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 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

This is an annual bag of goodies.

Highlight #1: retail stores are closing at record pace while Amazon opens stores. This is such a huge trend because it transforms stores from a mini-warehouse into something else: a destination for experience, service, and training. Think Apple store with the highest sales per square foot, genius bar, classes and a showroom. Amazon has pushed its Amazon GO, no lines, no registers concept and it is rolling it out slowly. This is just the beginning...

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Wearables are struggling to find their usefulness. I've been saying from the start that their killer app is with everything related to sensors. This appears to be truer than ever with news like this...

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.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Wearing a device such as a fitbit does something way bigger than providing you with insights: it provides a HUGE trove of data to be mined for trends and insights. I wrote about the jawbone big data analysis in the past, but recently found that fitbit has started to provide a similar service, analyzing data its millions of devices capture every day.

More insights:

www.fitbit.com/fitscience

fmcs.digital/?s=jawbone 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We are just starting to scratch the surface of what we can learn when we analyze the personal data from social media. When everything is connected with Internet of things products and when we measure everything we do using wearables and quantified-self technologies, the insights will be even greater. Companies should prepare to analyze this massive data rush and us all should start to think about our information privacy more carefully...

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 

Is this the first useful use case for smart watches?

Babies are inherently fragile and require attention. It is natural for parents to want to monitor and stay connected with them. Technology is the most natural way to provide solutions for parents that increasingly want to stay connected even when they are away. This has become a huge area for developments and improvements, as evidenced by the large number of startups at CES this year. Must watch for the future.

Also read in french: 

CES la mdoe du tout connecté pour bébés au CES 2017

http://www.lapresse.ca/techno/201701/09/01-5057758-ces-la-mode-du-tout-connecte-pour-bebe.php 

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