IoT Products — the good, the bad and the ugly
Products that connect to the internet are working their way into our daily lives from our homes and the accessories we wear to our cars and cities. I’ve become fascinated with the “Internet of Things (IoT),” so I decided to write this article. Apparently, the term IoT (also referred to as “Internet of Everything”) goes back to around 2009, the tipping point when more “things” or “objects” were connected to the internet than there were people on the planet[1]. It’s predicted that by 2020, there will be over 20 billion IoT devices[2] in the world, which translates to three devices per person.
The term IoT really caught on in late 2011 when Nest launched the “learning thermostat”. As an early user of Nest, I’ll use my experience to describe what I think is the good, the bad and the ugly of IoT products.
The Good: These products are convenient. They save you time and money. They are sexy, they help you live healthier, smarter, and they are supposed to make life easier. Think Apple Watch, Fitbit, Tile, Sonos, Amazon Dash, Amazon Echo (Alexa), Google OnHub, Hue light bulb, August: Smartlock, Blossom: smart watering system, and even the Hello Barbie. The list goes on. Each product has a sensor or multiple sensors to help solve a problem from health monitoring, to reminders, and much, much more. They collect tons of data, and in some instances, they learn from the data and deliver it to you in ways that provide adapted knowledge and insights.
In the instance of my Nest, it gave me the convenience to adjust my heat from the comfort of my bed and to secretly turn the temperature down minutes after my wife had turned it up. There was a “cool” factor and I enjoyed showing it off to my friends and family. It was also sold as something that would learn my habits and save me money.
The bad. I’ll just say it: I hate the name “IoT.” It’s like Platform, Big Data, and soon to be Machine Learning. It’s hype but like the other words, it serves a purpose and appears to be here to stay. Truly, one of the key challenges is the lack of standards. Like the early days of the railroad, we don’t have a fixed track size that everyone builds from. The result is each company creating their own systems which lead to bugs and no singular backbone for things from different companies to communicate through.
Another challenge with IoT is the complexity involved in making products. IoT products can require embedded systems, communication layers, internet cloud technologies and mobile app development, among other things. That’s a software team of four to five people before even getting to the hardware and design. So, it’s not easy but the barriers to entry for prototyping are low with platforms including Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Intel Edison and Eclipse along with lower cost sensors.
Some other negatives are the added waste. This includes e-waste as each version gets debugged or becomes obsolete. My Sonos speakers (for example) are always ‘on’, drawing a small amount of energy. As a final aside, I think IoT products further dehumanizes us. Much like when you see people head down in their phone on the bus or at dinner, it distances ourselves from interacting in the real world. God forbid I actually speak with my wife about what to set the temperature at!
As for my Nest, it learned my habits early on which consisted of me turning the thing on and off to show it off to friends and family. Once my “habits” were learned, the thing would go on and off in a bipolar manner at all times of the day and night. I spent some time programing it back and I think it re-learned some bad habits. I also programmed my air filter only to never be reminded to replace it for two years. Finally, and perhaps most aggravating of all, the Nest battery drained. The ‘thing’ failed to perform the most basic function for a few key hours on a cold evening. I Googled it and learned of a software bug and class action lawsuit underway.
The Ugly. The ugly comes down to one word: Security. From security cameras to cars, traffic lights, and smart TVs, it’s a hacker’s delight! One can only imagine the line of hackers who are trying to be the one to say “I hacked the Barbie Doll.”
Back to my Nest thermostat. All that data that the thermostat is learning is going somewhere. If a robber were to get a hold of it, they would know when I am home and when I am not based on the embedded motion sensor. That’s personal data so privacy is another concern. I’m not sure I want my data (even if it’s anonymized) sold off to some third party. Sadly, I’m sure that’s happening on every other platform including this one, right now.
About a month ago, a fuse blew in my furnace. In trying to isolate the problem, I put back up the old “low-tech” thermostat. After a month using the old thermostat, at first glance, it looked as though my bill went up which would support their claim that Nest saves me money. However, PG&E has a tool (see image in this article) that calculates that I actually saved $4.61 on my gas when accounting for changes in the weather. The Nest thermostat was actually costing me more money!
I may sound more negative than positive in all this, but I’m still a firm believer that ‘connected products’ (my preferred term) will improve our lives. Like many new technologies, we’re going through some growing pains. As standardization comes into play and as sensor prices drop, we’re going to see transformation of every industry. This may have started with the smart home, but it’s quickly going to smart buildings, supermarkets, healthcare, cities and cars. Imagine a plane that knows when a part is going to fail. Or a sensor inside our body that can monitor a health issue. With 20+ billion devices coming online by 2020, there is a massive amount of opportunity for companies who can address these issues. I for one, will be putting back up my Nest.
