What is IoT?

Internet of Things (IoT) is “a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.”

Communication between machines (Machine-to-Machine AKA M2M) uses a network without human interaction by collecting information, then storing and managing it through a cloud network. An IoT device takes the concept of M2M, but connects people, systems, and other applications to collect and share data in one big web.

Image taken from https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-of-Things-IoT

Below is a TED-ed video about IoT.

Some examples of IoT devices are:

smart door locks (remote control using phone, access to usage or status information for user monitoring, proximity unlocking based on user information and settings)
home systems (control and monitor lights, air-conditioner, water, doors, etc; personalised automation based on user information and settings)
Wearable devices (tracks and sends user data and alert under certain circumstances)

More here!:

18 Most Popular IoT Devices in 2019 (Only Noteworthy IoT Products)

Human-technology integration

I think IoT devices are very personalised usually and home-use is one of the most common usage. They are designed to be almost constantly interacted with, integrated into places or objects that we always use or are always exposed to. Our reliance on these devices can be more beneficial than harmful as it helps us fill in functions in our lives that improve our wellbeing and productivity. I think these devices would eventually become common to human life as technology slowly gets integrated into our bodies.

How can we design an IoT device that does more than just personalising our lives? This is one question I ask myself as I continue to think of an idea for my project… :’)

Google Home

In my device of the week, I’ll be looking at Google Home. Google Home is a smart speaker that has Google Assistance installed in it. It is able to connect itself with home appliances like water sprinklers, garage doors, lights, as well as smart TVs and mobile devices. The Google Home also feels like a helpful assistance in the house as the in-built Google Assistance has a good mic and speaker system that allows itself to hear commands and give replies around the house. The assistance is able to answer questions relating to one’s personal life like “what is my schedule for today”. It is also able to answer general questions like “who is the president of USA?” and it does this through connecting itself to Google search engine. Other than these functions, the assistance can also help users do a myriad of tasks, like “play PewDiePie on Youtube on my TV” or “set alarm at 3:30PM”, or simply play music. The system also have games that can be played by a group of friends, and it’s actually quite entertaining!

Screen recording from https://store.google.com/product/google_home

Some screenshots from the website for us to see its functions in a concise way:

Google Home can control many types of audios on many devices

Many other ways to customise and control your home with Google Home

Extra things that the Home provides like games!

Interface

As for interface, the Google Home is a very simple device. It only has a button, while the rest are all on the touch surface on top of the device.

Here are the interactive elements of the device:

These functions are the more ‘user-interface’ kind of functions where the device used like a household product where users have to learn how to use. Other than these functions, the Google Home’s Google Assistance responds to commands like “Okay Google” and “Hey Google”. These functions are the more humanistic and intuitive, which serves more like an assistance that talks to you through a speaker. This makes the Google Home a very unique product, as it is both a product and a service.

So, we’ve gone through its uses and its interface. What is the IoT in the Google Home?

Image taken from https://medium.com/google-developers/iot-google-assistant-f0908f354681

Google Home involves a few IoT systems that work together to form an integrated whole. The chart above shows how the system basically works. Google communicates through IoT to a cloud service that communicates back to the appliance that you wish to control. This is done using these things called “device types” and “device traits”.

“Google’s NLU engine uses types, traits, device names, and other information from the Home Graph to provide the correct intent for your IoT cloud service.”

– Medium

Device types are names given to every device to distinguish between the different devices that are connected to the cloud. In the above table, you can see that the light is named “action.devices.types.LIGHT“.

Device traits are commands that the device type is able to obey, allowing for user control. You can’t command your light to explode, but you can certainly change the brightness of your light using “action.devices.traits.Brightness“.

After that, there is the Home Graph. It is Google’s database that keeps all your devices’ contextual information. It stores the data of the devices like its name, its location, its functions, etc. This allows Google to understand which command is meant for which device. For example, you can say “Turn off the kitchen lights“, and Google is able to map out which lights belong within the kitchen, and switch it off.

Below are some examples of those IoT processes.

User switching on and controlling smart appliance (eg. living room air-conditioner): User input command to mic > Command translated to data to device type and device trait in cloud > Home Graph finds the path towards the appliance > switches on appliance > Appliance sends data to mobile device via same network > device can control the air-conditioner > LOOP
User switching on entertainment (eg. Netflix on TV): User input command to mic > Identify device type and trait > Cloud > Home Graph > Appliance receives data and switches on the entertainment
User using Google Assistance (eg. Asking for internet information): User input command to mic > Assistance searches the web database > Assistance replies the most relevant and reliable answer (not sure if this process uses the cloud?)

Pros:

Very VERY convenient
Intuitive and well-integrated in home and personal settings
Helpful in situations where one’s hand is not free, or when one needs to get things done on the go
Able to fit well in healthcare as its monitoring system can automate tasks in emergencies without the person even knowing first (eg. heart attack)
The future of home where everything is controllable without actually touching anything

Cons:

Needs time to set up
May have difficulty learning to use the device without buttons
Privacy issues regarding a device that collects personal data
Not very useful if one can just use hands to operate the different devices
Data may be fed into an algorithm which teaches the device to learn your behaviour (privacy)
The AI may take over the world

An Alternate Use

I’m thinking, most IoT devices are usually home-based and personalised which works really well as personal information are most valuable in IoT devices as it can cater itself towards the personal needs of its users. What can we do to integrate IoT in non-home settings? Perhaps this can be some kind of service AI that helps people navigate around a mall like a directory. It can also help users book slots or book tickets for certain shops. This is still very personalised, although I have transformed it into a public service.

Another way to use the device is perhaps in militaries where it is able to give real-time feedback from the sensors inside a (say F-16 Jet). As fighter jets are always under high stress, a lot of issues will happen to it. It takes a team to download data from within the jet after every day (or after every fault) to determine its flight data and where the fault is located. The use of IoT would make everything much easier such that, as soon as the plane touches down, it connects to a network that allows the new Google Home to communicate with IoT devices inside to checks for the fighter jet’s internal systems.

Conclusion

Image taken from https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ry5ugkhxik1v9u/Screenshot%202019-10-06%2003.03.51.png?dl=0

The Google Home is not just an IoT device that very nicely integrated the technology to do a myriad of things that is super beneficial to us all, but is also an AI that humanises the experience of using such a device. That gives a user-centric experience which allows it to perform its function seamlessly and intuitively. Overall, Google Home is a great example of an interactive device that fulfils everything that should exist in an interactive device.

Automated External Defibrillator

Screenshot taken from https://www.dropbox.com/s/qdm6i0v40w92ijd/Screenshot%202019-09-08%2023.57.41.png?dl=0

According to this article, an AED is:

a lightweight, portable device that delivers an electric shock through the chest to the heart. The shock can potentially stop an irregular heart beat (arrhythmia) and allow a normal rhythm to resume following sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). SCA occurs when the heart malfunctions and stops beating unexpectedly. If not treated within minutes, it quickly leads to death.

How an AED work is… (here’s a video but I will also explain through text)

First, responders have to open the case to retrieve the AED, and in doing so, alerts a nearby medical response team to the location of the AED. The responder have to bring the AED to the victim and open the AED up and switch it on. The AED will guide the responder to what to do and the responder just have to follow the instructions step-by-step. There are adhesive electrodes in the AED, which, when pasted on the victim, detects the victim’s heart rate which will help the responder assess when defibrillation is needed. If a shock is required, the AED will charge up and notify the responder to press the button to deliver a shock. The shock will momentarily stun the heart, which causes it to stop for a brief moment. This helps to ‘restart‘ the heart so it will begin to beat effectively again. Afterwhich, CPR should be performed to prolong the heartbeat until medics arrive.

The AED is a really frightening yet fascinating device. It is meant to save a life, and yet, it is for public use for when emergency arise. The amount of responsibility this device give to its users is very, very great, despite how easy one is able to access and use it.

Device Breakdown

At the most basic level, the AED must be able to perform its main objective which is to defibrillate, and as such requires hardware that delivers the required electricity and a pulse detector for feedback. In order to perform its function as a public life-saving device, it needs to be portable, as user-friendly and intuitive as possible so that even the most unskilled person can attempt to use in an emergency. It must also be able to deploy quickly and teach its user as quickly as possible. For, according to this source, 7-10% chance of a person surviving cardiac arrest is lost in every minute of delay.

We can analyse how these points fare in the AEDs with reference to the image below:

The AED has 2 obvious buttons that stands out first, the green being the switch and the red being to deliver a shock. These buttons are easy to spot for most people that operates a modern device and as such, allows people to recognise and operate efficiently. The buttons are also very spherical which allow for a quick and easy press.
The image on the AED clearly tells the user on where to place the shock pads. The pads themselves also have images on them to show how to use which allows the responders to use it quickly.
There seems to be a “PULL” label tells one to pull the case open, although the directional arrows are not very strategically placed. If not for the cut in the glass case, I would have tried pulling the part surrounding the label itself. That is not good interface design. This compartment probably holds the shock pads which are taken out to display in this image.
The overall form of the AED is very compact and hand-held friendly.
Although not seen, the AED probably have vocal instructions that people can follow, which I think helps a lot as we want to be told what to do during a stressful situation.
However, it could be better as there are no text instructions as some responders may not be able to hear clearly or are deaf. Text can be simplified to easily communicate during high stress situations, but it may affect the compact form of the AED.

Overall, the device has a good form and easy to understand interface that allows the AED to perform all of its function as effectively as possible. Even though the process puts the responders at high stress and is fairly complicated to use, its interface allows people to use it quickly and correctly, saving many lives. So I would say that it has successfully concisely packaged the entire defibrillator into a portable public tool, transferring the medic’s responsibility to the public where a member of public can help save a life just as easily as he/she operates a toilet bowl. The article below is an example of how an AED can change the lives of many.

Civilians Help Man With Heart Attack In HDB Flat; Prove AEDs Can Help Save Lives

If anything were to be improved on, it would be to add text instructions for the hearing impaired. Perhaps another point of improvement is the inclusion of a female image alongside the male one, or to have an androgynous person so people will be able to respond to female victims confidently as well. See this link to why we should not always use a male body as reference to design.

My Suggestion

I do not wish to disrespect the invention of the defibrillator but I like the idea of using a defibrillator to do the opposite of what it is designed to do. As the device is designed to prevent death, what if it causes death instead? But of course, not to humans, but to mosquitoes / flies / annoying bugs.

Imagine a portable bug killing device where you go around zapping them! Would anyone be afraid of a cockroach now? Could it be turned into a game? It will definitely not be ethical as it can be misused GREATLY so it’s probably not a good idea. Still, it will be cool to own a smaller non-lethal voltage ‘stunner’ that can stun or kill insects.

I really can’t think of anything else that a defibrillator can be modified into…

Tag: device of the week

Device of the Week 2 : Google Home

What is IoT?

Google Home