IoT needs to go and have a slow painful death. Do we really need more things in our lives that either talk to us and connect to the internet so we can interact with our crap in our home or work place. Og the fridge is 1 degree warmer better fix that. Oh the furnace kicked in 37 times better turn the thermostat down 2 degrees and do my part to the planet. People we are inventing all of this crap because we have all become tech addicts myself included. We all need to find other hobbies before we are just mindless drones....wait what it might be to late for most of us.
Things should be connected because it serves a purpose, I'm with you there. The trouble is that in these early stages, we are witnessing the natural selection of what actually works (and should be connected) by eliminating that which does not (and should not).
Of more concern is the security implications of all this connectivity. People don't seem to understand that if its connected, it can be hacked. If its in the cloud, it likely already is.
Then again, it took 70 years before seat-belts were common in cars. Even more for airbags, ABS, crumple zones, etc... 2-steps forward, 1-step back is the norm for humanity when things are going well. Embrace it, or shake your fists at the sky.
I will enjoy connected devices a lot more once I have a connected robot that uses those connected devices so I don't have to. I like the idea of my robo-assistant knowing what I want for dinner tomorrow, and making sure that the fridge and cupboards have all the necessary ingredients. Then I want it to assemble the items from their storage units and do all the prep work. Then I want my smart oven to know what's in the dish, and cook it properly. Robo-Assistant can plate my food for however many guests I tell it to, and then take care of the cleanup afterwards.
Who in their right mind wouldn't want all that? I mean that's exactly what wealthy people already have, except it's a human instead of a robot.
I personally prefer a human rather than a robot doing that sort of thing for me (well cleaning and yard work anyway, I don't need or want a chef) because I can hold someone accountable for doing sloppy work or mucking something up. Yes, there's the risk of theft and incompetence, but those things are the spice of life and no robot will have that special, shocked facial expression when you tell him that he's been sacked for carelessly running over the zinnias with his riding mower when in reality you just didn't like the fact that he's a butterball of a person.
Speaking of utopias, how about a future in which human population is declining, thus reducing the impact on our planet, and the slack is made up by an increasing number of robots, particularly with respect to the needs of the elderly?
What utopia are you talking about? If this were an idealized world, the people I hire to care for my property would meet my superficial idealizations AND do a good job at what I'm paying them to do. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone that meets both of those criteria?
The security will be a huge concern in the future, a house with a single door is pretty easy to keep secure, just make it a high security door and your house will be hard to break in, add dozens of doors, windows and what not and the security of your house will as good as the least secure opening.
Another issue is "the Cloud", companies will lock you in and make you pay for services, what was once for free will become a paying service, no way around it. Companies seem to not care for independent solutions anymore.
I'm rooting for open source hardware/software but chances are they will get nowhere, people prefer to pay for shiny things instead of getting something for free that does the same but looks basic...
IoT isn't going anywhere. It's just that it's been talked about for so long there's the equivalent of "prospect fatigue". These devices will collect data and be run by artificial intelligence. People aren't going to be micromanaging their devices.
"IoT" is a marketing moniker, and as such it will go away. Embedded electronics however will not, they will just stop using that silly name. Electronics will only become more widely used as it gets cheaper and available, and sure, many if not even most of those uses will be pointless or even harmful, but it is not going away anytime soon.
That's a silly thing to say. It doesn't matter what name gets used and there's nothing wrong with the name "Internet of Things". It's not even a marketing moniker. It's business concept jargon, just like "the Cloud".
But IoT is more than just embedded electronics. IoT describes intelligent, interconnected devices that provide value through the ability to collect and take advantage of data. They've been talking about it for a while but the technology hasn't been there, yet. From what I see, three things need to happen: 1) processing power in the data center needs to increase, 2) meaningful compute needs to shrink to be able to be embedded in the devices, and 3) all of the devices need access to networking capability. As long as there is enough data center processing power to keep up with the huge amount of data, there is too much value in the data for IoT to not happen.
It is marketing hype intended to impress dummies into voluntarily adopting more means to be exploited through. Also, yet another huge security and privacy fiasco, indicating that besides coming up with lame monikers the industry ain't much good at anything.
you're limiting your thinking to the stupid examples given in slides for popular consumption.
Embedded electronics is nothing new, and connecting it to the internet isn't it either.
I have a smart controller for the heat pumps at home, which powers them off during peak consumption, using the fact that the temps in the house won't change just because of that. It's money spared, it's an IoT device, there is no tinkering involved at all, it's set and forget, and it's one thing that helps handling time-varying power output and consumption in the grid.
Cams and centrally-controlled traffic lights are IoT as well and obviously useful.
Even the dishwasher should be connected. When it starts not cleaning properly I get an email "Sensors tell us you need to unblock the section below the plastic grate". As it stands right now my non-IoT dishwasher is giving me problems. I have no way to know what is wrong leaving me at the mercy of greaseball appliance repairmen. I have concerns about the data that is being collected but I also want the increased utility.
Rather disappointing, the largest Cyclone-10 provides only about 2/3'of the LEs of the largest Cyclone-V. Seems like Intel is trying to force customers to the more expensive Arria-10 category.
I wonder how long it'll be before they release a model with an embedded Quark core and manufactured from Intel's own fabs. These are all pure Altera designs that were in the pipeline before the merger.
TSMC CLN20SOC indeed looks weird here. By the time this stuff gets out it will be two years since acquisition. What outside of some kind of long-term agreement with TSMC prevents them from using intel fabs? It`s not like they went past 20nm everywhere.
This sentence structure doesn't seem right to me "The 10 GX family is made on TSMC's 20nmSoC planar process, in line with what we perhaps expect as Intel is working through Altera roadmaps set before the acquisition." Why nobody in AnandTech has edited that? Another blogger dumpster is going down.
There seems to be much confusion about IoT. As I've been designing IoT for the past 5 years, I would like to clarify both the intended purpose and state-of-play.
But first, a quick word about Intel. Intel has an unbroken record of failure in consumer products despite spending billions of dollars trying to break into the market. They've failed on everything from Smart Cars to Smart Homes to Media to Phones. It is ironic because Intel hires the smartest engineers. Unfortunately its culture and leadership is grossly inadequate where consumer markets are concerned. Fortunately for them their core areas of excellence are... excellent. Processors, chipsets, SSD.... new standards for USB and beyond... Intel rules! But consumer products? Nope. Anyone remember Viiv?
So then, IoT is useless unless it makes your home easier to live in, cheaper to run, and is genuinely useful. Installation must be a breeze and system cost must be low and progressive (over time). System components should be interchangeable between manufacturers so your home system can always be updated and never becomes end-of-life (requiring a new investment).
What can you do with IoT? I'll explain with an example, my own home.
When I arrive home the lights are on outside. A wireless security camera at the door recognizes me (facial recognition) and confirms with a voice print challenge and (optionally) a fingerprint biometric - the front door unlocks.
The house was updated when I left work so the house HVAC system has adjusted the temperature in the house ahead of my return home. Meanwhile my car and the house are exchanging information which includes car diagnostics, media updates, battery condition etc.. I'll be notified if any upcoming actions are needed.
BTW, if my car is stolen it can drive itself to the nearest police station (actually I'm going to leave that system to Telsa etc because I regard it as a part of automated driving which is outside my scope).
Although I'm back in the house the alarm system is not disabled - it doesn't need to be. The house knows who is in residence at any moment; any unauthorized presence will start an alarm escalation process. In fact I never need to arm or disarm my system. Nor do I need a monitoring service. Think about that for a moment - it means that even if the house is occupied, an intruder is immediately detected.
Because Arizona is very hot it pays to air-condition the rooms in-use and to do so intelligently throughout the day. For this I have a combination of controlled vents and split-system HVACs for the most frequently used rooms. The house monitors (and predicts) room usage and heats/cools accordingly. In the event we decide to break pattern (which is frequent) the room can quickly be brought to a comfortable temperature.
The house not only monitors who is in the house, it also monitors continuously for fires and other anomalies ranging from appliance failures, water leaks, depletion of salt in water softener, and expired or clogged filter (air and water). I will be warned ahead of time when I need to take some action or, for instance, buy new filters. My appliances are upgraded so when my Bosch dishwasher stripped a valve actuator mechanism and trashed the turbine pump I was notified of the precise problem - saved me several hundreds of dollars as I was able to order the components online and have them ready (along with a full description of the problem) when the service person arrived - he reckoned I'd saved myself over $400 or a brand new dishwasher (over $1500).
Let's say there is a house fire. The house will attempt to map the safest route out of the house for all occupants. It is capable of waking everyone and provide each person a tailored route out of the house. This includes inducting fresh air from outside (through low-down wall vents) so the occupants are not overcome by smoke. The same system is also designed to contain fire and prevent back-drafts. Rather like an aircraft, a route will light up to guide people to safety (doubles as night and mood lighting).
If anything does go wrong the system will tell me exactly what to buy or what service to employ. Yes, my lights are computer controlled (so I can do stuff like night-time lights to the kitchen for a glass of water, or subdued lights so I can stop watching a film and get a snack) but really those are the gimmicks - they don't add much value. I also don't use stupid gadgets like fridge cameras. On the other hand the house does have load management which allows the system to optimize for electricity plans, solar (I have a 7.2kW system) etc..
Outside I have a camera watching the pool - anyone falls in, night or day, or if a child is approaching the pool (but has not yet fallen in) then an alarm will be raised immediately. Again, the system does not need to be armed/disarmed. The irrigation system is controlled by computer based on plants, dryness of soil, time of year etc.. It also monitors water flow so it can instantly detect both a seized valve or water leak. There's no outside box - it doesn't need one.
In addition the entire system is voice controlled (with voice response too) so although you can use a mobile or touch screen, there's rarely any need.
We've worked out our system saves us over $2500 a year in utilities. It does way more than I've described here (including non-obtrusive health monitoring), but I'm really just trying to give you an idea of what IoT can do for you.
Now onto the technology. As I've mentioned, everything is either automatic or voice controlled. We have no keys, not even for backup - we simply don't need them thanks to good design. We use a bunch of technologies including ESP32, ESP8266, Raspberry Pi, C.H.I.P., FPGA's (for facial and audio recognition). We have some legacy Zigbee devices and of course a huge number of sensors. Very, very few batteries - we either use capacitors or other methods of power scavenging to avoid both batteries and wires. Indeed there were zero changes made to the house structure or wiring; the only time intervention was required was the appliance modifications, installation of water flow sensors and the split HVAC systems. Otherwise 99% of the gear work can be retrofitted to a house by the owner.
When I see a Nest thermostat at Lowes, I laugh. It's like finding a living dinosaur that doesn't know it's extinct.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
26 Comments
Back to Article
rocky12345 - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
IoT needs to go and have a slow painful death. Do we really need more things in our lives that either talk to us and connect to the internet so we can interact with our crap in our home or work place. Og the fridge is 1 degree warmer better fix that. Oh the furnace kicked in 37 times better turn the thermostat down 2 degrees and do my part to the planet. People we are inventing all of this crap because we have all become tech addicts myself included. We all need to find other hobbies before we are just mindless drones....wait what it might be to late for most of us.rocky12345 - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
typo'sOg the fridge =Oh the fridge
sorten - Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - link
"typo's"Perfect
cekim - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
Things should be connected because it serves a purpose, I'm with you there. The trouble is that in these early stages, we are witnessing the natural selection of what actually works (and should be connected) by eliminating that which does not (and should not).Of more concern is the security implications of all this connectivity. People don't seem to understand that if its connected, it can be hacked. If its in the cloud, it likely already is.
Then again, it took 70 years before seat-belts were common in cars. Even more for airbags, ABS, crumple zones, etc... 2-steps forward, 1-step back is the norm for humanity when things are going well. Embrace it, or shake your fists at the sky.
fanofanand - Monday, February 20, 2017 - link
I will enjoy connected devices a lot more once I have a connected robot that uses those connected devices so I don't have to. I like the idea of my robo-assistant knowing what I want for dinner tomorrow, and making sure that the fridge and cupboards have all the necessary ingredients. Then I want it to assemble the items from their storage units and do all the prep work. Then I want my smart oven to know what's in the dish, and cook it properly. Robo-Assistant can plate my food for however many guests I tell it to, and then take care of the cleanup afterwards.Who in their right mind wouldn't want all that? I mean that's exactly what wealthy people already have, except it's a human instead of a robot.
BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, February 21, 2017 - link
I personally prefer a human rather than a robot doing that sort of thing for me (well cleaning and yard work anyway, I don't need or want a chef) because I can hold someone accountable for doing sloppy work or mucking something up. Yes, there's the risk of theft and incompetence, but those things are the spice of life and no robot will have that special, shocked facial expression when you tell him that he's been sacked for carelessly running over the zinnias with his riding mower when in reality you just didn't like the fact that he's a butterball of a person.Ktracho - Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - link
Speaking of utopias, how about a future in which human population is declining, thus reducing the impact on our planet, and the slack is made up by an increasing number of robots, particularly with respect to the needs of the elderly?BrokenCrayons - Thursday, February 23, 2017 - link
What utopia are you talking about? If this were an idealized world, the people I hire to care for my property would meet my superficial idealizations AND do a good job at what I'm paying them to do. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone that meets both of those criteria?Strunf - Tuesday, February 21, 2017 - link
The security will be a huge concern in the future, a house with a single door is pretty easy to keep secure, just make it a high security door and your house will be hard to break in, add dozens of doors, windows and what not and the security of your house will as good as the least secure opening.Another issue is "the Cloud", companies will lock you in and make you pay for services, what was once for free will become a paying service, no way around it. Companies seem to not care for independent solutions anymore.
I'm rooting for open source hardware/software but chances are they will get nowhere, people prefer to pay for shiny things instead of getting something for free that does the same but looks basic...
Yojimbo - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
IoT isn't going anywhere. It's just that it's been talked about for so long there's the equivalent of "prospect fatigue". These devices will collect data and be run by artificial intelligence. People aren't going to be micromanaging their devices.ddriver - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
"IoT" is a marketing moniker, and as such it will go away. Embedded electronics however will not, they will just stop using that silly name. Electronics will only become more widely used as it gets cheaper and available, and sure, many if not even most of those uses will be pointless or even harmful, but it is not going away anytime soon.Yojimbo - Sunday, February 19, 2017 - link
That's a silly thing to say. It doesn't matter what name gets used and there's nothing wrong with the name "Internet of Things". It's not even a marketing moniker. It's business concept jargon, just like "the Cloud".But IoT is more than just embedded electronics. IoT describes intelligent, interconnected devices that provide value through the ability to collect and take advantage of data. They've been talking about it for a while but the technology hasn't been there, yet. From what I see, three things need to happen: 1) processing power in the data center needs to increase, 2) meaningful compute needs to shrink to be able to be embedded in the devices, and 3) all of the devices need access to networking capability. As long as there is enough data center processing power to keep up with the huge amount of data, there is too much value in the data for IoT to not happen.
ddriver - Monday, February 20, 2017 - link
It is marketing hype intended to impress dummies into voluntarily adopting more means to be exploited through. Also, yet another huge security and privacy fiasco, indicating that besides coming up with lame monikers the industry ain't much good at anything.Murloc - Sunday, February 19, 2017 - link
you're limiting your thinking to the stupid examples given in slides for popular consumption.Embedded electronics is nothing new, and connecting it to the internet isn't it either.
I have a smart controller for the heat pumps at home, which powers them off during peak consumption, using the fact that the temps in the house won't change just because of that.
It's money spared, it's an IoT device, there is no tinkering involved at all, it's set and forget, and it's one thing that helps handling time-varying power output and consumption in the grid.
Cams and centrally-controlled traffic lights are IoT as well and obviously useful.
ayejay_nz - Monday, February 20, 2017 - link
+1Amandtec - Tuesday, February 21, 2017 - link
Even the dishwasher should be connected. When it starts not cleaning properly I get an email "Sensors tell us you need to unblock the section below the plastic grate". As it stands right now my non-IoT dishwasher is giving me problems. I have no way to know what is wrong leaving me at the mercy of greaseball appliance repairmen. I have concerns about the data that is being collected but I also want the increased utility.ceisserer - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
Rather disappointing, the largest Cyclone-10 provides only about 2/3'of the LEs of the largest Cyclone-V. Seems like Intel is trying to force customers to the more expensive Arria-10 category.logo64 - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
If you guys are tracking FPGAs in IoT and related fields, then you should know that Microsemi also announced their PolarFire FPGAs:https://investor.microsemi.com/2017-02-14-Microsem...
Kevin G - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
I wonder how long it'll be before they release a model with an embedded Quark core and manufactured from Intel's own fabs. These are all pure Altera designs that were in the pipeline before the merger.Michael Bay - Sunday, February 19, 2017 - link
TSMC CLN20SOC indeed looks weird here. By the time this stuff gets out it will be two years since acquisition. What outside of some kind of long-term agreement with TSMC prevents them from using intel fabs? It`s not like they went past 20nm everywhere.HollyDOL - Monday, February 20, 2017 - link
Luckily they didn't name it Cyclone B.Chicken76 - Monday, February 20, 2017 - link
Isn't Cyclone a registered trademark of Apple?Meteor2 - Monday, February 20, 2017 - link
I think that's just a codename.Vlad_Da_Great - Monday, February 20, 2017 - link
This sentence structure doesn't seem right to me "The 10 GX family is made on TSMC's 20nmSoC planar process, in line with what we perhaps expect as Intel is working through Altera roadmaps set before the acquisition." Why nobody in AnandTech has edited that? Another blogger dumpster is going down.bminor13 - Tuesday, February 21, 2017 - link
What's wrong with that sentence? Another comma might clarify things a little, but calling this a "blogger dumpster" seems a bit harsh.mr2kat - Thursday, February 23, 2017 - link
There seems to be much confusion about IoT. As I've been designing IoT for the past 5 years, I would like to clarify both the intended purpose and state-of-play.But first, a quick word about Intel. Intel has an unbroken record of failure in consumer products despite spending billions of dollars trying to break into the market. They've failed on everything from Smart Cars to Smart Homes to Media to Phones. It is ironic because Intel hires the smartest engineers. Unfortunately its culture and leadership is grossly inadequate where consumer markets are concerned. Fortunately for them their core areas of excellence are... excellent. Processors, chipsets, SSD.... new standards for USB and beyond... Intel rules! But consumer products? Nope. Anyone remember Viiv?
So then, IoT is useless unless it makes your home easier to live in, cheaper to run, and is genuinely useful. Installation must be a breeze and system cost must be low and progressive (over time). System components should be interchangeable between manufacturers so your home system can always be updated and never becomes end-of-life (requiring a new investment).
What can you do with IoT? I'll explain with an example, my own home.
When I arrive home the lights are on outside. A wireless security camera at the door recognizes me (facial recognition) and confirms with a voice print challenge and (optionally) a fingerprint biometric - the front door unlocks.
The house was updated when I left work so the house HVAC system has adjusted the temperature in the house ahead of my return home. Meanwhile my car and the house are exchanging information which includes car diagnostics, media updates, battery condition etc.. I'll be notified if any upcoming actions are needed.
BTW, if my car is stolen it can drive itself to the nearest police station (actually I'm going to leave that system to Telsa etc because I regard it as a part of automated driving which is outside my scope).
Although I'm back in the house the alarm system is not disabled - it doesn't need to be. The house knows who is in residence at any moment; any unauthorized presence will start an alarm escalation process. In fact I never need to arm or disarm my system. Nor do I need a monitoring service. Think about that for a moment - it means that even if the house is occupied, an intruder is immediately detected.
Because Arizona is very hot it pays to air-condition the rooms in-use and to do so intelligently throughout the day. For this I have a combination of controlled vents and split-system HVACs for the most frequently used rooms. The house monitors (and predicts) room usage and heats/cools accordingly. In the event we decide to break pattern (which is frequent) the room can quickly be brought to a comfortable temperature.
The house not only monitors who is in the house, it also monitors continuously for fires and other anomalies ranging from appliance failures, water leaks, depletion of salt in water softener, and expired or clogged filter (air and water). I will be warned ahead of time when I need to take some action or, for instance, buy new filters. My appliances are upgraded so when my Bosch dishwasher stripped a valve actuator mechanism and trashed the turbine pump I was notified of the precise problem - saved me several hundreds of dollars as I was able to order the components online and have them ready (along with a full description of the problem) when the service person arrived - he reckoned I'd saved myself over $400 or a brand new dishwasher (over $1500).
Let's say there is a house fire. The house will attempt to map the safest route out of the house for all occupants. It is capable of waking everyone and provide each person a tailored route out of the house. This includes inducting fresh air from outside (through low-down wall vents) so the occupants are not overcome by smoke. The same system is also designed to contain fire and prevent back-drafts. Rather like an aircraft, a route will light up to guide people to safety (doubles as night and mood lighting).
If anything does go wrong the system will tell me exactly what to buy or what service to employ. Yes, my lights are computer controlled (so I can do stuff like night-time lights to the kitchen for a glass of water, or subdued lights so I can stop watching a film and get a snack) but really those are the gimmicks - they don't add much value. I also don't use stupid gadgets like fridge cameras. On the other hand the house does have load management which allows the system to optimize for electricity plans, solar (I have a 7.2kW system) etc..
Outside I have a camera watching the pool - anyone falls in, night or day, or if a child is approaching the pool (but has not yet fallen in) then an alarm will be raised immediately. Again, the system does not need to be armed/disarmed. The irrigation system is controlled by computer based on plants, dryness of soil, time of year etc.. It also monitors water flow so it can instantly detect both a seized valve or water leak. There's no outside box - it doesn't need one.
In addition the entire system is voice controlled (with voice response too) so although you can use a mobile or touch screen, there's rarely any need.
We've worked out our system saves us over $2500 a year in utilities. It does way more than I've described here (including non-obtrusive health monitoring), but I'm really just trying to give you an idea of what IoT can do for you.
Now onto the technology. As I've mentioned, everything is either automatic or voice controlled. We have no keys, not even for backup - we simply don't need them thanks to good design. We use a bunch of technologies including ESP32, ESP8266, Raspberry Pi, C.H.I.P., FPGA's (for facial and audio recognition). We have some legacy Zigbee devices and of course a huge number of sensors. Very, very few batteries - we either use capacitors or other methods of power scavenging to avoid both batteries and wires. Indeed there were zero changes made to the house structure or wiring; the only time intervention was required was the appliance modifications, installation of water flow sensors and the split HVAC systems. Otherwise 99% of the gear work can be retrofitted to a house by the owner.
When I see a Nest thermostat at Lowes, I laugh. It's like finding a living dinosaur that doesn't know it's extinct.