Convince me why washer must talk to grill
Aside from big-number projections (e.g., Cisco predicts 50 billion IoT devices by 2020), which would tempt anyone into becoming an IoT cheerleader, I haven’t seen a single credible-use scenario that might lure the average consumer onto the IoT bandwagon.
Honestly, it creeps me out to think about my devices at home talking to one another, doing stuff without my involvement, and talking about my habits — good and bad — to total strangers (advertisers, service providers, or just more machines), behind my back. There’s nothing warm and fuzzy about this. At all.
Smart LED lightbulbs hacked
I’m sure you’ve all heard about an incident, reported last week, in which smart LED lightbulbs leaked WiFi passwords.
This is a classic case that hearkens back to Asimov or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Once empowered by its network connection, the “smart device” — in this case, a lowly light bulb — outsmarts its human “host” and starts doing things nobody ever asked it to do.
Security experts at Context Security have released details on how easy it is to hack network-enabled LED light bulbs, showing how hackers could eventually turn the lights off and on remotely.
The way an LIFX light bulb, used by Context Security for this demo, is set up sounds all too familiar. The master bulb receives commands from a smartphone application and broadcasts to all the other bulbs over a wireless mesh network.
(Source: Context Security)
The hacker was able to obtain the WiFi username, and password of the household the lights were connected to, by posing as a new bulb joining the network.
LIFX said it had updated its software since being notified of the vulnerability. But it’s not far-fetched to imagine that my networked smart appliances at home could suddenly get turned on and off remotely, by a total stranger, without my knowledge.
Credible scenarios?
With this in mind, I’ve started asking industry sources for credible scenarios under which IoT devices improve my life by talking to each other. Readers are welcome to chime in below. Give me your best shot. Convince me why my washing machine needs to strike up a conversation with my gas grill.
Bill Morelli, associate director at IHS Technology, shared with me some use cases that have been presented to him by vendors.
- Room lights automatically get adjusted, sensing that I am watching a movie on a large-screen TV in a living room.
- Somebody rings a door bell when my baby is asleep. The bell, however, is set up to flash the room lights instead of ringing, leaving the baby undisturbed.
- If I accidentally leave my car’s headlights on when I come home late at night, a sensor in the garage automatically messages my smartphone, which, in turn, sends me an alert SMS.
- Similarly, if I left the iron on when I left home, I get an alert on my smartphone.
Early in June at its Worldwide Developers’ Conference, Apple unveiled what the company calls HomeKit, which reportedly helps users create and set up a specific “scene.”
- Users can put the home network into "night mode" so that lighting throughout the home can be turned off and all locks turned on.
- When "vacation mode" kicks in, lighting goes on and off randomly, sprinklers follow a schedule, and the motion sensor system is triggered.
Maybe there are brilliant ideas I haven’t heard before. But come on, guys. Is this the best you can do to talk consumers into IoT nirvana? These scenarios are straight out of the old home-automation catalogue. They’ve been shopped around and recycled for years.
Richard Doherty, research director of the Envisioneering Group, however, has a slightly different take on credible home-front IoT ideas.
- Even today, in many countries, there are attractive discounts for starting dishwashers during non-peak hours. In many areas, ensuring that your microwave, refrigerator, and washing machine motors do not activate simultaneously enhances longer appliance life while preventing blown fuses and tripped circuit breakers.
- IoT will need “peace of mind” allowances. For example, IoT could let us know if Grandma opened the fridge this morning or used her Bluetooth toothbrush.
- IoT will also create insurance access. Did Rick walk his requisite one mile a day to earn his present insurance discount?
- IoT offers public services. Are enabled air conditioners being throttled back 10% for brownout prevention?
Doherty’s points are an improvement on the usual stuff, and I do see some advancements in today’s IoT ideas. Setting up home automation couldn’t have become easier without IoT. But more important, it might even offer consumers some peace of mind, and a little more safety.
(Source: Texas Instruments)
Another big IoT improvement over the old-fashioned home automation is that you can use your smartphone to control pretty much every home appliance. Your appliances are definitely getting chattier, with all those SMS alerts.
But this, I think, is a mixed bag. IHS’s Morelli agrees. He envisions a future of consumers ignoring a flood of messages from their machines at home, just as they ignore voicemail now.
IoT for infrastructure
The IHS analyst foresees home-oriented IoT taking off over the next three to five years while a broader realm of IoT — in the infrastructure — will take another 10 to 15 years to get up and running.
Morelli acknowledged that the power of IoT gains significant importance when intelligent connectivity starts getting implemented in buildings, cities, cars, and the infrastructure in general. Examples include traffic light management, routing first responders’ vehicles faster, connections to hospital networks, funneling crowds to less crowded roads after a big sporting event, and forgoing payment at toll gates in special circumstances to ease traffic.
As significant as these applications sound, however, before making all these scenarios work, “you need to get different stakeholders — including different agencies, private entities, and citizens — to come to a table, sign off with the idea, and agree on the terms,” says Morelli. No easy task.
Competion over device-to-device communication specs
We should all step back and take a breath when we look at the industry’s positioning today in device-to-device communication specs for IoT.
I don’t think I was the only one rolling my eyes when I learned about the Intel-led Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) unveiled earlier this week, obviously an answer to the AllSeen effort started by Qualcomm.
Morelli points out that these rival groups mostly consist of device vendors. No service provider, such as AT&T or Time-Warner, is included, he says. Further, he notes, we know little about Google’s plans on IoT, including the company’s intentions for such IoT properties as Nest Labs and Dropcam. It’s hard to believe that Google, armed with a wealth of IoT-fed information, will gladly forgo the opportunity to sell more ads. For example, if a Nest thermostat knows you’re cold, suggests Morelli, Google can relay a promotion aimed at selling you sweaters.
Doherty notes, “What is missing from these seemingly rival initiatives is the difference between standards and recommended practices."
When it comes to the interoperability of IoT devices at home, he says, “No one wants to pay for a repeat of the CableLabs certification fees (HUGE!) nor HDMI certification (expensive!).”
Noting that the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) recently started a new working group on IoT, says Doherty, “Things like a CEA plugfest may serve to deliver confidence and peace of mind that the right products talk to each other.”
It’s easy to talk about how big an opportunity IoT could bring to the electronics industry. Harder is to formulate a credible pitch for consumers.
“Business, services, government, and, most of all, consumer citizen mindshare of trust is needed for IoT to work and scale,” says Doherty. Without it, “massive failure is looming.”
— Junko Yoshida, Chief International Correspondent, EE Times
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