When Food and Tech collide – vi

In my previous posts, I have touched upon the developments in the online world and their powerful impact on the Food & Beverage industry. These technological advances seem to be creating ripples every day in the otherwise staid pool that this industry has been for so long. In this post, I will be sharing some of the other interesting developments that I see happening wherever technology touches the entire value chain from the farm to the fork, and pretty much everything in between. 

• Invasion of the connected devices

Internet of Things (IoT) is the term frequently used nowadays to describe internet-connected devices that exchange data and interact with each other with the aim of improvising processes and making them more efficient. Machine to Machine (M2M) is probably the way to describe the early days of IoT and it seems to have come a long way since then.

According to an ABI Research report, revenues from IoT data will reach US$5.7 Bn. in 2015. In the next 5 years, the market will expand dramatically, to an extent that in 2020 it is estimated to account for nearly one-third of all big data and analytics revenues.

India’s M2M market is estimated to generate revenue of US$7.10 Bn. in 2015, as per the “India Machine to Machine (2015 – 2021)” report by 6Wresearch. Recent TechSci Research released report titled “India Internet of Things (IoT) Market Opportunities & Forecast, 2020” expects this market in India to grow at a CAGR of more than 28% between 2015 and 2020.

The recent policy drafted by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology aims to create an IoT industry worth US$15 Bn. by 2020. According to the department Secretary JS Deepak, India is eyeing a share of 5% to 6% in the US$300 Bn. global IoT industry over the next five years. Increased focus of telecom companies on M2M, reduced module prices and new government initiatives like the “Digital India” programme will contribute to this explosion.

• Say Cheers

Foxtender, a professional cocktail dispenser that supplies cold and perfectly measured drinks in 16 seconds flat, claims to be the world’s first all-in-one automatic bar station. With a dispensing capacity of about 400 drinks without human assistance, it needs no water pipes, just a source of electricity. It works on a prepaid model, either through an app or through wristbands. Customer’s credit card details can be linked to the app and the drink is just a tap away. By tapping his wristband, the business owner can completely manage the machine, including customizing drinks and setting prices. What’s more, the machine can also read IDs to check minors or limit the number of drinks for each user.

Two other US-based start-ups in the same space are Somabar and Bartesian, which make use of cocktail pods to dispense the drinks. Other options include bartendro and inebriator.

One look at Barsys, the smart cocktail dispenser that’s “Made in India”, and you know for sure that it is bound to give the companies above a stiff competition. Born in a basement in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar, the parent company Vulcantronics has created a machine that works quite well with drinks available in a regular liquor cabinet or a regular bar, thus doing away with expensive refills. The machine uses sensors to keep owners upto date on what ingredients are being consumed, how much quantity is being dispensed and what’s more popular with the consumers.

For people who love cocktails but find it difficult to mix up the perfect ones, there is help at hand. MixStik, is an affordable connected device that helps customers do just that. Users can connect it to a phone via Bluetooth, choose a recipe on the app and then put the stick into the glass or the cocktail shaker. The LED lights on the stick go up indicating the exact quantity of each ingredient for that cocktail that needs to be poured and Voila! The professional barman has arrived.

With so much action happening around, it was only a matter of time before the same concept was applied to the mundane beer mug. All hail the ePint, an internet connected smart beer mug by the Xtreme Tech LLC. ePint packs a power punch of electronics, carefully embedded out of sight, until it’s show-time. Multiple independently controlled RGB LEDs can throw up a whole range of colours. An in-built three-axis accelerometer keeps a tab on ePint’s movements and flashes colours based on events. Fluid detection sensor tracks whether it is empty or full. The ePint gets connected to the customer’s social world outside as well as to other ePints through Bluetooth. Built from high quality polished polycarbonate material, it also sports a bottle opener on the bottom. It connects to the internet through the customer’s phone via the ePint app. A whole bunch of ePints can also be managed from a single phone.

Collaboration between Google and a Canadian beer company, Molson, has resulted in the birth of “the Global Beer Fridge”. The fridge dispenses a cold beverage when a prospective customer says “I am Canadian” in any six of the 40 languages the machine understands. While this is a prototype created for a specific purpose, this development is have far-reaching implications and will probably end up revolutionizing the way snacks and beverages will be dispensed in the future.

• Breaking bread

Ever wondered why the omnipresent ATM machine shouldn’t be a source of inspiration for the food retailing industry. It seems that Satish Chamy Velumani and his team based out of Chennai have been working real hard on the same concept. India-born Atchayam Food Box has taken automated food retailing to a completely different level. Customers place orders on the screens and in just 90 seconds, piping-hot and hygienically-packed food arrives on conveyor belts. No more waiting for tables, waiters or your food to arrive. With options of 25 food items from seven different restaurants, the Food Box serves about 40,000 food packets to its customers every month. Discussions with partner restaurants on what food items are to be offered are done well in advance. These partner restaurants are notified on the orders to be packed and sent before each meal time. Once received, the orders sit in cooling banks of the dispensing machine. Once the customer orders, the box is picked, heated and dished out.

Cut to commercial kitchens and you see the owners and chefs already experimenting with sensors to track lights, ovens, cooking ranges and refrigerators to monitor power consumption and temperature. Chennai-based Zoho Corp’s division WebNMS is today helping a Turkish restaurant chain do all this and more by providing real-time alerts and periodic reports.

• The homes get smarter

Apply the same development in the context of a home and it’s not too far-fetched to imagine your favourite connected refrigerator ordering groceries and other essentials on your behalf simply on a voice command. In fact, starting this May, Samsung Family Hub smart refrigerator will let users order groceries directly from an app on the refrigerator’s screen. The app, built in partnership with MasterCard, will initially work with Fresh Direct and ShopRite stores in New York. Three cameras inside the refrigerator will also allow the users to check what’s inside via an app on their smartphones. LG had earlier announced a similar look-inside features in its fridges. Last year, Amazon had announced its Dash Button which let users order products from its site with the push of a button. Recently, Amazon announced the activation of its first Amazon Dash Replenishment Service devices which will restock goods without the push of a button now. The service will automatically order replenishments from Amazon when the supplies hit a certain reorder level. While the first batch of devices include those from Brother, GE and Gmate, tie-ups have also been done with Samsung, Whirlpool, Purell, Brita, August, Oster and Petnet. Not too long ago, this may have actually sounded like a scene out of an Isaac Asimov story.

 InnerChef, an online platform that offers ready-to-cook recipe boxes and ready-to-eat meals, has launched HungerTap, a Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled device for its customers. The device can be attached to a workstation or refrigerator. When the customer uses the phone’s QR code scanner or NFC reader to scan the device, it automatically takes him to the website or the app and makes recommendations based on the past order history. Yumist, another food-tech start-up, is also planning to offer a similar device for top customers for enabling tapless ordering. 

• Farm to Fork – What’s happening near the point of origin

Not all technology embracement is happening towards the end of the chain. There are some interesting developments taking place close to the farm as well. The unique ways in which technology is being deployed here really makes one feel that the farms are also getting “connected”.

Government of India is using drones to bring the benefits of technology right to the doorstep of the Indian farmer. The drones are being used to scan crops in two select districts in four states of Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Using a homegrown satellite, the images will be transmitted back to Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre in Delhi to analyze the impact of a host of factors, including climate, on the crops. Two other critical projects include Coordinated Horticulture Assessment and Management (CHAMAN) for the health of seven widely-grown horticulture crops and National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System (NADAMS) for providing real-time information on droughts.

Farmers in India may soon have support from unexpected quarters as well. Indian Postal Department is initiating trials for helping them sell their produce online to traders without spending a single additional rupee. The department will rely on the postmasters for collection and uploading of data relating to produce through smartphones. Buyers will pay a nominal fee to India Post for delivering the products to the required destination.

Five youngsters have dared to dream of developing farms within the cities. Collectively known as Urban Farmers, they are experimenting with a new method called biodynamic farming which uses only natural compost and results in completely organic produce. Though they haven’t ventured into retailing yet, they have been taking part in exhibitions and farmers’ markets. They also offer customizable kits complete with soil, manure, seeds and resources for crop irrigation and protection, for people wanting to set up their own farms on rooftops or land.

AgroStar is a mCommerce company that help farmers order the entire range of agricultural goods simply by giving a missed call on the company’s number and getting the delivery at their doorstep. It has tied up with all the leading national and multi-national players across categories such as seeds, nutrients, protection and hardware.

According to IDG Ventures India, agricultural mCommerce is a US$200 Bn. opportunity today.

Vinfinet Technologies Ltd. is providing automated irrigation solutions to the Indian farmers. Their product, Kisanraja, is installed next to the irrigation motor and it informs the farmer when the power comes back on. Not just that, it also allows the farmer to start the motor through an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) in the local language. This is godsend for farmers in India who grapple with unscheduled power cuts and live far away from their fields.

Chandigarh-based KS Bhatia is a famous man today, thanks to the mention he got in Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s speech before Indian PM Narendra Modi at the “Digital India” dinner at San Jose, California recently. His made a modest beginning by selling water pumps offline 17 years ago. The turning point in the business came when he launched Pumpkart.com, an online marketplace for water pumps that sells to domestic and agricultural customers. Today, the marketplace boasts of 200 brands that sell on the platform and has harnessed the power of the internet to make these products available to the masses in far-flung areas in rural India. The water pump market in India is estimated to be worth Rs. 2600 crores today and almost 60% of it is unorganized.

Sohan Lal Commodity Management is engaged in the business of providing agri-commodity warehouse management and procurement solutions to farmers, processors, traders, agri exchanges, and government institutes in India. It offers storage, collateral management, logistics, assaying, preservation, funding, and quality testing services. It manages a technology-enabled network of more than 760 warehouses and 17 cold storages across the country. The company’s software automatically checks the stored crops for temperature, humidity control and pest prevention. The company provides technology for converting a barren piece of land or an empty building into a food storage facility in 24 hours.

Venture Capital funding in the agri-startup companies seems to be on an upswing in India and the momentum is expected to pick up further. Companies like Omnivore Partners, Rabo Ventures and SAIF Partners are quite active in this space.

Cropnext is a revolutionary new device that provides the growers with real-time updates on a host of issues. All happenings on the farm, including soil conditions, air composition, diseases, pests, etc., are updated to the farmers.

CoolFarm is a SaaS-based Greenhouse Artificial Intelligence control system. CoolFarm Box is a hardware that connects all existing and new sensor technologies, so that it can take decisions based on what is going on at the greenhouse. The software introduces a layer of artificial intelligence which connects to the CoolFarm Cloud, a repository of plant-related knowledge. The system works both online and offline.

The SourceTrace ESE? Agri Business Solution from SourceTrace Systems allows companies to completely track the flow of agricultural commodities right from the source to the central processing facilities. Using data collected on mobile devices, even in the most remote regions, customized analytics across segments like farmer enrollment, distribution of inputs, procurement, payment, inventory tracking, crop monitoring and certification enable companies to respond to the market in real-time.

Spread, Japan's largest vertical farm company, is all set to open the world’s first fully-automated farm where robots will handle almost the entire process from watering lettuce to harvesting them. Only the planting of the seeds will be done by humans.

Companies like Hahn Estate Winery in California’s Santa Lucia Highlands seem to be doing pioneering work in deploying cutting-edge technology for producing a great bottle of wine. The company is using drones equipped with sensors for monitoring the health of its vineyards. Data relayed from drones made by PrecisionHawk is combined with the agricultural technology platform of Verizon for determining the quality as well as the quantity of grapes produced.

In China, farming has been on a roll for the last three decades. What is fuelling this momentum is the fact that a lot of Chinese farmers have started using technology to bring about progressive change. A whole lot of them have started using sensors and other means of automation to eliminate efficiency in crop irrigation, soil nutrition and forecasting disasters.

Taking a cue from these developments, China’s cabinet recently launched an “Internet Plus” plan that aims to integrate traditional sectors with technology to create efficiencies. Agriculture topped this list along with manufacturing. Not to be left behind, Taobao, China’s largest online shopping platform, has recently launched an agricultural channel and Alibaba, its parent company, plans to invest about US$1 Bn. for opening 100,000 service centres to train farmers on internet usage. 

• The new “Last Mile”

Walmart is the latest to join the bandwagon of companies that are testing the feasibility of using drones for delivering online orders. It begins at a time when the likes of Amazon (Prime Air) and Google (Project Wing) already have a head-start in this field. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the national aviation authority of the United States, is expected to frame rules for the use of commercial drones shortly. Currently, the limitation imposed by FAA is that the operator maintains line-of-sight on the drone at all times.

On the other side of the globe, the Chinese online retailing giant JD.com has also started testing deliveries using drones in rural areas where the challenges of complex terrain and underdeveloped infrastructure abound. These drones will not deliver the packages to customers but will instead be used in making deliveries form the distribution stations to the company’s 1,50,000 representatives across the rural landscape who in turn will take them to the customers.

Talking of last mile, Google has recently been awarded the patent for a self-driving truck concept that can potentially be used to deliver parcels to customers. Using the same basic concepts as that of the self-driving cars, the truck will deliver the right package to the right customer by putting packages in lockers that can be accessed through a PIN, NFC or credit card. This development comes soon after the US government announcing driver-less cars to be considered as their own drivers.

Logistics companies are experimenting with products like Google Glass to help workers pick and pack products faster. The eye-wearable device, fitted with a warehouse management software, will tell workers the fastest way to find products and will also be able to read bar codes. Using the drones for checking inventory in the warehouses is also being explored.

Thinfilm, the global leader in the development and commercialization of printed electronics and smart systems, and Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS), the Indian multinational providing IT services, consulting and business solutions, have announced a global partnership to create “the next experience in retail”. The solution will combine NFC OpenSense and NFC Barcode technologies with TCS OmniStore PoS platform and TCS Optumera suite of products. The offering, delivered through interactive NFC shelf labels at the point-of-sale, will allow shoppers to tap with their smartphones and get information on products, promotions, usage tips and other contextual messaging. Retailers and brands will benefit through availability of accurate data on buying behaviours captured through the TCS platform and analyzed on the cloud. 

According to a forecast by the tech analyst firm, Linley Group, the number of IoT devices globally will cross 1.9 Bn. by 2020. The market is expected to surpass the number of smartphones by 2023 and will also witness a strong growth in consumer devices as opposed to industrial devices leading the way today. However, one of the key areas of concern that needs to be addressed on topmost priority is that of data security. With hacking becoming more and more sophisticated by the day, the consumer uptake of such devices will be directly proportionate to the advancements in encryption and security.

The Internet of Everything (IoE) looks like the next evolutionary stage of the IoT. It is a concept that visualizes previously unconnected objects and processes converging with the ones that are digital-first by nature.

This comprehensive coming together of physical and digital domains looks all set to disrupt individual organizations and entire industries like never before.