M2M Data and Product Quality

One of the key uses of the “big data” that is generated by the devices connected to the Internet of Things is something that you may not have considered so far. As a former QA guru who relied on metric and statistics to determine whether a product was ready for deployment and then follow the standard improvement processes for new feature additions, I see M2M data as a great way to measure the quality, reliability and usability of the products out in the field.

Imagine that the new refrigerator you just launched is now connected and you’re getting logs of data as to its functionality, frequency and time of use, energy used, maintenance information, etc. that you can now incorporate into your next product development cycle to add to your test plans and product development plans and to prioritize next feature upgrades.

You now have a real-time connection with your customers and can respond to problems before they are even aware that the problem exists. In this new world of IoT, you will be the one proactively contacting the customer to let him know that the new refrigerator they just bought needs a replacement part, and that it’s already being shipped, and a repair person has been notified to arrive and replace it tomorrow!

DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A BILLION $$ M2M BUSINESS FROM SCRATCH?

Well, that may be an exaggeration, but, my colleague and founder of FieldLogix, Yukon Palmer and I, are putting together a panel discussion at the upcoming MobileCON 2012 focusing on how to start an M2M business on a shoestring budget. Here’s the longer write up, as we were limited on MobileCON’s site.

It is estimated that we are on track to connect 20 billion M2M devices by 2020, so the opportunities are wide-open for entrepreneurs that have a bold vision and the proper support to see it through.

Machine to machine communications requires a solid understanding of diverse technologies.  Attempting to navigate this space on a startup budget only compounds the challenges.   During this panel discussion, we will discuss the various M2M eco-system players and related business models, the process of streamlining the development of the technologies to fit your vision and budget, the types of of hurdles you may expect to jump through to successfully develop and deploy your product, and how to leverage strategic partnerships to find the right talent, vendors, and customers.  You will also hear the investors’ perspective and advice on what they may be looking for as an investment opportunity.

For this upcoming discussion we have invited an expert panel representing entrepreneurs who already had a successful exit after bootstrapping their company, a service provider, a company that will help with everything from proper system design and certification to how to integrate all the components, as well as a representative from the VC community who has a background in M2M investments.

Our speakers include Steve Pazol, former CEO of nPhase, Mo Nasser, BD Director at Sprint, and Kelly Venturini, CEO of  M2MCertified.

Join us on October 11 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM at MobileCon as part of the Thought Leadership series inside the Exhibit Hall at the San Diego Convention. For more information go to MobileCON’s Thought Leadership Series page here: http://www.mobilecon2012.com/events/eventdetails.cfm/1731

GPS Spoofing – potential problems with drones and NYSE

In case you haven’t heard yet, the US government will be using drones to monitor our movements, well ok, the idea is to monitor movements of those trying to cross our borders or other illegal activities, but I suspect that regular citizens will be caught on camera much more often than “the bad guys”.  But guess what? It turns out that the GPS signal is one of the biggest security vulnerabilities we have encountered in a long time, and those signals can basically turn a drone into a missile. Here’s the full story of how a team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin’s hacked into a drone’s GPS.

But this is just part of the story, and Fox News should have followed up with these researches on their other, and in my opinion, more important findings of what this vulnerability means. It turns out that you can also use GPS Spoofing to mess with the time stamps of financial transactions on the NYSE and NASDAQ. Here’s the link to that research paper:

http://radionavlab.ae.utexas.edu/images/stories/files/papers/summary_financial_sector_implications.pdf

What about M2M and Data?

Technology Spectator said this earlier this year about The Internet of Things

The development of high-speed broadband infrastructure is now well and truly underway in many countries and one of the real value propositions of this new infrastructure will be the further development of the ‘Internet of Things’(IoT) which is going to be a real game-changer. It will transform every single sector of society and the economy and it will be out of this environment that new businesses – and indeed new industries – will be born. For the telecom this trend will be driven not so much by the carriers as by internet-based services (databases), and it looks as though these developments will come from the bottom up. Exciting new internet applications and mobile apps will see people installing sensors to link to the internet, and data-gathering and real-time analytics will be valuable services that people will want to use. Companies will follow later –either by building their own IoT infrastructure and/or by buying up some of the IoT start-ups.

So when Anil Kripalani asked me to moderate a TiE South Coast panel on wireless, I chose this particular topic. Here’s the video from that panel discussion with the following industry leaders: Mo Nasser from Sprint, Naresh Soni from Interdigital, Fred Yentz from ILS Technologies, and Prof. Subramanya from National University.

Machine to Machine, or “The Internet of Things”, we have a name, now what?

I’m now involved in a new project in the M2M arena, or the Internet of things, the newly coined name by Cisco’s Chief Futurist Dave Evans. I constantly come across the projections of 50 billion connected devices by 2020 in everything from all your appliances being accessed through a facebook-like application where you can get your refrigerator to order your groceries while you’re driving home and your roomba having vacuumed your floor at the same time, to smart meters ensuring energy efficiency, and health monitors allowing your mother to age with dignity in her own home just to name a few.

But I am also finding that there are still many hurdles that need to be overcome to make this future a reality. For now, I can’t even really figure out how to get my mom to be able to use one of the new tablets seamlessly. She doesn’t have Wifi at home, and I don’t really want to spend additional $50/month on a 3G or LTE data plan! My last Verizon bill was already $500 because I went to Europe with my Global Droid and had to pay $2.95 per minute of voice time and $.50 per text! Whatever happened to that  free Wifi everywhere idea that I remember hearing about several years ago?

But I digress. The real problem is how to make all the disparate devices communicate and transmit data in standardized fashion and how to make real sense of the data into information that will help enterprises with their processes and show them that there is real ROI in implementing these costly integrations of sensors, gateways, networks and finally software applications. Oh and yes, having a billing system for it all that somehow makes sense would probably  help too!

Comments on Gartner’s Top 10 trends that will transform mobile between now and 2015

Tech Republic just posted this article listing Gartner’s top 10 trends that will transform mobile between now and 2015: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/top-10-trends-that-will-transform-mobile-between-now-and-2015/9543

In my opinion, another missing trend is Wireless Health, so I’m wondering if Gartner thinks that all the issues with payments, etc will not make it a trend… Hoever, given how much money Qualcomm is investing in it, plus with Continua driving the standardization to enable easier device development, I would think this would make the list before Augmented Reality, which I am not too certain about.

As far as M2M, there are far more other standards to look out for, including Zigby, as well as deeper developments in the data analytics, as was obvious from the last CTIA!

CTIA Enterprise 2011 quick review

Today is Friday, the day after the Fall 2011 CTIA that was held here in San Diego, and so I am writing this while it’s still fresh in mind, although I am still a bit tired.

My very first major discovery was on the very first day, Monday, after I registered, picked up my badge, and started reviewing the show program to see which companies were here, on the exhibit floor, what information tracks I would be interested in, etc. This first discovery was not who was here, but who was not! And that was Qualcomm!!! No booth, no logos, no sponsorships, no tracks dedicated to Qualcomm specifically. Pretty weird considering that San Diego is Qualcomm’s home so you would think they would support CTIA in San Diego…

The exhibit area was pretty well dominated by the M2M related “stuff” – modems, certification companies, tracking companies, integrators, and even Sprint’s big booth was very much all about M2M. Sprint has been in telemetry for a while, so they may be considered a leader in the m2m. I was told by one of their booth guys about a system on airport buses that collects and analyzes on-bus traffic of people using facial recognition software to identify race and gender as well as eye tracking to see what demographic is looking at their on-board screens that deliver ads. This is also used for security as well (duh!).

So the next steps in m2m seem to be more in-depth analytics, which was also one of the big things discussed and promoted, as that Sprint example.

Additionally, both LG and Samsung had very big booth with all sorts of connected items, from tablets and their use as enterprise/business items (airplane seats with built-in tablets), to refrigerators that have recipes on the screen built into the door!

Wireless Health had an interesting session with a panel from EMC Corp, Qualcomm Employee Health, and Blue Shield. Topic focused on how technology and incentives are used to promote better health behavior in the work place. The obvious gap, which was acknowledged when I asked the question, is the lack of real preventive steps. It’s one thing to help people fight obesity, but how about preventing them from getting there and understanding any possible predetermined factors that might contribute and how to personalize preventive capabilities.

Networking for women

Last night I attended an Athena event for the first time in a few years. I was a very active member for severals years up until a couple of years ago, and even was one of the finalists for their Pinnacle award in 2004.

I was reminded last night how nice it is to be in a women dominated networking group, where the group dynamics and atmosphere are really much different than all the other technology networking events I usually attend, which are far more “testosterone” driven.

There were writers, lawyers, scientists, entrepreneurs and corporate business leaders there last night, and the discussions were lively, mainly focusing on meet and greet and get to know the women in the room.

I shared my experience of starting my company, Zaxis, with a couple of the women, and by answering their questions about how I did it, and what I thought were my greatest accomplishments, I was reminded that I really did create something important, and that my experience has value to others! Sometimes, when I get declined for a new opportunity, or a CEO I just interviewed with rejects me with the excuse “She’s too much of a race horse”, I get frustrated and feel diminished, so last night was a very nice energy and self-esteem boost! I will definitely get my membership re-instated and go back.

 

What is Google up to now?

Although I have been involved in mobile area now for almost 10 years, I still try to keep up with what is happening in the software development world in general. For that reason, I have been helping the San Diego chapter of the Google Technology Users Group and last week we had our re-start kick-off meeting which focused on Google’s App Engine.

We had quite a turn out that included engineers, students, entrepreneurs and VC’s! The room at Cooley was packed. The presenter was Chris Schalk, Google’s Developer Advocate in this area, and he gave an overview presentation on App Engine’s various API’s and coding methods. As Cloud computing is growing in popularity, and Software as a Service is now mainstream, Google is now moving into what they call PAAS – Platform as a Service (not to be confused with IAAS – Infrastructure as a Service), where you can do application prototyping and development in the cloud. I was most fascinated by the Prediction API included in the App Engine which allows developers to tap into Google’s machine learning algorithms to analyze historic business data and predict likely future outcomes.

Another interesting point is that in order to appeal to enterprise developers, Google’s storage and service has been SAS 70 certified! This means that they are in compliance with various standards that ensure safety of user data.