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INTRODUCTION: WELCOME TO A SMARTER WORLD
ОглавлениеThe world is getting smarter.
This evolution can be seen everywhere and no industry or sector is immune. Consider an industry as old and well established as fishing, for example. Although human beings have been fishing since the beginning it wasn't until the 16th century that fisherman had boats capable of going to sea. This advance radically changed the fortunes of fishing and made large, profitable catches possible for the first time. The ships would set out for the fishing grounds using little more than a compass, a sextant and some ‘inside knowledge’ passed down through the generations of fishing families. If they were sailing at night they would use celestial navigation techniques and plot a course by the stars in order to arrive in the right vicinity. When the fisherman arrived at the fishing grounds they would cast their nets and hope for the best.
By the late 19th century fishing had been commercialized. Small fishing boats gave way to massive trawlers with on-board processing capabilities, the discovery of longitude and latitude made navigation considerably easier and in the last few decades technology has transformed fishing from an art to a science. Modern fishing boats are technology rich, using high tech navigation systems and GPS. Often small sensors are attached to the fish to track where the shoals are at any given time and sonar is used to pinpoint the density of the shoal and where and when to cast the nets. Modern fisherman know where the fish are, they know where they will be tomorrow and when to cast their nets for the best possible catch of their target fish. Fishing has evolved to become smarter. And it is just one example. Today the world is smarter in everything from sport's performance to healthcare in the home. Even love and parenting is becoming smarter!
Smarter sport
Smart technology is now widely used in sport to find and recruit talent as well as monitor and improve performance – both for the amateur and the professional. It's now possible to get a basketball with over 200 built-in sensors that provide player and coaches with detailed feedback on performance. In tennis a system called SlamTracker can record a player's performance providing real-time statistics and comprehensive match analytics. If you've ever watched rugby (union or league) you may have wondered what the bump is between the players' shoulder blades – it's a GPS tracking system that allows the coaching staff to assess performance in real time. The device will measure the players' average speed, whether the player is performing above or below their normal levels, and heart rate, to identify potential problems before they occur. All of which can help coaches avoid injury and assist in making appropriate substitution decisions. Similar technology exists in the English Premier League and is used by many Olympic sports such as cycling.
But the technology is not just for the professionals. There are many wearable devices that can monitor health and well-being on the go. For example I wear an ‘Up’ fitness band that tells me how many steps I have taken each day, how many calories I've burned and how well I've slept each night. It is synced to my bathroom scales so that if I put on weight it will tell me and prompt me to increase my activity or decrease my food intake.
Smarter health
Healthcare is also becoming smarter and it's set to revolutionize our lives.
Professor Larry Smarr, one of the most influential computer scientists in the United States and the most monitored man on the planet was able to self-diagnose Crohn's disease – long before any symptoms emerged and early enough to be able to effectively manage the condition. Smarr states:
‘In a world in which you can see what you are doing to yourself as you go along the hope is that people will take more personal responsibility for themselves, in keeping themselves healthy. So it's almost like we are at day zero of a whole new world of medicine, and what will come out the other end is a far healthier society that's focused on wellness rather than fixing sickness when it's way too late.’1
This ability to monitor our own health heralds a new and exciting frontier of preventative medicine based on data.
We have long understood that in theory prevention is better than cure but the collaboration of technology and health is turning that insight into practice. This year close to 42 million wearable wireless sports, fitness and wellness devices are expected to ship worldwide. According to ABI Research, ‘Over the next five years spending on bringing these wearable wireless consumer activity device collected data will grow to a $52 million market by 2019.’ Cloud services such as Ginger.io already allow care providers to monitor their patients through sensor-based applications on their smart phones.2 And Proteus manufactures an ‘ingestible’ scanner the size of a grain of sand, which can be used to track when and how patients are taking their medication. This gives providers information about ‘compliance rates’ – how often patients follow their doctor's orders – and can even alert a family member to remind them.
But it's not just the ability for us to monitor and manage our own health better; Big Data, analytics and the smart revolution are changing healthcare right now with innovations such as state-of-the-art brain injury scanners, premature baby units and cancer detection and diagnosis systems. The possibilities are endless.
Smarter homes
Everything is also getting smarter at home. From the cars we drive to and from home, to the heating systems, gadgets, appliances and even the carpet!
The evolution from basic to smart is especially noticeable with cars. Initially the Model T Ford was black, stick shift, a few buttons and no seat belt. Today we have cars with dashboards that resemble an aircraft cockpit, with cameras and sensors for easy parking, alerting the driver if he or she gets too close to the kerb or another car. Some cars will parallel park themselves and brake automatically. Others will sync with traffic information and redirect you to a better route to avoid traffic black spots or an accident. Sensors on the engine will monitor how well you are driving, which will in turn potentially lower (or raise) your insurance and dynamically adjust your service intervals based on your driving style.
There are smart thermostats that monitor the home and only heat the areas that are being used. The temperature of your home can be changed while you are still at work so that when you arrive on a winter's evening the house is cosy. This ability to monitor and dynamically alter temperature can save energy and money. Obviously solving the energy crisis is not just about finding new energy sources such as wind and solar but also about saving the energy we have and using it more efficiently.
Smart TVs use face recognition to make sure your children don't ever watch anything unsuitable for their age and smart carpets can alert you should your elderly parent not make their usual morning coffee.
Considering all the toys, gadgets and smart appliances there are now more machines connected to the Internet than people. And all those smart things are gathering data and communicating with each other.
Smarter love
Even something as personal and magical as falling in love is getting smarter. Everyone hopes to find their soul mate and yet, for many the search is far from straightforward. Online dating site eHarmony matches people based on twenty-nine different variables such as personality traits, behaviours, beliefs, values and social skills. Each person who joins eHarmony completes a comprehensive profile questionnaire, which provides the data for the analytics model to find potential matches.
US digital specialist, Amy Webb, even took the online data algorithms one step further. After one particularly terrible first date where her ‘Prince Charming’ ordered the most expensive items from the menu, enjoyed them and did a runner after excusing himself for the bathroom, Webb created her own personal scoring system based on what was important to her in a potential life partner. In addition she analysed other profiles to see what attracted attention, tested changes to her own profile to see what made a difference to the number and quality of enquires and would only agree to go on a date with someone if he scored above a certain number. And it worked… Amy Webb is now happily married and the couple have a daughter.3
Smarter parenting
The complex art of parenting is also getting smarter. To identify and reduce potential pre- and postnatal risks, many babies around the world are being constantly monitored across a myriad of metrics and data points including heart rate and respiration. These vital measures are able to predict infections 24 hours before the baby shows any visible symptoms and can allow for early, often life-saving intervention.
Once your baby has arrived safely he or she can also sleep on a mattress full of sensors that monitor breathing patterns and heart rate and alerts parents if anything is wrong. Just imagine how many tragic cot deaths could be avoided with this smart technology. We can even buy digital diapers which will send a tweet to our smart phone when our baby needs changing! Obviously a good parent doesn't really need a tweet to tell them this information but the latest generation of these diapers automatically analyses the urine and alerts the parent of an increased sodium level, possible dehydration, as well as the onset of any infections – and all this even before any physical symptoms appear.
The marriage of data and technology is radically changing our world and making it smarter. And business must become smarter too.
Going back to the fishing analogy for a moment… When fishing emerged as an industry, the competition was sufficiently low and the stocks of fish sufficiently high that the fisherman didn't need to be in an exact location to enjoy a prosperous day at sea. Their experience, equipment and the number of fish in the oceans meant they would be successful unless they hit particularly bad weather. Today, with intense competition and finite fish stocks that need to be responsibly managed, fishermen have had to evolve and become smarter. And the same is true for all businesses in all sectors.
Today the really successful companies understand where their customers are and, perhaps more importantly, what they are doing and where they are going. They know what is happening as it's happening and they allow that information to guide their strategy and inform their decision-making.
Companies that won't embrace the SMART revolution will be left behind.
1
BBC Two (2013) Horizon Monitor Me narrated by Dr Kevin Fong (2013).
2
Palmer, S., White, E., Romanski, P., Benedict, K. and Gardner, D. (2014) Integrating Consumer Wearable Health Devices Will Drive Healthcare Big Data Adoption, Says ABI Research. http://bigdata.ulitzer.com/node/3058905
