Last week the Lab crossed the Atlantic Ocean to attend the 2015 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. In addition to our daily recaps for Day one, two, and three, we are now proud to present a final recap to cover everything you need to know about the event and highlight our favorites among the 2,000 exhibiting companies.
As we pointed out in last week’s By-the-Numbers, privacy concerns are holding back mainstream consumers from embracing connected home devices. This holds true for all connected devices, as the following AdWeek infographic perfectly illustrates.
Fears about personal privacy and data security, either through company misconduct or malicious hacking, rank as the top challenge for the IoT industry. In addition, a lack of perceived value in connected devices and associated pricing concerns don’t help the industry’s case.
Unsurprisingly, consumers prefer convenient devices, with fitness devices receiving an approving nod. Meanwhile, the products in the least-wanted basket all share the trait of low practical value—most of the connected functions they offer can be achieved by simply looking at or smelling the items.
What if your necklace could detect and record your moods like an emotional journal? That’s the idea behind LogMe, a sentient-recognizing smart necklace designed by Michelle Cortese, the Lab’s very own interaction designer. Watch this trigger + to see our interview with her on the design and application of LogMe, as well as the reactions it has received so far.
Read original story on: New York Times
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday reported that Internet-connected devices presented “serious data security and privacy risks”, urging companies to make data protection a top priority. The announcement came just after Verizon’s supercookie—embedded unique user identifiers that are undeletable—made headlines last week for the privacy threats it poses for customers.
In both cases, the main security and privacy threats originate from non-consented access to and sale of personal data by third-party devices or apps. As estimated by Gartner Research, around 4.9 billion connected devices for consumers, enterprises, and utilities will be in use this year, generating a vast amount of personal and company data that need to be properly protected and regulated.
Update 1/30/2014: NYT reports that Verizon Wireless has decided to make a major revision to allow users to completely opt-out of its “supercookies”.
IBM has released a proof of concept for blockchain-powered Internet of Things devices called ADEPT, short for Autonomous Decentralized Peer-To-Peer Telemetry. The system design is fully distributed, secure, and open source. Primarily based on the blockchain, which is the protocol that underpins BitCoin and the other cryptocurrencies, ADEPT also incorporates Ethereum for smart contracts, TeleHash for fast, secure, peer-to-peer messaging, and BitTorrent for file sharing. The company is teaming up with Samsung, which will presumably help test and implement the system into their products.
“Imagine a world where a smart washer is able to detect a component failing, can check from the blockchain if the component is in warranty, place a service order with a contracted service provider, and the service provider can independently verify the warranty claim – again from the blockchain – and all this, autonomously.”
The distributed design allows IoT devices, which might have a useful life of ten years or more, to avoid using a cloud service with ongoing financial costs that would likely require selling user data to be sustainable. It also eliminates single points of failure—for example, a hacker would not be able to compromise a manufacturer’s update server to instruct every device to transfer cryptocurrency maliciously because there is no central server, and quarantining bad actors is built in.
We chatted with Ray Strods from Belkin about what their new WeMo Home Automation can do to make your home a smart one.
Stay tuned and follow us on Twitter @ipglab for more CES coverage throughout the whole week.
We talked with John from Whirlpool about how their smart washer is making laundry an easier task with diagnostics.
Stay tuned and follow us on Twitter @ipglab for more CES coverage throughout the whole week.
We talked with Lars Felber at CES 2015 about the new HomeKit-based smart sensors from Elgato.
Stay tuned and follow us on Twitter @ipglab for more CES coverage throughout the whole week.
We chatted with Janina from Netatmo to learn about their Welcome smart camera for home surveillance.
Stay tuned and follow us on Twitter @ipglab for more CES coverage throughout the whole week.
Take a look at the futuristic smart home controller Ring by LogBar–it works like pure magic.
Stay tuned and follow us on Twitter @ipglab for more CES coverage throughout the whole week.
