All posts by Andreea Borcea

#21 • Shane Dyer – President & CEO, Arrayent

Arrayent is a Redwood City, CA startup that helps companies create smart, connected products, and strengthen their company-to-consumer relationship via those products. Their customers include Whirlpool Corporation, Pentair, and Chamberlain.

Prior to founding Arrayent, Mr. Dyer co-founded Propellerhead Studios, Inc. and was its Chief Technical Officer. Before that, he co-founded and served as CEO of ActivePhoto Inc. a venture backed digital imaging company partnered with Polaroid and Sprint to deliver internet connected digital camera systems.

Links

  • http://www.arrayent.com/
  • http://www.arrayent.com/platform/iot-platform-overview/

 

#20 • First Impressions: Apple Watch

Apple just shipped their first wearable, which has huge implications for the consumer-facing Internet of Things.

In this episode we talk about Apple Watch after spending some time with it, and ultimately recommend whether or not you should buy one.

Topics

  • The “stand up” problem, and how to fix it
  • Apple Watch is Apple’s MVP (minimum viable product) wearable
    • 20 million units of a 1.0 product
  • Launching with 3,500 not-very-good apps
  • Incredible scale: 885 million iTunes accounts as of fall 2014 (source: Bono)
  • Apple Watch is to Fitbit, Jawbone, etc. as iPhone was to Palm OS phones — a different species
    • Compared to Apple, none of the other players has an ecosystem
  • Fashion
  • Close to 40 models, confusing naming
  • “It’s called Apple Watch, but it’s not a watch.”
    • It’s really not for people who buy watches for the time
    • “Take your phone, take notifications and messaging, put it on my wrist.”
  • Apple watch as a needy extension of your phone
  • We are Pavlov’s Dogs, but with notifications
  • Health and HealthKit
  • Siri sucks less (!?)
    • Related to Siri 3rd generation?
    • Hypothesis: Apple deployed to Apple Watch first
  • Payments and security
  • Water and scratch resistance
  • Will traditional high-end watch buyers buy Apple Watch?
  • Price means not a wearable for “the rest of us”
  • The near and far future of Apple Watch
  • Apple’s App Store schizophrenia
  • Should you buy one?

Stuff we learned after recording

  • Apple Watch measures your heart rate every 10 minutes while at rest unless you go to the Heart Rate glance. [Apple Support] It measures your heart rate more often (every 5 seconds when running, for example) when you exercise. [@bradlarson]

Links

 

#19 • Lynn DeRose – Principal Investigator, GE Global Research

This is the final of our exclusive 4-part series talking with GE folks about their Industrial Internet (we like to call it “Big IoT”) initiatives. This is a unique view into the side of the Internet of Things you don’t normally get to hear about.

In this episode we talk to Lynn DeRose about “cooking with big data” (literally), robot wrangling, and bringing old factories into the modern age. Lynn specializes in introducing innovative technology into old processes, and hanging out with intelligent robots. Get ready to hear about the “smartest” smoker in Austin, the next generation of robot inventors and getting robots and people to enjoy helping each other out.

Related articles

About Lynn DeRose

Lynn DeRose is a Principal Investigator at GE. She spends her time optimizing the world around her with sophisticated sensors, advanced computer visualizations and cool robotics. At GE, she is trusted to bring legacy factories around the world into the modern world by incorporating smart elements. Lynn is also actively working with Baxter, an advanced robot, by training him to interact effectively with the world around him.

About GE’s Industrial Internet

The Industrial Internet changes the game for industrial companies. Pushing machine data to the enterprise level allows businesses to leverage big data to optimize processes and asset performance. Apply predictive analytics to minimize unplanned downtime. Increase throughput, improve product quality and drive resource efficiency. The powerful outcomes—powered by the Industrial Internet—drive transformation.

 

 

#17 • Julian Keith Loren – Senior Product Manager, GE Software

This is the second in a 4-episode exclusive series where we delve into GE’s Industrial Internet initiatives. This is the side of the Internet of Things you don’t usually get to see!

About Julian Keith Loren

Julian Keith Loren has been building design and innovation teams and taking on large-scale, multi-faceted design challenges for over 20 years. Currently, he leads a worldwide collaboration to design and develop Operations Optimization products for GE’s Industrial Internet. Julian is the Co-Founder of the Innovation Management Institute where he designs and facilitates Gameferences — unforgettable face-to-face games that drive deep exploration and breakaway design. Julian also lectures and runs collaborative design games at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley and speaks and writes about audacious innovation.

About GE’s Industrial Internet

The Industrial Internet changes the game for industrial companies. Pushing machine data to the enterprise level allows businesses to leverage big data to optimize processes and asset performance. Apply predictive analytics to minimize unplanned downtime. Increase throughput, improve product quality and drive resource efficiency. The powerful outcomes—powered by the Industrial Internet—drive transformation.

#16 • Stephan Biller – Chief Scientist, GE Global Research

This is our first in a 4-episode exclusive series where we delve into GE’s Industrial Internet initiatives. This is the side of the Internet of Things you don’t usually get to see!

About Stephan Biller

Our first conversation features Stephan Biller, GE’s Chief Manufacturing Scientist. Stephan is responsible for the company’s global advanced manufacturing strategy and the development of GE’s Brilliant Factory initiative across GE businesses to increase speed and productivity.

Prior to being named to this position in April 2012, he was a Technical Fellow & Global Group Manager for Manufacturing Systems at General Motors’ R&D. Stephan received a degree in Electrical Engineering from RWTH Aachen, Germany, a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from Northwestern University, and an MBA from the University of Michigan. He has been granted nine patents, developed 22 trade secrets, and co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications.

About GE’s Industrial Internet

The Industrial Internet changes the game for industrial companies. Pushing machine data to the enterprise level allows businesses to leverage big data to optimize processes and asset performance. Apply predictive analytics to minimize unplanned downtime. Increase throughput, improve product quality and drive resource efficiency. The powerful outcomes—powered by the Industrial Internet—drive transformation.

#15 • Michael Wolf – Founder, NextMarket Insights

This week’s podcast is our first “cross-cast” — the episode appears both in Farstuff, and in The SmartHome Show by SmartFriend™ and excellent guest Michael Wolf.

Mike is one of the industry’s most well known connected home analysts, and the founder of NextMarket Insights — a research firm focused on emerging technologies. Before that he served as VP of Research for GigaOM, and created and managed research and advisory groups for ABI Research and In-Stat, where he created the world’s first dedicated connected home research service.

 

#14 • Todd Greene – CEO, PubNub

This week we get to know Todd Greene, CEO of PubNub, a company that’s created a Realtime IoT Network that will help the Internet of Things communicate more effectively. Join us as we discuss where IoT is headed and what are the major challenges we see as “smart” things become more ubiquitous and require more of our web traffic.

todd-greene

About Todd Greene

Todd Greene is founder and CEO of PubNub. Prior to founding PubNub, he was the founder and CEO of Loyalize, a company that provided real-time Audience Participation software, synchronizing TV viewers with collaborative voting and chatting apps on their phones/tablets. After closing deals with Yahoo! and Viacom, and being selected by Forbes as “one of the four hottest ad companies” in 2011, Loyalize was acquired by Robert FX Sillerman, the owner of American Idol.

The challenge of real-time synchronization of millions of audience members turned out to have many similarities to the challenges of reliable connectivity for IoT, which placed Todd on his current journey at PubNub.

Previously, Todd served in leadership roles in software companies across the spectrum, from enterprise to infrastructure to consumer software companies. Todd joined his first startup in 1996, as the 11th employee of NetDynamics, the very first app server for the Internet. He later founded and was CTO of CascadeWorks, a SaaS Services Procurement company, sold to Elance in 2003.

About PubNub

PubNub provides a global Realtime Network that solves the problems of large-scale IoT connectivity in the wild, enabling IoT providers to focus on their core business.

#13 • Pro Sports & The IoT

In this episode, Farstuff explores how the IoT will completely “change the game” of pro sports — not just for athletes, but enhance and elevate all sports from a “TV-native” experience to an “Internet-native” experience for fans.

From swimsuits that have been banned at the Olympics, to the use of goal-identifying watches by referees in the World Cup, technology is quickly changing how we play, watch and enjoy sports. Come on along as Charles and Andreea explore some of the most advanced sports equipment available, where everything is going and what it all means for the future of sports coaching, strategy, and rules and regulations for actual competitions.

Whether or not you’re a sports fan, we hope you’ll find this exploration of how the IoT will impact professional sports to be a fun and interesting journey.

Relevant Links

#11 • Drones — “The Flying IoT”

Flying IoT: Drones are not just for delivering your Amazon packages, eliminating terrorist threats across the globe and spying on your neighbors. Did you know that they can be used to get a leg up on hunting feral pigs? Or that starting your own drone business could be the next hottest startup? Charles and Andreea explore the wild world of Drones and the mysterious airspace they live in.

Topics

  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or (UAS) Unmanned Aerial Systems vs (RPV) Remotely Piloted Vehicles:
    • Computes– Sliding level of autonomy, self-aware enough to avoid collisions and to get back to their charging station in time
    • Connects– Wifi, GPS, RFID
    • Communicates– Remote Sensing – Electromagnetic spectrum sensors (visual, infrared, near infrared & radar), Gamma Ray Sensors, Biological Sensors, Chemical Sensors etc.
    • Open-source software
  • LAPD adds drones to their arsenal – Safe or Creepy?
  • World’s First Drone Ambulance – Air Mule Tactical Robotics
  • Hear Charles’ Drone Voice!
  • Getting the ultimate footage with Camera drones – Film companies negotiate with the FAA
  • Drones deliver drinks at nightclubs and Drone Pizza Delivery in India
  • How is a drone different from a flying toddler?
  •  Exploratory/Education:
    1. Archaelogists
    2. Mapping capabilities
    3. Forest Fire Detection
    4. Tracking Feral Pigs & reporting to hunters
    5. Hunting hurricanes
  • DIY Drones! Start your own Drone Business!
  • Facial and gesture recognition and what that means for the military and the paprazzi
  • Ecosystem chat: Google – Loon for Wifi distribution and Facebook purchased Titan Aerospace
  • 80,000 Volts of Awesomeness!
  • Legal/Regulatory/Safety Concerns:
    • History: 83 ft above from roof top is Private, 500 ft and up is Public
    • FAA banned all commercial drones as of May 30, 2014
  • A Hack-proof drone?!!?!?!?! DARPA is convinced!

References:

#10 • Bionics, Prosthetics & Human Enhancement

It’s a whole new world when the Internet of Things is part of you. In the future, everyone will be IoT-enhanced — bodies and minds connected via the internet to other things and people, everyone enhanced beyond normal human abilities.

Join  Andreea and Charles as they go beyond wearables, and discuss a future where “the Internet of Things…is people!”

Topics

  • Dumb (passive) prosthetics vs. smart (active) prosthetics
  • Hugh Herr, MIT Media Lab
    • Powered ankle/foot prosthesis
  • How are these smart prosthetics be part of the IoT?
  • Benefits of connecting to your central nervous system
  • Darpa’s touch-sensitive prosthetic
  • Australian study on improving vision in mice
  • Argus 2 retinal prosthetic system
  • Bionic Vision Australia’s bionic eye
  • Type 1 diabetes
    • IoT pancreas
  • Internet of Nano-Things?
  • Sperm-bots
  • How do you power something that’s embedded inside your body?
  • Security: When hacks can kill
  • Intimacy and consequences of prosthetics vs. implants
  • Transhumanism and humanity’s conflicted relationship with enhancement
  • Sports
    • LZR Racer swimsuit broke 168 world records this year
      • Banned as performance-enhancing substance in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics
  • Military
  • What happens when the Internet is in everyone’s brain?
    • What happens when we can’t disconnect?
  • Life extension
  • Upgrades (!)
  • Timeframes
  • Flexible and temporary form factors
  • How the IoT changes drug administration
  • More personalized health
  • 3D printing and prosthetics