TH!NXLetter #3: IoT & ESG Reporting, SENSE & TH!NX, Siemens & Sony Teaming for Industrial Metaverse, Dryad's Smart Wildfire Monitoring, Digital Twin?

Welcome to the first edition of our TH!NXLetter in 2024. We sincerely hope you've started the new year happy, healthy, and full of energy. We can’t wait to give you a quick glimpse into the latest trends, news, and developments in the realms of IIoT, technology, and risk management.

We are thrilled to kick off 2024 with your support, whether as a subscriber to our newsletter or as a follower on LinkedIn. Your engagement means the world to us, and we're excited to share another year of great content with you.

Your Team of the HDI TH!NX IIoT Campus

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How IoT Can Help Businesses with their ESG Reporting

ESG reporting for a company involves documenting its performance in environmental, social, and governance aspects. While ESG Reporting offers numerous benefits, it also presents challenges, especially for smaller businesses. The collection and analysis of data can be complex and time-consuming. Here, IoT emerges as a vital tool for simplifying and expediting these processes by:

Enabling precise monitoring of environmental parameters: IoT solutions are adept at gathering environmental data such as air, water, or soil quality. They use sensors to measure temperature, humidity, emissions, radioactivity, and other crucial parameters with increased accuracy and efficiency. Companies like Digi and InfiSIM specialize in providing these solutions.

Smart consumption monitoring: This approach involves the intelligent monitoring of energy consumption in households or corporate buildings. One notable example is Johnson Controls with its innovative solution the OpenBlue platform, which tracks a building's live activities, including energy usage and carbon emissions. Another example is Google's Environmental Insights Explorer, which leverages data from Google Maps to estimate energy use and emissions related to the heating, cooling, and power consumption in cities.

Enhancing smart waste management: IoT sensors and devices can greatly improve the efficiency and speed of waste management systems. Unitron Connect, for instance, outfits various types of waste containers with IoT devices to optimize storage and collection. Another provider, Evreka, adopts a 'Sustainability as a Service' model, aiding various industries in achieving centralized waste management, measurable and reportable processes, and improved sustainability scores.

We are going to dive deeper into the benefits of IoT in ESG reporting on LinkedIn. Follow us for more.

2

TH!NX Campus and SENSE Consortium Public Event: “Risk Management Technologies Interactive Showcase, Featuring IoT”

We are thrilled to invite you to our event scheduled for Wednesday, April 17th, at the HDI TH!NX IIoT Campus. This event, hosted in partnership with the SENSE Consortium , will feature a showcase of leading IoT vendors during the morning, followed by a networking lunch. SENSE seeks to collaborate and help drive and scale loss prevention through the adoption of IoT in commercial property.

The focus will be on risk management and how IoT solutions are offering new perspectives for early risk mitigation and claims prevention. The morning session is designed for anyone globally interested in exploring risk management solutions for commercial property.

You can look forward to an engaging lineup of risk management solutions. Stay tuned for more details on these demonstrations!

Are you interested? Join us on Wednesday, April 17th, at the HDI TH!NX IIoT Campus in Berlin for this exciting event.

Click here for more information.

3

Siemens and Sony Introduce a Mixed-Reality Headset to Empower Industrial Engineers and What Does the Industrial Metaverse Mean for Insurers?

Siemens and Sony have partnered to enable the industrial metaverse through the use of AI and immersive engineering. They unveiled their plans at CES 2024, the world’s leading technology gathering.

Their solution, named the NX Immersive Designer, is an immersive spatial content creation system that enables engineers to create, design, and collaborate in mixed-reality environments. Siemens describes this tool as designed to 'seamlessly connect the real and digital worlds.'

The headset allows engineers to create digital twins, aiding in simulating performance testing and predicting potential failure points.

Immersive engineering will impact not only the engineering field but also the realm of industrial insurance. Digital twins offer insurers valuable insights into their customers, risks, and claims. Here are some ways digital twins can benefit insurers:

• Accurate pricing decisions: Immersive models of physical assets provide insurers with a deeper understanding of the risks involved in insuring them, leading to more accurate pricing decisions.
• Predicting and preventing losses: By analyzing extensive data to identify weaknesses, trends, and patterns, losses can be predicted and prevented.
• Real-time notification: Integrated with IoT devices such as sensors and cameras, digital twins enable real-time asset monitoring. Insurers can be immediately notified of losses, allowing for fast and effective response.
• Identifying high-risk policyholders: Insurers can proactively offer risk mitigation strategies to high-risk policyholders, like installing safety equipment or enhancing security measures.

Read the press release here for more information.

4

Dryad’s Sensor System Monitors Wildfire with the Help of AI

Another highlight of this year's CES was the showcase of Dryad's smart sensors for wildfire detection. Named Silvanet, this solar-powered sensor features a built-in gas detector that identifies gases like hydrogen and carbon monoxide. These gases are indicative of a fire in its smoldering phase, which occurs 1 to 60 minutes post-ignition. Contrasting with existing devices that typically rely on satellites or camera imaging for visual smoke detection, Silvanet offers a more proactive approach. Standard methods detect smoke when the fire has already entered the open fire phase or is spreading, potentially leading to delayed responses.

With climate change leading to rising temperatures, wildfires are increasingly common worldwide, resulting in significant financial losses. According to Munich Re NatCatSERVICE, global wildfires caused damages amounting to $69 billion between 2018 and 2022, with insurers paying out $39 billion.

Insurers rely on models to estimate potential losses from wildfires, particularly in high-risk areas like California. However, the complexity of modeling wildfire risks is amplified by various factors, both human-made and natural. This complexity underscores the growing importance of investing in technology-based solutions for preventing and predicting natural catastrophes.

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TH!NXPEDIA: What is a Digital Twin?

Digital twins are virtual models designed to accurately reflect a physical object, system, or process. They are used to understand, analyze, and predict the characteristics and performance of their physical counterparts. A digital twin is always linked to a real data source. This data is normally provided by sensors which the physical object of study is outfitted.

Digital Twins or Simulation, What is the Difference?

The first and most important difference is that a twin is provided with real-time data, enabling the replica to update itself regularly. Another important difference is the limitations of a simulation compared to a digital twin. While simulations normally study one particular dimension of an object, a digital twin can study multiple processes at the same time and therefore generate more data. ?

The market estimations for digital twins vary depending on the industry. The demand is especially high in the healthcare industry and for predictive maintenance. MarketsandMarkets forecasts the digital twin market to reach USD 110.1 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 61.3% from 2023 to 2028.

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TH!NXShorts: Recommendations for Reading, Watching or Listening

Insurance insights: 2024 predictions and 2023 reflections by Hélène Stanway , President of SENSE Consortium

To read the article, click here.

Bosch Connected World 2024, February 28-29, on-site in Berlin or online and for free

To get tickets, click here.