Overnight trips when both of my kids were younger were hard. Wishing them goodnight over the phone. Sending postcards. But I always wished there was a way to stay connected with them while I was away.
I read an interesting article on GigaOM by Stacey Higginbotham entitled, Hey parents! The internet of things might just be your new best friend, which highlights how the Internet of Everything (IoE) is beginning to impact parent-children relationships. More specifically, the article showcases a Wi-Fi enabled teddy bear that lets parents’ text or send hugs to their children. This message-receiving bear can provide younger children with comfort and reassurance in knowing that their parents are thinking of them when they are away.
As the Internet of Everything evolves and grows, we see more and more innovations focused on convenience, safety and security, thereby impacting parenting. Today, video-enabled baby monitors connect to the Internet and allow parents to watch and talk or sing to their baby from miles away. These types of technologies are just the beginning. The Internet of Everything will enable cribs to monitor vital signs – capturing each time a baby takes a breath -- and collecting sleeping and feeding pattern data.
While much of this technology wasn’t available when my children were small, it is exciting think of the possibilities for the future of parenting.
As my daughter is preparing to go away to college, I often wonder the best way for us to stay connected. For now, I’m going to rely on video chatting. She said the bear didn’t go with her dorm décor.
How would you like to see the IoE impact how you connect with your children? Please join the discussion at: #IoE and #InternetofEverything.
I was in the grocery store when I realized that something new was going on: our entrance into the era of computing that I call convergence — the convergence of man and machine – is already changing the face of collaboration.
In the recent past, collaboration did a great job of connecting people to people through video, voice and the virtual workspace, which improved productivity and the intimacy of connection. A video chat, whether for business or pleasure, communicates more than a simple phone call. Add a collective workspace and you’re off like a rocket. In this collaboration between people, the technology served as a conduit.
But now I’m sensing the beginning of something different: collaborating with the machine itself. Here’s an example: I’m pretty focused on maintaining my health and my weight so when I go to the grocery store, I have a health app that’s connected to my online health profile and running with augmented reality. When I show my phone my choice of broccoli, it votes thumbs up; when I grab my favorite cookies, it displays the calories and cholesterol they will add to my daily intake, notes that it’s contrary to medication I’m on, and advises me against it. (Of course when I get to the beer aisle, I over-ride its displeasure: this is collaborative, after all, not dictatorial!)
When natural disasters strike, our first instincts are to phone or text loved ones; check news and social media sites; and go online to lend support. These connections become our lifelines. In the process, mobile devices become paramount in connecting people to people and people to data.
That’s why the Internet of Everything (IoE) is so critical. In the moments immediately following a disaster popular social media networks, like Facebook and Twitter, serve as quick ways to locate loved ones. At the same time, social media allows those affected to inform multiple people at once that they are okay, with a simple tweet or post. Read More »
Data generated by people and data generated by machines is actually quite different and as we move from the Internet of Things
to the Internet of Everything, this has some pretty interesting implications.
Data generated by things or machines is actually quite structured: A sensor is programmed or created to produce only a specific type of d
ata. Count the cars that cross the intersection, for example. And it’s predictable, sending a signal at specified intervals which makes the data pegged to a specific moment in time, as is the data’s relevance. It’s also generally low bandwidth, as you would imagine: A single signal from a sensor, providing specific data on a short time horizon.
Data generated by people, on the other hand, is highly unpredictable – I don’t know who I’m going to call or email and whether there’s a photo op when I step outside. Data from humans is unstructured, from spreadsheets to blooper videos, and has historical relevance. Tax returns, photos of your kids, the novel in draft in your desk drawer. It’s moderate to high bandwidth, depending on what you’re doing and it’s always on, always available. Read More »
As a futurist and technologist, I’m an optimist. I view technology through the lens of how it can help people.
From this perspective, there is no better time to be alive than now. That’s because we are entering an era where the Internet has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of everyone on our planet—from accelerating the discovery of cures for diseases, to understanding climate change, to enhancing the way companies do business, to making every day more enjoyable.
Already, the Internet has benefited many individuals, businesses, and countries by improving education through the democratization of information, allowing for economic growth through electronic commerce, and accelerating business innovation by enabling greater collaboration.
So what will the next decade of the Internet bring?
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