The Internet of Sports
Did you see what the NFL is doing this year with sensors? Earlier this month they announced a partnership with Zebra Technologies, a company that provides RFID chips for applications from 'automotive assembly lines to dairy cows' milk production.' This season there will be sensors in the player's shoulder pads which will track all their on field movements. This includes player acceleration rates, top speed, length of runs, and even the distance between a ball carrier and a defender. Next year they'll add sensors for breathing, temperature and heart rate. More stats than ever and could change the game for-ever. Imagine coaches being able to examine that data and instantly call a play based on it. Play by play. To me it somewhat takes away that 'feel' for the game flow but also having data to confirm or deny that feeling might make for exciting games. Maybe lots of 0-0 overtimes or a 70-0 blowout. Data vs. data. Oh how do I miss my old buzzing electric football game. The yardsticks will have chips along with the refs and all that data is picked up by 20 RFID receivers placed throughout the stadium. Those, in turn, are wired to a hub and server which processes the data. 25 times a second, data will be transmitted to the receivers and the quarter sized sensors use a typical watch battery. The data goes to the NFL 'cloud' and available in seconds. The only thing without a sensor is the ball. But that's probably coming soon since we already have the 94Fifty sensor basketball. And we've had the NASCAR RACEf/x for years and this year they are going to track every turn of the wrench with RFID tracking in the pits and sensors on the crew. Riddell has impact sensors in their helmets to analyze, transmit and alert if an impact exceeds a predetermined threshold. They can measure the force of a NBA dunk; they can recognize the pitcher’s grip and figure out the pitch; then the bat sensor that can measure impact to the ball, the barrel angle of their swings, and how fast their hands are moving; and they are tracking soccer player movement in Germany. Heck, many ordinary people wear sensor infused bracelets to track their activity. We've come a long way since John Madden sketched over a telestrator years ago and with 300 plus lb. players running around with sensors, this is truly Big Data. It also confirms my notion that the IoT should really be the Internet of Nouns - the players, the stadiums and the yardsticks. ps Related: Player-tracking system will let NFL fans go deeper than ever Fantasy footballers and coaches rejoice—NFL players to wear RFID tags More sensors are coming to professional sports, but research outpaces business models Why This Nascar Team Is Putting RFID Sensors On Every Person In The Pit Impact Sensors: Riddell InSite Impact Response System Fastpitch Softball League Adds Swing Sensors to its Gear Technorati Tags: rfid,sensors,IoT,things,nfl,cloud,big data,silva,f5 Connect with Peter: Connect with F5: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 Connect with Peter: Connect with F5:The IoT Ready Platform
Over the last couple months, in between some video coverage for events, I've been writing a series of IoT stories. From the basic What are These "Things”? and IoT Influence on Society to the descriptive IoT Effect on Applications and the IoT Ready Infrastructure. I thought it only fair to share how F5 can play within an IoT infrastructure. Because F5 application services share a common control plane—the F5 platform—we’ve simplified the process of deploying and optimizing IoT application delivery services. With the elastic power of Software Defined Application Services (SDAS), you can rapidly provision IoT application services across the data center and into cloud computing environments, reducing the time and costs associated with deploying new applications and architectures. The beauty of SDAS is that it can provide the global services to direct the IoT devices to the most appropriate data center or hybrid cloud depending on the request, context, and application health. Customers, employees, and the IoT devices themselves receive the most secure and fastest experience possible. F5's high-performance services fabric supports traditional and emerging underlay networks. It can deployed a top traditional IP and VLAN-based networks, works with SDN overlay networks using NVGRE or VXLAN (as well as a variety of less well-known overlay protocols) and integrates with SDN network fabrics such as those from Cisco/Insieme, Arista and BigSwitch among others. Hardware, Software or Cloud The services fabric model enables consolidation of services onto a common platform that can be deployed on hardware, software or in the cloud. This reduces operational overhead by standardizing management as well as deployment processes to support continuous delivery efforts. By sharing service resources and leveraging fine-grained multi-tenancy, the cost of individual services is dramatically reduced, enabling all IoT applications - regardless of size - to take advantage of services that are beneficial to their security, reliability and performance. The F5 platform: Provides the network security to protect against inbound attacks Offloads SSL to improve the performance of the application servers Not only understands the application but also know when it is having problems Ensures not only the best end user experience but also quick and efficient data replication F5 Cloud solutions can automate and orchestrate the deployment of IoT application delivery services across both traditional and cloud infrastructures while also managing the dynamic redirection of workloads to the most suitable location. These application delivery services ensure predictable IoT experiences, replicated security policy, and workload agility. F5 BIG-IQ™ Cloud can federate management of F5 BIG-IP® solutions across both traditional and cloud infrastructures, helping organizations deploy and manage IoT delivery services in a fast, consistent, and repeatable manner, regardless of the underlying infrastructure. In addition, BIG-IQ Cloud integrates or interfaces with existing cloud orchestration engines such as VMware vCloud Director to streamline the overall process of deploying applications. Extend, Scale - and Secure F5 Cloud solutions offer a rapid Application Delivery Network provisioning solution, drastically reducing the lead times for expanding IoT delivery capabilities across data centers, be they private or public. As a result, organizations can efficiently: Extend data centers to the cloud to support IoT deployments Scale IoT applications beyond the data center when required. Secure and accelerate IoT connections to the cloud For maintenance situations, organizations no longer need to manually redirect traffic by configuring applications. Instead, IoT applications are proactively redirected to an alternate data center prior to maintenance. For continuous DDoS protection, F5 Silverline DDoS Protection is a service delivered via the F5 Silverline cloud-based platform that provides detection and mitigation to stop even the largest of volumetric DDoS attacks from reaching your IoT network. The BIG-IP platform is application and location agnostic, meaning the type of application or where the application lives really does not matter. As long as you tell the BIG-IP platform where to find the IoT application, the BIG-IP platform will deliver it. Bringing it all together, F5 Synthesis enables cloud and application providers as well as mobile network operators the architectural framework necessary to ensure the performance, reliability and security of IoT applications. Connected devices are here to stay—forcing us to move forward into this brave new world where almost everything generates data traffic. While there’s much to consider, proactively addressing these challenges and adopting new approaches for enabling an IoT-ready network will help organizations chart a clearer course toward success. An IoT-ready environment enables IT to begin taking advantage of this societal shift without a wholesale rip-and-replace of existing technology. It also provides the breathing room IT needs to ensure that the coming rush of connected devices does not cripple the infrastructure. This process ensures benefits will be realized without compromising on the operational governance required to ensure availability and security of IoT network, data, and application resources. It also means IT can manage IoT services instead than boxes. However an IoT ready infrastructure is constructed, it is a transformational journey for both IT and the business. It is not something that should be taken lightly or without a long-term strategy in place. When done properly, F5-powered IoT ready infrastructure can bring significant benefits to an organization and its people. ps Related: The Digital Dress Code Is IoT Hype For Real? What are These "Things”? IoT Influence on Society IoT Effect on Applications CloudExpo 2014: The DNS of Things Intelligent DNS Animated Whiteboard The Internet of Me, Myself & I Technorati Tags: f5,iot,things,sensors,silverline,big-ip,scale,sdas,synthesis,infrastructure Connect with Peter: Connect with F5:Blog Roll 2015
It’s that time of year when we gift and re-gift, just like this text from last year. And the perfect opportunity to re-post, re-purpose and re-use all my 2015 blog entries. If you missed any of the 89 attempts including 59 videos, here they are wrapped in one simple entry. I read somewhere that lists in blogs are good. I broke it out by month to see what was happening at the time and let's be honest, pure self-promotion. Thanks for reading and watching throughout 2015. Have a Safe and Happy New Year. January 2015 OK 2015, Now What? The Analog Generation Application Availability Between Hybrid Data Centers Will Deflate-Gate Lead to Micro-Chipped Footballs? VMware Partner Exchange 2015: Video Preview February VMware PEX 2015 – Find F5 VMware PEX 2015 – What Customers Want From Security Vendors VMware PEX 2015 – BIG-IP on vCloud Air VMware PEX 2015 – F5 Channel Partner Ecosystem VMware PEX 2015 – That’s a Wrap! 5 Ways #IamF5 The Internet of Me, Myself & I Intelligent DNS Animated Whiteboard Mobile World Congress 2015 - The Preview Video March MWC 2015 - Find F5 MWC 2015 – NFV for Service Providers (feat Yue) MWC 2015 – Threats to Mobile Carrier Networks (feat George) MWC 2015 – How LTE Roaming Works (feat Nas) MWC 2015 – Getting Work Done on the Go (feat Carovano) MWC 2015 - SDN Demystified (feat Duncan) MWC 2015 – TCP Opt for Service Providers (feat Yue) MWC 2015 – Enhancing Subscriber’s Quality of Experience (feat Mahmoodi) MWC 2015 – The Mobile Revolution with F5 CEO John McAdam MWC 2015 – That’s a Wrap! Lost in Translation...in Italy April Healthcare in the Crosshairs What are These "Things”? IoT Influence on Society RSA 2015 - The Preview Video RSA2015 – Find F5 RSA2015 Partner Spotlight - RSA Risk Based Authentication RSA2015 – Defending the New Perimeter RSA2015 – The InfoSec Landscape with Jeremiah Grossman RSA2015 Partner Spotlight: FireEye Partnership RSA2015 – SSL Everywhere (feat Holmes) RSA2015 – That’s a Wrap! IoT Effect on Applications May IoT Ready Infrastructure F5 Agility EMEA 2015 - The Preview Video F5 EMEA Agility 2015 - Welcome to Edinburgh What Are You Looking Forward To At F5 Agility 2015? F5 Agility 2015 EMEA – ACI with F5 & Cisco F5 Agility 2015 EMEA – King Robert the Bruce F5 Agility 2015 EMEA – Sir William Wallace That’s a Wrap from EMEA F5 Agility 2015 June The IoT Ready Platform I Almost Bit...and Would've Been Bitten July F5 Animated Whiteboards Is 2015 Half Empty or Half Full? F5Agility15 - The Preview Video August Welcome to F5 Agility 2015 Innovate, Expand, Deliver with F5 CEO Manny Rivelo Get F5 Certified at F5 Agility 2015 Software Defined Data Center Made Easy with F5 and VMware F5 DevCentral Solves Your BIG-IP Questions That's a Wrap from #F5Agility15 Our Five Senses on Sensors VMworld2015 – The Preview Video VMworld2015 – Find F5 VMworld2015 – Realize the Virtual Possibilities (feat. de la Motte) September VMworld2015 – Business Mobility Made Easy with F5 and VMware (feat. Venezia) Software Defined Data Center Made Simple (feat. Pindell) - VMworld2015 That’s a Wrap from VMworld2015 F5 + Blue Medora: Gain Control of Your Applications with vRealize Is Your DNS Vulnerable? October AWS re:Invent 2015 – The Preview Video IoT: Tabs to be Read Later Find F5 at AWS re:Invent 2015 AWS re:Invent 2015 - Value of App Services in the Cloud (feat Vrankic) AWS re:Invent 2015 – SSL Everywhere…Including the Cloud (feat Stanley) AWS re:Invent 2015 – Web Application Firewall in the Cloud (feat Haynes) AWS re:Invent 2015 – Programmability in the Cloud (feat Applebaum) AWS re:Invent 2015 – The F5 Ready Program (feat Pickering) That’s a Wrap from AWS re:Invent 2015 The Wave of Change at Tech Events F5 + SimpliVity: Deploy and Simplify Application Deployments Together Wearables Head to Tail F5 + Nutanix: Invisible Infrastructure and SDAS Joining Forces November Ask the Expert – Are WAFs Dead? Ask the Expert – Why SSL Everywhere? Ask the Expert – Why Web Fraud Protection? Ask the Expert – Why Identity and Access Management? Connecting the Threads Identity Theft: Not So Scary Anymore? F5 Blog: Backseat Drivers, Your Wish Has Come True Inside the ALOHA! December Arguing with Things Punchbowl, Pearl Harbor and my Grandparents The Top 10, Top 10 Predictions for 2016 And a couple special holiday themed entries from years past. e-card Malware X marks the Games ps Related Blog Roll 2014 Blog Roll 2013 Blog Roll 2012 Blog Roll 2011 Technorati Tags: f5,big-ip,security,cloud,mobile,video,silva,2015,blogs,iot,things Connect with Peter: Connect with F5:Arguing with Things
As more things get connected, we may find ourselves disagreeing with them. We all argue, especially if you’re passionate about something. Sometimes it’s with our spouse, sometimes with friends or co-workers and sometimes we scold objects that aren’t doing what we want them to do, ‘Ah, come on pen…don’t run out of ink now!!’ As more of these things get connected and are interacting with us, will you find yourself arguing with inanimate objects even more? The other day I was talking to my wife about Alexa (the Amazon Echo) and suddenly from the other room we hear, ‘I will add that item to the shopping cart.’ We looked at each other and simultaneously said, ‘What was that?’ with the added ‘jinx’ that quickly follows. We walked over to the device and started interrogating it as to what it just added to the cart. ‘I don’t understand the question…I can’t seem to find what you are looking for…I can’t understand what you said,’ were the various responses. These answers would drive a detective to charge it with obstructing justice. This is not a complaint against Echo mind you, we like it. It just couldn’t understand our questions until we asked the right way. It also seems to have feelings. My daughter told it that it was stupid (for not understanding us) and Echo replied with, ‘That’s not very nice.’ M3S looked at me, looked at Alexa and then apologized to the cylinder. Not sure if she forgave us, but we’re a little more courteous around her now. Over at The Guardian, Rory Carroll experienced the same thing and he writes about how these home robots hear everything and the types of data captured by many of these home services. There are no more boundaries between home and the outside world. When I’m in the car and pass the intended route, the GPS keeps telling me to make my first legal U-turn, even though I know where I’m going. On a few occasions I’ve quipped, ‘Stop bossing me around!’ It ignores me and keeps reiterating that I’m going the wrong way. Tossing it in the back seat doesn’t help. With the holiday season upon us and wish lists getting fulfilled, you may find that in 2016, your quarrels will be with gaming consoles, thermostats, fitness trackers, security cameras, refrigerators and other gadgets instead of humans. I guess that’s better than making a scene at the dinner table.* ps * Except in cases where smart utensils have been deployed. Related Goodbye privacy, hello 'Alexa': Amazon Echo, the home robot who hears it all Connecting the Threads Wearables Head to Tail Our Five Senses on Sensors Internet of Food The IoT Ready Platform Technorati Tags: iot,things,sensors,wearables,holiday,argue,silva,digital assistant,privacy Connect with Peter: Connect with F5: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 Connect with Peter: Connect with F5:The Wave of Change at Tech Events
I attend a lot of technology trade shows throughout the year and still remember going to my first technology event for F5 back in 2004. Small, almost high school science fair type booths handing out glossy flyers of the latest product along with our famous squeeze balls. And for the years that followed, the events, booths, sessions and presentations got bigger and better...but the expo vendors were still almost exclusive to technology providers. The attendees came from different industries and walks of life but they were there to learn about the latest tech solutions offered by these semi-tented companies. Until now. Recently, at events like MWC, RSA, VMworld and AWS re:Invent, I've started noticing a number of traditionally non-technology specific vendors exhibiting and positioning within technology events. Granted, over the years there have been a smattering of one-offs at events and of course there is CES but these days, there seems to be more historically non-tech companies appearing and exhibiting at tech events. But it makes total sense. I really took notice during Mobile World Congress earlier this year where a number of auto manufactures had huge displays showing their software-driven connected cars and how mobile technologies are enabling these internet connected devices. Most auto manufacturers are already partnering with multiple service providers and technology companies to bring mobility, connectivity and interaction to the car. And then just recently at AWS re:Invent, amongst all the technology companies, there was an apparel, shoe and fitness manufacturer highlighting the technology within their wearables. Along with clothing, these companies are becoming software and data warehouses connecting them directly to the consumer. It is not just about the cool laces anymore, it's about measuring the impact of your foot to the ground and automatically adjusting the cushion. It's about getting instant feedback about your golf swing from the shirt you are wearing. It's about measuring your vitals to ensure your activity is healthy and productive. And that is all about the embedded technology. As more home appliances, wearables, automobiles, cameras, fitness trackers, and any other of these sensors and actuators powering the Internet of Things gets connected and generates data, I suspect we'll be seeing more ovens, autos, shoes and other stuff appearing at these industry events. I think it's an interesting trend to observe. ps Related: The Digital Dress Code What are These "Things? The IoT Ready Platform IoT Ready Infrastructure IoT Influence on Society IoT Effect on Applications Technorati Tags: iot,things,events,trade shows,technology,wearables,silva Connect with Peter: Connect with F5:IoT: Tabs to be Read Later
I've been traveling a bit over the last month and my tabs-to-read-later pile is growing. We'll be at AWS re:Invent next week so I thought I'd unload some of the IoT stories that caught my eye recently, that I'm finally getting to read. Apologies if this is old news to you. One I've been holding on to almost the longest is an interesting INC article Our Future Will be Analog, Not Digital. Geoffrey James talks about the Internet of Things and how people think the convenience of connectivity is more important than the risks involved. He talks about how snail mail, cash and unplugging are tending up along with how analog objects are becoming status symbols. This is a good one if you think all this connectivity will become so hackable and fragile that no one will want to use it. Next from The Economist, saying on the IoT theme, is Their own Devices. From Barbie's to cars to televisions, compromised computers are all over the place and few companies have the incentive to take security seriously within their widgets. There needs to be a change in corporate culture especially within non-computer companies. From the early days of the boiler explosions and crashes on railways to the safety of cars in the 70's to the hacks of medical devices today, we all need to recognize that connected devices need protection. And so do we. To that, from Mashable, is how Major automakers are forming an alliance to tackle cybersecurity.With the growing concerns and actual demonstrations of cars getting breached, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers are forming an Information Sharing and Analysis Center, according to Automotive News. Chris Perkins says, the creation of the Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) represents an important proactive step from the industry to address these hacks before they happen. The last couple years during the NFL season, I've written some stories about technology in sports including Are You Ready For Some...Technology!! and more recently with Will Deflate-Gate Lead to Micro-Chipped Footballs? On Ars Technica, David Kravets goes deeper into the sensor technology being used by the NFL this year with How the NFL—not the NSA—is impacting data gathering well beyond the gridiron. He talks about how RFID is being used to track all the player's movements and how they will use the 2 to 3 gigs of data generated each game. Also how teams can use the data for training and coaching along with how console gaming might use it and how it could affect fantasy bets. Very interesting article on how all this connectivity plays into the games we watch, play and enjoy. OK, that's it for now and thanks for the chance to clean up some of my browser tabs. Now I got room for the next bunch. ps Technorati Tags: iot,sensors,things,digital,nfl,cars,security,silva Connect with Peter: Connect with F5:Our Five Senses on Sensors
Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) is credited as the first person to classify our five sense organs: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing and Immanuel Kant, a famous philosopher from the 1700s said that our knowledge of the outside world depends on our modes of perception. Our highly developed organs of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and the skin on your hand provide the sensing equipment necessary to send that information to the brain. In some cases, one of the sensors might not work properly in the case of the blind or deaf, yet the four other senses are heightened and exceed normal operation to make up for the missing information. Daniel Kish, for example, uses echolocation like a bat to see the imprint of the sound waves as they bounce back. Pretty cool, eh? Today, we're building gadgets that are used in conjunction with or completely taking over the the tasks of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and hands. Things that were always part of our body are being replaced with micro-chipped things that act like, attach to - or better yet - integrate with our body. Sight: Of course there are security cameras to help us see our homes when we are away and most of us have heard of Google Glass but there are now eyeglasses being prototyped by BMW’s Mini division. They are combining the wearable with the connected car. These glasses communicate with the car via WiFi and offers a heads-up display like no other. While you can still see the real world, the glasses offer an overlay of speed, navigation, backup cameras and more. You can see just how close you are to the curb from the wheel's point of view. You can also look at a street sign and have it come to life with other overlays or additional info. While most of the data is just telemetry for now, engineers are looking to possibly incorporate driving features within the view. This is where IoT gets interesting - where one is used to compliment another. Also, Swiss engineers have developed a camera based on the human retina. Understanding the biology of the real thing, they've made a more efficient camera. Smell: Although there were attempts earlier, in the 1940-50's, Hans Laube created a system called Smell-O-Vision which would emit odors during the movie so the audience could smell what was happening in the movie. It was only used once. GE also developed a system in 1953 that they called Smell-O-Rama. Now you can get a smell app on your phone. ChatPerf is a thumb-drive-sized atomizer that plugs into your mobile device so it can be triggered to release specific odors on command. But those are scents out. Machines that can whiff stuff in have been around awhile. Think of your smoke, carbon-monoxide or radon detectors. Today we have wearable vapor sensors that can smell diabetes. Scientists have figured out how to use a sensor to identify the odor from melanoma to detect this form of skin cancer. Those human skin cells give off an odor that doctors can pick up with a sensor. And scientists in Israel who have already developed a nanotechnology breath analyzer for kidney failure are working on one that can distinguish between the breath of a lung cancer patient verses a healthy exhale. Crazy! Hearing: According to U.K. firm Wifore Consulting, Hearable technology alone will be a $5 billion market by 2018. Roughly the size of the entire wearable market today. Ears are able to capture things like oxygen levels, electrocardiograms, and body temperature. While sound drives the bulk of technology within this space, those ear buds could soon have technology that not only sends sounds but also captures some of your body information. And it is small enough and discrete to wear everywhere rather than carrying a mobile device. Initial uses trend with fitness. Ear buds that play music but also give you feedback on your workout. There are also smart earrings that monitor heart rate and activity. I've always said that there will come a time when we all have IPv6 chips in our ear and we'll just tug the lobe to answer a call. Carol Burnett would be proud. Touch: Want to give a robot the ability to feel? Done. Researchers have developed a flexible sensor able to detect temperature, pressure and humidity simultaneously and a big leap towards imitating the sensing features of the human skin. While still in the early stages, future sensors could be embedded into the "electronic skin" of prosthetics, allowing amputees sense environmental changes. Another is BioTac, a fingertip that can sense force, temperature, and vibration—in some cases better than a human finger. With laser 3D printing, some orthotics can be delivered in hours rather than months. Taste: Sweet, sour, salt and bitter used to be the domain of the tongue. Soon, electronic 'tongues' could be used to monitor the quality control of bottled water. Using chemical sensors, researchers in Texas have demonstrated that the electronic tongue can 'taste' different solutions. The sensors responded to different combinations of the four artificial taste elements with unique color combinations of red, green and blue. This enabled the device to analyze for several different chemical components simultaneously. I've written about smart chopsticks that can detect oils containing unsanitary levels of contamination, a fork that monitors how many bites you take and a smart cup that counts the amount and calories you drink. This is the Internet of Food. Wearables make technology personal and our five senses are what helps us navigate life, gives us perspective. Who would have thought that an individual's perspective would someday become embedded within coded software. ps Related: Wearables + Connected Cars = IoT Heaven Five ways retailers can start using IoT today Lesson: How Do Human Sensors Work? Hearables - the next big thing in wearable tech Human Touch: Sensor Lets Robots 'Feel' They've Got It Licked - Artificial Sensors Can Taste What's In A Complex Mixture Innovative Technology Powers the Wearables Movement My IoT Articles Technorati Tags: iot,wearables,senses,sensors,things,humans,hearables,sight,sound,smell,touch,taste,silva,f5 Connect with Peter: Connect with F5:IoT Ready Infrastructure
IoT applications will come in all shapes and sizes but no matter the size, availability is paramount to support both customers and the business. The most basic high-availability architecture is the typical three-tier design. A pair of ADCs in the DMZ terminates the connection. They in turn intelligently distribute the client request to a pool (multiple) of IoT application servers which then query the database servers for the appropriate content. Each tier has redundant servers so in the event of a server outage, the others take the load and the system stays available. This is a tried and true design for most operations and provides resilient application availability, IoT or not, within a typical data center. But fault tolerance between two data centers is even more reliable than multiple servers in a single location, simply because that one data center is a single point of failure. Cloud: The Enabler of IoT The cloud has become one of the primary enablers for IoT. Within the next five years, more than 90% of all IoT data will be hosted on service provider platforms as cloud computing reduces the complexity of supporting IoT “Data Blending”. In order to achieve or even maintain continuous IoT application availability and keep up with the pace of new IoT application rollouts, organizations must explore expanding their data center options to the cloud, to ensure IoT applications are always available. Having access to cloud resources provides organizations with the agility and flexibility to quickly provision IoT services. The Cloud offers organizations a way to manage IoT services rather than boxes along with just-in-time provisioning. Cloud enables IT as a Service, just as IoT is a service, along with the flexibility to scale when needed. Integrating cloud-based IoT resources into the architecture requires only a couple of pieces: connectivity, along with awareness of how those resources are being used. The connectivity between a data center and the cloud is generally referred to as a cloud bridge. The cloud bridge connects the two data center worlds securely and provides a network compatibility layer that “bridges” the two networks. This provides a transparency that allows resources in either environment to communicate without concern for the underlying network topology. Once a connection is established and network bridging capabilities are in place, resources provisioned in the cloud can be non-disruptively added to the data center-hosted pools. From there, load is distributed per the ADC platform’s configuration for the resource, such as an IoT application. By integrating your enterprise data center to external clouds, you make the cloud a secure extension of the enterprise’s IoT network. This enterprise-to-cloud network connection should be encrypted and optimized for performance and bandwidth, thereby reducing the risks and lowering the effort involved in migrating your IoT workloads to cloud. Maintain seamless delivery This hybrid infrastructure approach, including cloud resources, for IoT deployments not only allows organizations to distribute their IoT applications and services when it makes sense but also provides global fault tolerance to the overall system. Depending on how an organization’s disaster recovery infrastructure is designed, this can be an active site, a hot standby, a leased hosting space, a cloud provider, or some other contained compute location. As soon as that IoT server, application, or even location starts to have trouble, an organization can seamlessly maneuver around the issue and continue to deliver its services to the devices. Advantages for a range of industries The various combinations of hybrid infrastructure types can be as diverse as the IoT situations that use them. Enterprises probably already have some level of hybrid, even if it is a mix of owned space plus SaaS. They typically prefer to keep sensitive assets in-house but have started to migrate workloads to hybrid data centers. Financial industries have different requirements than retail. Retail will certainly need a boost to their infrastructure as more customers will want to test IoT devices in the store. The Service Provider industry is also well on their way to building out IoT ready infrastructures and services. A major service provider we are working with is in the process of deploying BIG-IP Virtual Editions to provide ADC functionality needed for the scale and flexibility of the carrier’s connected car project. Virtualized solutions are required for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) to enable the agility and elasticity necessary to support the IoT infrastructure demands. ps Related: The Digital Dress Code Is IoT Hype For Real? What are These "Things”? IoT Influence on Society IoT Effect on Applications CloudExpo 2014: The DNS of Things Intelligent DNS Animated Whiteboard The Internet of Me, Myself & I Technorati Tags: f5,iot,things,infrastructure,nfv,sensors,cloud,silva Connect with Peter: Connect with F5:
