Let IoT be the guardian angel

14

September

2018

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Living away from your family feels nice and free, but let’s be honest, as we grow up, we start to think, or worry about the elderly in the family. “How are they doing today?”,” Have they took the pills today?”, “Grandpa has been living alone for 5 years…”. “Did my grandma turnoff the gas?…” You can’t sleep.

From a macro view, the whole world is getting old: The UK will see a massive 23% increase in those aged 65+ between 2010 and 2018. By 2035, numbers of people aged 65+ will rise by just under 7 million – from 11 to 16.9 million. By 2050 the number of senior citizens in China will reach the peak at 400 million, which is 34.9% of total population, whereas Japan has already reached 32% in 2013.

The aging of population comes with large population base, rapid growth, high average age, disability and empty nest effect, while the demand for life, rehabilitation, medical care and spiritual service of the elderly has become increasingly prominent. The Internet of Things (IoT) is helping society facilitate the challenge.

IoT smart home devices/systems are taking care of elderly from 3 different aspects: precaution/reminding, rescue and comfort.

IBM has introduced cognitive and IoT technology to home field, through the deployment of a variety of sensors to the elderly home environment, the system can track user daily activities and body performance data and therefore build the “scene”. With the enrichment of personal data, the system will be able to build customized modes and timetables. The function of reminding or precaution can be reflected in very detailed aspects, for example, the self-learning stove alarm learns an individual’s cooking habits within a specific house by picking up data. Falling asleep when – or simply forgetting that – the stove is left on is incredibly dangerous, and this small device aims to send alerts before toxic gases are released/before a fire starts without being a hindrance. Also, Philips HUE motion sensor can detect footsteps in the dark and light up the smart lights in the hallway, therefore making the journey to the toilet easier.

sensors-17-01182-g001 (1)

 

Even if misfortunes happen, the smart devices(motion sensor) and warble devices, such as the latest Apple Watch,will sense and report the incident, whether it is because of fall down or drop of stroke, the initial symptom will be reported to both guardians and emergency center at the first place.

The IoT caring system will bring people multiple surprises, in addition to real-time health care, it can take care of the spiritual needs of the elderly. When the elderly have communication needs, the smart device will list the background information of the elderly in the corresponding database, including interests, hobbies, habits, personality or recommend interesting places, nice TV programs or rich community activities. Most importantly, your video/voice memo will be delivered.

In the future, development of both digital technology and health care will tip the scale toward precaution/reminding, as we will do our best to prevent any incident. And, most importantly, we make money and take care of our family.

 

 

 

Related articles:

https://www.ibm.com/blogs/internet-of-things/elderly-independent-smart-home/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/reenitadas/2017/05/22/10-ways-internet-of-medical-things-is-revolutionizing-senior-care/#3fd704fb5c8f

https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/the-internet-of-things-iot-intends-to-transform-senior-care/

https://www.qorvo.com/design-hub/blog/smart-homes-for-seniors-how-iot-helps-aging-parents/

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Cognitive computing: The solution for big data information overload

2

October

2016

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Big data, it is a term that people in general vaguely know but are contributing to on a daily basis. Every day we create around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. Of this data, 90% has been created in the last two years alone. The data is collected in a lot of different ways: sensors, shared digital pictures and videos, posts on social media sites, purchase transaction records, GPS signals and so on. The growth of data is exponential, becoming more and more rapid every year. A big part of this information remains private and of no real value. Still there is a lot of data left to analyse and as more and more objects are becoming smart and connected this amount of data will grow even faster.

This collected data can be of great value in a lot of areas like research, business or public services. The problem however is that there is so much data available that we aren’t able to cope with it. It is estimated that around 33% of all the data in the ‘digital universe’ contains information that could be valuable if it is analysed. However only 0.5% of this data is looked at. The main reason is that almost all the big data available (97%) is not structured. It is just raw data which the computer systems are not able to label and structure and make it useable.

IBM is aware of this growing problem and thinks it has the answer. It is developing and building ‘cognitive computers’. These computers will are able to understand natural language, learn about context, structure and meaning and even analyse images and video. This makes them ideal for analysing huge volumes of data. It already has a cognitive computing system called Watson, that is already very impressive and doing research in different areas. IBM’s Dr John E. Kelly III says that the cognitive computing system is able to make sense of 80% of the data that is labelled ‘unstructured’ by computer scientists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrwFSbVj3GI

While we as human beings not have the processing power to handle constant huge amounts of data, cognitive computing does. It is therefore able to help us move forward in a lot of different ways using big data. From developing better healthcare settings to combining sales data and social media for marketing purposes to even helping local authorities combat crime. The system is effectively giving us the information we need to make the right choice and to use the right information for the best.

References

Andrews, S. (2015, December 22). Information Overload: The Big Data Problem and How to Fix It. Retrieved from http://mentalfloss.com/uk/technology/36957/information-overload-the-big-data-problem-and-how-to-fix-it

IBM. (n.d.). What is big data? Retrieved from https://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/what-is-big-data.html

Marr, B. (2016, March 23). What Everyone Should Know About Cognitive Computing. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/03/23/what-everyone-should-know-about-cognitive-computing/#42a9194e5d6e

 

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The Best Doctor in the World 3.67/5 (3)

24

September

2016

Featured image retrieved from developer.ibm.com

You might know IBM’s supercomputer Watson for being the world Jeopardy! champion. Still dubbed a “question answering machine” in 2011, nowadays the computer went to medical school to become the world’s best diagnostician: Just a few years ago Watson was already about 42% better at diagnosing illnesses and prescribing effective treatments than its human counterparts. And with the Watson only costing $189 versus $497 for a human doctor for the same result, is it time to replace your physician now?

Before answering that question, let us first take a look at what makes Watson so suitable to replace a human doctor. Andrew McAfee, a research scientist at MIT, wrote about the following aspects on his blog:

  • It is based on all available knowledge: theoretically Watson could have access to all medical literature and databases with medical imagery such as X-ray images and the like, plus all other information sources that could be of use in diagnosing. Additionally, the best thing is that Watson can access these sources at any time while never forgetting or overlooking anything.
  • It is consistent: Watson always reports the same diagnosis with the same inputs. Besides, Watson is never sick, upset, or sleep deprived. What is more is that this computer also knows what it does not know : in case of a low confidence in its own diagnosis Watson will report and call in a human to take over.
  • It is accessible: Watson has low marginal costs. The initial investment to build and train Watson is still high, yet once functioning each diagnosis is less expensive than when performed by a medical professional. Besides, Watson can be accessed from anywhere in the world by using a computer or mobile phone.

Now that we have seen the benefits of Watson, it is probably a good idea to increase the computer’s involvement in diagnosing. However, according to Gerard Smit, chief intelligence officer at IBM, Watson will never replace a human doctor: it has merely been designed to enhance the interaction between man and machine (KIJK, April 2016, p. 20). That is probably the right answer to the question whether to fully replace your doctor (already) as Watson is (still) lacking certain features such as the social aspects of consulting a physician.

 

What are your thoughts about being diagnosed by a computer?

 

References
Bennett, C. C., & Hauser, K. (2013). Artificial intelligence framework for simulating clinical decision-making: A Markov decision process approach. Artificial intelligence in medicine, 57(1), 9-19.
Dvorksy, G. (2013). Computers are better at diagnosing and treating patients than doctors. Gizmodo. Retrieved 24 September 2016, from http://io9.gizmodo.com/5983991/computers-are-better-at-diagnosing-and-treating-patients-than-doctors
Markoff, J. (2011). Computer Wins on ‘Jeopardy!’: Trivial, It’s Not. The New York Times. Retrieved 24 September 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/science/17jeopardy-watson.html
McAfee, A. (2011). Dr. Watson, Please Report to the Health Care System. Andrew McAfee. Retrieved from http://andrewmcafee.org/2011/03/mcafee-watson-ibm-healthcare-verghese/
Tangerman, H. (2016, April). De computer leert denken [The computer learns to think]. KIJK, 4, 14-23.

Interesting reads
https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/07/ibms-watson-ai-saved-a-woman-from-leukemia/
https://www.inverse.com/article/13630-what-has-ibm-watson-been-up-to-since-winning-jeopardy-5-years-ago
http://www.ibm.com/watson/what-is-watson.html

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Future of Medicine: Will robots replace doctors?

21

September

2016

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In 2011, IBM computer Watson won first prize in the American TV quiz show “Jeopardy.” Watson spent three seconds finding the right answer to every single question he was asked, and in those three seconds the computer went through hundreds of processes all at once. Watson can not only understand the questions, he can also quickly find the correct answers and then proceed to communicate these. When winning “Jeopardy”, Watson had to understand and analyze references and metaphors, such as “feeling blue.” His victory in “Jeopardy” has great entertainment value and of course it became a hit on YouTube (link to video). But behind the “brains” lies three years of intense efforts by 20 researchers, who developed a technology called DeepQA. The aim was to create a new generation of technology that could find answers in unstructured data, and in a much more efficient way than previous technology has managed. The revolutionary aspect of Watson is that it can understand the world much the same way that humans do, through senses, learning and experience.

How can we take advantage of this in the health care industry?

Health is the most exciting area that Watson is able to revolutionize and earlier this year he helped solving a medical mystery.  Doctors at a hospital in Tokyo had tried for a really long time to find the right treatment for a woman with leukemia, but every effort to combat the disease failed. When IBM’s genius computer Watson took over, he only used ten minutes to study the patients’ medical records and cross checked this information with over 20 million oncological reports. Watson concluded that the woman did not have the type of leukemia that doctors initially thought, but rather a very rare variant which required a different type of treatment than the one she had been receiving, according to Siliconangle.

Understands “common” language

Computers have long been of assistance in the health sector, but one of the biggest challenges until now has been that the machines do not understand natural language. Due to the fact that Watson understands this and can respond to it, it is no longer necessary to translate research articles, treatment guidelines, patient records and hospital records, textbooks, notes and emails to structured computer language. A doctor can ask Watson a question and describe the patient’s symptoms and other relevant factors. Watson will then analyze the information from the doctor and combine it with the latest research results and examine all available sources. When Watson is done with the analysis, a list will come up with potential diagnoses, together with an estimate that shows the validity of each diagnosis.

This new technology may revolutionize the health care industry as we know it today. However, will it ever become so good that it can replace the human medical professions?

 

Sources:

http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view_group.php?id=2099

http://siliconangle.com/blog/2016/08/05/watson-correctly-diagnoses-woman-after-doctors-were-stumped/

http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/health/

 

 

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