Big Data and the Internet of Things

The much – heralded ” Internet of Things ” or M2M sector  ( machine-to-machine ) seems to be poised for takeoff  – possibly to the often –   mentioned 20bn connected devices by 2020 from the 100M connected devices today.

Besides the United States, the momentum is building on continents like Europe and Asia due to the high price of energy, especially gasoline, in those countries.  Understandably, M2M market trends for creating the Internet of Things suggest the early M2M markets are automotive telematics & fleet management.  The next M2M market is smart metering for buildings and homes ( “Smart Grid ” ).  But other M2M applications in home health care, remote equipment monitoring and supply chain & logistics are also in focus.

A large aspect of this M2M communication will be the analysis of all the M2M traffic  ( “Big Data” ) using advanced algorithms and related technologies,. Such large data sets are generated by the all the sensors embedded in each device, the  networks involved in collecting and transmitting such data,and the logistics comprising the Internet of Things. Such big data sets, built or accumulated in real – time,  will require sophisticated algorithms and analytics technologies including the ability to learn autonomously (machine learning) from experience with such big data.

However, there are certain big data-related pitfalls before M2M applications can be fully realized.  For the Internet of Things to grow rapidly, the development of such machine learning algorithms and big data analytics technologies for specific applications in specialized domain areas are being hampered by the lack of skilled talent at this time.  Further, the domain expertise required to enhance such big data algorithms development efforts is also another barrier in developing robust machine-to-machine systems.for a variety of M2M applications such as telematics, smart grid, etc.

Besides regulatory and policy changes, the paucity of skilled algorithms and machine learning expertise to perform the required analytics on the big data generated in the logistics of connected devices will inhibit the development of machine-to-machine /M2M communications to its full potential.

The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things or Machine-to_Machine Communications (M2M) is projected to grow from today’s 100M connected devices to 50 Billion by 2020.

With the costs of sensors declining, the 4G LTE broadband bandwidth increasing (with Google Fiber providing 1Gigabit broadband to the home in test cities), cloud computing going mainstream, mobile cloud becoming mainstream, the advent of big data analytics and machine learning algorithms into various sectors of society, the stage is getting set for the Internet of Things to take shape.

Google Fiber Car (Photo credit: Mark Nye)

Related articles

• 2013: The Year of the Internet of Things (semanticweb.com)
• Internet of Things: the next big start-up opportunity (blogs.techworld.com)
• No Longer Vaporware: The Internet of Things Is Finally Talking | Wired Opinion | Wired.com (isykes.wordpress.com)

GE and its Industrial Internet Vision

In a recent report, GE‘s Chief Economist, Marco Annunziata, announced GE’s bold vision  for the “Industrial Internet” (or popularly called The Internet of Things).

In its vision, GE predicts that the Industrial Internet will add $10 to 15 trillion to the world economy over the next 20 years assuming  proper policy changes  and regulatory barriers lessened to enable an innovation ecosystem that will “smarten”  gadgets, equipment, and major networks and systems via the orchestration of sensors, sophisticated and automated decision management technologies, machine learning and big data management, and vast networks of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

 

 

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Ray Kurzweil Joins Google

It appears that Ray Kurzweil has recently joined Google as Senior Director. He will oversee research in machine learning and related areas.

His re-emergence into industry marks an important milestone in the evolution of machine intelligence technology, and its commercialization.

Welcome back, Ray !  I am sure Google looks forward to your contributions.

Topics and Themes

The idea for this blog’s title came from the term “Singularity” in physics and from Ray Kurzweil‘s term “Technological Singularity“, a time in the future when machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence.

Certain elements of this future are already in place, and gathering momentum. Hence the pages of this blog reflect some of the areas under massive development. Together, these pages will provide a glimpse into the approaching singularity.

We are currently at Singularity Point One (“Sing 0.1”). It promises to be a fun, sometimes scary , ride

Climb on board !