How Internet of Things is augmenting our lives in both work and play while Artificial Intelligence our minds..

This week in Redmond in a search for the Smart Building of the future, with the KordaMentha team, we were privileged to meet Bert Van Hoof. Surrounded by a box of sensors he tells us that IoT is exploding and it is driven by a new market - a market of Makers. He shares his passion for documenting IoT start-ups and discussing intensely about the original 250 IoT Start-up that colleagues predicting would be gone in 2 years. Latter finding this vastly incorrect and that 98% are still going! IOT Start-ups like Moodbox can sense your mood on any day, at any time Sensoria Smart Sock, with sensors woven into the fabric that can sense and even predict your fall and Evadrop to give you the perfect temperature in your shower.

This explosion in IoT and augmented with AI is driving new scenario's like Connected Car, Connected Factory, and Connected Spaces, where it quickly becomes about humans in these spaces. Cortana can log into your Office 365 accounts and provide details about your next meeting and people around you. Steelcase are taking this to the next step with Microsoft Azure IoT technology and sensors in chairs for workplace analytics to create spaces that are augmented by things.

My favourite is Mile IQ which provides automatic detection of mileage without a log book. Can't wait to see it in Kilometers.

This perfect storm of things being every where on the edge, low powered, ambient interfaces with agents, Mixed Reality, Cognitive with knowledge and understanding, a democratised AI is driving the next wave, beyond the smartphone.

Taking data from the edge creating an Intelligent Edge is creating Predictive Maintenance and more, where we no longer have to deal with unexpected rather predict traffic, home energy is managed, hospitals are optimised, ambulances are connected, and better yields from our farms, etc..

A trip to Microsoft Corp in Redmond is not complete with out a visit to the HoloLens Demo Experience - here we went to Destination Mars, Trained to understand a Jet Airplane and measure up for a custom-built home lift. It was amazing to see so many industrial stories that show how useful the HoloLens can be. At the same time, it was so exciting to share RMIT's story of success with their Mixed Reality solution that enables the construction of complex structures with HoloLens.

Thanks to Bert Van Hoof, Chris Segura, Christophe Fiessinger, Marty Ramos, Christian Canton, Principle Designer for Excel, Greg Jones, Craig Rode, Brandon Bray, Bradley Tipp and Sara Nagy for meeting us and sharing so generously.

More updates to come especially the Connected Factory and the Digital Twin.