By Desie Heita
WINDHOEK — Very soon a person or a household’s entire life would be connected to other lives in the world through Internet. This is the era of ‘Internet of Things’, the ability to control, command and pursue interaction – be they practical functions such as keeping an eye on what children are doing in your absence and monitoring the usage of water and electricity in your home or for the essential interacting with home appliances such as TV decoders, stoves and fridges – from wherever you are at a touch of a button on your smartphone or gadget.
Internet as we know it – a platform for communication between people has changed. It is now an Internet of Things, quite literally, with very little or infrequent command input from humans, although the interaction of things is for the benefit of making life easier.
This is a phenomenon made well loud and clear at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which began yesterday in Las Vegas, attracting thousands of techno geeks, techno savvy consumers and the world’s top electronic companies and their CEOs.
For instance, BMW is working on an application with Samsung, where the driver could call the car for pick up. Elmar Frickenstein, BMW senior vice president, made a presentation. He spoke into the smartwatch on his wrist, “BMW, pick me up,” and a video showed an autonomous car driving through a parking garage to where he was standing.
Leading the voice was Samsung’s president and chief executive officer, Boo-Keun Yoon, whose speech was streamed live through any spectrum that was available on the day, talking about the future of connected devices.
Yoon said that the digital and physical worlds are coming together through the Internet of Things, a combination that “will revolutionise our lives, and unleash infinite possibilities”.
The Samsung CEO added that it is up to the tech industry to explain the value of these connected devices, showing how the devices will help “us lead more comfortable lives”.
That means individuals could have more time to spend with family or participate in hobbies.
For many years, the pre-show CES keynote was given by Microsoft’s Bill Gates, presenting a vision for the future of technology and rallying the industry around important issues. In that way, Yoon’s keynote tonight is filling a similar role, for the new wave of connected, intelligent devices.
“It is these great benefits that we need to explain,” said Yoon, adding: “the Internet of Things has the potential to transform our economy and our society and how we live our lives.”
Yoon later pledged that Samsung’s devices would work across different ecosystems, not just with its own products.
“We can deliver the future of Internet of Things only if all sensors and all devices work with each other,” he said. “Our Internet of Things components and devices will be open.”
By 2017, he said, 90 percent of Samsung devices will be Internet of Things devices.
Yoon brought out Alex Hawkinson, the CEO of the SmartThings sensor company that Samsung acquired last year. Hawkinson announced a new SmartThings Premium service that will extend the capabilities of the sensors to groups of people.
Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman then came out on stage, also stressing the importance of developers and industry collaboration.
Yoon stressed the importance of security for the Internet of Things, calling it a “test for which our whole industry has to work closely together.”