HP Innovation Journal Issue 02: Spring 2016 | Page 9

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What do you think of when you hear the
phrase, “ambient computing”? It doesn’t
conjure up a sleek device you can hold or
wear, nor an ingenious app you can down-
load. Ambient computing—or ambient
intelligence, a term used synonymously—is
more abstract: it’s a condition, a state of the
art. It describes a computing era that is un-
folding around us, as technology continues
its staggeringly rapid evolution. To under-
stand it, focus not on the word “computing”
but on “ambient.” Think of ambient lighting.
Ambient music. An ambient element is tuned
to your immediate environment, adapted to
enhance a particular mood or activity.
As the IoT landscape populates with smarter
devices and the data they generate, ambient
computing is the fabric that knits them
together. It is the intelligent synthesis and
analysis of many disparate elements, gen-
erating insights and taking action based on
those insights.
The idea of ambient computing has been
around for a long time. In 1988 Mark Weiser,
a scientist at Xerox PARC, described its
precursor, “ubiquitous computing”—as he
imagined a future in which people would
interact with computers not constrained to
a desktop but anywhere at any time, on a
host of different devices. It would be years
before technology’s physical capabilities
caught up with the dream of anytime, any-
where computing. An idea we can nearly
take for granted today was decades ahead
of its time.
Today, the physical capabilities are there.
Computers are woven into our environment
to a degree that most of us are not even
conscious of, and more so every day. Just
as importantly the data is there, courtesy
of computers aboard devices, machinery,
vehicles, and anything you can stick a sen-
sor on. Extracting intelligence from oceans
of data is a monumental task—way beyond
what humans could do unassisted. We can
use ambient computing to help us turn
massive volumes of data into insights and
useful guidance.
The walls have ears
(and eyes, and noses)
From Altair to ambient: we’ve
come a long way…and quickly.
Not a single segment in the world has trans-
formed like computing. If cars had trans-
formed since their introduction the way
computers have, we’d be flying around like
George Jetson in solar rocket cars. On the
other hand, we carry devices in our pockets
with many times the computing power that
once could be harnessed only by an enor-
mous water-cooled machine, a behemoth
in a dedicated room, serving one user at a
time. Even as computers evolved they were
locked away in offices and universities.
In 1983 the personal computer was born.
Apple and a few other makers had existed
before that, but they were mostly the
domain of tech enthusiasts. More accessible
PCs with graphical interfaces soon appeared
and improved through the early 90s. Then
they met with a fresh new current: the
Internet. Overnight, or so it seems, PC users
around the world could connect to informa-
tion and each other.
With this confluence of developments,
we were off to the races. Computers were
becoming lighter, wireless connectivity was
introduced, as was broadband at home.
In 2006, the iPhone was introduced, and
changed how we used mobile phones for-
ever. Three years after that came the first
tablet—introduced to a skeptical public,
and wildly embraced shortly thereafter.
Today we have multiple computers that
we easily carry with us through our days.
At home, you’re CEO of your life with an
amazing (and tireless) staff of assistants.
At work, there’s monitoring, management
and insights that can improve efficiency,
safety, resourcing, and customer service.
>
6
7.4
19 Average number of
devices per person, US 1
70 Approximate number
of sensors in a modern
luxury car 4
35 Major cities are testing
sensor-based parking
systems to ease
congestion 5
6.4 b
15
Average number of
devices per person, UK 2
Average number of
sensors in a smart phone 3
Average number of
connected “things” in
use in 2016, up 30%
from 2015 6
Number of international
airports deploying
thermal sensors for
public health 7
Fun facts
• The number of devices worldwide
just surpassed the number of
people (7.2 billion), and devices
are proliferating five times faster
than people. 8
• A Dutch company uses Internet-
connected sensors on cattle to tell
farmers when the animals are sick
or pregnant. Each cow sends about
200 MB of data per year. 9
• 27% of all global M2M connections
are in China, compared to 19% in
the U.S. 10
For article references see page 19
Innovation Journal Issue 2
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