Connected Intelligence : Connecting the dots !!!

, “When wireless is perfectly applied, the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain” rightly said by Nikola Tesla.

Since we are taking a deep dive in digital connectivity innovation and technology ....its almost imperative to have a though through discussion on the whole concept of Connectivity  , as in coming years, it has been observed that the number of internet connected devices is going to overtake the number of humans on the planet and it is estimated that by 2020, there would be 50 to 75 billion connected devices .

Lets understand first as what does it mean from Connected and how to understand Intelligence ... here with taking learning from my previous research will say Connectivity brings life into an object and the intelligence empowers it. This is the central idea of the Connected Intelligence Era. It is an era where every device would be manufactured with smart capabilities that will allow them to communicate and interact with other devices, exchange information, make real time decisions and performs work based on the information.

Having said this now we need to structure our whole research in its top 5 aspects of Connected intelligence :

1. Connected Intelligence : Industry wise potential - to define this would like to share the latest development which had came in form of  iris recognition One of the methods for having more secured transactions could be biometric identification through mobile devices. The purpose of biometrics is to recognize a person using unique features of human characteristics such as fingerprints, voice, face, iris, retina etc. 
   The record of cashless transactions in our country is very dismal. RBI has been promoting cashless transaction and has introduced Unified Payment Interface System    in which to send money, the sender needs to know the virtual Id of the recipient and verify the transaction using pin using his Smartphone.

1. Benefits of using Iris Recognition System:
   ·         More reliable than PIN or password system.
   ·         High level of security for cellular phone based services for example bank transaction service via mobile phone.
   ·         Faster and more accurate identification.
   ·         Can eliminate loopholes of a banking system that criminals can exploit.
   The Challenge involved in implementation of iris biometric on mobile phone is the iris Image quality, since bad image quality will affect the entire iris recognition process.            
2. Evolution of Connected Intelligence and Connected Intelligence Era
   Whether it is the industrial revolution, the age of steam and railways, the age of steel, electricity, and heavy engineering, and the current age of information and telecommunications, it is observed that each of the technology cycle lasts for around 40-50 years. Initially it was Telemetry which involved remote measurement and control of objects. Telemetry changed to M2M and it further changed to IoT.       
3. 
                                            

aMachine to Machine(M2M) phase started from 1991 and continued till 2010.It was a phase of slow growth and the sensors used were multi- purposed, mostly wireless with wide variety of uses. This phase saw the introduction of first cellular module for machine communication for fleet operation, millions of homes were installed with smart meters for saving purpose, sensors were used by professional race car drivers that led to competitive advantage. Multi-purpose modules were built that was used to transmit data that could be processed. Actions were triggered remotely using commands and control.

From M2M, we moved to IoT.

IoT was not a matter of mainstream discussion until ITU’s report in 2005 came which explored the subject in details. This phase saw exponential growth. The sensors used are multi-purpose, wireless, networked with wide range of use cases. The concept of IoT introduced new business models that impact every industry. Companies like Ericsson and Cisco started making forecast about connected devices.GE and Mckinsey conducted more in depth studies on this matter. Fitbit was the first pure play consumer IoT company to go IPO IN 2015.The Company has reported billions of saving with 50% revenue. Other companies are also reporting billions of dollars as savings and new sources of revenue as they have been able to merge connectivity with intelligence and data to truly mine insights and use it to reinvent their business processes and revenue streams. By 2015, the communications became so advanced that man could communicate with machines with great precision.

Smart ,connected products

The products are getting revolutionized with the help of information technology. Earlier the sole components were mechanical and electrical parts but now the devices consist of hardware, sensors, software, microprocessors and storage etc. These products offer new opportunities, more reliability and higher product utilization. It reshapes the industry structure and exposes them to new competitive opportunities.

Fig: Core elements of Smart, Connected products:

Connectivity serves a dual purpose. First, it allows information to be exchanged between the product and its operating environment, its maker, its users, and other products and systems. Second, connectivity enables some functions of the product to exist outside the physical device, in what is known as the product cloud.

Capabilities of smart, connected products: The capabilities of these products can be grouped into four categories- monitoring, control, optimization and autonomy.

Connected Intelligence and golden age of mobile :

The telecom and the mobile industry is growing everyday and mobile is the most critical tool responsible for this technological growth. The demand for smart phone is increasing with each passing day. Feature phones have become obsolete. Things have become much easier by the use of several applications. The mobile industry is getting matured and we are entering into a new technological era that is connected intelligence. This era includes connectivity and intelligence that enables humans and machines to interact with other virtual or physical objects. The objects are programmed in such a way that they would be able to react to situations and make intelligent decisions. The telecommunication market is experiencing a new boom with the introduction of 4G LTE and VoLTE. The new Era is all about the ability of contextually aware objects to connect with its surroundings. Besides, taking only instructions, the connected objects would be able to make intelligent decisions, provide information to other devices and can analyse real time data. Each object in the network would be programmed with software and they would become active object of the network and would be able to think.

The concept of IoT or connected devices is not new. In 1991, the late Mark Weiser of XEROXPARC, considered the father of ubiquitous computing ,dreamed of always on, always connected world in which humans and computers are seamlessly united.

Connected intelligence: Impact on employment and competitive advantage

Connected Intelligence Era is definitely going to affect the employment, policies, education and

competitiveness. Lives of human beings have become better with every passing day due to advancement in technology. The productivity has increased and living standards have risen. With every advancement in technology, there has been increase in job opportunities. Adopting new technology helps in gaining efficiencies in cost and time. While the jobs associated with older technology curve starts diminishing, the new technology curve enables new types of jobs that keep the economy growing for the future. Connected Intelligence leads to automation of tasks which eliminates the jobs of several people responsible for those tasks. Automation of even mundane tasks at lower costs than outsourcing will definitely see the movement in net job.

Smart, Connected products also have a great impact on the structure of industry and use of connected intelligence affects the industry competition and profitability to a large extent. For having competitive advantage, a company should be able to either follow low cost leadership i.e. operational effectiveness or differentiation focus i.e. distinct strategic positioning.

Operational effectiveness needs the company to adopt new technologies across its value chain. Also, a company must decide on what unique proposition it is going to offer to its customers and what tradeoff. Connected Intelligence defines a new standard of operational effectiveness. It affects the product design, service, marketing, human resources and security.

Present scenarios of using connected intelligence in different industries:

·         Health – ECG, glucose measurement, skin disease diagnosis, ultrasound, and gut analysis can be done using sensors and smartphones.

·         Retail- Starbucks generates billions of dollars from its mobile app.

·         Transportation-Uber and Lyft are reshaping the travel industry.

·         Insurance- Monitoring good health habits is providing lower premium to citizens.

·         Entertainment- Consumers are cutting cables and moving their consumption to mobile devices. Mobile is the biggest channel for media consumption, digital advertisement and engagement.

·         Travel- Hotels and airlines are providing routing check in capabilities direct from mobile through identity management, let passengers place orders from their phones.

·         Food and beverage- Consumers are more informed now by sensors about what they sould eat and avoid.

·         Home- Thermostats, sprinklers, video monitoring, security alarms, windows, locks, entertainment system, lighting system etc.

·         Manufacturing- increase efficiency, monitoring, optimization of manufacturing supply chain. Prediction and scheduling of maintenance window.

·         Utility- helps in providing real time feedback to the customers and their objects on optimizing usage.

·         Mining- manage safety of workers, automation of deep drilling by robots.

Iris recognition system on mobile phones for online transaction and payment through Aadhar card

The RBI has been promoting more cashless transactions and one of the ways to do so is to tap into

the expanding smart phone ecosystem that is slated to reach close to 500 million users in next five years. The sharp rise in sophisticated bank fraud and the increase in identity theft throughout banking systems has increased demand for a more secure method to identify customers that does not rely on something they have or something they know, but rather who they are. So, the use of biometrics in banking is increasing because more consumers understand its potential as a predominant method of identifying themselves to access banking services such as branch banking, online banking, ATM networks, and mobile banking. Biometric-based authentication systems are widely considered to be more reliable than personal identification number (PIN) or password systems for verifying individuals. We can have more secure verification process for online transaction using iris recognition system on mobile phones while making transactions using UPI.

Role of Aadhaar card in online transaction through UPI: 

The Aadhaar system that has close to 80 crore enrolments and is now legally accepted as a form of identity for Indian residents is the backbone for authentication and authorization in the UPI.  Aadhaar authentication is the process wherein Aadhaar number, along with other attributes, including biometrics, will be submitted by the interface to the UIDAI system for verification. There is also a provision for financial institutions to integrate their Aadhaar based KYC into their applications that use UPI. The most notable feature however is the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) that enables banks to route the financial transactions through a switching and clearing agency allowing citizens to authenticate and subsequently operate their respective Aadhaar enabled accounts as well as perform basic financial transactions. The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) will maintain a database of customer’s Aadhaar number, Mobile number and Bank accounts. This central repository (Central Mapper) will be used to route payment instructions based on Aadhaar number or mobile number. For the end users the most important feature of UPI is the ability to make payments by providing a virtual ID without having to provide account details or credentials to 3rd party applications or websites. It would also provide the ability to pre-authorize multiple recurring payments similar to ECS (bill payments, fees, subscriptions, etc.) with a one-time secure authentication and rule based access. Though the payments would be more secure with the introduction of single click two-factor authentication by using a personal phone without the need of new devices or hardware tokens but it could be made more secure by implementing verification process through iris recognition. When a person initiates online transaction, instead of verifying it using PIN, iris recognition would be done using mobile phones.

Due to the fact that biometrics are unique for every individual and cannot be easily forged, it will protect customer information from being compromised by fraudsters. Biometric identification methods are automated and provide fast and accurate customer authentication. The verification time is usually less than 5 second and it is highly reliable and secure.

To ensure the accuracy and efficiency of biometrics recognition on mobile phones, enhanced computing power and storage capacity of mobile phones is needed. In addition, the essential hardware i.e. biometric sensors embedded on mobile phones are also required to provide better performance, e.g. higher resolution of image acquired with digital cameras on mobile phones, at lower cost while maintaining their miniaturization feature.

Conclusion 

Each of the previous technology cycles has brought several changes to the world and has created so many opportunities for human development. The telecom and internet cycle has brought widespread impact on the global economy. The elements starting a new era of technology evolution are in place and we have entered the era of “connected intelligence” that would definitely take the economy to a next level. Every industry is getting transformed and companies are improving their processes in order to serve their customers in a better way. Regulators and policy makers need to play a significant role in understanding this new technology. Suppliers who have a superior comprehension of the client at any given moment, and who can decode the requirements and needs of buyers and venture clients before even they can, are the ones who will have competitive advantage in the ecosystem.

Thanks a ton for being with me till here and now like always its your turn to put forward your comments and critics and input in-order to co-create and discover a rich content on Connected Intelligence : Connecting the dots .

you can connect with me on my twitter handle  @AshutoshNow and my gmail - AKxmails@gmail.com. 

you can check my below blogs as well :

1. A connected World : 50 Billion Devices USD 300 market by 2020 
2. Instant Messenger Demystified 
3. i-Way & Highway still a hop away - WiFi Monetization
4. 4G LTE Aarchitecture - QuickBite
5. IoTbyAshutosh