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This week in the internet of things, a new study has found that the vast majority of consumers don’t understand what IoT actually means.
Despite the market being flooded with various wearables, as well as smart speakers and refrigerators, the vast majority of consumers don’t seem to grasp what the internet of things (IoT) actually is.
A recent survey conducted by Metova asked 1,000 gadget consumers about the technology, and less than 20pc said they had a good understanding of it. Of that number, 70pc admitted to owning a device that would fall under the IoT category.
When asked what kind of IoT devices they would be interested in most, those surveyed said smart thermostats and smart home retrofit devices, with the least requested being smart bicycle locks.
“Connected devices and real-time monitoring of water, gas and electrical usage have shifted from a novelty to necessity,” said Jonathan Sasse, chief marketing officer at Metova.
“Whether they know it or not, consumers have made the leap to IoT in and outside of their homes, yet businesses are often unsure of how to approach digital transformation in order to leverage this new realm.”
Apple dives further into AR
Apple seems certain to develop its own augmented reality (AR) headset to rival companies such as Microsoft as it has recently acquired a start-up focused on making lenses for the technology.
According to Reuters, the company Apple now owns is called Akonia Holographics and was founded in 2012 by a group of scientists originally focused on holographic data storage.
The technology developed by Akonia promises to allow for “thin, transparent smart glass lenses that display vibrant, full-colour, wide field-of-view images” and the start-up has 200 patents to its name.
Since securing $11.6m in seed funding, Akonia had been searching for additional funding.
While it is yet to reveal hardware, Apple’s Tim Cook said last year that AR was a “big and profound” technological development.
Novel architecture boosts energy and efficiency of IoT
An EU initiative has developed a novel architecture that combines energy and spectrum efficiency for IoT wireless communication.
The HEASIT project deals with the development and commercialisation of GreenOFDM, a technology capable of bringing high data rates at high-energy efficiency to wireless low-power wide-area networks for IoT.
“Interestingly, it turns out that the architecture we adopted and developed for this implementation proved to have more value in an adjacent market – that is, the analysis, mostly in the form of artificial intelligence inference of image, sound and motion, at ultra-low power,” said project coordinator Loic Lietar.
“So, the outcome of HEASIT is GAP8, a processor that is uniquely positioned in the market, with an energy efficiency that is 20 times superior to anything else available.”
How to create a tech-laden yet chic home office
Wired has dived into the world of design with an article showcasing some of the most stylish (and expensive) tech hardware available for a home office.
Aside from chairs that are impossibly thin, there are also devices such as the Native Union PR/01, which is a French hi-fi with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, complete with an obviously stylish façade, costing almost €800.
If that price makes your eyes water, you could still take a look to see some of the more affordable items on offer.
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