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| Stick figures ruled CES, raising questions about privacy |
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| By Stacey Higginbotham |
When I was at CES last week, I noticed several companies showing off video cameras and demonstrating their AI capabilities by superimposing a stick figure on top of the images of people recorded while by the booths. As each person walked by, superimposed over their image was a stick figure illustrating how well the computer's AI was capturing their actions.
I saw the stick figures on a fall detection-and-person-tracking lamp from a company called Nobi and in demos from at least two companies trying to sell cameras to retailers so they could track where in the store customers paused. And as I saw these stick figures I wondered if they were the key to bringing more privacy in a world determined to put cameras everywhere. |
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| — Sony's AI models run on the camera itself so the only data that gets sent to the cloud offers pose information without any identifiable images. Is this enough to protect privacy? Image courtesy of Sony Semiconductor. |
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While many of us are familiar with the bounding box in AI demonstrations that gets placed around cars or people to indicate what the computer is tracking and trying to identify, few if any of us know what the computer "sees" when AI is used to track activities using a camera.
The image above, however, shows what cameras can see and what they can strip away while still delivering relevant information. Sony Semiconductor provided the image in conjunction with its launch this week of a new AI imaging platform with Microsoft that will let companies deploy, train, and manage AI models on cameras equipped with Sony's AITRIOS sensing platform.
I'm writing about it because after the casual use of cameras and AI capabilities at CES, which left me feeling like I was in a reality TV show or a dystopian Sci-Fi novel, I was ready to see both more privacy-protecting versions of camera tech and understand how they work.
I've been hesitant about the proliferation of cameras in the IoT for a long time, but have grown to accept them — largely because I don't feel like I have much choice. Cameras can deliver a ton information, and at a lower cost than other sensors, which means that, increasingly, they will be deployed everywhere.
Indeed, we've all become used to our image being captured, be it by by doorbell cameras, municipal cameras, dash cams, and even average people wielding their smartphones. But when those images are captured they are then saved to a cloud, where they can be easily searched and matched to our identity. In other words, being in public now carries the risk that anything you do may be captured, stored, and disseminated without context, without consent, and then remain searchable forever.
Being in public, in other words, has become a much riskier proposition than it was just 20 or 30 years ago. Going to the store or dropping off a casserole has the potential to get an individual as much attention as a celebrity walking on the red carpet.
I don't know that people can really live like this. I don't want to, and my stakes are incredibly low. Sure, I've tripped on a doorstep and had an angry moment in a crowded subway platform, clips of which I'd hate to see plastered across the internet. But I'm not hiding my sexual orientation from a conservative boss, dodging a stalker, or seeking asylum in another country to avoid political persecution at home. Cameras in public places can serve myriad worthwhile functions, but they can also cause irreparable harm.
So I was keen to see the stick figures at CES and learn about Sony's latest technology, which promotes the processing of images on the camera itself so they don't get sent to the cloud. Companies that elect to use cameras with Sony's AITRIOS technology or developers building models for use on the AITRIOS-enabled cameras don't have to choose the most privacy-preserving settings, but I like that Sony is making them more accessible.
Oftentimes, developers or camera buyers are simply plucking what's easy and available off the shelf to leverage for their use cases. Having local machine learning handle image processing in a privacy-protecting way on a camera that's guaranteed to support the specific algorithm that's readily available gives end users an option that they may not have had before.
I'm writing this because I want everyone to know that they should take that option. Watching a bunch of stick figures move across a trade show floor or pick up their groceries can still be used to count people, monitor for suspicious behavior, track customer interest, and even detect safety problems, but without creating a recognizable image that could haunt a person forever. Let's all take that option and make it the norm. |
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| Ditto has built a database for intermittent connectivity |
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For many connected devices, intermittent connectivity is a fact of life. Whether a device is connected to a satellite network or trying to communicate over a spotty Wi-Fi connection in a factory, there are plenty of use cases where a sensor has data to share, but must wait to share it.
That's why I was intrigued by Ditto, a four-year-old startup in San Francisco that makes software designed to share data over intermittent connections. The company just signed a deal that will see Alaska Airlines adopt the technology for collaboration and data sharing between ground and air crews even when there's no internet connectivity. |
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| — The Alaska Airlines app for crew members will have Ditto's technology built in. Image courtesy of Ditto. |
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This could be powerful for the internet of things. The technology combines a software development kit built into an app running on a local device that also connects with a cloud server. What's notable is that the local SDK also lets other nearby devices connect in a peer-to-peer mesh to share information. When a device in that mesh gets internet connectivity back to the cloud it can then send all new information back to the cloud server.
Today, the use cases are industrial and in enterprise settings, like the Alaska Airlines deal, where data can be shared on the plane among crew even if there's no Internet connection (we all know how iffy airplane Wi-Fi is). Once the plane has a connection again, the newly created or updated data on the crews' app can be sent to the cloud and synced with other devices. According to Adam Fish, co-founder and president of Ditto, other use cases include industrial areas with weak Wi-Fi and large campus settings.
The software is basically a data synching technology that lets developers of the app using the Ditto SDK prioritize what data gets sent over iffy connections first. It also ensures that the data stored locally and in the cloud eventually sync. In the meantime, devices that are local can still communicate and share data with each other.
I love the idea behind the technology, and see useful applications in agriculture, factories, and even home settings, where devices can keep a local connection in case of a loss of connectivity or when a satellite might only pass over every few hours. Fish told me he agrees that the technology could be used for the IoT, but so far it's a bit of a heavy lift on the computing and memory side to work on microcontrollers.
Today it only works on Linux, Android, or iOS, but the company is trying to shrink the SDK for use on microcontrollers. Maybe I should have waited until then to write about Ditto, but I think we're seeing a shift in our thinking about computing where we stop focusing solely on getting more performance per watt for big data center applications and start thinking about small computing, small amounts of data, and small power consumption, all aimed at making computing more ubiquitous than it already is.
Ditto's technology will help with this, not only because IoT use cases often have unreliable connectivity, but also because the way that Ditto only sends changes instead of complete logs matches with a more efficient style of computing that the IoT will demand. I hope more people are thinking this way. |
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| Wi-Fi Solutions for the IoT SPONSORED |
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| Episode 405: More CES trends (COMMA) including wireless power |
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| Want to bring an IoT company back from the dead? Or understand the technical and business challenges associated with building an IoT product? Then this story by Kevin Chung is for you. Kevin Tofel and I have left CES 2023 behind, but we had plenty of things to talk about on this week's show, starting with our sense of disappointment after CES. We also serve up some more news from CES tied to Matter, Leviton, Aqara, and new products from Shelly. Then we discuss the deal between John Deere and The American Farm Bureau Federation to give U.S. farmers the tools they need to repair their own farming equipment at fair and reasonable rates. We talk about what this deal does and does not make possible. We also focus on wireless power with news from Energous, Ossia, and a door lock that we saw at CES that charges over the air. I can't wait to get rid of charging cables, and batteries. |
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| — The Aqara presence sensor will come out later this year and cost $60. Image is a screenshot from Aqara's YouTube. |
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| Our guest this week is Sanjay Gupta, president of the AirFuel Alliance. He's on the show talking about the newly launched AirFuel RF standard, which provides up to 1 watt of power over a distance. We discuss what that means for convenience in terms of not having to replace batteries, and what it means for sustainability if we can eliminate batteries. We also talk about why over-the-air wireless power is actually real after more than a decade of hearing about it. It turns out we have companies such as Wiliot, Atmosic, and others that are pioneering efficient computing and low-power radios for IoT use cases to thank. Finally, we discuss when we're likely to see wireless power become commonplace and where we'll see it first. Enjoy the show. |
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This week on the IoT Podcast Hotline, we answer a listener question about updating plugs and energy monitoring products to Matter.
The IoT Podcast Hotline is brought to you by Silicon Labs. Silicon Labs is a leader in secure, intelligent wireless technology for a more connected world. Learn more about their integrated hardware, software and development tools at silabs.com. |
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| I don't know how to feel about this smart blings/light setup |
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| — What happens if you take a sunrise lamp and integrate it with your existing blinds? You get something like Belume Living's product, which I saw at CES. The smart shades have sandwiched a blackout shade and a sheer shade around an LED light so the blinds can provide both natural and artificial daylight conditions. The company touts this as a good option for shift workers who might need to wake up in the dark, but all I could think of was our dystopian future when we live in towers without actual windows. This could provide a reasonable facsimile. Yay. Image courtesy of S. Higginbotham. |
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| News of the Week |
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Yale is selling a new smart safe: In the wake of the legalization of marijuana in various states across the U.S., connected safes are having a moment as parents want to make sure their kids can't accidentally get their little hands on edibles, flower, or whatever else their stash comprises. The new Yale smart safe comes in a Bluetooth version (which works with HomeKit) or a Wi-Fi version (which works with Alexa and Google Home), and can be opened with an app, a keypad, or a physical key. It costs $249.99 for the Bluetooth version and $299.99 for the Wi-Fi version. (Yale)
Check out this roundup of Matter devices coming this year: I ran into Jennifer Pattison Tuohy from The Verge at CES. It's always awesome seeing a fellow scribe in person, and even more awesome when they write something helpful so you don't have to, which is why I want to direct you to her list of Matter news from CES, which covers all the Matter device news from the show. Be sure to check it out. (The Verge)
MachineQ is helping keep public bathrooms clean in the U.S.: MachineQ, the Low-Power Wide-Area Network owned by Comcast, has expanded a deal to connect bathroom fixtures made by Toto to the internet. Toto's connected devices use MachineQ's connectivity and cloud to tie data from sinks and toilets back to software for facility managers. Using the tool, facility owners can see how often toilets and sinks are used and how much water they consume as well as track leaks and even how often someone has remained in a toilet stall. They can also monitor traffic to determine when a restroom needs cleaning or repairs. I'm all for clean restrooms, but as someone who wandered into a stall to cry more than once during my younger years, I hope the tech doesn't take away the last private space we have when out in public. (MachineQ)
Infineon is working to protect rainforests with its sensors: Chip company Infineon is working with NGO Rainforest Connection (RFCx) to deploy solar-powered sensors in remote areas of the world. The sensors track the sounds nearby and wake up to send an alert when they "hear" the sound of chainsaws. RFCx has deployed more than 500 of these devices in 30 countries to date, with active projects currently in 25 countries. Now with Infineon it is adding a CO2 sensor that can "smell" what's happening nearby to track other markers of forest health. So far it has deployed 10 of these sensors in Brazil. This is just a cool example of using IoT to gather data in places and ways we haven't before. (Infineon)
More sensors that can smell: Sensors that can detect gases and thus draw conclusions about pollutants or even the ripeness of fruit are becoming more cost effective and adaptable for low-power electronics, so I expect we'll see them in more places outside of labs or high-end environmental monitoring systems going forward. In the meantime, new research from the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical System flaunts the creation of a nanowire sensor that can fit on a chip and detect nitrogen dioxide while generating its own power from a solar cell. One of the researchers suggests the nanowire technology could also be used to detect other gases such as acetone (useful for detecting if someone is in ketosis). (Phys.org)
Axon wants to establish a chain of custody for your Ring doorbell videos: Axon, the company behind Tasers and police body cameras, has launched an API that camera makers can use to let homeowners or business owners share private camera footage with police. By using its API Axon hopes create a way for private citizens to share their camera data in a secure and auditable manner with the police without breaking the chain of custody. I don't know anything about how to submit private camera data so it can be used as evidence in court, but in reading through Axon's pitch it's clear that it wants to build a product to let law enforcement get access to private camera data. The Axon post spends a lot of words stressing how consumers must consent to share their camera data, and that citizens can only share their data through this portal at police request. I'd be very curious to see if any camera makers decide to embed these APIs into their apps, and what might happen to their efforts to market through law enforcement if they don't. (Axon)
Will Apple's chip plans affect the IoT? Apple is planning to dump Broadcom as its Wi-Fi provider as part of its continued efforts to control all aspects of its device production. Apple has already gotten rid of Intel chips from its MacBooks, built its own ARM-based chips in the iPhone, and plans to ditch Qualcomm as its cellular modem. So it's not a surprise that Apple wants to design its own Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips. Apple doesn't have a huge IoT presence other than with its TV and Watch and HomePod products, but I can't help but wonder how Apple designing its own Wi-Fi chips might create an even tighter ecosystem for its few connected devices, and if it might mean Apple then branches out to build more products that would use the chips. Apple mesh routers, anyone? (Bloomberg)
Is IKEA about to launch an updated air quality sensor? Sharp eyes have seen an image that appears to be a new IKEA air quality sensor called Vindstyrka. The sensor will measure particulate matter, humidity, and temperature and have its own power supply and brightly lit screen, and will reportedly work with the Dirigera hub. It will also fit within IKEA's stated smart home plans to focus on the health of the home. (HomeKit Authority)
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