Gust of the future brings us Smart Dust

2

October

2016

5/5 (5)

So we all know what the “next big thing” will be, right? The idea of Internet of Things (IoT) has gained a lot of tractions in the past 4 years. It definitely is an interesting concept to embed software and sensors in everyday stuff we use, physical devices, vehicles, buildings and so on (Linux, 2016).

But that’s not nearly as exciting as Smart Dust.

In the past, the term was mainly known from science-fiction authors like Stanislaw Lem or Neal Stephenson. Now it’s slowly becoming a reality. Smart Dust is defined as a system of many, tiny microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) such as sensors, robots, or other devices, that can detect, for example, temperature, light, magnetism or vibrations. The MEMS are usually operated on a computer network wirelessly and are distributed over some area to perform tasks, usually sensing through radio-frequency identification (Robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu, 2016). In simple terms just imagine a handful of sand from the beach you visited last summer. And now imagine that this sand can be controlled and gather various data points, while communicating forth and back with the server. That’s pretty much what Smart Dust in its current development phase is.
Smart Dust technology was first picked up in mass media in 2003, after being part of the Gartner Hype Cycle report, to come back this year in innovation trigger phase (Gartner, 2016).

 

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Perhaps you are thinking now – ok, sounds futuristic, innovative and so on, but how we can actually apply smart dust in everyday life?

As representative of nanotechnology, it could be used for various medical applications, just to mention handicapped and paralyzed people using brainwaves to control robotic limbs, in a similar manner as Cathy Hutchison’s experiment proved, replacing catheters or letting scientists to see what’s going on in a human brain in a non-invasive way (Forbes, 2016). Possibly smart dust can also help to grow mind-controlled computer games or brain training apps industry and many more.

Usually with new technologies there comes also the “darker” side. Due to the sheer size of the Smart Dust and the fact that it is barely visible for an eye, the US military and other army folks put a lot of money in further research. The questions regarding the human privacy, general use frameworks will arise, but it will be immensely hard to control the use of Smart Dust (E-education, 2016).

The technology will not be commonly available tomorrow. As shown in the Gartner Hype Cycle, predicted time to mainstream adoption is more than 10 years. The technical challenges involved with Smart Dust are to create a package that includes all the elements needed to perform sensory measurements, while also being able to communicate back to a base station to gather the data. Same thing goes for the operation system; it must be properly designed to run the Smart Dust motes. University of Stanford team proposes TinyOS as a solution – an open-source system designed for low-power wireless devices, it provides useful software abstractions of the underlying device hardware (Asay et al., 2013). Despite the obstacles, with the current technology adoption rate, I am confident that in the near future we will see first commercial applications of Smart Dust.

What do you think? In which industries could Smart Dust be most beneficial and which use should make us alert?

References

Asay, M., finley, k., Asay, M., 1, j., barden, b. and Power, D. (2013). Connected Air: Smart Dust Is The Future Of The Quantified World – ReadWrite. [online] ReadWrite. Available at: http://readwrite.com/2013/11/14/what-is-smartdust-what-is-smartdust-used-for/ [Accessed 2 Oct. 2016].

E-education.psu.edu. (2016). Technology Trends – Smart Dust and Sensor Networks | GEOG 583: Geospatial System Analysis and Design. [online] Available at: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog583/node/77 [Accessed 1 Oct. 2016].

Forbes.com. (2016). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseackerman/2013/07/19/how-smart-dust-could-be-used-to-monitor-human-thought/#46110e331499 [Accessed 1 Oct. 2016].

Gartner.com. (2016). Gartner’s 2016 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Identifies Three Key Trends That Organizations Must Track to Gain Competitive Advantage. [online] Available at: https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3412017 [Accessed 1 Oct. 2016].

Linux.com | The source for Linux information. (2016). 21 Open Source Projects for IoT. [online] Available at: https://www.linux.com/NEWS/21-OPEN-SOURCE-PROJECTS-IOT [Accessed 1 Oct. 2016].

 

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How to Dismantle a Bank?

29

September

2016

5/5 (5)

Today, we see disruption everywhere, just to mention Uber, AirBnb or Netflix. Banks however, for a long time, were considered as opaque, complicated and heavily regulated system, which could not be understood by normal mortals outside of the industry.

The things started slowly changing with an emergence of the new trend in finance, employing state-of-the-art technologies – in short FinTech (Financial Technology). The National Digital Research Centre defines it as “innovation in financial services”.
But what does that actually mean?

FinTech startup companies started to unbundle the traditional banks offering by taking one specific service at a time, be it wealth management, retail trading, P2P lending or international money transfers. The same goal is shared by the FinTech players – by employing cutting-edge technologies they want to make financial systems more efficient, while making profits (Medium, 2015).
Markets responded positively to the shift in financial industry, which is proven by the emergence of first “unicorns” (companies valued at more than $1 billion) in FinTech, like TransferWise, Square or P2P Chinese gigantic lender Lufax, who was valued in a January 2016 fundraising round at $18.5 billion (Business Insider, 2016). Having worked last year in the challenger bank, N26, I took part in the Series B funding when Hong Kong based Horizon Ventures VC backed the German Fintech with $40 million (N26, 2016). According to the KPMG analysis, just in the Q2 of 2016, investments in FinTech totaled $9.4 billion (KMPG, 2016).

How do the traditional players defend themselves against the entire FinTech craze?
According to the rule that says “if you’re specialized in everything, you’re specialized in nothing”, the old banks, dragged down by their IT legacy costs and heavy bureaucratic systems, have troubles to swiftly reorganize and respond to the threat. As McKinsey experts predict, banks could lose up to 60% of their retail profits to FinTech companies in the next 10 years (The Globe and Mail, 2015). Some banks decide to fight the trend, some try to merge with or acquire successful startups.

However, there are a couple of big unknowns facing FinTech phenomena – first of all, can it convince the critical mass that they’re better than traditional banks? The question of trust will be decisive.
Additionally, financial regulations are changing but in a much slower pace than expected (Finnovista, 2016). Startups disrupting financial industry can have great ideas, but are often hindered by heavily regulated, innovation unfriendly environment, even to the greater extent than in transportation or travelling industries.
Lastly, it is still uncertain whether FinTech companies can generate recurring profits in the long-run.

One thing is clear – the dismantling of the traditional banks started and is gathering momentum.
Who will win the battle for our money? What is your guess?

References

Finnovista. (2016). Regulation is the first obstacle for Fintech startups. Why not change it? | Finnovista. [online] Available at: http://www.finnovista.com/keynotejuanllanosfsbog/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2016].

Home.kpmg.com. (2016). The Pulse of Fintech – Q2 2016 | KPMG | GLOBAL. [online] Available at: https://home.kpmg.com/xx/en/home/insights/2016/03/the-pulse-of-fintech-q1-2016.html [Accessed 29 Sep. 2016].

Medium. (2015). What is FinTech? – Wharton FinTech. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech/what-is-fintech-77d3d5a3e677#.rv80vywxn [Accessed 29 Sep. 2016].

N26. (2016). N26 – Banking by Design. [online] Available at: https://n26.com/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2016].

The Globe and Mail. (2015). Banks could lose 60% of retail profit to tech startups: study. [online] Available at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/fintech-startups-pose-threat-to-traditional-banks-retail-profit/article26587892/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2016].

Williams-Grut, O. (2016). The 25 fintech ‘unicorns’ worth over $1 billion ranked by value. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-25-fintech-unicorns-ranked-by-value-2015-7 [Accessed 29 Sep. 2016].

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