Reducing Entropy, Improving Efficiency, IoT and Getting Rid of Things for 2016

“The world is so full of a number of things, I ’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”  ― Robert Louis Stevenson

 “IoT … opens tremendous potential to expand the human possibilities of technology. Within the next ten years, we will see 50 billion things connected, enabling industries to become more efficient and helping people to improve their daily lives.”  Kathrin Buvac, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), Nokia

In 2015 according to Cisco, there are 1.6 Trillion objects in the world. 

https://newsroom.cisco.com/feature/1208342/Connections-Counter-The-Internet-of-Everything-in-Motio_2

Year       Total Objects     Connected Objects         % Connected

2012       1.5 Trillion            8.7 Billion                             .6%

2015       1.6 Trillion            18.2 Billion                           1.1%

2020       1.8 Trillion            50.1 Billion                           2.7%

This equates to 226 objects / person in 2015.  I think that Cisco’s “object” number is low given 5 to 10 trillion barcodes printed per year or items manufactured and based on the number of objects I have in my house - especially my basement and garage.

I attended and spoke at the Trillion Sensors Summit in Orlando Florida.

https://tsensorssummit.org/orlandosummithom.html

The theme of the conference:  "Galvanized by forecasts of up to 100 trillion sensors by 2030 enabling “Abundance” for all, TSensors Summit speakers will examine key enabling technologies such as new optical, gas and chemical sensors for food-agricultural, environmental and health monitoring, and flexible/printed sensing and electronics advances to drive ultra-high volume solutions."

The key note presentation was especially interesting and talked about 10s of trillions of things in the world.  In the next 20 years many of them may be connected.  It is an exciting time to work in telecommunications and with sensor technologies.

? Trillion sensors/year translates to about 130 sensors/person/year.

• We already are using up to about 200 sensors/car, 100 sensors/smart home, 15 sensors/cell phone, 10 sensors/wearables, etc.

? $1/networked sensor:

• Should enable IoT application fighting global hunger, pollution, healthcare and energy.

? $0.10/smart sensor (printed systems?)

• Should enable ultrahigh volume sensors applications for personal health, fitness and lifestyle.
• $0.01/smart sensor (printed systems?):
• Should enable monitoring trillion shipped packages (UPS alone ships about 160 million/year).

? $0.001/smart sensor (printed systems?):

• Should enable monitoring freshness and quantity of food in trillions of food packages and other disposables sold every year.

? $0.0001/smart sensor (printed systems?):

• Should enable planting sensor arrays with plant seeds to monitor health and nutrient needs of every plant to optimize the crop yield.

40% of food in the United States is wasted - and more goes to waist (and hips).

Side note: at the T Sensor summit, they had a demonstration of robotic surgery.  I even got to perform surgery with the $1.8M machine.  The surgery was successful.  I removed funny bone.  

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

IoT and Mission critical Low latency 5G could be important for e-health applications such as this.

The question I want to investigate is how many “things” / objects are in the world today and how many things are being added yearly.  Then, how many of these things are being used efficiently – either at a personal level or a business level.  A thing can become junk or stuff if not used.

 It would be interesting to track the number of “objects” or “things” (purchased items) per person in a given country and then how many of those things are ever used.  I have a friend who has a rule that if she has not used a thing for over 1 year, she gets rid of it.   I believe that the IoT can hold promise to track how many “things” a person or company owns and then how many of these things are actually used and has value.  Here are a few videos that highlights my thoughts on this subject.  My guess is that half the clothes in most people’s closet have not been worn in the last year.  In the future, IoT may help to track what is valuable and what is junk.

George Carlin Talks About "Stuff" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac

Diamond Rio – Stuff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyOs-RUVa1M

Whatever Happened to Tom's Hoodie?: Tom Scott at Thinking Digital 2013  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYd_8-Ps_kw

My goal by the end of the year is to get rid of at least 100 items in my house.  I am up to ~60 things so far.  I found cough medicine that expired before Y2K.  For things that have some value, I am giving them to friends or plan to donate to charity.  Getting rid of stuff is a little like taking a bath.  Takes effort but you feel so much better after you are clean.  Reducing Entropy is a good thing.  American waste so much.  In the future, before I buy something, I will try to consider not only the value of the object but the cost of keeping and maintaining the object and finally the cost of the disposing of the object.  I am going to try to live a simpler life in 2016.  It will be better for my physical and mental health and better for the world’s health. 

To paraphrase Robert Louis Stevenson: The world is so full of a number of things, if we can harness them efficiently, "we should all be as happy as kings.”

PS

There are 7.36B People; ~5 nonillion bacteria (10^30) on earth; 10^50 atoms in the earth ;  10^80 atoms in the observable Universe – Wikipedia; “10^89 Photons” – Dr. Chris Impey; “10^90 bits could be stored by the amount of matter in the universe” – Dr. Seth Lloyd MIT

Edwin Hubble  said "Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.“ Imagine What We Can Explore and Discover With Hundreds of Different Types of Sensors Connected to 100s of Billions of Things and Trillions of Sensors!