-support systems (that is, smart cities), you, and the people around you, can solve problems of energy, traffic, health care, food distribution, and education. I am confident that those solutions would be far more effective than the traditional “top-down” initiatives that only address one small issue at a time.
New “wired cities” allow their citizens to build a powerful distributed intelligence and contribute to a novel form of activism. It’s a sort of “best-fit” democratic design.

When you think about the city of tomorrow, what is better than in today’s cities?
C. R.: What surrounds you will increasingly respond to your unique signature. More importantly, it will be best-fit to the larger human patterns happening around you, which you may not even be aware of otherwise. But, as I mentioned before, cities will not appear very different. Shelter will be shelter, movement will be movement. But our lifestyles will change.

The post Living in the IoT city appeared first on Future Markets Magazine.

Previously we were only capable of interacting with data via a few interfaces such as smartphones, PCs or tablets,” comments Rafi Haladjian, proprietor of the sen.se corporation, “everything else in the environment was ‘dumb’; there was no interaction to record data and knowledge.” That is now changing with the Internet of Things: Extensive data recorded by a wide variety of different things forms the basis for comprehensive knowledge. That knowledge extends well beyond the information which can currently be processed and delivered by computers and smartphones. “What we are already able to observe today is that the environment itself is becoming intelligent,” states IBM Technical Sales Director Matthias Dietel. In fact, the term “Internet of Things” has itself already been essentially superseded, as Bernd Heinrichs, Managing Director “Internet of Everything” at Cisco, explains: “It’s about more than just interconnecting things via traditional interfaces.” So the round-table participants prefer to talk about an “Internet of Everything”.

Systems are becoming intelligent

Systems include “things” as well as intelligent processes, as Heinrichs continues: “That means the collected data is not just transmitted, but filtered. Only the relevant information is delivered, to the right people or right device, at the right time and place.” This then also enables automatic functions, meaning that devices make decisions without requiring any human involvement. “The Internet of Things also includes applications by which we can switch on the lights using a smartphone,” Haladjian reports. “But the intelligence in the system is human; it is the human who still decides whether to switch on the lights or not. Of more interest are systems which develop their own behaviour and do things which I, as the user, would not even think of – that is the game-changing part of the Internet of Things.”

Low-cost technology available to all is the key

Such systems are based on a wide variety of electronic devices: sensors, microprocessors, power supply and communication modules. Those technologies already exist today, as Karim Khebere, Technical Director EMEA at EBV Elektronik, affirms: “The technology has to be available to everyone however. We must ensure that start-ups, who might become the big global players of tomorrow, can enter into dialogue with the manufacturers of the technology. Because the Internet of Things can only work if it is adopted by the market across a broad front.” For this to happen, however, it is also important that the technology should be low-cost, as Rafi Haladjian stresses: “If price trends in Bluetooth or Wi-Fi develop similarly to the price of microprocessors, for example, everyone will be interconnecting their products.”

The advantages must be communicated more effectively

Another key factor in the spread of the Internet of Things, however, is the question of trust, as Rob van Kranenburg highlights: “The real questions are not about the technology, but about social acceptance. But sadly there is a great deal of mistrust regarding this technology at present because of the ongoing NSA affair.” Van Kranenburg, coordinator of the parties involved in IoT-Architecture (IoT-A), the biggest European Union project relating to the Internet of Things, believes politicians must also share a major portion of the blame for that mistrust: “Public servants do not really understand the Internet of Things. They talk about security and risk in a way which deters potential users. And at the same time, they are unable to explain the benefits for consumers.” Van Kranenburg would like to see technology experts taking more responsibility in this respect, to highlight the potential of the new technology among the public at large. “If we leave the job to the politicians, we will lose the Internet of Things.”

Maximum security is not essential -everywhere

Not all the round-table participants regard security as being so key to the success of the Internet of Things however. After all, it is already today possible to run critical applications in closed systems. Bernd Heinrichs explains: “It is then equivalent to the Virtual Private Networks which we are familiar with from the Internet. I only have to start thinking about security once I open up such a system to others.” Cisco is already today realising the Internet of Things as a restricted, self-contained system. In mid 2013 the company installed an IP-based system in a railway station, interlinking trains and signals and thousands of sensors and actuators. “The network is tightly secured, and permits no interaction with any consumers,” Heinrichs reports. “It is a self-contained Internet of Things in a highly secure embodiment.”
Also, there are many functions and applications which are simply not relevant in security terms. Rafi Haladjian cites as an example devices such as Wi-Fi-based personal scales or activity trackers which record the user’s movement through the day, counting steps and calculating calories burned for example: “NSA is not interested in whether I am overweight. There are plenty more examples of such non-critical applications.” So in considering security issues it is important to distinguish between business customers and private users, whose security needs are quite different. And not all applications demand the same high security. In view of this, Rob van Kranenburg suggests defining different security and privacy levels depending on use: “You could select a different security level when out shopping than at home for example.”

Users have to be won over

Yet for Rafi Haladjian the issue of security is more of a secondary concern in terms of the successful establishment of the Internet of Things; he wants to win people over to the benefits of the technology. He hopes that people will one day be just as ‘addicted’ to the functionality of the all-encompassing interconnected world as they already are to their smartphones and tablets. “The first stage in spreading the Internet of Things is that people no longer want to live without the capability of having everything to hand, and accessing almost anything. There then comes a stage in which people no longer want to do without the knowledge that the interconnected world provides.” The French entrepreneur sees the gateway to that world in small applications such as the activity tracker Fitbit. “Users will find it easier to overcome their inhibitions about the interconnected world if it’s on a small scale. They will then later also want to try out other applications using more data.” His recipe for success for the Internet of Things is to attract as many users as possible through “sexy” applications and ideas. Only once those users have accepted the technology and are willing to pay for connected devices and services will it be time to start thinking about the infrastructure. With regard to commercial and industrial customers, however, Bernd Heinrichs believes the primary arguments will be economic ones: “We are convinced that businesses can optimise their processes and cut costs by investing in the Internet of Things. It will enable companies worldwide to save billions of dollars.”

Top-down …
Even if businesses will be able to save a lot of money, Rob van Kranenburg thinks private customers have no motivation to commit to the Internet of Things: “Existing applications in that segment are just small-fry; no one is making much money from them. End-users do not yet see any need for the Internet of Things.” In his view, therefore, the Internet of Things should be driven from above. He sees a model in China: “Smartcards have been in use there for 15 years; they contain a chip which can be used to shop, to open the house door, or even to act as an ID. That is one way we might go in Europe too – an object such as a smart ID, utilising a shared platform.” Rob van Kranenburg sees that platform as the basis for a wider Internet of Things. Because then it would not just be a few tech geeks connecting to the network, but entire states, with millions – or in the case of China – billions of users. “If we do not have an all-encompassing, centrally controlled platform of that kind, I fear that we will have hundreds of thousands of different small networks.” He believes his goal of a smart society would then not be attainable.

… or bottom-up?
Rob van Kranenburg’s idea is rejected by the others around the round-table however: “A regulated Internet of Things, such as China is apparently looking to establish, will never work,” asserts Bernd Heinrichs. Rafi Haladjian also thinks its development will be more like that of the “normal” Internet: “It was not controlled by anyone, and emerged from different initiatives. What emerged was something which works.” And there are already plenty of initiatives, as Bernd Heinrichs reports: “In Silicon Valley, for example, start-ups with ideas relating to the Internet of Things are shooting out of the ground like mushrooms. They are not waiting for some platform.” Yet that is just where van Kranenburg sees the danger: “If we do not have a roadmap for the next 10 years, we will have hundreds of start-ups with hundreds of separate protocols for the Internet of Things.” He is supported in his argument by Matthias Dietel: “We have to have some control or guidance for it. We at least need to establish a few guidelines.” They don’t necessarily have to be issued by governments though. IBM, for example, sees itself as a technical integrator, linking the various players. The company’s Smarter Planet strategy is providing the necessary infrastructure. And Cisco also offers a similar platform: It is establishing a dedicated research and development department in Germany. “It is also intended to be an incubation centre for companies developing applications for the Internet of Things, with Cisco providing the platform,” Heinrichs explains. And suddenly it appears that the visions of Rob van Kranenburg and those of Heinrichs and Dietel are quite similar after all: “If Cisco would spread its platform a little farther, to include the consumer, then we would have a foundation. We need just 20 major players creating a coherent shared system to establish the basis for an all-encompassing Internet of Things.” In the industrial sphere, at least, that is even already happening, as Dietel emphasises: “Major corporations have already banded together under the Industry 4.0 umbrella to create a joint platform.” And finding a common language for the Internet of Things also does not really seem to be a problem, as Bernd Heinrichs explains: “All the protocols for the Internet of Things will be IPv6 based – even toothbrushes will use the next-generation Internet protocol.”

The world will change

“With an all-encompassing Internet of Things of such a kind, real time based decision-making processes would be possible which would call our entire political system into question,” asserts Rob van Kranenburg. “We would then no longer need lots of civil servants and politicians seeking to control society.” Matthias Dietel takes a similar view: “The Internet will become society’s operating system. A global village will emerge; it remains to be seen what role governments will play in it.” So the Internet of Things might lead to the old historical systems being fundamentally changed. “We believe that megacities will be the nation-states of the future,” states Bernd Heinrichs. “In 50 years we might even not have any countries any more.” But the Internet of Things not only means change for the established nation-states. Karim Khebere reminds the group of countries in Africa, Asia or South America: “The Internet of Things will drive their development such that they start catching up the industrialised nations much more rapidly. It is a phenomenon extending well beyond technology!”

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Electronic components are the basic building blocks of the Internet of Things. Power supply, connectivity, sensors, data processing and security – the electronics industry offers solutions for all those key challenges. But creating a product or application for the Internet of Things takes quite a bit more. Thomas Staudinger, Vice President Vertical Segments EMEA of EBV, explains how EBV can support developers in this, and what technological trends he sees in electronic components for the Internet of Things.

What does the Internet of Things mean to EBV?
Thomas Staudinger: First of all it is an exciting growth opportunity – billions of devices will get connected in the next years and all of them require semiconductors content. Our customers provide products for the IoT and look for a distribution partner that is able to support their requirements. EBV is extremely well positioned due to the product portfolio, the technical expertise and the segment know-how.

What do you perceive to be the biggest challenges on the way to a functioning Internet of Things?
T.S.: At present we see that the market is struggling with the lack of standardisation of the wireless protocols: M-Bus, Z-Wave, ZigBee, Bluetooth LE … just to name a few. It is challenging to provide complete solutions and interoperability when you have to cater for so many different options.
Wireless means also that most of the solutions will not be connected to the grid and operate on batteries i.e. lower power. Ideally the products don’t even need batteries – energy harvesting is of consideration here.
I think we also should not underestimate the need of the end customer for security. People will ask how secure is my data and the industry needs to have answers.

What can EBV do as a distributor to help overcome these challenges?
T.S.: The system solution expertise is nowadays  embedded in reference designs that help the industry in understanding the connection of the different elements. EBV is taking the effort in bridging the different technologies to offer working platforms that are supported by experienced third parties from a software perspective. Basically the two key challenges are connectivity and security. Our customers look for guidance on the standards, advice on the best offering for their products and technical support for the implementation. EBV’s vertical segment organisation provides the expertise and the system solutions; the customers get their local support via our sales and application engineers in the field. For example EBV has dedicated technical resources of RF and Wireless that help to design the wireless solution.

Which products does EBV offer for the future Internet of Things?
T.S.: EBV offers the full spectrum of semiconductor components – both for the remote nodes and for the data concentrators: from the RF transceivers for the different wireless standards to the different type of sensors to the power management ICs. Our broad range of microcontrollers and processors provides the right performance points for each end product. In the security area EBV has the key players in the industry on the line card and can provide authentication devices for the various requirements.

Which technological trends can you observe amongst your suppliers, the electronics manufacturers?
T.S.: Reducing the demand for power is clearly a key trend. Besides innovative concepts such as energy harvesting there is still a lot of work done to develop lowest power devices that consume less energy both in active and stand-by mode.
Offering RF transceivers that can run different standards – similar to the combo chips in mobile phones – will help to address the lack of standardisation. We need to keep in mind that companies will have to connect their product to the Internet might have little RF experience.

Do you still perceive there to be a need for development of electronic components to enable a functioning Internet of Things to be constructed?
T.S.: The key building blocks seem to be available. Depending on the project requirements we will see on one hand the trend to integration for high volume application e.g. CMOS sensor and microcontroller; on the other hand a more modular approach will succeed when flexibility is needed. With the EBVchips concept EBV can even offer own dedicated products for the IoT and help to close the gaps in the product offering.

What is EBV doing to help application developers beyond the question of hardware?
T.S.: Software is a very broad term. For example, our Field Application Engineers support the customer engineers hands on by training them on the software tools and supporting the hardware / software integration. In a number of areas higher level software is required. EBV is engaging with partners and third parties to offer the customer a complete solution.

When you consider your business model and your procedures – can you imagine that these will change due to the Internet of Things?
T.S.: Absolutely. To give you a few examples how things are changing already. Not only that we are investing heavily into the expertise in technologies such as Wireless and Security by having dedicated resources. We also need to be able to translate the know-how into the requirements of the different market segments like Automotive, Consumer, Healthcare and Renewable Energies. This requires very close cooperation between the technology and the market driven teams.
Customers tend to look for complete solutions, meaning they are not only looking for a certain component but a bundle with software. This drives different commercial and technical approaches.
It is just the start – the Internet of Things will bring tremendous change!

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Tracking infections

Toronto-based company Infonaut is using a real-time location system to help prevent infections in hospitals. The system is able to track the movements, contacts and interactions of patients, medical staff and equipment to within less than 40 centimetres. This enables hospitals to identify how and when infections are transmitted between people and equipment.
www.infonaut.ca

A wired brain

The Spark Core from Minneapolis-based company Spark Devices makes it easy to create hardware with Internet connectivity. The unit incorporates a Wi-Fi module and a powerful microprocessor capable of acting as a ‘wired brain’ for any machine or device. The Spark Core is compatible with Arduino, a developer platform which even non-experts find easy to use. The unit connects automatically to the Spark Cloud, via which the Spark Core can then be accessed from anywhere, any time.
www.spark.io

Intelligent heating control

The tado company, founded in 2011 in Munich, has developed an intelligent heating control system which adapts in real time to occupants’ behaviour, as well as incorporating up-to-date weather data and taking into account the specific characteristics of the building. The smartphone in the tado Box automatically sends information to the heating controller using a geolocation app. When the last occupant has left the building the temperature is lowered. As soon as someone heads towards home, tado starts warming up the dwelling to the preprogrammed desired temperature.
www.tado.com

Lots of functions, one device

QGate, the mobile controller from the Vienna-based start-up of the same name, connects everyday things to the Internet. The QGate is essentially an adapter, equipped with a wide array of sensors. It not only allows electrical equipment connected to it to be controlled by a smartphone, but also captures data from the room, such as the temperature or brightness, for various applications including temperature monitoring or presence simulation.
www.qgate.com

Taking good care of plants

Recent Zurich-based start-up Koubachi has developed a Wi-Fi plant sensor, which effectively gives plants their own voice. The sensor unit incorporates a soil moisture sensor, as well as measuring the light intensity and temperature. Data is transmitted to the Koubachi Plant Care Engine via the built-in Wi-Fi module. Based on scientifically conceived plant care models, the app analyses the parameters, determines the vitality of the plant, and sends detailed care instructions to the plant’s owner.
www.koubachi.com

A smartphone as a virtual key

Lockitron turns a mobile phone into a door key. The system developed by Californian company Apigy is simply mounted on the existing door lock and connects it by Wi-Fi to the Internet. This enables the door to be locked and unlocked using an app on the smartphone. It also means the door can be unlocked from anywhere in the world to provide family or friends with access if necessary. The system also sends a notification to the smartphone if the door is opened using a spare key, such as by a child. If an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 is used, the system detects via Bluetooth when the owner is approaching the door and automatically unlocks it.
lockitron.com

Operating system for network-connected devices

Abacus OS from London-based company Clickslide is an operating system which enables apps to be developed for a wide variety of Cloud-connected devices. Programming interfaces are integrated by a set of simple input screens, with no need for coding. This enables anyone to connect any domestic appliance or other electronic device to their smartphone using an app. Since any programming interfaces can be integrated, it is very easy to connect to lots of different protocols used by the Internet of Things.
www.clickslide.co

Generating useful information from data

French company sen.se, established in 2010, provides an Internet platform on which devices, applications and people can post information. With Open.Sen.se, the individual items of data can be turned into useful information. The company is also developing apps by which data can be pre-processed and presented in an easily understandable way. They will make decisions easier to take and translate into action – either by the users themselves, or automatically, by operating connected equipment directly.
www.open.sen.se

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