Cognitive Internet of Things is about enabling current IoT technologies with human-like intelligence.
Cognitive systems in the context of IoT would play a key role in future. Imagine ten years down the line where every piece of a system is connected to the internet and probably an integral part of everyday lives and information being shared continuously, how you would like to interact with these smart devices which surround you. It would be virtually talking to smart devices and devices responding to you based on your action and behavior.
Let’s take an example of a cognitive IoT application. I have taken a very simple example to get the technology and benefits across.
- I step out of my home, and the home electricity turns into a power saver mode.
- I step into the car, and the car recognizes me.
- My car seats are automatically adjusted.
- My favorite music station is set, and the playlist is started.
- Aggregated news for the day is available and tailored for me on my dashboard and read it out by the dashboard device. If I am traveling, weather forecast and news related to the place I am traveling is available as an add-on.
- As I pass by malls, my car reminds to purchase stuff.
- I sync my digital cart and get my purchases quickly. No need to move around, find things and put it on a physical cart.
- I come back to my car; I start interacting with the Car in Natural human language instead of typing in numbers and searching for things.
- I ask for good places for lunch, which I haven’t visited. Based on my past experiences and cuisine preference, ratings from third party sites, a set of recommendations are provided. I choose one of them.
- GPS devices are synced up based on my response and direction’s changed.
- An alternative route is automatically selected based on traffic sensors and weather condition that the GPS device is subscribed to.
- I have lunch, I don’t need to carry cards, I am being recognized. The best credit card (after checking available offers for that restaurant) from my digital wallet is automatically selected and used for the payment. Welcome to smart cashless transactions.
- I come back home; lights are back up again, all devices started
- I say “good night,” lights are dimmed and tell my clock to wake me up at 7:00 am after checking my flight status.
As you see in the above example, the real value is derived from how data from sensors are used as part of the broader ecosystem and how cognitive capabilities and learning are used to provide value added services. This is not programmed but learned over time. For instance, the connected car after some time should also provide recommendations on how to improve the mileage based on your driving patterns.
In future, you should be able to speak to devices through tweets, spoken words, gestures and devices would be able to understand the context and respond accordingly. For instance, a smart device as part of connected home would react differently as compared to devices in a connected car.
For a connected home, a cognitive IoT system can learn from you, set things up for you based on your patterns and movements, be it waking you up at the right time, start your coffee vending machines, sending you a WhatsApp message to start the washing machine if you missed to start it based on your routine or take care of the home lighting system based on your family preferences. Imagine putting a smart controller and set of devices around your home, which observes you over a period of time and start making intelligent decisions on Day 10 and continuously learn from you and your family interactions.
This is one of the areas where we would see a lot of innovation and investment happening in future and would be a key differentiator for connected products and extension to one’s digital lives.
Next, we will look at how to realize the Cognitive IoT architecture