News Analysis
News
Industrial Wearables: The Next Generation
The emergence of the IoT (Internet of Things) and workers’ need for realtime data, monitoring, and tracking are boosting the development of wearable technologies for the industrial sector. The result will be increased productivity and efficiency.
The Looming Threat for Businesses
Cyber threats are real and affect all businesses. According to a recent Webroot, www.webroot.com, study, 96% of small-to-medium-sized businesses with 100 to 499 employees in the U.S., U.K., and Australia believe their organizations will be susceptible to external cybersecurity threats in 2017. Among those, 71% admit to not being ready to address them.
In Focus
Episode 518 | 06.27.17
In June, Peggy Smedley was joined by Danielle George, professor of radio frequency engineering, University of Manchester, who talks about transitioning her work in wireless tech for U.K. space stations to help farmers gain a better understanding of crops and weeds before they begin to grow. She anticipates that along with agriculture and aerospace, wireless sensors pose major potential to detect early signs of cancer and other life-threatening conditions. manchester.ac.uk
Connected Field Service for Medical Equipment
More than 1 million patients are treated each year on machines from Elekta, www.elekta.com, a Swedish manufacturer of medical technologies for treating cancer and brain disorders. The reliability and continued uptime of the company’s assets is critical. With assets in operation in more than 6,000 medical facilities, Elekta turned to the IoT (Internet of Things) to help it offer additional value to customers and patients and gain a competitive advantage over other medical equipment and service providers.
Think Tank
The Future of IoT
When you first heard the term “Internet of Things,” what were you picturing in your mind? What was your interpretation of what the IoT (Internet of Things) meant? For many, it was consumer-based, thinking of fitness trackers, smart thermostats, and connected doors that “tell you” when they are opened. For others, it meant scenarios in the commercial world such as sensors on jet engines that communicate the state of the engine for analysis or commercial fleets that could be tracked and managed with a high level of insight as to where the vehicles are and their current operating conditions. It may have meant “smart grids” that conveyed the status of electricity distribution to provide more efficient operation. One thing seemed clear, this was all very futuristic, and certainly very cool.
Industrial IoT Commercial Vehicles Market Racing Past Connected Cars
There is no other IoT (Internet of Things) sector that is covered with such adoration and frequency as the connected car. With a potential market of more than $250 billion, it’s rightfully so. Connected cars are sexy and appealing to a wide range of people so they grab all the headlines while the less attractive, connected commercial vehicle market chugs along quietly in the shadows building up a market value that will exceed $300 billion.
Enterprise Data Security and the IoT
Today’s enterprise understands the value of data. The ability to collect data related to performance and processes, and turn that data into meaningful business intelligence is a major driver in the adoption of technologies that connect objects to networks—the IoT or Internet of Things—in order to communicate back to an owner for the purpose of controlling, monitoring, or better understanding its operation.
Now they’re talkin
- Peggy Smedley talks about a new legislation that clamps down on cybersecurity in manufacturing in order to provide more reliability to IoT (Internet of Things) devices and keep sensitive data safe. She hopes this goes beyond market benefits for vendors to enable governments and bipartisan efforts in national safety to move forward.
peggysmedleyshow.com - Avi Reichental, founder and CEO, XponentialWorks, says Industry 4.0 introduces a new renaissance in manufacturing to allow companies to do things in effective, flexible, and efficient ways. He describes this convergence of technologies in manufacturing as an adaptive muscle that must maintain a balance of core values while taking revolutionary steps.
xponentialworks.com - Sara Lupien, contract and revenue manager, Caterpillar Inc., discusses new efforts to help condition machine workers to understand the value of data through the use of subscription services. She explains how this can maximize production for companies to overcome hours of downtime that can lead to losses of $100,000.
caterpillar.com - Satish Cherukumalli, cofounder and CEO, TrakItNow, explains how the IoT has allowed sensors and tracking solutions to obtain more accurate results. He discusses leveraging tracking solutions in telematics and healthcare to tackle the travel of vector-borne diseases.
trakitnow.com
Feature
The Rub in Retail
In retail, a once purely physical world must become a digital one, or, at least, it must become a hybrid physical-digital world. Retailers must find a way to leverage the IoT (Internet of Things) to enhance operations—from managing energy use to stocking shelves—and connect with 21st century customers in a 21st century way.
Q&A
Taking the IIoT Journey with Caterpillar
There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t hear about how technology is changing the way all of us interact with new devices that are connected to cars, thermostats, smart meters, and much more.
Blog
What’s the market value for Industrial Wearables?
Recently, my editorial team and I were discussing an article that claimed Fitbit’s sales struggles bode poorly for the wearables market as a whole. The article cited lackluster 2016 holiday sales of fitness trackers and subsequent layoffs at Fitbit as evidence that the wearables market was “stagnant.” But here’s my point—since when did we give Fitbit so much say over the entire wearables space?
Press Releases
Licel Corporation Launches DexProtector Crypto Module Security Platform for Mobile Payment and Wallet Applications
Licel Corporation, the technology leader in the Android Security and Java Card fields, announces the launch of the DexProtector Crypto Module.
Digi International Introduces Patented Data Logger As Part of Its SafeTemps Solution for Transporting Perishable Goods
Digi International®, (NASDAQ: DGII, www.digi.com), a leading global provider of machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity products and services, today announced the immediate availability of its patented Digi Data Logger, a breakthrough wireless temperature monitoring and tracking solution for shipping perishable goods.
Contributed
Amazon: The Stark Reality
Since 2011, when I began contributing to this magazine, I have keep an eye on Amazon, reporting on its patenting activity around logistics processes, its use of robotics and other automation in the ongoing improvement of its fulfillment centers, and the strategic positioning of these centers close to high-density population centers to support its quest for same-day deliveries. All of these endeavors have been undertaken to position Amazon as the premier ecommerce fulfillment merchant.
Segway Hacked With or Without Operator Aboard
For all of Segway's advanced mechanics and incredible feats of stabilization, this futuristic ride hasn't had the smoothest ride since its introduction. Originally launched at the end of 2001 under a veil of secrecy and hype, Segway slowly became more of a punchline over the ensuing years due to its inflated price and association with lazy and overweight riders including Mall Cop's Paul Blart.