A Smarter Planet

Why are today’s senior - and not so senior - decision takers, whether business leaders or politicians, so seemingly unaware of the fast approaching third revolution in Internet access - the Internet of Things?

It is probably because the Internet of Things is the culmination of countless mini-developments creeping up all around us. Among these are the ever smarter mobile phones and the amazing things they can do, the increasingly clever applications of RFID codes, QL codes, facial and gait recognition, tele-medicine, steps towards smart utility metering, Oyster card introduction, car number plate recognition - the list goes on and on.

Right now these are relative silos of activity making an impact by bringing new capabilities and efficiencies to daily life and business. With interoperable standards all these silos will be able to interconnect and intercommunicate. And that’s what the Internet of Things is about.

The Internet of Things goes beyond the millions and millions of machine to machine activity currently conducted via the Internet, with for example mobile phone apps. It is about the billions and billions of tiny chips that’ll flood the world over the next ten years. It’s about those tiny chips being programmable, trackable, findable, and uniquely identified, and with the sensing capabilities currently on mobile phones and more.

The Internet of Things is about the capability of every object - whether a toothbrush or a building - embedded with such chips to have a unique identifier, and, using its sensing, processing and communications capabilities to intercommunicate with its environment, other objects and living things - and, eventually ending up able to make autonomous decisions.

There’ll be major business and social ramifications, opportunities and threats as a result.

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Big data is getting personal. People around the globe are monitoring everything from their health, sleep patterns, sex and even toilet habits with articulate detail, aided by mobile technology. Whether users track behavior actively by entering data or passively via sensors and apps, the quantified self (QS) movement has grown to become a global phenomenon, where impassioned users seek context from their big data identities.

Moreover, with services like Saga and Open Sen.se, users can combine multiple streams of data to create insights that inspire broader behavior change than by analyzing a single trait. This reflects a mixed approach design (MAD) research methodology that purposely blends quantitative and qualitative factors in a framework where numbers are driven by nuance. The science of happiness, for example, is now a serious study for business, as organizations combine insights of the head and heart to create environments where workers feel their efforts foster meaningful change.

However it’s studied, the desire to understand monitored behavior has reached a fever pitch, and the QS movement is attempting to meaningfully interpret our daily data.

The Power of Passivity

“We’re moving towards a time when the ability to track and understand data is deeply woven into our daily lives,” says Ernesto Ramirez, community organizer for Quantified Self, the eponymous organization created byKevin Kelly of Wired and Gary Wolf. “Sensors are becoming cheaper and connectivity is more ubiquitous by the day.”

This ever-present nature of data availability will become even more powerful when the general public begins to use apps that require little ongoing attention or input. Passive data collection is especially relevant in the healthcare industry, for example.

“The data quantified self provides is not a replacement of any measurement to date — we haven’t had this type of measurement to date,” says Halle Tecco, co-founder and CEO of Rockhealth, the first seed accelerator for digital health startups. “Patients live very cautiously before trips to doctors, and this causes more trips to doctors. It’s better if physicians can get a more comprehensive view of people’s ongoing health.”

Tecco highlights the importance of passive monitoring. For instance, a mobile app can continuously measure glucose levels or other factors like heart rate over time. Spikes in those readings could immediately trigger a doctor, even remotely. “We can save money and improve outcomes by having data collection embedded in our everyday lives,” she adds.

[READ MORE] at Mashable

This is the fourth year Newsweek ranked the 500 largest companies on their environmental footprint (45% of score), corporate management (45%) and transparency (10%), using data from Trucost and Sustainalytics.

World’s Top Green Corporations

All the top companies got scores of 82 out of 100 or above - here are some very brief highlights on what makes them stand out.

IBM - which always tops these lists - is the only US company included in the world’s 20 top corporations.

It’s rated #4 in the world for its “Smarter Planet” service that helps clients measure and reduce their own footprint, while saving them money. At its Zurich lab, water that cools a supercomputer is used to warm nearby buildings. Read our profile on IBM.

IBM and Esri, the mapping company, are linking advanced analytics with geographic information by pulling information from previously siloed systems with big data tools.

KDDI, a mobile and fixed line communications company in Japan, has developed extensive information about its customers through the data it collects including URLs visited, type of mobile device, purchase history and buying habits, gender and age group.

Combining data and geo information from Esri, the company is providing the information to firms for marketing campaigns, said Matt Rollender, IBM’s big data technology alliances executive. Now a marketer could make an offer to a potential customer when they approach a company’s retail location.

In the past, Esri focused on mapping and visualization. Now in an alliance with IBM, it can provide advanced analytics on the data prior to visualization to provide greater insights.

Last October Esri acquired SpotOn, a geo-spatial business intelligence software developer which worked with IBM Cognos to provide customers with embedded maps in their reports.

Nanowire-double quantum dot (DQD) device stores spin qubits (credit: Petersson et. al.)

In a key step toward creating a working quantum computer, Princeton University researchers have developed a method that may allow for quick, reliable transfer of quantum information throughout a computing device.

The finding, by a team led by Princeton physicist Jason Petta, could eventually allow engineers to build quantum computers consisting of millions of quantum bits, or qubits. So far, quantum researchers have only been able to manipulate small numbers of qubits.

To make the transfer, Petta’s team used a stream of microwave photons to analyze a pair of electrons trapped in a tiny cage called a quantum dot. The “spin state” of the electrons — information about how they are spinning — serves as the qubit, a basic unit of information. The microwave stream allows the scientists to read that information.

“We create a cavity with mirrors on both ends … that reflect microwave radiation,” Petta said. “We send microwaves in one end, and we look at the microwaves as they come out the other end. The microwaves are affected by the spin states of the electrons in the cavity, and we can read that change.”

In an ordinary sense, the distances involved are very small; the entire apparatus operates over a little more than a centimeter. But on the subatomic scale, they are vast. It is like coordinating the motion of a top spinning on the moon with another on the surface of the earth.

“It’s the most amazing thing,” said Jake Taylor, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, who worked on the project with the Princeton team. “You have a single electron almost completely changing the properties of an inch-long electrical system.”

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