Romanian Start-ups in the IoT domain

If you think global start-up hubs, Romania is probably not the first country that comes to your mind. But the country's troubled past and years of economic hardship has given rise to a culture of self-sufficiency and resilience which is spawning a flourishing start-up tech sector.

The national statistics are still modest, but growing. Online database RomanianStartups.com currently lists 295 start-ups, 576 founders and eight accelerators/incubators.


Some of them are taking a chance with the Internet of Things - either as enablers, engagers or enhancers.

DeviceHub from Bucharest  is a cloud service that allows makers and companies to easily connect their Internet-enabled hardware projects to a dashboard for data gathering and data analysis, remote control and sending alerts based on events or triggers. It can be integrated with any kind of hardware, and is designed for smart metering, fleet management, medical industry, home automation, automotive and wearables.  On mid-March, it was announced that the company is receiving funding from  Krakow, Deutsche Telekom’s Innovation Hub for the CEE region. The company will also receive Krakow’s mentors, and access to a market of 150 million Deutsche Telekom Group customers across Europe.

uRADMonitor from Timisioara is developing solutions for environmental pollution monitoring. The uRADMonitor is a plug-and-play, low power, self contained radiation and air quality monitoring device, connected to a centralized server. While the pollution levels are measured and centralized automatically, the user can check the readings online or get relevant notifications by email.  You can back up the project on indiegogo.

Neveli from Cluj-Napoca enters the eHealth sector. It developed a digital healthcare platform that connects to activity trackers, smartwatches, scales, blood pressure monitors and other personal health tracking devices and offers a consistent way to analyse, monitor and manage the data.

Pocketo from Bucharest is building a development board which due to it's small size and power management solution is optimized for wearable prototyping. The board has a wifi module, a bluetooth low energy chip, an accelerometer, a vibration motor and a powerful micro-controller.

3Deva  from Buharest is creating VR hardware - mobile adapters, HMDs and ODTs. Their first products, 3Deva Vizor series are smartphone adapters that enable the visualization of the content in 3D. Viiwok is an ODT (omni-directional treadmill) which permits the player to use own body as a control controller to browse virtual environments.

Do you know any other start-ups in Romania playing in the IoT domain?

In search of the IoT gold mine…

It's clear that IoT has been hot these last few years.

In the consumer domain we have few obvious winners so far:

- An interesting category has emerged: Fitness bands and smart watches where the early winners are being slowly displaced by some bigger players who were just waiting to see which category is worth investing in
- An unexpected cool and sexy thermostat that came out of nowhere really
- And a bunch of established Technology players who are all aiming to be the one enabling this new world (and capture a good slice of the IoT market value irrespective of who the ultimate product winners are)

A quick look at any crowdsourcing sites and you will see that there are many hopefuls who would love to join /replace those early winners.

 

But so far, I have not yet seen an offer that would make me say,

              Wow !

              YES !

     I have to have it !

  I can't leave without it !

      Where do I sign ?

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the IoT promise of intelligent appliances and gadgets that makes my life easier and even solve the problems I didn't know I had.

Unfortunately the use cases proposed are either:

- So focussed and narrow that they are not addressing something important enough for me to bother experimenting further

- So generic and incomplete that I am not yet sure what they stand for (even if they appeal to the geek in me)
 

It's also fair to say that the Consumer IOT ecosystem is still fragmented and that there is no elegant way to easily manage a range of gadgets from different providers even if by working seamlessly together they would offer a much more compelling story.

Have a look at a recent Financial Times article from Tim Bradshow to sympathise at his attempt to make it all work together.

 

In my mind, a specific category of IoT gadgets will only make sense from a business point of view if the potential market value is big enough.

In practice it means that

a) Price and margin are high to generate enough value despite relatively low expected volumes
b) Volume are high to generate enough value despite low price and absolute margins

c) And of course the best case scenario of high volume and high price/absolute margin

 

If we believe that the value of any IoT product is positively correlated to the value of the problem solved or opportunity realised, then the biggest opportunity should be for IoT products addressing companies biggest problems (B2B case).

==> That would explain why the IoT revolution was initially harnessed by utility companies for instance, implementing smart meters to save (them) money

 

But of course there are things that money can't buy (easily ?), like good health or long life, which could explain the success of fitness bands and smart watches that promise to coach you into living a healthy life (quantifying-self movement, Consumer case)

The success of Nest thermostat is a bit more complicated to explain.

- Saving yourself some money makes sense of course and would appeal to our rational side but when was the last time you bought something just because it was a rational things to do ?

- For me, Nest thermostat are successful because the product appeal to both our rational side (saving money) AND our emotional side (beautiful object, easy to use, so "cool" that you can show it off to your friends when they visit home (we are clearly getting in the Apple territory here ;-))

 

Another way to think about the value of the IoT world is by looking at the network effect around IoT:

For instance:

- Owning 1 Philips hue light is fun at first until you slowly forget you have it and stop using it

- Having your full house set up with home IoT gadgets that seamlessly talk to each other to solve your personal problems would deliver so much more value to the owner that they would be in use continuously

 

So, if you are one of the thousands small IOT companies that want to become the next unicorn (companies with 1+Bn$ valuation), then I would suggest you focus on where the money is and aim to either solve a problem that other companies would handsomely pay for or aim to solve a life & death type problem for individuals.

Alternatively, ignore everything I said, just follow your passion and solve a problem that matters to you, with a bit of luck it will also matter to other people.

 

If you are an established (read big) Technology player, please stop this pissing contest and collaborate with your competitors to makes the life of your customers & consumers easy by ensuring that your IoT products / systems work with everybody else's, you'll be amazed by how much faster IoT adoption would take off that way.

 

At the end of the day an IoT product is just an enabler to something bigger and that bigger thing is what will make your company successful...

It's my first ever blog, so thanks Sanda for the opportunity and I look forward to reading what you think and any advice or suggestions to make this a more interesting blog.

Finnish Start-ups: IOT Gadgets

 

Finland might be a pretty chilled place to live, but right now is on fire. At least its home grown tech startups are.

A pocket size desktop that aims to change computing – Solu

The Finnish startup Solu is in the process of creating the world's smallest computer, an ecosystem of apps and its own operating system. The unit is a small square-shaped touch screen computer that can be used anywhere. The build-in screen also lets you use Solu as a touch based input device when it's connected to a bigger display  With it's wood-based chassis, the device is light, attractive and environmental friendly.


//read more on Yle.Fi 





Digital wearables at your finger - Oura from Oulu and Moodmetric from Helsinki

"Oura Ring helps you to recover from your mental and physical load so that you can optimise your performance. Recovery happens mostly when you are sleeping, so sleep monitoring and sleep quality improvement are the main features of the ring," says Kari Kivelä, co-founder, CTO and Head of Design for Oura.

"Emotional intelligence is thought to be even more important than IQ. Becoming aware of your emotions and the emotions of others builds your emotional intelligence. You will perform better at work, at home," says Niina Venho, the CEO of Moodmetric. Medometric is a modern digital mood ring invented by PhD Henry Rimminen and designed by silversmith Vesa Nilsson.

//read more on Yle.Fi



Locating life (or tracking your treasures in real-time) - Yepzon from Tampere

According to Yepzon, Inc.’s CEO, their product can help people track what matters most to them via smartphone. Designed for belongings, this locator and correlating app can help find lost children with autism and elderly patients with dementia.

Smart Sensor and analytics-based optimization solutions - Enevo from Espoo

 

Enevo has a solution built on smart sensors and analytics that optimizes the logistics for waste management and recycling industry. The firm's latest innovation is Enevo ONe, which can yield up to 50% cost savings by substituting 'static routes' for waste collection trucks with 'smart' pick-up schedules. The solution uses the wireless sensors that gather fill-level data from waste containers and generates an'ideal' route for the fleet that is factoring in truck availability, traffic information, road restrictions, etc.

Launched today: the new Microsoft Display Dock that transforms your Windows 10 mobile into a PC

Celebrating today an important milestone for myself and my team - as we have just launched the newest mobile accessory from Microsoft Mobile Finland - the display dock (previously known as Continuum dock) 

See comments and video from the the launch event:
The Verge - Microsoft Launch Event October 6th 2015 - The Microsoft Display Dock

And check HD-500, Display Dock product pages from here.

It has been an amazing journey with a truly exceptional team!

Wearables: the quest for killer app

In 2007 the consumer electronics industry was reaching a plateau in consumer spending. Apple introduced the iPhone and smartphones became quickly mainstream. Since then, the smartphone and tablets have generated almost 10 years of continuous and aggressive growth and in 2013 overtook the other CE sales. But the category growth is slowing down and the industry & analysts are expecting that will reach plateau in the coming years, mirroring the static CE revenue. 

The quest for the next big thing has started, with the industry’s high-profile candidate to this position being “wearables”. Analysts are predicting enormous market growth, with revenue over $30 billion by 2020.

Endeavour Partners conducted at the end of 2013 an internet-based study that concluded that wearable devices (and more specifically the activity trackers) are achieving mass-market status in US. The study however revealed also the so-called “dirty secret” of wearables: most of the devices fail to drive long-term sustained engagement for a majority of users. 

The criteria for success for any new product or service goes well beyond initial market adoption. “Products and services that provide utility but fail to have a meaningful impact on users’ behavior and habits -- end up failing in the market”  [Endeavour Study]   In other words – the successful products must have a certain degree of emotional attachment.

It has been argued that there are few main blockers that need to be solved for the wearable to really take off and reach mainstream adoption.

• They must achieve independence from the phone, being able to provide value to the user also as standalone devices.
• They must become items of style & fashion. A piece of wearable tech it is after all the most personal “device” we can have.
•  The “killer” application is still to be found

The first two are related to hardware and design and the problem is an engineering one, well-defined, even if the solution is not straight forward. The third one is however much more difficult – as we are not able to yet give to engineers a specification to fulfill.

On the other hand, the most successful wearables on the market to-date have been the ones where the consumer value is basically generated by the service, rather than by the hardware itself. Fitbit is the current market leader in fitness trackers. It has been the first activity tracking complete solution (hardware+service) where the hardware might even be seen even as an “enabler” or “accessory” to the service.  An essential one, but nevertheless an enabler. 

It is a clear indication that solving item #3 and finding value generated consumer services is essential in driving (and maintaining) wearables to mass-market adoption.

Fitbit's (and all activity tracker’s) growth is powered by the “quantified self-trend”.

“What’s measured improves” ~ Peter Drucker

An extension of this paradigm might generate other potential “killer” apps for the wearables – which can become tools to increase our personal productivity.  

Activity trackers - to improve our wellness productivity and satisfy our physiological needs

Payment trackers – to improve our financial productivity and satisfy our safety needs

Social trackers – to improve our relationship productivity and satisfy our love needs

Education trackers – to improve our self-improvement and satisfy our self-esteem and self-actualization needs.

The devices can collect specific domain data, track it, measure key metrics and eliminate noise to

support habit formations and goals accomplishment.

IoT productivity revolution. Re-modelling of the workforce

Giving  the developments in the technology and the expected implications of IoT in business and society - we are [most probably] at the early phases of a new productivity revolution.

The industrial revolution brought with it significant social changes – urbanization, new social classes, new working class, changes in family structure. 

Is IoT and digitization going to generate a new productivity revolution, impact the society and re-model the workforce?

As in the past, technological innovation will make some of the jobs redundant. But will also create new ones or will reshape the workforce dynamics and structure.

The workforce is already undergoing a massive change. It has been called Gig Economy, the rise of creative class, the e-conomy, with “e” standing for electronic or entrepreneurial. Employees are leaving the traditional workplace and opting for freelancer or entrepreneurial life. While the economy has unwillingly pushed some people into independent work, many have chosen it because of greater flexibility and possibility to focus on more personally fulfilling activities.

 The work is becoming more digitized and more global. 

Working across geographies in real-time is becoming the new status-quo. Certain professions are at the foreground of the transformation - with the journalists and software engineers being the first ones to heavily enter the world of digital-global-freelancers. These are the first professions and activities to be impacted (and potentially benefit) from the fact that most information work is already digitized.

With the growth of the industrial IoT, the digitization and connectivity is extending to previously analog tasks and processes. Machines can be controlled remotely, processes are automatized, and the need for on-site workforce is decreasing.

In all productive revolutions, skills greatly determined the quality of life.  The digitization & globalization of the workforce means that potentially any skill can be employed real-time from any location on the globe. Where you live & where you work does not matter anymore - as long as you are “connected”. What matters is the quality of your work. The skills you can deploy. A reverse of the urbanization could even be possible, as the need to live close to the “factory” disappears. Maybe the next step in our societal evolution is a world of “highly connected villages”, with people working from home, and a life where the separation between work and life time is not well-determined? 

Will consumer IoT applications offer us the chance to improve certain skills and consequently enhance our competitiveness?

 ----

References

Freelancing in America  

Global Online Employment Report 

IoT productivity revolution. Highly improved skills

“IoT represents the next major economic and societal disruption enabled by the Internet […] It offers a way to merge the digital and virtual worlds into a new smart environment which senses, analyses and adapts” [Peter Friess, “The Hyperconnected Society”].

Digital transformation is happening today both at economy level as well as at society level, and IoT is the leading platform that drives the change.
Industries, businesses and markets are changing how they operate.
“It’s safe to say that we are at the start of another industrial revolution. The rise of the connected objects known as the “Internet of Things” (IoT) will rival past technological marvels, such as the printing press, the steam engine, and electricity. From the developed world to the developing world, every corner of the planet will experience profound economic resurgence. Even more remarkable is the speed with which this change will happen.” [Dr. Shawn DuBravac, “The Internet of Things, Evolution or Revolution”]

People’s behavior and the way we interact is changing. Already today our working, shopping, entertaining, and communicating behavior is heavily digitalized. Tomorrow, we might express emotions with the help of objects, use our environment to achieve goals, offload cognitive tasks to things around us, and expect to be able to naturally communicate with the objects around us.

Through creating a fabric between things and humans, IoT has the potential to transform a multitude of aspects of our lives, but maybe the most intriguing one is the potential to transform us, to change the basic levels of our physical and mental capabilities, the way we interact, and finally to alter the grounds of individual’s competitiveness in the society. 

Highly Improved Skills

Better Informed

Situational awareness and voice control lay the foundation for a “second brain” as users relay on devices to listen for their (sometimes unspoken) requests and offer suggestions triggered by real-time observations and user history. In the digital form, solutions have been available for years already. GPS navigation systems guide us step-by-step to the destination, offering just-in-time voice guidance. A difficult cognitive task (navigating an unfamiliar territory) has been transformed into a trivial exercise of following directions. The combination of sensor-enabled wearable with the cloud-computing services, creates the possibility of building the next generation of situational-aware experience, real-time and truly personal. We will be better informed, we will have always access to the information that is right for us, at the right time, in the right place.

Improved well-being

The evolution in the sensor technology enabled the development of the first wearable tech consumer products, the sensor powered bands. Their main function is to track and measure activity level (function known as quantify self). Fitbit, Microsoft Band and the rest of the activity trackers on the market are designed to encourage their uses to maintain the desirable level of activity in their life, by applying Peter’s Drucker rule “What is measured, improved”

Self-competitiveness

The tracking devices and quantified-self applications can be useful in helping us to improve our habits and reach well-being goals – and even more they are driving a human behavior change, namely self-competitiveness.

Improved senses

Today we have our smartphones, the best example of how smart and connected our devices became. When we are looking into buying our next smart phone – we are searching for one even smarter. More processing capacity, they “think faster”, have more memory, a better “vision” with higher and higher camera resolution, improved audio system with dual-sensor array microphones and more. What we would really want is for us to become super-humans. To have better memory. To see, hear, sense better. Wearables can surely help to have a better vision and hearing (they do it even today, without being neither connected nor smart). But even more, the smart connected gadgets of the future might be able to give us real access to a 6th sense. What if the teacher in the classroom does not need to wonder any more – “Is this lecture proceeding well or are all my students bored to death?" What if the sensor data from the smart connected desks in the room can be collected to give the teacher an average of the “class engagement” so he can “sense” what his students are feeling so it can adapt the speed and tone of the lecture?

Improved effectiveness in achieving our goals

Persuasive applications can help us to change our behavior in order to achieve personal goals (i.e. quit smoking, lose weight, become more productive, more active). Within the IoT context the potential exists to make use of the physical environment (=the objects around us) and get better support in fulfilling our goals. From a smart scale to assist with weight management, to a smart cup that recognizes the beverage that is put into it, displays its nutritional value as well as health implications and supports us in managing our drinking habits, to a smart toothbrush used to teach healthy habits to children, the surrounding objects can help us to self-manage and induce positive changes in our behavior.

Better Self-control

In the near future new possibilities to create digital augmentation of reality will emerge. Combined with services that would evolve from the predictive applications of today (i.e. Cortana or Google Now), smart devices will increasingly function as smart assistants to users, anticipating what information they need based on past behaviors, current location, environmental conditions and detailed information about their physical (vital signs) and digital (calendar, contacts) state. By having the input of sight, hearing and vital signals overlaid with mobile services, AI and machine learning, both in-situ and preemptive access to information can be provided. Purveyors of these systems could market them with promises such as "minimizing cognitive lift and give you more time to focus". When we get cognitive assistance, we can improve our capacity for self-control and capability to focus – theoretically at least.

Improved emotional connections

Dr. John M. Gottman, internationally recognized authority in the area of human relationship, has advanced a model that identifies the basic components of emotional connection. According to Dr. Gottman, people frequently make what he calls “bids” for emotional connection. According to this model, the most harmful response that a person can receive for an “emotional bid” is not an angry response (turning against), but a non-response (ignoring, turning away). In many cases the bid is ignored because it has not been recognized, but the harm is done nevertheless.

Wearables become tangible connections between loved ones over any distance. We don’t miss the “emotional bids” sent to us anymore. Bracelets vibrate or light up when the significant other is thinking of us. The jacket our son is wearing allows us to send him a hug while we are at work. We get instant reminders when we feel down that we are loved. When we are happy, the feeling is going “out” to the dear friends. Sharing love becomes a constant part of our day, it’s done effortlessly and instantly through our gadgets. Our emotional connections and hence our emotional health could improve.

--
The question arises – if IoT could really change our behaviors and way of living, what are the consequent social implications? 

The industrial revolution brought with it significant social changes – urbanization, new social classes, new working class, changes in family structure.

What is the potential of social changes that can be brought upon us by IoT disruption? 

In all productive revolutions, skills greatly determined the quality of life.

How big will be the impact of digitalization on re-modelling the work force? How will assessing individual's competitiveness change? Can the access to IoT devices and applications create a new "social class"? 

We are privileged to live in these times – when great economical and societal disruptions are about to erupt. From within, they seem to be unfolding in slow motion. And probably the actual drama and speed will become clear only in hindsight. Nevertheless, the change is happening. 

--- to be continued

Wearables and Predictive agents. Towards better behaving, cognitive-offloaded humans

“A general “law of least effort” applies to cognitive […] exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into our nature.”
― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thanks to the work of Daniel Kahneman and others, we now understand our cognitive processes as being divided into two systems. System 1 produces the fast, intuitive reactions and instantaneous decisions that govern most of our lives. System 2 is the deliberate type of thinking involved in focus, deliberation, reasoning or analysis – such as calculating a complex math problem, exercising self-control, or performing a demanding physical task. [DK]

"People who are cognitively busy are also more likely to make selfish choices, use sexist language, and make superficial judgments in social situations. Memorizing and repeating digits loosens the hold of System 2 on behavior” [DK]

Developments in sensor-enabled wearable technologies bring about fundamental shifts in interactions paradigms and new capabilities for real-time, contextual-aware systems. In the near future new possibilities to create digital augmentation of reality will emerge. By having the input of sight, hearing and vital signals overlaid with mobile services, AI and machine learning, both in-situ and preemptive access to information can be provided. We will get cognitive assistance. It has the power to significantly change the way we live [and improve our behavior and self-control – theoretically at least]

Level 1: Helpful Guidance

Situational awareness and voice control lay the foundation for a “second brain” as users relay on devices to listen for their (sometimes unspoken) requests and offer suggestions triggered by real-time observations and user history.

Phase 1: Digital Experiences (mainstream)

In its digital form, solutions have been available for years and are today mass-market consumer experiences.

GPS Navigation Systems guide us step-by-step to the destination offering just-in-time voice guidance. A difficult cognitive task (navigating an unfamiliar territory) has been transformed into a trivial exercise of following directions. Cognitive effort is minimized and we would not choose in any normal circumstances the paper-map over the GPS navigation system.

DriveSafe.ly is one mobile application example of a system that offers in-situ helpful guidance. It reads text messages and emails aloud in real time and automatically responds without drivers touching their mobile phones

Phase 2: Physical-Digital Hybrid Experience (emerging)

The combination of sensor-enabled wearables with the cloud-computing services creates the possibility of building real-time, truly personal contextual experiences.

The GPS navigation system or the DriveSafe.ly would issue their recommendations and guidance purely based on specific, system internal triggers (i.e. a missed turn on the road, a new text message) and regardless if you are in the right personal context to receive the guidance.

For example, if your baby cries loudly in the back seat when the message arrives and you can’t really interact by voice/audio – the voice interaction interface might not be useful even for “declining” to be read aloud the message, so would be suitable if the system will be able to detect the level of high noise you are hearing now and start a conversation with you only at the right moment (i.e. when you can actually hear the message)

Furthermore by knowing the condition of the driver through a variety of sensors (heart rate, for example), it’s easier for the car to understand the driver’s state. The vehicle could change a song to relax the driver, for example. Ford is already seeking to use the technologies to better monitor driver health.

Another evolution powered by the wearables relates to shifts in the user interaction paradigms toward more natural interactions – better experience of voice interactions with the hearables, better visualization opportunities with glasses, better gestures interface with wrist/ring wearables. Ultimately this can take the driving toward a hands-free, immersive experience.

Starting to take into use these opportunities, Mercedes Benz has developed the Glassware project, which is designed to work seamlessly with a car’s navigation system. Route directions are overlaid via glasses onto the road, allowing drivers to keep their eyes away from a GPS screen.

The automotive environment is just an example of how the integration of physical with digital can actually improve the experience and lift the cognitive effort in certain situations, and hence allowing us to focus better in what matters. 

Level 2: Predictive Assistance

Smart devices will increasingly function as smart assistants to users, anticipating what information they need based on past behaviors, current location, environmental conditions and detailed information about their physical (vital signs) and digital (calendar, contacts) state. Purveyors of these systems could market them with promises such as "minimizing cognitive lift and give you more time to focus"


Phase 1: Digital Experience (emerging)

Cortana and Google Now are intelligent personal assistants, augmented with predictive search capabilities. At the beginning they were able to guess what notifications and apps would be most useful for you. But their capabilities are increasing, powered by machine learning. The systems are designed to learn user’s behavior, find patterns in the activity, expand the insights from different other applications and input sources and continue to refine their capabilities in predictive recommendations.

Osito is a predictive intelligence application for smart phones that helps you get where you need to be by merging traffic information, weather, flight details and your calendar.

Phase 2: Physical-Digital Hybrid Experience (early phases)

Combine an intelligent personal assistant like Cortana or Google Now with a wearable, sensor-based system and the result can be quite powerful.

The cognition-assist presentation devices (in form of eyeglasses of hearables for example) can use own sensors, add the information from the other connected devices (e.g. the smartphones, car, wrist bands), apply analytics and predictive algorithms and alert us in real time with relevant information, taking in consideration our full sensory circumstances, digital presence and activity history.

Too much cognitive load, especially on long term, even if coming from small details & tasks - it gets us tiered and has implications on our well-being. “What do I need to buy from the grocery store, when do I have my son’s school appointment, do I have time to go to the bank between the other two meetings, what bus shall I take, what was the thing I had to ask from my daughter’s teacher, what was that substance I recently heard as being harmful and should check if it is in the margarine I buy, where did I see that face before, where do I need to turn” - they are all basically simple things, that we need to remember and "solve" constantly, and we need to have the correct information available easily, at the right time.
A cognitive-supporting system “knows” what my next question is and will give me the information ever before I am asking for it.

For example, a pedestrian-enabled navigation hearable could direct me more accurately on the route by knowing in which direction I am turning my head/in which direction I am looking.

Or, imagine this scenario: the eyeglasses I am wearing recognize the face of the person is approaching me as being the new CEO of a company that is our customer (I have meet him once, exchanged business cards, but I have lousy face recognition memory) The invisible earpiece whispers in my ear CEO’s name and reminds me that I have a meeting scheduled with his team next week. I get a hint to remember the hot topic and I can now quickly touch on the subject as we are together in the elevator. I just got memory assistance (face, meeting, and topic) the connection made with a future event and the guidance on how I shall act in order to get better results in a future situation. It significantly released my cognitive effort and improved my chances of success with the customer.


---

References
http://electronicsmaker.com/automotive-intersecting-with-wearable-technology
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~satya/docdir/ha-mobisys2014.pdf
http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/blog/cognitive-computing-wearable-prosthetic
http://bigthink.com/delancey-place/the-two-systems-of-cognitive-processes
Thinking Fast and Slow. Daniel Kahneman. Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and GirouxDate.

IOT Persuasive Applications: Using the Environment to Achieve our Goals

Persuasive technology term has been coined in 2003 by B.J. Fogg. It is described as “software or information systems designed to reinforce, change or shape attitudes or behaviors or both without using coercion or deception”.

Persuasive applications can help us to change our behavior in order to achieve personal goals (i.e. quit smoking, loose weight, become more productive, more active).
Within the IOT context the potential exists to make use of the physical environment (=the objects around us) and get better support in fulfilling our goals.

Phase 1: Persuasive mobile applications

Since 2003 a great deal of progress has been made in developing applications of persuasive technology. Health maintenance, including dieting and discontinuation of smoking is one of the biggest applied areas. On the mobile phones the technology has the potential to increase the persuasive effect by the promise of giving feedback in the right moment, at the right place. Even more, the diversity of sensors now present on the smartphones provide ways to achieve persuasion not only based on time and location but also based on sensed context.

“Quitty” application has been designed to motivate health behavior change and persuade people to quit smoking. It engages smokers in real-time, wherever they are and its feedback is tailored to the quitting stage.

Figure 1: Quitty: smoking cessation application

Tens to hundreds of applications exist in the mobile stores to assist weight management and diet control, but according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, most of them score low on inducing long-term behavior changes [1] “Lose It!” by Fitnow Inc. got the highest score on the usage of persuasive strategies. The applications includes weight tracking, food logging and calories counting, exercise logging and goal reminders and makes tracking as easy as possible in the aim to enable lasting lifestyle changes.

Figure 2: Lost it! Weight control application

Powered by sensors and ubiquitous connectivity, the persuasive mobile applications perform real time analysis of human behavior and allow for immediate feedback and interaction with the users. However their potential is limited. Being handheld or residing in the pocket, the device itself does not offer true ambient awareness and it is limited in the types of actuations it can provide.

Phase 2: Persuasive (Personal) Objects

With IOT and smart connected gadgets the applications can be extended further into the physical world. The surrounding objects can really help us to self-manage and induce positive changes in our behavior.

The emergence of commercial wearable devices for tracking fitness related activities represents the first widespread adoption of persuasive IOT devices. Fitbit, Microsoft Band and rest of the activity trackers on the market today are designed to encourage their users to maintain the desirable level of activity in their life – by applying Peter’s Drucker rule: “What’s measured improves”

Figure 3: Microsoft Band

Assisted weight management: applying the power of persuasive applications to the old-fashioned bathroom scale, Withings smart scale can measure weight and body-fat and privately uploads data to the cloud. “Because data is great, but personalized coaching is even better” the dedicated Health Mate application breaks down user’s main goals into achievable weekly targets and follows up the progress with relevant tips and reminders.

Figure 4 Withings smart scale

Poor eating habits are correlated to increased weight as well as to poor digestion and health risks – being one of the most common habits people are trying to change. The HAPIfork is a connected, sensor enabled fork that monitors eating habits and comes with an application and coaching program designed to improve the eating behavior and help you slowing down.

Figure 5: HAPIfork

There are even smarter gadgets that can help with improving our drinking habits. Vessyl is a cup that recognizes any beverage you pour into it, displays its nutritional content, and syncs all your drinking habits to your smartphone. The device tracks how much you’re drinking and indicates your hydration level. Can help to improve your water drinking habits, reduce your daily caffeine or sugary drinks intake and even support the weight management control with the capability to display the nutritional content.

Figure 6: Vessyl cup

Zami Smart Chair includes sensors that can track posture, sitting periods and even fine-grained details about your behavior while seated – such as whether you fidget. The companion applications is designed to prompt you to move more and provides feedback on sitting habits, coaching toward a good posture and a healthier lifestyle.

Figure 7: Zami Smart Chair

Medication management is another application area. CleaverCap is a persuasive pill bottle that connects to WiFi, dispenses only as directed, sends notifications and reminders and uploads patient data to the cloud. The system increases the adherence to medication and has the potential to decrease the patient’s health risks.

Figure 8:  Cleaver Cap

Teaching children healthy habits by using playful engagement techniques is not a new trend. It is hence not a surprise that one of the first applications of commercial IOT gadgets using persuasive technologies came in the form of smart toothbrushes for children. Kolibree is a sensor enabled toothbrush (has an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a magnetometer) that comes with a mobile application and motivates healthy habits by turning brushing time into an interactive game.

Figure 9: Kolibree toothbrush 

Phase 3: Persuasive Ambient Intelligence?

By combing and adapting the power of IOT personal devices and public ambient devices, the next phase can emerge: ambient intelligence or “smart environments that change and accommodate users’ needs and wishes when a person enters it” [2]

In such a scenario the environment or physical space of a person consists of sensors that can sense the user and his surroundings and actuators that can offer feedback and evoke actions perceivable to the user. The ambient intelligence is providing consistency and cross-application of persuasion independent of the object used and only based on the knowledge that persuasion is required.

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It’s 2020 and your goal is to lose some weight. But now it’s Friday evening and none of your friends are available, you are getting quite bored and the idea of a pizza and beer start to sound very good indeed. You start walking toward your favorite pizzeria and when you order the menu board at the pizzeria refreshes to show the calories you are going to take in; your wearable band privately notifies you on the consequences on your diet. You have second-thoughts, start to wonder if you can actually skip the pizza and in that moment your friend calls and asks you to a dance club. You cancel the order and go for the dance — your weight target is under control!

What happened? Was it a coincidence or did all the pieces really come together at the right moment? Did the environment support you in achieving your weight goals?

The menu screen at the pizzeria detected that you have a very low calorie target set on your wearable device. It therefore connected to your wearable band to send the significant calorie intake of your order. Combined with the information received from the weight scale in the morning and the activity tracking data, the wearable app was able to calculate accurately the pizza’s impact on your weight and predict what you will see tomorrow morning on the scale. The GPS on the mobile phone identified the location you are in as being a pizza place and sent the information (together with a calorie alert) to your friend which was part of the support group helping with your weight target.

The data has flowed through your environment (both the surrounding gadgets and your virtual networks) to influence your behavior and delivered on the desired persuasion.

As the IOT continues to evolve, the strategies of persuasion will blend into the environment creating an ambient intelligence where the physical and virtual spaces are merged.

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References

1. Mobile Applications for Weight Management: Theory-Based Content Analysis. Kristen M.J. Azar & all. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 45, Issue 5, November 2013, Pages 583–589.
2. Persuasion Mobility in Ambient Intelligence. Lukas Ruge, Andreas Schrader. Ambient 2013, The Third International Conference of Ambient Computing, Applications, Services and Technologies

Article originally Published in Prescouter Journal

Wearables 1H 2015 Monthly. Best Cool or Crazy ?

The wearable market has been nicely growing in 2015 and the analysts are expecting wearables to soon become mainstream business. While majority of the wearables fall into the fitness tracker and smartwatch categories, with relatively predictable and rational features – there are enough devices presented this year that raise the question – is this genius or simply bizarre?

Here’s my list of the “monthly best doubtful wearables” for the first half of 2015. 

JANUARY: SMART BELTY

Imagine a motorized belt that adjusts to your body when you sit down, or extends itself as your gut expands during the eating session.... Has been launched in January at CES.  Unfortunately (sic!) does not seem to be available for sales just yet.

FEBRUARY: WEARABLE BANANA

Dole is a new entrant to the wearable market. One of the biggest producers and marketers of fresh fruit and vegetable Dole presented the first edible wearable in February this year for the Tokyo Marathon: a wearable banana.

MARCH: DISCO DOG

The wearable for pets are no less interesting than the ones for humans. In March Party NYC started a Kickstarter campaign for Disco Dog, a jacket that can turn you loved friend into a billboard of messages or a rainbow of blinking LED. It keeps your dog safe too. If he runs too far from his Bluetooth enabled host, the Disco Dog can tell passers-by that it’s lost

APRIL: SELFIE SHOE 

Starting off as an April Fool’s day prank, Miz-Mooz the popular shoe brand from New York might still go on and make them a reality (at least they are considering, according to their site)

MAY: WEARABLE TECH FASHION (WTF)

Actually this one might be a strike of genius, the perfect example of why wearable technology fashion might not always be short for “WTF”.  

The unstainable shirt is exactly what the name says – a shirt that is unstainable. It is made from the crepe de chine, so it looks like a shirt, but it is actually covered in a series of tiny fibers. True wearable tech. 

The question is – does it really work? And would I like  it for a cocktail party? 

Launched in May, the shirt ranges in price from $25-$40 and comes in four styles. 

JUNE: THYNC, THE MIND-ALTERING WEARABLE

Woke-up in the morning on the wrong side of the bed? Did somebody's malicious comment on your Facebook post really stick into your mind and it is ruining your mood?  Worry no more. Thync is a brain-wearable (brainable?) that is designed to alter your mind and improve your mood. From the beginning of June is also on sales for 300$

As the year continues let’s see what other goodies we get on the list!

Will Wearable Technologies impact Human Behavior?

I’ll make it clear from the beginning – I am biased. I have been, since childhood, a big fan of sci-fi literature and movies.

This might have something to do with my current interest and belief in the future of wearable technologies, contextual computing, augmented reality and their convergence.

My question is not if/when wearable technologies will go mainstream and become an inherent part of our lives, but rather what is the correlation between these technologies and the human behavior change.

More precisely:

1. Can wearable technology go mainstream before/without a change in the human behavior? 
2. What are the steps and triggers in the human behavior change process? 
3. How would the new technology impact the human behavior, how will we act, learn, eat, live – in a world where wearable tech is as common as smartphones are today? 

The evolution in the sensor technology enabled the development of the first wearable tech consumer products – sensor powered bands, their main function being to track and measure our performance (function known as quantify self). These devices proved to be useful gadgets, helping us to improve our habits and reach our fitness goals – and even more they are driving a human behavior change, namely (self) competitiveness. When the change is accepted and becomes addictive, the market demand is consequently following.

The sensor powered bands are obviously the first successful story in the wearable tech market. A new product category has emerged, but they are still far from being a mass-market product.

We could assume that in order to reach mass-market, the cycle above needs more iterations, with hardware advancements, but more significantly with new functions/applications that would trigger desired human behavior changes.

The current limitations and developments needed in hardware are the clearer ones, with the most vital areas for improvements being about power optimization, miniaturization and flexibility of the components to enable truly fashionable designs, and of course increased processing capacity to enable more stand-alone complex functionalities (and all at the same time). While no perfect solutions exist today, the problem statements are well-defined.

The same cannot be said about the applications – where the question throughout the industry, analysts and consumers is not about what needs to be improved, but rather “what is it”? The right question, however, is not what new functionality the wearable technology could enable, but what is the human behavior change we aim to influence?

Product development has at its core the consumer need. Following Maslow’s pyramid of needs we shall look from the basic need of being healthy, to the needs of autonomy, belonging and socializing and finally the needs for knowledge and self-actualization. And never to be under-estimated, the addiction our brain has to convenience and immediacy [Thinking Fast and Slow]

For the sake of the game, we could paint some possible scenarios.

The need to be healthy.

Wearables become highly accurate and reliable in quality biometrics, plus convenient to use daily. Technology companies liaise with medical institutions and authorities, so that the devices are started to be promoted by the private and health sectors and insurance companies offer discounts when the gadgets are used for daily health-tracking.

The data is imported constantly to the health service(s) cloud and available in real-time for doctors. Not only would the doctors have significant information available at the time of the check-ups, but the need to check-up with doctors for less severe diseases would decrease. In fact, you are not expected to schedule an appointment anymore, but your doctor will call you to schedule a checkup based on the data received and analyzed. Furthermore, wearable in health sector could actually enable “DIY health”.

The consumers have, through sensor enabled wearable, the knowledge and hence the possibility to act for disease prevention, rather than only seek treatment when required – a desired change in the human behavior.

The need for emotional connections

Dr. John M. Gottman, internationally recognized authority in the area of human relationship, has advanced a model that identifies the basic components of emotional connection. According to Dr. Gottman, people frequently make what he calls “bids” for emotional connection. According to this model, the most harmful response that a person can receive for an “emotional bid” is not an angry response (turning against), but a non-response (ignoring, turning away). In many cases the bid is ignored because it has not been recognized, but the harm is done nevertheless.

Wearables become tangible connections between loved ones over any distance. We don’t miss the “emotional bids” sent to us anymore. Bracelets vibrate or light up when the significant other is thinking of us. The jacket our son is wearing allows us to send him a hug while we are at work. We get instant reminders when we feel down that we are loved. When we are happy, the feeling is going “out” to the dear friends.

Sharing love becomes a constant part of our day, it’s done effortlessly and instantly through our gadgets. Can it become addictive?

The need for autonomy and being in control

People have an instinctual need for safety, autonomy or being in control, yearning for a predictable, orderly world.

Wearable technologies and embedded sensors will passively be gathering information from their users and the environment, to create knowledge which is optimized and predictive to an individual’s current need, creating a safe world where we are always in the know. We will be getting the information that we need, at the right time and in the right place.

You get notified at the right time to leave so that you catch the bus that gets you home at your usual time.

Its Friday night and, as usually, you are out with your wife when you pass by a restaurant recommended by a friend and you are reminded just in time that you wanted to try it.

You missed the call from your mother while at work, you get reminded to call back when you arrive home (and not during you’re dinner with the suppliers).

It will rain in the afternoon, you get reminded to pick up the umbrella when you are at the door to leave for school.

You are having such an interesting conversation with your friends and what to share about the last book you’ve read but you can’t remember the title anymore. The gadget has been listening to your conversation and comes back with the right answer.

And, equally important, your wearable will never tell you “it’s time to go for a short walk” while you are in a meeting with your boss, even though you stayed on the same chair for 4 hours ….

This future is not science-fiction anymore. Luckily the sci-fi literature is still safe with the teleporting and time-travelling topics. At least for now


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Originally published in Prescouter Journal, October 2014