There was a lot of buzz surrounding the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year, and we’re not just talking about Michael Bay’s big blunder and subsequent walk-off during the Samsung presentation. It’s important for any business to monitor technology trends – whether it’s for consumers or businesses – because it will likely have an impact on their company, directly or indirectly.
The most noteworthy trend is the number of machine-to-machine (M2M) enabled devices unveiled at the show by top tech companies. Many innovators have brought the concept of connected devices to CES in previous years – but they have never been as practical as they are today. For example, tech titans LG and Samsung unveiled smart household appliance systems that let consumers communicate with them.
Samsung introduced a service for managing its smart TVs, home appliances and smartphones called Smart Home. In fact, this Smart Home system is due to roll out in the first half of 2014. The system will allow for consumers to get real-time views streamed from appliances equipped with built-in cameras. And Samsung isn’t stopping there – they have plans to expand by including more and more smart devices and appliances.
LG has devised a way to communicate with household appliances through text messages called HomeChat. Users are able to text in natural language and receive a response from their appliances that are slightly playful in nature. However, the more practical feature is the ability for your fridge to tell you what’s in it, suggest recipes, and tell you oven what temperature to preheat to. This will require some manual efforts from the user – since keeping track of food requires entering data into the refrigerator each time items are added or removed – but the beneficial results are worth it.
Just think, you could be informed when an item in your fridge is close to spoiling, or set your appliances to an energy saving mode remotely, or even have your oven text you when your roast is almost done. This technology would allow for consumers to save on time and money, while the company who created the device is easily able to collect information on their customers and products. LG’s National Product Trainer expects that it will only take a few years until a universal standard for communicating with devices is established.
None of this would be possible without the proliferation of IPv6 – which provides a seemingly infinite number of IP addresses. Now companies are able to assign an IP address to almost anything, allowing for that item to communicate with other things, people, or animals. The ability for all “things” to communicate with each other is more commonly known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Simply defined, the IoT is a system in which unique identifiers (or IP addresses) are assigned to objects, people, or animals – allowing them to transfer data about their assigned “thing” over a network without the need for human interaction.
The companies that utilize this type of technology will have an edge over the competition, with endless amounts of consumer and product data. In the near future, the Internet will develop into an online experience that has been customized to each individual user – your personalized Internet, with your data. Businesses will be able to deliver exactly what each individual customer wants, when they want it – that is, as long as they start incorporating this type of technology sooner than later.
To learn more about IoT, and how to get started on implementing it, click here.
