Every week on a Tuesday am going to be taking my readers on a roller coaster thinking adventure, you can as well create a #RollerCoasterTuesday already, am joking but what I mean to say, every Tuesday am going to be introducing a new topic and If am lucky and you like what I write about, then you can join me as we are asking specific questions about the future of the Tech Industry or any Tech related topics ranging from social media to Telecoms. This might be in Uganda or outside the country.
In the hot seat today, we have the Internet of Things (IoT) and I very well know many of you have had about it, and may be some of you have interfaced with it. If you haven’t had about it however, here is my perspective about IoT.
Internet of things from my engineering perspective would be a case where sensors and actuators are embedded in objects or things which are connected together via wired or wireless means to the internet. An example would be a wrist band that you monitor you mileage when you are jogging or a thermostat which can regulate your the temperature in your room according to the change in the environment. It can also be any object assigned an IP address and enabled to transfer data over a network. The western world seems to be embracing the Internet of Things but today I question, how ready Uganda is.
The Need:
Personally, I would love to control my environment without controlling it, for example if my shoe would be able detect that my feet need to be warm and act accordingly, more so if a billboard display ad that am interested in. I know this might be futuristic but wouldn’t you love that.
Going back to Uganda, the economy is spending a lot of money in different sectors, what if we knew when to irrigate our crops or what epidermic was breaking out in western Uganda, what if you walked into KFC and the waitress knew what wings you want to eat before you told her, the possibilities here would be numerous and would save the country and people a lot of time and we would love it.
The Possibility:
It is believed that by 2020 there will be more than 26 Billion devices connected from smartphones to Smart homes. With the increasing rate of smartphone purchases in Uganda, I believe a given fraction of the population has embraced the high end technologies and it is just a matter of time until we start seeing another wave of smart devices rolling into our homes.
The Steps we can take:
I will not try to speculate what the government can do in this scenario, but we need to support engineers who are trying to create some of these devices. We should also have incubation spaces that are helping innovators in this space. The tech Giants like Apple and Google and other consumer giants like Nike are leading the innovation around IoT but they don’t know Uganda the way you do.
My Question to you:
What do you think about this whole wave of Internet of Things, do you think your work would be made easier if you were more aware of the environment around you and If so what are you going to do about it? You might be sitting on the next generation of Technology. Give us your view and use #RollerCoasterTuesday on social media so that we can catch you views.
