John Loutas

4.67/5 (3)

Nowadays, technology has transformed many industries making them to move away from the classic brick and mortar business to online services. In this way firms could reduce operating costs while offering a larger variation of products. Nonetheless, shipping and postage has remained unchanged through these years with UPS and FedEx being the primary sources for shipping. But recently Amazon challenged the way of shipping with Amazon Prime Air. It is a drone delivery system distributing commercial packages in less than 30 minutes. Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) originated mostly in military applications but the last 2 years civilian drones outnumbered military drones.

Drones are not only invading in the way of transporting goods, but in a few years, they will change the way of doing business in certain industries. The greatest contribution will be made in doctor aid and medical supplies delivery. Zipline, a Silicon Valley company, is working on a project with the government of Rwandan to deliver medical supplies to inaccessible villages, just in a few minutes. Doctors will request through an application specific material and it will be transferred from a medical warehouse facility right to the remote regions. The drones are designed to fly in average 120km and carry up to 1.5kg packages of fragile items which are dropped safely using a parachute. Also, the drones could be in the disposal of fire departments. In France, a company developed a real-time system to monitor fires and the spreads of flames. It will be “an eye in the sky” helping the firemen to take information about the fire and scout the direction of the flames, from a safe zone.

However, we should keep a close eye to the use of drones as they can also create some problems to the world. Just like birds, flying drones caring cargo could be a danger for aircrafts and should be assessed. The UK government is already running a project to test potential collision impacts between a drone and a commercial airplane as there have been several reports of “near misses”. The tests will be conducted by a military contractor with the use of military airplanes. Moreover, experts warn that drones can become “a game changer in the wrong hands”. Foreign embassies, nuclear power stations or a prime minister’s car can become potential targets for a terrorist attack. Although, remote control warfare is impossible to control, mitigating measures like radio-frequency jammers or no-fly zones could prevent any detrimental action.

From transportation to journalism and from saving lives to guarding, drones will become an incentive for many industries in the way of making business. With pioneers Amazon and Royal Mail, more and more companies will enhance the use of drones to save time, money and limit gas emissions. Yet, possible dangers could arise using drones and the need for flying regulations is mandatory.

References:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/18/13314916/drone-crash-airplane-test-uk-dangers

http://www.ibtimes.com/14-ways-drones-will-change-world-1517486

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/27/how-rwanda-is-using-drones-to-save-millions-of-lives.html

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/11/drones-terrorist-attacks-security-thinktank

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35280402

4.92/5 (13)

The world of technology is becoming more and more familiar with Internet of Things; it has entered our lives and is everywhere around us, but the definition is not quite new. It was back in 1999 when Kevin Ashton, a British technology pioneer working at Auto-ID labs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), coined the term “Internet of Things”. But what is actually Internet of Things (IoT) and why it deluged in our lives?

Internet of Things is considered any connection (inter-networking) between physical devices/vehicles/buildings and electronics/software/sensors, enabling them to collect and exchange data. It allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems. A short but accurate definition for IoT could be: “the infrastructure of the information society”. IoT is expected to offer advanced connectivity of devices and services that goes beyond machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. In fact, with IoT what in an earlier age would have been defined as magic is now a reality; designed, planned and operated by technology pioneers around the world.

Nowadays, progressively, big innovative companies, with the technology industry as the pioneer, design and develop devices capable to connect to the internet and interact with their environment making up a new way to collaborate, innovate and socialize. Smart devices like smartphones, smartwatches, electric cars and home equipment are some of the leading actors driving the evolution of Internet of Things. A recent example concerning IoT is the smart city project, a very ambitious plan which has as main goal to manage a city’s assets through communication technology in order to improve quality of life.

Although IoT has become a crucial part of our everyday life, there is a major challenge web-connected product designers face and try to vanquish: how to make the devices self-powering. Some smart devices, particularly wearable ones, consume enough energy during the day driving users to devote attention for regular charging. It can become a really annoying brain teaser especially if you have five or ten smart devices. To tackle this, wearable devices exploit movement and flexion in order to draw off energy while other devices take advantage of their environment using photovoltaic cells to generate solar power or any other available infrastructure.

The Internet of Things poses some challenges, but also a world of opportunities, because it is applicable to a wide spectre of sectors and markets. From transportation industry to clothing and from agricultural industry to entertainment the take-off of IoT will shift the organizations and the businesses to innovate, increase efficiency and become more sustainable Also, predictions range from 20 to 50 billion products being connected to the Internet by the end of this decade and all of them will be designed to make life easier for us.

References:

https://digitalstrategy.rsm.nl//2016/10/02/smart-cities-how-will-they-change-our-lives/

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602114/the-internet-of-things-outlook-and-challenges/?utm_campaign=internal&utm_medium=homepage&utm_source=collection_3&set=535821

http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/gsi/iot/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.postscapes.com/internet-of-things-history/

https://www.ericsson.com/spotlight/services/internet-of-things/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Ashton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_city