Posts Tagged ‘iot’

SMART CLOTHING: THE NEXT WAVE OF WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Blog, Technology trends

It seems that we have finally reached the point where wearable device manufacturers are able to look beyond the fitness industry and start coming up with interesting ideas for the next wave of wearable technology that would be equally useful for those who spend most of their days in business attire and even improve the overall accuracy of measurements.

Chris Harrison, an assistant professor of human-computer interaction who leads the Future Interfaces Group at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) explains that “You can make millions of smart watches that are identical, but you have millions of people who are not identical.” The individual variations in the thickness of our wrists, the amount of fat we store in the area, or even how much we sweat can profoundly influence the accuracy of measurements. Furthermore, wrists are exposed to plenty of abuse throughout the day, making them even less suitable as the place for an expensive, high-end gadget.

OMSignal, Hexo Skin, Samsung, Google, and Under Armour have introduced smart clothes that abandon wrists in favor of less conspicuous body parts. OMbra by OMsignal uses a cutting-edge biometric fabric and integrated sensors to measure user’s heart rate, balance, breathing, stamina levels, distance traveled, calories burned, and plenty more. A similar product aimed at men is called Enflux. Instead of just a sports bra, Enflux Exercise Clothing consists of “a compression shirt and pants with ten small embedded motion sensors,” according to the Kickstarter campaign. Because the suit can capture all body parts at once, athletes can replay their performance using 3D animations with useful metrics, which include the precise angle and velocity of the body parts. Other highly similar fitness-oriented products include the MyZone Sports Bra, the Lumo Run shorts, the LikeAGlove leggings, the Athos shirt and shorts, or the sports bra from Victoria’s Secret.

This new wave of smart fitness products is powered by several innovative technologies, which “allow for the ‘detection, transmission and protection of electrical signals’ within smart clothing,” explains General Manager of Noble Biomaterials, Bennett Fisher, who added that “Once the sensor is inside the clothing, what you’re wearing becomes a sensor.” A similar technology was presented during Google I/O 2015 by the founder of Google Project Jacquard, Ivan Poupyrev. In their own words, the technology makes it possible to weave touch and gesture interactivity into any textile using standard, industrial looms. That means that everyday objects such as clothes and furniture can be transformed into interactive surfaces. They achieve this by intertwining a conductive metal core with conventional fibers that can be dyed any color. Unsurprisingly, some of the biggest clothes manufacturers in the world, including Levi’s, are already exploring way how they could use this technology to create something their customers would love.

The current selection of everyday smart clothes revolves mostly around the NFC technology. A great example is a smart suit from Samsung. It was built in collaboration with Rogatis. Those who are willing to spend around $500 on it can enjoy the ability to unlock their phone, or digitally swap business cards. The Lyle & Scott contactless jacket throws in a contactless payment chip found in credit cards to make contactless payments even more convenient.

So, how long it could take to see the technology used outside of the fitness industry? Quite a long time, actually. “Building these products [health-oriented smart devices] takes lots of time. Testing, simulations, modeling, prototyping, and problem-solving are all more extensive when you need to make sure the devices can stand up to the requirements of daily wear, such as frequent exposure to sweat and water”, explains Rachel Metz in her article for Technology Review.

That being said, the competition to be the first to dominate the market is fierce. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a promising technology that allows smart clothes or adjusts the temperature based on wearer’s individual needs. Such technology has a lot of potential for the health care industry, police officers, firemen, outdoor workers, and even small babies, who already are the target audience for products such as Exmobaby, Owlet Baby Care, and MonBaby from MonDevices.

The first mentioned is like a baby monitor on steroids. This smart garment can tell whether the baby is sleeping, check the vital signs, and keep the parents up to date with its Wi-Fi and 3G wireless capability. The other two products follow a very similar formula, each with its own distinct set of features and overall value propositions.

With all these innovations taking place all around us, it’s easy to see how the future of smart clothing is going to look like: it’s going to be more practical, less fitness-oriented, and infinitely more embraced by customers of all walks of life.

Fitness Trackers: A Way to Good Health or a Big Privacy Threat

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Blog, Mobile App Development, Technology trends

Since their first appearance on the consumer market, people from all around the world have fallen in love with fitness trackers. Data from Statistica reveal that there were more than 13 million sold in the United States in just the last two years. These devices are great at keeping people motivated to adhere to healthy exercise habits, monitor their daily caloric intake, or watch out for dangerously high stress levels. But many security experts and technology analysts are unsure whether they are equally great at protecting all the associated private data.

A typical fitness tracker (also known as activity tracker) is an electronic device fitted with a wide assortment of specialized sensors that measure anything from heart rate to the quality of sleep, distance walked, body and ambient temperature, elevation, acceleration, speed, position, or calorie consumption. We can expect that future fitness trackers will be FDA-approved devices capable of alerting users to medical problems and suggesting the best possible remedy or action to take.

Integrated sensors collect various information, which are then both processed locally to display results on the device itself and sent to the cloud in order to allow for multi-platform access and management. This is exactly where the biggest problem is: most users are not aware of how their data are being used, who exactly can access them, and how they could be used for identity theft in case it falls into the wrong hands.

This is not surprising at all. With the average terms of service agreement nearing 5,000 words, the temptation to skip all that hassle and just click on the “agree” button is very high. However, when customers do so, they unknowingly give access to their private data to third-party companies, as discovered by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2014. The commission reported that a sample of a dozen health and fitness apps collectively sent data to 76 third parties. What exactly can those third-party companies do with users’ data is only between them and the manufacturer of the particular fitness tracking device.

To outline some of the contemporary data handling issues in this industry segment, Open Effect, a Canadian not-for-profit that conducts research and advocacy efforts focused on ensuring people’s personal data is treated securely and accountably, create a report called Every Step You Take.

They studied some of the most popular fitness tracking applications in the Google Play store as of mid-2015 and asked the following questions: What technical security mechanisms are in place? How could they be exploited? What categories of data does each device actually collect?

All device except for one transmitted their data over the internet. In some cases, this included sensitive and unnecessary information such as the IMEI number or fine-grained location data. Out of all devices, only the Apple Watch randomized the MAC address as a protective measure against persistent monitoring of the wearer’s presence. What’s much more alarming than the absence of the MAC address randomization is Garmin’s failure to implement HTTPS encryption to secure the transmission of personal information. The company has since then corrected this flaw, but nobody can know for sure how many other devices on the market remain similarly defenseless against even the most basic types of attacks.

As explained by Theresa Payton, president and CEO of Fortalice and a former White House CIO, “The culprit is the innovation life cycle. There is tremendous pressure to get cool and affordable products on the market at a dizzying speed.” She went on to say that wearables and associated apps “have a track record of poor privacy and security measures.”

A good news is that substantial effort has been and is being made to protect the privacy and security of end-users. The IEEE Center for Secure Design released a paper titled, “WearFit: Security Design Analysis of a Wearable Fitness Tracker,” to “addresses each of the top 10 software security design flaws” of fitness trackers and show developers of these devices how to design a product that meets all modern security standards.

Their WearFit system is an imaginary wearable personal health monitoring device that resembles many currently available products. The device can measure step count and heart rate and sends the data to a compatible mobile application, which then communicates with the platform backend. Many common attack vectors were taken into consideration, including Denial of Service (DoS), falsifying the users’ data, stealing users’ data via SQL injection or phishing, and, for example, compromising device integrity with malicious firmware updates.

It’s hard to predict what future holds for fitness trackers. As customers are becoming increasingly more conscious of their privacy and security, companies will have to ensure that their products are free of any vulnerabilities that could lead to a data leakage or a loss of sensitive information. Customers themselves should demand a high level of transparency when it comes to how exactly their data are handled and used. Only then we’ll be able to embrace all latest technological innovations and used them to improve our daily lives.

The Internet of Things and the (R)Evolution of Manufacturing

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Mobile App Development, Software & App Sales, Technology trends

Manufacturing is about to undergo a transformation that could have similar consequences as the Industrial Revolution, which took place from the 18th to 19th centuries and completely changed the face of, up to that time, rural Europe and America. That’s because the Internet of Things and smart manufacturing can create the perfect decision-making environment and help companies of all sizes optimize all aspects of their operations and maximize their revenue, as illustrated by King’s Hawaiian, producers of frozen entrees in a bowl as well as Hawaiian bread. The company managed to put out extra 180,000 pounds of bread every day, thus effectively doubling their previous production, as reported by Forbes.

The same story of success can also be told by General Electric. More than 10,000 sensors on their Durathon battery factory in Schenectady provides the company with non-stop stream of data. Using cutting-edge statistical approaches and Big Data analysis, General Electric can get an instant overview of their entire production and tweak it as they see fit. According to Industry Week, the Siemens’ electronics manufacturing plant in Amberg, Germany uses around 1,000 controllers to handle up to 75 percent of the value chain autonomously.

Given these fascinating examples, it may come as a surprise that “only 10 percent of industrial operations are currently using the connected enterprise,” according to John Nesi, vice president of market development at Rockwell Automation. What’s more, apparently, one in five factories today are completely cut off from the Internet, as discovered by SCM World’s recent survey.

However, this number is expected to drop to near zero in just the next five years, resulting in almost 50 billion connected endpoints. It won’t take a long time before every single instrument, machine, and part is aware of all other parts around it.

Closing the Security Gap in Mobile App Development

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Blog, Mobile App Development, Software & App Sales

You know there’s an issue when the very industry that promotes standards related to security, is having an issue with security vulnerability.  Internet of Things (IoT) systems are being easily compromised by hackers. A recent study  by HP found that one of every 10 popular Internet-connected security systems – as in systems implemented to increase your security and peace of mind and reduce your risk like cameras and locks – had significant security vulnerabilities that allow for hackers to access them and ultimately control them.

There are a growing number of major Fortune 500 companies developing mobile apps that have security issues as well.  These are companies we really want to trust, like banks, health care and online retail organizations handling our billing and personal health information. The hackers themselves have reached a new level of attention in the eyes of the public.  60 minutes featured a story with hackers selling the malware that was used to hack into Sony, now widely available to anyone who has the ability to pay for it.

It is concerning to discover that cyber security experts say over 40 percent of companies developing mobile apps do not scan their apps for vulnerabilities before releasing them to the public.  Some test only a portion of their apps or never test them at all.  Corporate budgets often don’t include funds for testing.   We are seeing only the beginnings of regulations being put in place to deal with this reality.

Serious data breaches can cost companies millions of dollars. The issue causes firms to invest in securing their IT networks, computers and servers linked to them.  But strangely, not the mobile apps that are brought into the workplace on worker’s mobile devices.  With mobile devices and the amount of data growing at a rapid pace, the opportunities for hackers are growing as well.  Companies will be forced to take action and protect themselves from mobile data breaches from unverified apps downloaded by personnel on work devices connected to company networks.  What does the company stand to lose?  The reputation of brands for products and services, sensitive documents, proprietary information, customers, amounts in the millions of dollars.