Last year, the Internet of Things had a sort of coming-out party at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), in Las Vegas, where a number of manufacturers announced Internet-connected home appliances and other IoT products for consumers. This year, the IoT also took main stage, but the focus is now more on building interoperability, security and new features into the growing IoT ecosystem of hardware and communication protocols. (Whiz-bang IoT products were not completely absent, however, as evidenced by a Bluetooth-connected pacifier for babies.)
Samsung Makes Bold Proclamations
Samsung, which placed its stake in the IoT world last year with its $200 million acquisition of home-automation device maker SmartThings, made a range of announcements and predictions at CES. Boo-Keun Yoon, Samsung Electronics’ president and CEO, told attendees that by 2017, 90 percent of the company’s products will be connected to the Internet of Things, with virtually all Samsung products becoming nodes in the IoT by the end of this decade. Yoon also pushed the need for various providers to work together to ensure the interoperability of devices used within the IoT.
To that end, GigaOm reports that in addition to the Z-wave, ZigBee and Bluetooth Smart IoT communication protocols, the next generation of the SmartThings home-automation hub, due out in April 2015, will support Thread (a protocol introduced last year by Nest and other manufacturers), as well as the Intel-led Open Interconnect Consortium protocol.
Samsung also announced that it will invest $100 million this year to support companies developing IoT applications that leverage Samsung products. It will do this by growing its accelerator programs and improving their international reach.
FTC Chief Raises Privacy Concerns
United States Federal Trade Commission chairwoman Edith Ramirez spoke at a CES panel on data privacy, calling on technology companies to focus on safeguarding consumer privacy and building digital security features into every node in the Internet of Things. Specifically, she asked IoT technology providers to conduct privacy and security risk assessments and tests for each product prior to its release; to build in default security features, such as requiring periodic password updates; to use data-encryption tools to protect sensitive data, such as that related to health; and to maintain and update security features throughout a product’s lifecycle. In addition, she advocated for user-related data that is collected to be anonymized whenever possible. “Many of the beneficial big-data uses from the IoT could still be accomplished by using de-identified data,” Ramirez said.
Taking these steps now, Ramirez said—before IoT devices proliferate and many more companies begin gathering massive stores of consumer data—is the best way to avoid major security or privacy breaches.
“Companies are investing billions of dollars in this growing industry,” Ramirez reported. “They should also make appropriate investments in privacy and security. The stakes are too high to do otherwise.” Her full comments are available online.
BlackBerry Jumping into the IoT Pool
The BlackBerry-owned QNX Software Systems already supplies software to scores of automakers that use it to power infotainment systems, which provide an interface between a driver, her smartphone and her vehicle’s radio. (The most recent new QNX client is Ford, which announced at CES that it has switched from a Windows-based operating system to QNX for its Sync 3 infotainment platform.) Now, the company is joining the IoT market with the BlackBerry IoT platform, which meshes elements of QNX software with BlackBerry’s wireless device-management software.
BlackBerry says it is initially targeting transportation and asset-tracking applications for the platform. CNET reports that, based on the strong reputation of its messaging security features, BlackBerry could emerge as a leader in IoT security.
AllSeen Alliance Debuts IoT Gateway Agent
The AllSeen Alliance, a nonprofit open-source consortium focused on enabling an open, interoperable Internet of Things by building on the AllJoyn open-source software project, released the AllJoyn Gateway Agent, software that can be used to access IoT devices remotely using open standards, and to deploy security and privacy controls on those devices. The AllSeen Alliance also offers a compliance and certification program to ensure that the software is accurately deployed.
Nvidia Eyes Connected Cars With Tegra X1 Superchip, Drive PX Platform
Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Audi all demonstrated self-driving car features at CES, ranging from full autonomous concept cars to parking-assistance applications in current projection vehicles. Mercedes-Benz debuted a concept car called the F015 Luxury in Motion, which is self-driving and uses a hydrogen-electric plug-in hybrid engine. To power autonomy in tomorrow’s car, chipmaker Nvidia announced what it called a mobile super chip, the Tegra X1. But the mobile devices it is targeting are not phones, but rather cars.
The Tegra X1 supports more than a teraflop of processing power and serves as the core of Nvidia’s DRIVE PX auto-pilot development platform—which, according to a press statement from Nvidia, features inputs for up to 12 high-resolution cameras, and can process up to 1.3 gigapixels per second. DRIVE PX can be used with QNX, Linux or Android software, which automakers currently employ for telematics applications. In addition, the system supports an Auto-Valet application through which a vehicle could drive itself, find a parking space and park.