WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: a very good update on wearables digital monitoring technologies. Not surprised to see the explosion of sensors, solutions and metrics monitored.

WHY IT MATTERS: augmented reality glasses will really be useful when they incorporate sensors that give you superhuman capabilities. Here these AR glasses equipped with thermosensors enable professionals to measure temperature at a distance, giving medical professionals, first respondents, tools to manage covid crisis. Watch the video to get a feel for what's possible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjWjX4R0kak 

WHY IT MATTERS: wearables went through a terrible hype cycle a few years back (remember the Apple watch). Looks like, as with many hype cycles, the promises were real but it just took time for the technology to catch up with the hype. One of the wearable promise was wrt to health care.We've seen in recent years a number of studies that prove for example that apple watch can detect heart attacks hours or days before they manifest themselves. So there are killer use cases (pun intended) with wearables and this poster highlights some of them.

WHY IT MATTERS: we often think of fitbits as gadgets. They are but are also paving the way for future products that have huge potential.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation often starts with innovative new technologies. This technologies has been in development for many years and thus we should keep them on our radars for when they spring out of the lab as commercial products. Not just yet though but keep that in mind when strategic plans are being drawn...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
Wearablesbubble has burst in recent months, when the hype of Apple watch has died down. But this technology remains important but still looking for the killer app, better battery life and lower price point. Expect this to reappear within a few year with, possible a low cost device with lots of sensors and a battery life of many days.

Perfect Sunday morning reading which is guaranteed to make you reflect and ponder for the next weeks. The article is a typical New Yorker one, very well researched and written. So captivating that it got me to start reading the book which appears to be as captivating and surprisingly easy to read and understand. I love those finds and have the feeling this book will be the best complement to "Singularity is Near" and "On Intelligence" that I wrote about in the past.

- book "singularity is near": http://fmcs.digital/blog/singularity-is-near-an-essential-read-to-understand-why-technology-evolves-so-fast/ 

- book "on intelligence": http://fmcs.digital/blog/on-intelligence-mustread-to-understand-frontal-cortex-architecture-what-makes-us-intelligent/ 

- article "Why the future does not need us": http://fmcs.digital/blog/why-the-future-doesnt-need-us-a-reminder-that-ai-may-have-a-bad-side-via-wired/ 

- related posts: http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses/?tag=Singularity+is+Near 

Below are some articles that describe AmazonGO technology in more detail, including a video animation. As you can see, we know very little and everyone is guessing at this time based on patent filing and an article from a consultant now hired by Amazon.

• 2013 detailed report by Brittain Ladd, ex-consultant now Amazon employee, that may be the source of some of the concepts behind Amazon GO: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beautiful-way-save-woolworths-brittain-ladd 
• Amazon 2015 patents that supports the GO store technology: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=(Steven.IN.+AND+Kessel.IN.)&OS=IN/Steven+and+IN/Kessel&RS=(IN/Steven+AND+IN/Kessel) and older one http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=%22DETECTING+ITEM+INTERACTION+AND+MOVEMENT%22&OS=%22DETECTING+ITEM+INTERACTION+AND+MOVEMENT%22&RS=%22DETECTING+ITEM+INTERACTION+AND+MOVEMENT%22 
• Very good analysis - in french - of what we know and some interesting tidbits about how Amazon may use it in the future: http://www.le-furet-du-retail.com/2016/12/amazon-go-comment-cela-marche-technologiquement-ce-que-l-on-sait-du-systeme-just-walk-out.html 
• Amazon GO website announcement and video: https://www.amazon.com/go 
• 2015 recode article that unveiled the concept a year ago - but went under my radar: http://www.recode.net/2015/3/30/11560904/we-may-have-just-uncovered-amazons-vision-for-a-new-kind-of-retail 

Various other articles:

• http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/6/13856158/how-amazon-go-stores-work-patent
• http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/139650-what-is-amazon-go-and-how-does-it-work
• http://www.usatoday.com/videos/tech/2016/12/07/how-amazon-go-work/95111660/

Recent announcements of fully automated, no cash register no lineups Amazon stores, have made the use of RFID chips and other digital identification techniques the topic of discussion again.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation requires bridging the physical world with the digital one. One of the simplest way to do so is to attached radio frequency beacons (RFID chips) to products so that you can detect their presence and make inventory management and checkout faster, easier and more accurate. Pushing this idea forward of course means that humans too should be tagged to help identify them in the digital world. Not only does this open a see of useful application - unlocking doors without a key, tracking location inside a building, removing the need for password - it also raises concerns about privacy and identity management. Fun times ahead!

Amazon GO: http://fmcs.digital/blog/amazon-go-no-registers-no-cash-no-lines-retail-store-digital-transformation-huge-leap-forward/

Retail location tagging: http://sco.lt/6yVDqz 

Décathlon connected products and self checkout: http://www.force-ouvriere.fr/chez-decathlon-85-des-produits-sont-connectes?lang=fr 

A short run down on personal technologies coming our way soon.

WHY THISI S IMPORTANT

I've been speaking about the impact of digital technologies to transformation our personal lives and the opportunities this brings to business for a while in my "me.com" and "we.com" conferences (http://fmcs.digital/conferences). Looks like there is even more to it than originally I anticipated with the convergence of InternetOfThings, AI, BigData, and wearables. Your employees in the future will be even more connected and digital and companies should take notice and leverage it to 1) improve productivity 2) support work-life-wellness balance 3) tap the social networks to their benefits (ie. social recruiting).

A very good review of the human computer interfaces and what the future may hold for us.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We cannot hold a mouse and keyboard in our hands to interact with physical world objects that have been digitized. Think of a warehouse employee that needs to interact with an automated shelves to fetch a specific product. Today we would use buttons on a mobile phone touchscreen. But would it not be simpler if we could simply interact with the shelves itself in ways that our body would recognize, then send appropriate commands to the devices we interact with? 

In the article, the far fetched story about the couple in a bar may not be very realistic but it provides some very useful insights about how to leverage our bodies to do things we cannot with our devices today, for privacy reasons for example. Very interesting.

Describes a new set of hardware components to build IoT solutions.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

It is with hardware devices like these that the penetration of digital in our daily lives will grow. In recent years, we've seen Arduino, Raspberry Pi and other hardware toolkits that simplify the prototyping and innovation to move the web, sensors, cameras, and other digital devices that bridge the real world with virtual one.

A review of new tatoo-like devices that may soon replace wearable devices we carry with us today. 

Amazing for its miniaturization.