Imagine the world in which your city’s traffic is regulated by smart traffic lights that turn the lights on and off depending on the number of cars approaching from the various directions. Imagine if your car could communicate with the city’s traffic lights, parking slots and garages. Imagine you do not have to circle around looking for a parking slot; instead the city is guiding you to it like a red carpet is guiding a VIP person to the entrance of a luxury resort. Imagine a retailing experience in which you receive a welcome message on your smart phone with the latest offers of your choice and interest and at a discounted price, just in time and when you need it. A restaurant which you visit for the first time, yet the waiter knows your favorite drink, your taste and your food intolerances. Imagine a world in which you can arrive at any place in the world and you are equipped with your mobile phone only, yet the world knows your preferences and is serving you in the way you want it. Sounds great doesn’t it? Science fiction? No, it is not! It is already there, within a hand´s reach and it is working!
The possibilities are countless
If you have visited the Kontron Booth at Embedded World 2016, you could have seen it in operation. We built a smart city, a smart retail solution, that, together with our Cloud and Technology partners, we can start implementing right away. We are leveraging our Embedded Computing Technology, already present in many devices, machines and gateways, by enabling it to safely communicate with any Cloud regardless of the Operating System, Network and Protocols used. The data produced by these devices is aggregated, consolidated, read and analyzed in real time making it possible to turn information into meaningful action. And this is not the only scenario we envisioned and implemented. The possibilities are countless. We can build a smart city to intelligently provide the right level of lighting needed by time of day, season, and weather conditions. Cities have shown a reduction in street lighting energy use by up to 30% using solutions like this. From smart cities to industrial solutions, health care, consumer, sport… all can benefit from connecting devices making them exchange data and use this data in a smart way.
What about privacy and security many will ask? That concern is taken care of as well. At Kontron, we are very careful about protecting the assets of our customers. That is why we partner with the best security vendors to provide end to end security, from the physical device level, providing securing with special chips, all the way to the application level by using the most sophisticated encryption technologies to protect data from being hacked, changed, manipulated, and stolen. And we make sure that this data is streamed and analyzed in real time enabling appropriate and timely action.
We are in the early stages of the creation of an Internet of Things
And this is not the end. We are in the early stages of the creation of an Internet of Things and the above examples provide just a glimpse into what is possible when you combine sensors, actuators, and networked intelligence. For 2016 it is expected that more than 5 million new “things” will get connected every day. These devices are producing data that, when used in a right way, can lead to high amounts of savings, improved efficiency and processes, optimize resource consumption, increase profits, reduce CO2 production in the world and even save lives of humans and animals.
Did you visit the Embedded World 2016? What were your impressions?
{{comment.comment}}