You Are the Device in 2016

… and the controller and data generator.

Were you surprised with that new car in your driveway sporting a huge bow this holiday season? Yea, me neither. But we did get a new gaming console that doesn’t require you to hold a controller in your hand. You know The One. It has a camera that picks up your body movements and turns that into action on your screen. It’ll even scan your face and create a digitized, animated You right in front of your eyes. You can then choose your You to play games. Now I realize some of you have had these for several years but we’ve been stuck in 2010 at our house…at least with gaming consoles.
For 2016, You are now the device, controller and data generator.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is this week and plenty of new gadgets are being unveiled to interact with our lives.

Starting at the bottom, smart shoes might be the next big thing to hit stores this year. According to the manufacturer, you’ll be able to control the temperature of the shoe with a mobile app and it’ll count your steps more accurately than the thing you wear on your wrist or carry in your pocket. The temperature control idea is interesting since one of the ways to stay comfortable in the summer heat is to keep your feet cool. There’s also self-lacing shoes on display. A fitness company also unboxed smart footwear that tracks time and date, duration, distance and splits, without a runner having to carry other devices.

As we move up the body, a smart belt called Belty is grabbing people’s attention. Like any other belt, it fits through your pant loops but the motorized insides will adjust loose when sitting and tighten up when you stand. You can also have it vibrate to remind you to stand every so often if you’re on your bottom too long. It keeps track, via a smartphone app, not only of your steps but also your expanding or diminishing waistline over time. Will it shame you come next Thanksgiving? Maybe not, but the sounds and sights of a roomful people unhinging their pants after a big meal might become an era gone by.

There are also new fitness trackers, smart shirts, smartwatches, gesture controlled cars, grocery shopping fridges, and even a digital laser hair treatment that you put on your scalp for 90 seconds every night and the company claims that it’ll restore thinning hair.

Home hubs will be built into smart televisions and fridge cams will allow you to see if the light really goes out when you close the door. Sensors in our society have become commonplace and while in the past they’ve been used to track weather, traffic conditions and how much we weigh, they are now attached to our bodies gathering information about us and reporting back.

Forget about BYOD, we’re back to the old, ever popular BYOB – Bring Your Own Body.

ps

Related:

• Wearables Head to Tail
• Oh, Is That The Internet You're Wearing?
• The Digital Dress Code
• Connecting the Threads
• IoT Influence on Society
• Our Five Senses on Sensors
• Hacking the Internet of Things looms over CES

Technorati Tags: f5,iot,things,ces,sensors,wearables,silva

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Connecting the Threads

What was first used to protect humans from the outside elements is now monitoring our body's inside environment.

According to eMarketer.com, wearable usage will grow almost 60% in 2015 verses 2014. This year, almost 40 million U.S. adults will use wearables, including smartwatches and fitness trackers. And that's only 16% of the penetrable market. They expect that number double in two years with close to 82 million adults wearing something connected by 2018. Almost two in five internet users by 2019. You probably think that it'll be all those youngsters growing up with connected objects but over the next four years, older Americans will see the biggest growth with the flood of wearable health monitor devices. Don't fret, I'm sure that new outfit for special occasions will monitor something. These connected wearables will soon be able to cover our body.

Even with that growth, adults are still exploring the value of wearables, above the wow-cool factor, for the real benefit of the investment. With prices still high for many of these gadgets, the adoption will be slightly lower than the recent mad rush for smartphones and tablets. Yet like many new technologies, as sticker-shock drops, the adoption grows. In addition, as more apps are developed to work with this new wardrobe, more people are likely to use it...just like the mobile device market. After all, that's what these things are - mobile devices. And once that happens, the advertisers will be all over that segment, which is currently very sparse.

And what typically follows mass adoption of technology? Vulnerabilities and security risks.

More connected personal devices in the office means more enterprise security risks. Whether it be from smartwatches having access to sensitive corporate data or the lost bandwidth from all the updates and alerts sent to these devices. Corporate BYOD security policies could soon include smartwatch use or any other wearable that poses a risk to the organization. As Steven Wright says, 'Right now I'm having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time.' BYO2.0

And we haven't even touched on the lack of security being built into some of these devices.

From insulin pumps, to glucose meters to pacemakers, anything that is wireless enabled is vulnerable to attack. While the bad guys are always looking for an easy score, it could also be the disgruntled employee looking to fix someone's wagon. And when I say fix, I really mean break. There are also privacy concerns for those who might be wearing smart eyewear. That casual, always awkward conversation at the urinal now takes on new meaning. For highly sensitive meetings, there could be a clothes rack and changing station so someone doesn't need to strip down just to participate. Forget about spy pens with wireless mics, my shirt's logo has a camera weaved into the seam.

All is not lost though, as there will be plenty of top 10 lists guiding you so you do not become a social (real world) outcast. WT VOX has put together it's Top 10 Worst Wearable Tech Devices So Far list. From a tie that has a QR code built into its back, to smartwigs, selfie-hats and drum pants, they explore the wild gadgets that are clamoring to cover our body. And on the flip side, they also look at the 10 Wearables and IoT Companies To Watch In 2015. Here, you get a glimpse of the future of smart lighting, dealing with big data, new IoT chipsets, IoT cloud platforms and other entities focused on our networked society.

Hashtag: Amazing.

ps

Related:

• Wearable Usage Will Grow by Nearly 60% This Year
• The Dark Side of Wearable Tech Use
• Top 10 Worst Wearable Tech Devices So Far
• 10 Wearables and IoT Companies To Watch In 2015
• Wearables Head to Tail
• Oh, Is That The Internet You're Wearing?
• The Digital Dress Code
• IoT Influence on Society

Technorati Tags: wearables,iot,things,connected devices,security,privacy,silva

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The Digital Dress Code

Coming to an office near you.

If you thought the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) craze was a headache, just wait until button cameras, smart watches, and spy glasses (already here) are a daily occurrence in the office. Workplace #Wearables will be a huge challenge in the coming years as more devices, clothing and pretty much any 'thing' with a chip or sensor become commonplace in our society. The device explosion with IoT (Internet of Things) will be much larger than any of these mobile phones we carry around.

A couple new reports examine the impact of IoT on businesses.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released a report on wearable technology after surveying 1,000 consumers, 314 of which use some form of wearable, as part of "The Wearable Future" report. Some key findings included that 77% of respondents thought that a top benefit of wearable technology is the potential to make employees more productive and efficient. Honestly, when I read that I immediately thought of my boss's hologram standing behind me in my home office watching my work. 70% expect that their office should allow the use of wearables...probably the same folks who wanted to bring their own tablet and 46% felt that organizations should fund wearables rather than the dreaded BYOD. The idea is that if the technology is simple to use and integrates with other devices, that should boost productivity and lift profits. Even so, there needs to be significant investment to ensure the camera shirt buttons can talk to Exchange, ya know.

The biggest concerns, according to PwC, include the risk of security breaches, invasion of privacy, tech dependence, having too many devices and on a more human level, not being able to relate to others or simply looking silly with all those attachments.

PwC also looked at the industries that will capitalize on the wearable market. Entertainment will be more 'immersive and fun'; Social Media gets more real time updates from your clothes; Gaming can be more visually and physically engaging; Advertisers will want the space on your back; Healthcare will track your vitals; and Retail could offer “pleasant, efficient” shopping experiences.

Business Insider recently released a report looking at the device growth They feel that by 2019, IoT devices will more than double the size of the smartphone, tablet, PC, wearable and connected car combined. That's huge. All the software, hardware, maintenance and management of IoT could add $1.7 trillion to the global economy by 2019. They also feel that the main benefit of IoT will be the efficiencies and cost savings by giving the user more control. But, there are sill few standards and even less compatibility so that needs work, not to mention the security risks inherent in these nouns. The processing power, storage, cameras, sensors and everything else will far surpass the USB-stick risks of years past, plus the potential of all this corporate data getting stored in personal clouds could spell big trouble.

And how are all these nouns going to found on the internet? DNS of course! Once all these various wearables hit the office, DNS will be the thing that allows us people to find them threads. I truly feel that DNS will be one of the most strained technologies as more connections happen in the office and will be discussing this trend at the ThingsExpo - which is part of SYS-CON Media's CloudExpo in Santa Clara this week.

ps

Related:

• Employees Excited, Concerned About Wearables in the Workplace
• Medical Devices: Safeguarding the Healthcare Revolution 
• How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition
• The 'Internet of Things' Will Be The World's Most Massive Device Market And Save Companies Billions Of Dollars
• As Wearables Get Hot, These 6 Industries Are Poised to Capitalize
• Why the Internet of Things will turn data computing on its head
• My Sensored Family
• The Internet of...(Drum Roll Please)...Band-Aids?!?
• The Breach of Things

 

Technorati Tags: iot,things,wearables,workplace,sensors,silva,devices,byod,smart,f5,big data,privacy

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Bring Your Own A-Z

The #BYO craze has taken the world by storm and now infiltrates every sector of out lives.  Here is a partial list, in alpha-order, of various bring your owns.

BYO Apple: For the teacher in your life, the princess you'd like to put to sleep or to keep the doctor away for a day.

BYO Beer: The original classic, college style.  And BYO Booze for when you're out of college and got a little cash.

BYO Candy: With Halloween approaching this could see a surge over the next 30 days.

BYO Device: Or danger, destruction, demolition, detonator or any other dastardly 'D' word to represent risk.

BYO Everything: When Internet of Things takes over our lives.  Chocolate Chips have a whole new meaning.

BYO Food: The newest Potluck Parties.

BYO Game: Actually sitting at a table playing the physical versions of Monopoly, Life, Candy Land, Scrabble, or any other favorite.

BYO Hacker: Bodyguards in the 21st Century.

BYO Intelligence: Actually using your brain to figure out something...or when AI robots take over the world.

BYO Jump Drive: A whistleblower's favorite.

BYO Kittens: For making that irresistible, can't-stop-watching, almost viral video.

BYO Litigation: The new term for Small Claims Court.

BYO Money: What Cash with be called 10 years from now.

BYO N: BYO's maximum amount.  As far as BYOingly possible.

BYO OMG: The Surprise Party.

BYO Presents: What you take to the BYO OMG.

BYO Quarrel: The updated version of an older brother's favorite 'Stop Hitting Yourself.'

BYO Raven: Quoth he.

BYO Sushi: The new 'Gone Fishing' Bumper sticker.

BYO Time: It's all relative anyway.

BYO Utopia: Happiness comes from within.

BYO Vacation: The latest Griswold adventure this time with a Hybrid LTD Country Squire.

BYO Warnings: Wouldn't be cool if everyone had to announce the hazards of interacting with them? 

BYO X: Half of a Tic-Tac-Toe game or how Hawaiians greet each other.

BYO Yawn: What you did right now when you read this entry.

BYO Zombie: Pretty much anyone walking around fully engaged with their BYOD.

Well that was fun.  C'mon play along - it's easy and works with almost any word!

ps

Related:

• How Terms Have Changed over Time
• BYOD Injuries
• BYOD–The Hottest Trend or Just the Hottest Term
• Is BYO Already D?
• Will BYOL Cripple BYOD?
• Freedom vs. Control
• The Prosecution Calls Your Smartphone to the Stand

Technorati Tags: byod,mobile,smartphone,lists,humor,fun,byo,silva,human,society,mam,mdm

 

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BYOD Injuries

This BYOD installment brought to you by, Bring Your Own Doctor

Is your mobile device so attractive that you can't keep your eyes off it?  Is every phone call so life changing that you are unaware of your surroundings?  Do you constantly have to update social media as if you were on a reality series?  Do you feel useless unless you are tapping away on a touch screen?  Have you come close to being in a bad accident due to being in a world of your own?  If you answered 'yes,' then you might be a perfect candidate for the hot new mobile companion, Bring Your Own Doctor!!

Pedestrian injuries related to cell phone use are on the rise.  Have you ever been so involved with your mobile device that you've bumped into, tripped over, fallen off, fallen in or hit by something because you were not paying attention to where you were going?  You are not alone.  A recent study shows that pedestrian cell phone-related injuries have more than doubled since 2005.  Typically we hear of the horrors of using your mobile device while driving; the risk of personal devices on corporate networks; the dangers of downloading malicious apps and now distracted walking is becoming yet another hazard of this mobile craze.

They looked at seven years of emergency room data (2004-2010) from 100 hospitals around the country which showed that bodily injuries (in public places, not at home) related to cell phones ranged from falling off walkways or bridges to walking in front of moving traffic.  In 2010 the study found that 1,500 pedestrians were treated in emergency rooms for cell-phone related incidents, as opposed to 559 in 2004. The number has risen every year and could easily double again for the 2010-2015 time frame.  The actual injuries are probably higher since many people are hurt and do not visit the ER.  The under 30 crowd, specially those between the ages of 16 and 25, are the most at risk. 

Are you surprised?  I'm not.  Everywhere you go, people have their devices out and head's down.  People will go to the park, only to sit on the bench with their phones out.  You can find plenty of 'falling into the mall fountain' YouTube videos due to people in a stare down contest with their phone.  For pedestrians, talking on the phone accounted for about 69% of injuries, verses texting, which accounted for about 9%.  This is not because texting is necessarily safer than talking and walking.  Instead, it is probably because less people actually text while walking than talk while on foot.  A couple of the injuries reported included a 14-year-old boy walking down a road while talking on a cell phone fell 6 to 8 feet off a bridge into a rock-strewn ditch, suffering chest and shoulder injuries.  A 23-year-old man was struck by a car while walking on the middle line of a road and talking on a cell phone, injuring his hip.  I'm sure you have your own story of some trip, slip or busted lip due to distracted mobile use. 

We usually hear about the digital dangers of mobile use along with the dreaded distracted driver and now there's proof that putting one foot in front of the other - the crowning achievement of any infant - has too, succumbed to technology. 

ps

Related:

• Study: Cell phone-related pedestrian injuries soar
• Distracted Walking: Injuries Soar for Pedestrians on Phones
• Texting While Walking Accidents: Video
• Girl Falls In Mall Fountain While Texting
• The New Wallet: Is it Dumb to Carry a Smartphone?
• Freedom vs. Control

Technorati Tags: byod,mobile,smartphone,injuries,emergency room,doctor,silva,f5,distracted

 

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Back to School BYOB Style

Bring Your Own Brain 
According to a study conducted by Harris Interactive and Pearson, 90% of today’s elementary, middle and high school students believe that mobile devices will change the way students learn in the future (92%) and make learning more fun (90%).  The majority (69%) of those same students would like to use mobile devices more in the classroom.
One-third of grades 4-12 students said that they have used a tablet for school work this academic year (34% have used a full-size tablet and 32% have used a small tablet), while 44% said they have used a smartphone for school work. Among students who use a tablet for school work, 52% use a device that they own personally, rather than borrow from the school and 70% would like to use mobile devices more often in their classrooms.  Only one in six say that their school provides the tablets.
The Pearson Student Mobile Device Survey was conducted to better understand how students use mobile technology for learning. The survey focused on how students use the mobile devices they currently own for learning, and how they would like to use those devices in the future. The survey asked students from grade 4 through college about the mobile devices that they own and intend to buy; how they currently use mobile devices for school work and how they expect to use them in the future; and their attitudes towards tablets for learning.
Teachers also love technology.  Onlineuniversities.com reports that 90% of teachers have a laptop or PC in the classroom and 60% have access to an interactive whiteboard.  35% have tablets or e-readers in the classroom, up from 20% just a year ago and 71% say that apps are beneficial for teaching.  65% indicate that technology lets them demonstrate things they could not show any other way.  It allows them to reinforce or expand on content, helps motivate students and accommodates multiple learning styles.
Research shows that students who are exposed to media-rich content in the classroom (like video), outperform non-exposed peers on tests, are more active in class discussions, and apply more varied approaches to problem solving.  By 2017, streaming video will represent the majority of all mobile traffic – and if school BYOD programs continue to be successful, much of this traffic could come from the classroom.
ps
Related:

• New Study Reveals U.S. Students Believe Strongly That Mobile Devices Will Improve Education
• Pearson Student Mobile Device Survey 2013 (pdf)
• The Current State Of Technology In The Classroom [Infographic]
• Teachers Love Technology
• Why video is the unlikely common denominator in ed-tech

Technorati Tags: byod,mobile,smartphone,tablet,classroom,education,school,learning,teachers,students,silva,video

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Corporate Mobile Data and BYOD Infographic(s)

Very busy week so I figured I'd re-source a couple of recent infographics that I found interesting and timely. 

Courtesy: http://www.druva.com/blog/state-of-corporate-mobile-data

 

Courtesy: http://www.viaresource.com/media/20307/byod--risks_-trends-and-skills-in-byod-security.png

Have a great week! 

ps

Technorati Tags: byod,infographic,privacy,mobile device,social media,identity theft

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