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Embracing the Internet of Things

DIGITIMES staff

Enterprise organizations aren't just talking about the possibilities of the Internet of Things (IoT) anymore, many now see it as core to their strategy. With the potential to streamline and deliver greater time and cost savings to a broad range of enterprise tasks, opportunities for IoT adoption are flourishing. It's encouraging to see so many industry-leading manufacturers, service providers, software and systems developers getting down to the hard work of making the vision IoT investments succeed.

Things that were thought impossible in the past have become possible with the emergence of new services and products. In the 90's we saw the emergence of the Internet which redefined the way people consume and contributed, while in the 2000's, we see how a simplified user experience creates wonders in making consumption easier. In the next decade, we will see how a network of devices will further transform our everyday lives and make it smarter by establishing an intelligent web of processes, objects, information and people.

Connected vehicles has been the most visible and familiar example of IoT technology. Indeed, the auto industry is on the verge of a revolution, and the driving force is the Internet.

IoT as an essential ingredient of everyday life

MediaTek, New Business Development and IoT, Vice President, JC Hsu

The Internet has become an integral part of everyday life precisely because it has been an open-to-all land of opportunity everyone encounters on a daily basis. IoT is a difficult concept for many people to wrap their minds around. Essentially, IoT consists of technologically advanced objects that have the ability to transmit information, and potentially even sense, monitor and react to human behavior.

As a pioneering maker, MediaTek is determined to be a creative, developer-centric ecosystem supporting device creation center, and to provide application development and services. With its rapidly growing MediaTek Labs, ecosystem and Linkit community, it also intends to change the future of wearable technology. Most discussions of IoT revolve around how it will impact our lives over the coming decades. But few realize how much of an impact IoT already has on our daily lives. Transportation, health and exercise, home and business are four ways IoT already affects our lives and MediaTek is up to the challenge with devices capable of supporting multiple standards, new security systems and build an eco-system business model.

MediaTek is also helping businesses optimize in a number of ways. Some stores are already using signals from shoppers' smartphones to track their behavior in-store, pairing up with online data to get the most in-depth customer profile possible. Retailers with apps can then use the data to deliver coupons and special promotional material to the customer's phone at the perfect time and place.

THINK Cognitive IoT

Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. Director of Product Management, IoT, Amy Wong

The era of cognitive mobile and IoT business has begun and is upon us.

Marvell's expertise in microprocessor architecture and digital signal processing, drives multiple platforms including high volume storage solutions, wireless, networking, consumer and green products. Cognitive computing, focused on enabling software models that simulate the human thought process, is set to power the next generation of enterprise mobile and IoT solutions.

Cognitive computing provides enterprise mobile solutions with interfaces for interacting with voice, video, and audio programmatically. Is Connectivity enough? The Internet of Things mainly focuses on how to connect the physical world to an App or Cloud Service. Connected is not enough. What we need is Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Technologies

Cognitive IoT has the capability to bridge the physical world and the social world and enhance smart devices, automatic interconnects, and intelligent service provisioning. So, Cognitive computing for enterprise mobile, Cognitive computing for enterprise IoT also Making cognitive mobile and IoT computing a reality today the most fundamental building block of matter.

Today at 2016 COMPUTEX, Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. Director of Product Management, IoT, Amy Wong, offered a few impressive examples about how The computing capabilities of embedded systems are increasing exponentially and addressing this at the embedded level with Audio Processing, Context awareness, Sensor Fusion and Location/Positioning. Also, Introducing their IAP product suite leveraging IAP Platform in their Home Automation, mobile, industrial and wearable solutions. This dialogue represents one of the latest examples of how cognitive computing is transforming mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.

In a few years, smart networked computer will distribute cognitive capability everywhere, and we'll wonder how we ever did without it. But before that, it will not grow exponentially unless we enable a truly intelligent network of connected things... until we enable the Cognitive Internet of Things.

Internet of Things: Are We There Yet?

Dialog Semiconductor, Product Marketing Manager, Wei Tong

Now that it has been established that the Internet of Things is the most hyped "emerging technology" today, and that the term is far from being new, the question to be answered is where are we today? how to choose the right solution for your application?

Key takeaways from Dialog Semiconductor collection of IoT forecasts and market estimates include the following: an overview of the current state of the IoT market. connectivity standards and IoT Solutions

Things are getting smarter and the Internet of Things is expanding. Devices, connectivity and IT services are expected to account for the majority of the global IoT market in 2020, with Wearables Smart Home IoT Architecture. Spaghetti of connectivity standards, purpose-built platforms, storage, security, application software and "as a service" offerings are expected to capture a greater percentage of revenue as the market matures.

As the Internet of Things ecosystem continues to grow, companies increasingly will look to platforms and services that help them manage and analyze the streams of data coming from connected cars, thermostats and smartwatches. That means a new world for Dialog Semiconductor as companies look for ways and tools to process and analyze data from multiple sources in real time.

Dialog Semiconductor has noted, the growth in IoT-enabled devices has been fueled in part by consolidated technology choice in order to accelerate Your Time to Market. The software needed to take IoT to the next level like developer tools and companies are using it to boost operations and seek out new business models. Dialog Semiconductor just a few of the many companies making strides in the IoT space. Truly, it's powering the smart connected future.

Ready Steady Go Auto's

Cadence, Corporate VP, Michael Shih

Embracing IoT may lead to increased self-driving and electric cars accelerating evolution of automotive electronics all in 5 years, Mr. Shih said. EE system will becomes a car's major cost Automotive Revolution will likely need to be managed by traditional player, new comer. Bane and boon and new ethics of self driving the same infrastructure, underscoring the need for common standards. As Mr. Shih noted, automotive tops IC market growth rate reliability, functional safety and security will be crucial.

Cars will be a "major element" of the expanding Internet of Things, with one in five vehicles having some sort of wireless network connection by 2020, "The connected car is already a reality, and in-vehicle wireless connectivity is rapidly expanding from luxury models and premium brands, to high-volume mid-market models," said Mr. Shih, Corporate VP at Cadence.

The increased entry ticket to be an automotive supplier and creation of digital content within the vehicle will drive the need for more sophisticated infotainment systems," Mr Shih said, adding that this could create opportunities for app developers, graphics designers and interactive display technologies. "At the same time, new concepts of mobility and vehicle usage will lead to new business models and expansion of alternatives to car ownership, especially in urban environments."

While the majority of connected cars, at least in the early stages, will be a car-to-mobile connection, Cadence expects Challenges of considering all scenarios under all operating environments, incorporating hardware and software in design risk on advanced nodes this network to expand eventually to vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure connections. Part of this growth will be fuelled by Palladium Z1 key characteristics initiatives. For example, EDA's future in automotive industry enables more automotive plays and functional safety design flow combine with IP Mixed-signal design, co-design flow for automotive application etc.

IoT connections and the 'Big Data' generate help automotive improve vehicles and enhance the driving experience. Automated verification with high coverage on different verification targets, flow with traceable design and project management tool to become best in class total cost of ownership (TCO).

Let's Driving the Future Today with Cadence.

Internet of Things? Well, It's the 'Internet of Cars'

GMobi(General Mobile), CEO of GMobi, Paul Wu

How the Internet of Things will change your life: all you need to know, The Internet of Things (IoT) won't just connect people: It will connect. GMobi tell you WHY IoT matters to your organisation, HOW to generate real value from IoT, WHAT the best approaches to implementation are, and WHO can help you along the way Connected cars hit the road, buckle up with GMobi

Car needs OTA (Over- The Air) update according to GMobi. It also bring a number of practical questions, such as cars can be hacked, US security and privacy in your car act (SPY Car Act). GMobi's OTA platform for connected cars, system architecture ect. The truth of the matter is there is a life cycle that has to happen that might be different from the traditional application life cycle," Interoperability also will be a major sticking point when it comes to corporate adoption.

GMobi also addressed the issues like Over-the-air software updates for your car are becoming a reality and harman is helping car companies get with the times. And yet, not all updates are equal, of course; some are going to be critical systems that need to be fixed to satisfy a recall or Security threats and countermeasures in OTA update, where as others are less important and can be postponed or ignored by owners. The platform gives OEMs a way to deploy those updates, which can be forced out to a fleet, pushed out silently, or pulled in by owners at the time of their choosing. There's also some fine-grained control that can restrict OTA updates to Wi-Fi (as opposed to LTE) or which require a vehicle to be parked before updating, and so on.

Obviously, Security is an issue here, something Mr. Wu said it must be addressed holistically by OEMs, but he pointed out that being able to push out revised software that fixes bugs or exploits rapidly would be a much better option than the lengthy process of taking one's car to a dealer.

It might be some time before the entire automotive world has adopted this approach to OTA updates, but you only need to look at how happy their customers are with the practice to see that it's a no-brainer.

Let's get on with IoT Platform, The GOOD, the BAD and the UNLIKELY

Ayla Networks Inc., Global Sales & Service, Vice President, Michel J. Maeso

With global connectivity, personal mobile and digital society sustainable world, IoT will dwarf all other stages of the internet. The economic impact of IoT will be huge according to McKinsey, estimated potential economic impact of the Internet of Things in 2025, range from $3.9-11 trillion annually.

Why? Products are Changing...The value of data outshines the value of productIn the IoT, selling a product is a catalyst for data transaction, not an end in itself. For example, an appliance manufacturer could make a fortune selling data about the contents of people's refrigerators to CPG brands. This would enable manufacturers to change their commercial model, perhaps offering a subscription or service fee model; or even offering free use of the appliance in return for data access.

IoT is Changing everything for everyone both OEMs and consumers.We are moving towards a world where literally everything you can imagine will be connected. While this opens the door to many opportunities for the consumer and businesses, it also comes with its own risks and challenges such as privacy and security. Regardless, Ayla Networks believe this is going to be a very exciting time and IoT is going to change everything ,impacting everyone and every business around the world within the next few years.

Ayla Networks believe Flexibility Focus-It will allow companies to make smarter products. It used to be that we only expected our phones to be able to make phone calls. Today, most consumers expect a lot more from the device they carry in their pocket.

Enable smarter business operations and smarter decisions. A big part of the Internet of Things isn't so much about smart devices, but about sensors. One of the example is The Dimplex CONNEX devices allows a user to manage their Dimplex CONNEX smart heaters using their mobile devices.

Keep watch: Cloud Surveillance

ThroughTek, Sales and Business Development, Manager, Kenny Wu

The Internet of Things opens up a whole new array of possible attack vectors that compromise your security. We have not at all figured out how we will store and process the data we are collecting, who owns it, and who has access to it. Together with weak security and an overreaching state, the Internet of Things can easily become our worst dystopian nightmare.

Cloud-based computing has touched just about every industry and it will continue to reshape the security and surveillance sector as well. Security can now be offered as a service that is managed remotely, Secure remote access to security systems will increase in use, including by end users who want the convenience and real-time benefits of being able to monitor property and events without having to be physically present. Security as a service: the cloud emerges and more cameras mean big data also the growing concern for cyber security threats.

Established in 2008, ThroughTek, a leading IoT total solution provider for cloud connection platform. Kalay Platform. The Kalay Platform delivers end-to-end solutions to meet fast-developing and changing IoT environment. It including, IoT Solution for Cloud Surveillance, Real Time Monitoring for Enhanced Security, Flexible Plans for Cloud Video Recording, Comprehensive Device Management Portal, Data Collection & Advanced Analytics.

In addition, suppliers like ThroughTek continuously update their solution with new features, bug fixes and security patches. To deal with the increasing risk, variety and volume of security risks, security systems users will need to stay on top of updates from their suppliers and take heed of best practices for preventing attacks through network camera-based systems.

It is an IoT Platform, stupid!

Exosite, Director of Operations, Taiwan, Dominic Cope

Exosite provides IoT platform to enable business transformation through connected products. The platform, device software, and collaborative partnerships give you an intuitive starting point to get your devices up and running, fast.

We are currently witnessing an explosion in IoT deployments and solutions around the world. IoT platforms are emerging as the central backbone of these IoT deployments.

The right IoT Platforms is the key for the development of scalable IoT application and service that connect the real and virtual worlds between objects, systems and people. However, as the IoT Platform market represents a truly new segment that was almost non-existent a few years ago, the landscape is complex and changing very quickly.

Exosite's technology platform was build to help companies rapidly build purposeful (valuable) loT solutions. To create a true IoT ecosystem, where systems of systems interact and generate value from diverse streams of data, interoperability is essential. No one IoT platform will be able to cover the wide spectrum of existing and potential use cases yet to be envisaged. Using DIY ioT ecosystem, leads to pay the loT development tax, reducing your barrier to entry. Dominic eads the Operations team at Exosite. He has extensive experience in IoT platforms.

Gathering and connecting data points from billions of physical objects is fundamental to letting new IoT business cases come to life. As their success stories postulated, generating insightful data is the key to unlocking this value. For more in-depth information on Exosite IoT Platforms, check out their website and success stories.

Play time: smartwatches for kids

JUMPY Founder Jerry Chang

Smartwatches are not just for adults. Believe it or not, there are quite a few smartwatches tailored for kids. Or, more specifically, designed to help parents keep track of their children.

We all know that some parents want to slap a wearable on their kids purely so they know their GPS location at all times. And that's useful for the adults. But what about the kids? Smartwatches for children can be fun too.

If you're looking for a smartwatch for your child, then this is a great place to start. So, here's our pick of the smartwatches for kids, JUMPY. As the leader of kid smartwatch 3, JUMPY have simple, connected, communication/ security center, social center group. It wants to get kids active and tries to do so with a selection of motion-based activities, but there are also extra features like super 4 position/ history/ SOS/ safe zone. Also, maths challenges with a digital owl. voice call/ sketch messaging/ voice messaging/ call log. Some of them also handle activity tracking or GPS, but all of them provide something extra that will keep everyone happy.

Available in a range of colours of course, the main appeal here is that the smartwatch features a built-in Eco-system for watch with fun understand kids better effects, unlimited stories/ add friend/ toy control firness center/ pet coach/ step count/ pedo guide/ hero fight etc to choose from.

Overall, Smartwatch for children integrates safety, communications and fitness.

All about humanoid robots

GeStream Technology Inc, CEO, Changho-Yu

People all around the world adore humanoid robot, designed to someday assist people in their daily lives.

Gestream Technology lnc is the 1st humanoid robot designer, manufacturer and educator in Taiwan, dedicates to provide innovative robots that are affordable and easy to use. It's BeRobot also sets Guiness World Record with World's smallest robot

Still, even those who've had the pleasure of meeting humanoid robot and seeing it in action (walking up steps, running, hopping, serving treats to guests) might not know the full story about how the robot came about... So how can humanoid robots be used ?

First, Robot as an interface to computing systems, providing people with all the services we get from mobile phone or personal advisors such as Amazon Echo while connecting with people on emotional level so called Industrial Robot with Interaction Control.

Second, Robot as a sensor array on wheels. Major difference between robots and mobile phones is that Robots can move. This enables robots to move all the sensors installed on them (image, voice, temp, ... ) and investigate things from different angels. It opens a new set of use cases from answering questions like "NAO, where did I put my reading glasses?" sending the robot to search them at home. Another example is a robot that follows a person with light dementia and, if needed, remind him or her to take pills or lock the door when leaving the house. Obviously, this is with Mobile or Remote Control

How do you think Robots will change our future?