Google Here and Now
What would the Internet of Things look like if Google unified their technologies?
The internet of things is a fractured mess. Appliances from one manufacturer won’t talk to light switches from another company. I currently have 10+ apps on my phone for internet connected devices, not counting the one that my own company is developing. It’s a massive pain point for any early adopter, and an insurmountable obstacle for most of the people who would consider using internet of things solutions for their problems.
I’m not the first person to make this observation, and I won’t be the last. The press has written many articles and several companies have formed alliances, but the problem persists. Everyone from large companies like Staples and Lowes to upstarts like SmartThings and WigWag have come out with their own solution to this problem. Universal hubs, apps, APIs, and wireless communication standards are great, but they don’t solve the core usability issue well enough to usher in a complete version of the internet of things.
There’s one company that is uniquely situated to accomplish an integrated internet of things: Google. Google has a stockpile of IP that it could integrate together to make ubiquitous computing and an internet connected physical world a reality. But more importantly, they have a secret weapon that could tie the whole system together in a way that would be revolutionary. No, it’s not Android or Google Glass. It’s Google Now.
Google Now is potentially one of the most revolutionary products I’ve used in the past few years. It’s predictive nature theoretically brings you all the information you need to you at the exact moment that you need it. I say potentially because in its current incarnation Google Now leaves a bit to be desired. Driving times, sports scores, package tracking, and calendar reminders are great — but they are just the tip of the iceberg.
Don’t believe me? Look at Google’s recent purchases. In the past three months Google has spent billions of dollars on robotics, artificial intelligence, and home automation related acquisitions. These purchases, combined with some of the publicly announced Google X projects, could all combine into a single product that would provide users with realtime, contextual, ubiquitous, intelligent decision making. For the sake of this discussion, I’ve decided to call this product Google Here and Now.
None of the things that I’m about to describe are new concepts. They have all been discussed in one place or another before now. (Wired had a particularly good cover story on some of the potential applications of the Internet of Things this past May) What I want to do is describe how Google specifically could implement these concepts today using IP that they already own. Whenever I describe a feature of Google Here and Now I’ll try to point out a piece of IP that Google owns that could enable this behavior.
Google Here and Now — Smarthome
You’re sitting in your living room, watching your television. All of a sudden, your phone alerts you that you have a potential water leak. (Google Now) Your backyard tap has been on for the past three hours because you forgot to shut the valve when you finished washing your car.
As you walk back in the house after shutting off the valve, you notice that your thermostat (Nest) is set for a few degrees higher than it was last week. This caused you to use more energy than you needed to yesterday. However, you also notice that your total electricity use is lower this month than it was the month before at the same point in time (Google Data Center efficiency), so you feel ok about the temperature afterall.
Google Here and Now — Business Management
You run operations for a medium sized product manufacturing company. You have facilities around the country that handle manufacturing and distribution, and you want to keep a close eye on any potential erratic behavior in your supply chain.
One day on the way to the office you find out that production has stopped on one of the lines in your Kansas City facility. (Industrial Perception + DeepMind Technologies)
The good news is, maintenance robots (Boston Dynamics + Redwood Robotics) are already on the way to that part of the facility (Google Indoor Maps). Google Here and Now projects that it will take two more hours to fix the problem, and based on prior issues the system projects that three shipments will be delayed. Your automated fleet of delivery trucks (Google Self-Driving Cars) has been alerted of the issue, even though some of them are in areas with poor cellular reception (Project Loon), and they are re-routed to a holding lot while the problem is resolved.
This isn’t the first time this problem has occurred. On further inspection Google Here and Now sees that every time it has happened in the past few years there is always a spike in natural gas consumption before the failure, which might suggest that there is a maintenance issue with that part of the machine. The maintenance staff in Kansas City has their schedule (Google Apps) altered to inspect the seals in the gas line more carefully. Next time they walk through the facility they will be reminded using the augmented reality maintenance application they run during their shifts. (Google Glass) Finally, the manufacturer of equipment is alerted to a potential design failure so that they can issue a maintenance solution to all of their customers.
These are just two simple examples of how Google could combine their existing IP and products into a unified system. Google Here and Now would have a flexible enough user interface to adapt to any potential use case, and it could become a large enough part of our daily lives that we wouldn’t need to check 10 other applications to get the relevant alerts and data that we need.
Would there be problems with this system? Sure, there would be a lot of problems. Privacy, monetization of data, the ability to integrate third party services, and a host of other things would have to be figured out. But in the end, those issues are going to be present no matter who builds a centralized place for the Internet of Things.
Google has the tools to build a fully realized Internet of Things. Will they do it here and now, or will they hold out a little bit longer? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
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