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TUESDAY 10 JUNE 2014 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 inside Teen tearjerker CAMPUS trounces Tom • Pakistan Education Centre students Cruise flick showcase acting skills P | 5 P | 8-9 WHEELS • Lamborghini Huracan tempers raging bull with refinement Imagine if your kitchen scales could advise you about nutrition or if your lavatory could tell you to see a doctor. The Internet of P | 6 Things is making these ideas possible, but at what price? RECIPE CONTEST • Send in your best recipe and win a dinner voucher for two P | 7 HEALTH • Climb stairs, cut calories: Southeast Asia fights flab P | 11 TECHNOLOGY • Sony takes on Facebook’s Oculus in virtual reality race P | 12 IoT: TECH LEARN ARABIC • Learn commonly used Arabic words and their meanings REVOLUTION P | 13 2 PLUS | TUESDAY 10 JUNE 2014 COVER STORY Internet of Things: It’s all coming together for a tech revolution By Luke Dormehl opened or there is motion while they’re away. They they tend to get hung up on the ‘things’ them- can be notified when there is moisture in the base- selves,” says Ian Foddering, chief technology officer ment and they can programme the lights and heat to and technical director at Cisco UK and Ireland. he Internet of Things may be one of the turn off when no one is present in the house, which “Actually, the real value and insight comes from clumsier neologisms to have emerged can mean huge energy savings.” the data that these devices provide. We’re just at in recent times, but that has seemingly Already tech giants are getting involved, viewing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what is done nothing to slow its growth. For this as a logical progression from the personal com- possible in terms of data extraction. It’s a very those unfamiliar with it, the Internet of puter and smartphone races of previous decades. At exciting time.” TThings (also known as M2M or machine to machine) its Worldwide Developers conference (WWDC) event “Data empowers us,” says Renee Blodgett, vice refers to an expanding network of interconnected recently, Apple introduced Homekit, an Internet of president of marketing and strategy at Kolibree, internet-enabled devices. Driven by miniaturisa- Things platform that will co-ordinate various third- the world’s first connected electric toothbrush (yes, tion, the affordability of components such as cheap party home automation accessories, allowing you to really!). “For the first time, we have data on how Bluetooth sensors, and the growing ubiquity of tech- unlock your doors or turn on and off your lights via we brush our teeth, where we brush our teeth and nologies such as Wi-Fi, it is now possible to connect your iPhone. where we need to improve. Before now, we would devices in a way that would never have previously Google, too, demonstrated its interest by paying only get that feedback from our dentist once a year been thought possible. While still in its “early adop- $3.2bn earlier this year to buy Nest Labs, a home when we have our annual cleaning. Now, we can ter” infancy, some estimates suggest that by 2020 automation company co-founded by the creator get that feedback in real time.” there will be in the region of 50 billion IoT devices of the iPod. Already well known for its connected While marginal gains in toothbrushing might — all talking with one another on a constant basis. thermostats and smoke detectors, Nest is currently not sound like much, the overall point about the “Consumers are beginning to realise that this tech- investigating a slew of other applications related power of big data is certainly valid. nology isn’t an outlandish, futurist concept com- to the home — everything from health tracking to Entrepreneur and former Apple employee Mike ing to life from The Jetsons but in fact can be used security systems. Grothaus agrees. Earlier this year, Grothaus suc- efficiently and effectively to solve everyday prob- What unites products as seemingly disparate as cessfully used a Kickstarter campaign to create lems,” says Alex Hawkinson, CEO of home automa- driverless cars and fitness-tracking wearables such SITU, a set of kitchen scales that relays data about tion company SmartThings. “The top-use cases have as the Jawbone UP is their ability to collect data nutrition to your iPad. Such was the demand for to do with security, peace of mind and savings. For from, and on behalf of, their users. SITU that the project received almost 30 percent example, consumers can be notified when a door is “When people talk about the Internet of Things, of its funding in the first day alone. PLUS | TUESDAY 10 JUNE 2014 3 “It’s a revolution,” Grothaus says of the burgeoning connectivity. “It won’t be as flash or obvious as the smartphone revolution, but it will be more profound because it connects everything together.” But if the Internet of Things is revolutionary, it is also, in a sense, evolutionary. “In the early 20th century, all sorts of devices and objects became elec- trical,” says Rafi Haladjian, founder of Sen.se and an IoT pioneer. “Irons, kettles and washing machines all used to be mechanical; then suddenly this great new technology came along. The same thing is happening today.” What differentiates Internet of Things devices from the PCs, tablets and smartphones that came before them is their invisibility. The likes of Kolibree or SITU come with no screen or traditional input device such as a keyboard. “The most profound technologies are those that disappear,” wrote Mark Weiser, the chief technology officer of Xerox PARC, in the early 1990s. “They weave themselves into the questions about privacy. Freedom fabric of everyday life until they are through surveillance is a remnant indistinguishable from it.” of George W Bush’s America. Now, Sometimes, these devices are indis- however, that same ideological stance tinguishable from the world around extends to our gadgets. As always, them on account of their sheer this isn’t a straightforward equation scale. Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent movie — a panopticon effect in which we are Metropolis depicted the city as one monitored by a faceless watchman and giant organism, and that is now a pos- receive nothing in return. sibility in the world of hyper-connected IoT devices offer new ways for us cities, in which even the pipes that to take control of our lives, but also carry our water and the roads we drive paradoxically cede that same control. on contain smart components. It is here that a techno-sceptic like In other cases, it might be that the Evgeny Morozov enters the frame. technologies are so small that we do In his latest book, To Save Everything, not readily see them. The dream of Click Here, Morozov takes issue with those working in the biotech field today details about Apple’s work in this area, represent a minority. But while no one what he terms “solutionism”: the idea is for physical augmentations that con- it seems clear that this is the domain is going to force you to wear a con- that everything from obesity to global stantly monitor our wellbeing — with innovations such as the just-announced nected device (in most jobs), those who warming can be solved with the aid of sensors and microscopic robots in the HealthKit (and possibly the forthcom- do will become increasingly common a few interconnected devices. Viewing circulatory system, tracking blood ing iWatch) will focus on. — and will be incentivised for it. The self-tracking as the epitome of the pressure and scanning for early-stage At the moment, people who choose car insurance company Drive Like a “modern narcissistic quest for unique- cancers. While we don’t yet have all the to track and share their data still Girl, for instance, installs on-board ness and exceptionalism,” Morozov car computers that monitor your driv- pointedly asks why anyone would want ing and offers cheaper premiums to to turn every aspect of their lives into those drivers who prove less likely to a “temple of surveillance.” have an accident. “We use the latest Will these concerns be enough to telematics technology to give girls the put people off using such devices? fair price they deserve, not because Concerns have already been raised they are female, but because they are about the implications of Google’s safer drivers,” the company’s website expansion into the IoT field since its states. “With telematics, they can purchase of Nest Labs — a byprod- prove it.” uct of which would be that the Silicon Perhaps more intrusive is the idea Valley giant would hold ever more of an Internet of Things-enabled lav- granular data about its users. atory, which uses sensors inside the Beyond this are issues about secu- bowl to sample your stool and provide rity — such as what would happen in health-related insights. By testing the event that our devices were hacked urine, these sensors might be able to by someone with the ability to shut off detect hormone changes in a woman our water supply, or take control of and advise if she is pregnant. It could our cars, or unlock the doors of our similarly look for bacterial infections houses from thousands of miles away. and suggest whether you can stick to For those working in the field, how- Pepto-Bismol or should seek medi- ever, these are temporary concerns, cal advice. If neither of these sounds which can be addressed with the right enough of an incentive to ditch your amount of planning.

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