No one thinks about the technology systems that connect us today. Cars come when you need them, your home’s temperature is automatically set, and things generally just work. But there is a universal system below the surface of all technology— past and present— that is responsible for everything that runs in the world today. Roads, houses, time, rockets and everything in between are connected because of this ancient protocol: the metric system.
Some people say it was invented by aliens, some people claim god gave it to man. Regardless, the ancient metric system is responsible for measuring time, months, our calendar and almost every culture uses it as a standard to measure everything. It’s one of the largest connected standards in history.
This system was built by humans through slow evolution. But we are now at the point where computer systems are integrating with hardware we never thought possible. Door locks, health monitoring, drones and even farming hardware are at a paradigm shift as the internet of things starts to integrate with old and new hardware alike. A new protocol now must be adopted to connect legacy hardware, common objects and new technology together.
The system framework that will support the IoT industry will be something that operates independently on its own, separate from any one corporation. The lack of standardization is the largest gap that’s holding back a massive flood of advanced technological capabilities.
Adopting a Standardization That Works For Everything
Many people associate IoT with their Nest and August lock, but at the core of IoT it is literally two devices exchange information without human input. A device that senses human heartbeat, running distance or body temperature isn’t really IoT.
The IoT backbone will be built on data collection, and only limited by what machines can do with that data. Some of this is in development and some is already here.
Aeva by Olaeris is a great example of how this type of data system standard works when applied to IoT. This autonomous aircraft project can man an entire flight without human interaction because of the data which it collects and with which it functions. This drone allows civilians to move up to 250 miles and up to 10k ft, where consumer aircrafts are limited to by the FAA. It has performed extremely well in real world flights. A similar type of innovation is happening with autonomous cars. The technology is there, thousands of miles have been driven, but because there is no standardization, there’s no regulation.
Astro Digital is another great example of building advanced standard data sets for the IoT industry in agriculture. Tracking data is taken from satellites, software analyzes how much fertilizer is in a field, and then builds its own route to spread the right amount on its own, all without human interaction.
If something breaks, a signal gets sent to a repair station that can automatically order the replacement part from the factory. Then it automatically brings the part in and meets a technician at the location of the repair. The only human interaction needed is the technician on site.
Human labor is in some part holding us back from innovation like this. It’s cheaper to hire a human to do many jobs that could be done by machines right now. In the long term it will become cheaper to have technology fixing most machinery in the long run. This is when we will start seeing the industry growing quickly.
Standardizing Home IoT & Filling In Missing [Engineering] Gaps
There’s a lot of home automation still to come. Smart plugs could measure electricity and automatically optimize for the most efficient usage. The electric company’s power meter could talk to the coffee maker and report when it’s using too much power, yes. So why aren’t we doing it now?
It boils down to cost. If the massive utility providers would spend a tiny amount of the billions they make every year, we’d be saving money in our homes immediately, but that doesn’t fit their earnings goal.
The lock on your front door could say that you’re coming home, turn on the coffee maker and the AC (in the rooms you’ll most likely be in) and the appropriate lights. But all of this requires a standard protocol between hardware makers and software.
The missing part to all of this IoT connectivity is the system standard to run it. Think about all of the different protocols and systems these physical devices use to operate. Think about all of the APIs needed to work in sync, not to mention circuitry, electronics and different types of engineering used in them.
Creating universal standards of collecting data is the key to unlock a flood of innovation.
Who Will Start Sharing Data For This IoT Standard?
The problem is that hardware companies, software companies, and most of big data is already owned by those who are collecting it, and they’re not sharing.
Mike Kokorich, entrepreneur, investor and co-founder of Astro Digital, a satellite company focused on connecting the world using data, talked with me about this IoT backbone. He’s working on a project that collects a massive amount of information through a multispectral camera taken of the Earth.
“People see IoT as the next internet-sized type of technological advancement. But the internet as we know it now was built for people,” Mike said. “The IoT paradigm is built for machines. And it allows people to create a reality however they want in it, virtually. Farmers need to know moisture content, insolation, how much ozone is in the air or pollution around the land. Advancements like understanding when to spray for fungus to knowing how crops will affect prices for commodities are well within reach in the near future. This technology and ones like it are the gateway between physical and virtual reality with IoT. They collect info from space and combine that data with satellite meteorological signals to help an entire industry.”
If a few large industry leaders decided to adhere to a standard protocol, we would take a large step towards IoT innovation.
IoT is creating a system that isn’t human, that operates on its own. This will usher in the next large shift in industry, health and innovation. This is a particularly interesting field to me because it’s pushing the boundaries of the next phase of technology, where machines don’t need us to get more things done.
About the Author: Pavel Cherkashin finds good ideas and people in internet and technology and helps them grow into $100 million companies that make customers, employees and investors happy. He is Director at GVA Capital, an early-stage VC firm, helping great startups successfully go global.
Edited by
Ken Briodagh
