Hacking a thermometer for world health

In a previous post I’ve been presented an idea for creating a kind of satellite solution for watching over pandemic progress over the world using low cost connected thermometers. You can get the details of this idea in my blog post “What IoT can propose against Pandemic“. Basically the proposal is to add an ultra low cost IoT communication feature into a thermometer and report the information when an over heat has been detected. That way we could be able to determine the level of pandemic and its geographical progression over time. So I won’t detail all the business model and financing proposal, you will find all of this in my previous post.

The second step is now to make a prototype of a such device to show how too make it possible. For making this I’ve selected the thermometer you see on the picture above and decided to hack it and connect it to Sigfox network. This thermometer comes from Amazon and cost 14€ but is really like all low cost thermometer we can find.

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What IoT can make against pandemics ?

Pandemic prevention and management is an interesting territory for IoT. I’ve seen different projects and solutions made in emergency to help during the Covid-19 crisis like some connected button distributed in hospitals to get assistance for going to toilets. That’s an interesting use case for IoT where you can deploy quickly a solution (20K have been produced in this example) and make it working in an existing environment (an hospital) with no integration complexity with network or other existing infrastructures.

My favorite example is the Us health Weather Map reporting the human temperature sensor information across the USA. I love this use-case because it works on prevention: detecting the rise of the pandemic, show its movement and scale. The current problem is that these data comes from high-end thermometers, using Bluetooth and the number of device is limited. The other problem are the personal information attached to these device.

This is where LPWAN and Sigfox in particular can be used to propose a innovative solution I’m going to detail a bit.

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How IoT Business Models maters ?

Business model is in my point of view a big blocker for IoT tsunami : when IoT is service and service is monthly fee, IoT is also objects and objects business model is based on push the box and get 30% standard business model.

These two approaches are really different and distribution must change its business model to correctly fit with IoT and extract the right level of value. Taking 30% one shot is quick & easy but getting a regular revenue based on service delivery is more profitable.

The blocking point seem to simply be process, people and software: actually distribution is not organized and equipped with the right IT for managing recurrent revenue, for this reason the distribution have no major interest is service oriented product and prefer all inclusive device where service is included in the initial price.

The problem of this model is that it is not profitable for IoT industry : IoT have a making cost to produce the object but year after year each object generate a service cost. In most of the existing business case, new object sell are funding the service for old objects. This can work when the company is growing and make scale effect reduction on service cost. The problem start as soon as the market is decreasing and the cost of running service is higher than the margin made on new object sell. This problem is a killer as soon as your service cost is high like when you have to support a recurrent communication fee (like for what I consider real connected object, I mean objects able to communicate with no local infrastructure dependencies). The only way is to make money on data collected from the object and be payed on client privacy. This equation is really dangerous for the client, even for the IoT industry as much as privacy regulation law are growing and data market not really predictable.

I’m quite sure that this situation will soon change as distribution can make much more money based on service than based on box pushing and as soon as they will be organized to manage it, as the business is better, they will make a lot of available space for service business model based object, enabling the IoT tsunami.

 

 

Myteepi kickoff on crowdsourcing

imagemtpSince this morning, myTeepi project has been launched on the Ulule crowdfounding platform. This solution is a smart way to care of your distant house, it works in a context with NO internet, NO phone … No power supply ! Yes it is !

Take a look here : http://fr.ulule.com/myteepi-connecte/

 

Idea of the day – Camera companion

After a long period without any idea commit, I propose to imagine a Digital Camera companion, compatible with the main reflex system canon and nikon. This system would be connected to the camera using the USB channel or eventually a dongle type on usb connector, or eventually a wifi memory card system. This is for the camera side. On a tablet side, all the taken photo would be received and transform. The idea is to add GPS location and easily apply filter like in instagram. This can also be use to make panorama automatically or create HDR.

The choice of an USB direct connection could help to automatically configure the camera like for HDR.

As all the idea in this category, feel free to comment, and develop, if you become rich with it … don’t forget to help me paying my house !

Idea of the day – automatic highway payment

The purpose to this idea is to save time at highway toll. Actually if you want to save time (at least in France) you need to have a specific and rented device detecting you and billing you. The current technology could allow the highway company to detect you car registration plate with a camera. This ID could be linked with a registration you have made online of different car you own and a credit card + a phone number.

Car would pass through the toll, be billed and this could be confirmed by an SMS sent to the user.

As a consequence, the system could be faster, not attached with a monthly payment and easier to manage (no hard device to move car to car, return, maintain …)

As all the idea in this category, feel free to comment, and develop, if you become rich with it … don’t forget to help me paying my house !

Idea of the day – virtual local shopping platform

The purpose of this idea is to make a middle step between local physical shopping and Internet shopping. The problem of local & physical shopping is that you have to go to multiple place with your car to get advice and product, when you go to the shop you never sure to find what you are looking for, but if you find it, you can immediately get it.

On Internet shopping, it’s hard to get advice, you have to deal with technical description by yourself and depend on the product category it is more or less easy. Once you finally find a product you want, you need to wait at least half a week to get it.

The idea is to have a new type of on line shopping where you can easily discuss (vocally) with someone to find the right references regarding the type of need you have and your budget. The distant person providing you the advice would be able to show you the product by doing a kind of web conference where he will navigate through the shop website to show you the products. Then you would be able to place an order and to take your car to take it directly like a driving classical shop.

As all the idea in this category, feel free to comment, and develop, if you become rich with it … don’t forget to help me paying my house !