Smart Economy

Boost your Smart Technology IQ

Increase your Smart Technology IQ

Are you interested in the novel but quietly booming field of Smart Technology?

Are you a novice to the discipline or an old pro? Are smart technologies still under your business radar screen? Confused by all the jargon? opinions? predictions?

We are able to offer your team or organization, a tactile ‘hands-on’ presentation based on the topic and application areas that best suit your interest from our Smart Economy Blog.

We can  provide your group with a general introduction to Smart Technologies or cover a highly specialized and narrow topic area. We can cover the spectrum from Competitive Intelligence to Product Development to Technology roadmaps.

Combined with a health dose of provocative, lateral thinking, our interactive  presentation will get your team inspired and boost their Smart Technology IQ  !!

Suitable for off site or on site training sessions, monthly team or division meetings, research meetings, focus groups and conferences, our presentations can be customized to the needs of different audiences, numbers and special interest areas.

Smart Technology is a tactile subject area and by bringing the audience into physical contact with a wide range of different smart materials and products, our presentation brings to life the subject matter contained in our Smart Economy Blog 

Please contact me for further details.

Walter Derzko  [email protected]

Connected Disruptive Intelligence & New Business Models > Smart Services Forum > Hannover, Germany April 27, 2006

(Adopted from the Smart Services Forum press release)

The Growing Need For Smart Services in Business

The ability to monitor, repair and control equipment remotely over the Internet - particularly using Wireless Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technologies - has changed the concept of service for manufacturers in key industries around the world. 

Problem:

Many OEM manufacturers of products and machines in particular find it difficult to see how such smart services apply to them.  Yet many of these companies are also finding it increasingly difficult to compete in their market niches, with their profit levels constantly squeezed and their product life cycles getting ever shorter.  They are in fact right at the centre of a new opportunity space. 

Smart Solutions

Embedding smart networking technologies into their products opens up major new profit opportunities that can dramatically change their businesses..and their competitive business landscape.

By increasing customer satisfaction with faster turnaround times and enabling concrete savings on service costs, these new clusters of core technologies have allowed implementers to introduce "smart services" and gain competitive edge over those still using traditional "non-intelligent" or "unconnected" service methods.

What's different about Smart Services?

"Smart services" go far beyond the kinds of upkeep and upgrades often sold alongside products today, both in their value to customers and in their cost-efficiency to the supplier.  However to be in a position to provide them, intelligence-that is, awareness and connectivity- must be built into the products themselves.  And you must be prepared to act on what the product then reveals about its use. (see our Idea Lab and Opportunity Clinic)

"As an example, consider Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, the well-known maker of high-end printing presses.  Throughout its history, the company has offered repair services to customers.  When it developed the ability to monitor the equipment remotely, it could provide maintenance much more cost-effectively.  Today, with its machines communicating continuously over the Internet, Heidelberg has the access and insight to optimize their performance in the customer's shop.  The total product life cycle support Heidelberg now offers-extending even to decommissioning and resale-represents a step-function change in value.  It is the network context that has made the difference and created true intimacy with the customer."

The rewards of becoming a smart service provider are hard to ignore. 

According to the consulting firm, Harbour Research,  their researchers have documented dynamic double digit  growth rates  for many companies that incorporate smart design into their products and services.  The leaders are establishing  new performance benchmarks for their industries, deriving more than 50% of their revenue, and 60% of their margin contribution, from services as opposed to product sales.  For most management teams in product-centric companies, numbers like these sound like heaven.

Smart services are a wholly different animal than the service offerings of the past, and customers perceive them as having entirely new value.  To begin with, they are fundamentally preemptive rather than reactive or even proactive.  Preemptive means that actions are based upon hard field intelligence; you launch a preemptive strike to head off an undesirable event when you have real-world evidence that the event is in the offing.  Smart services are thus based upon actual evidence that a machine is about to fail, or that a customer's supply of consumables is about to be deleted, or that a shipment of materials has been delayed, and so on.

Smart Services Forum - Hannover, Germany April 27

Joining the ranks of smart service companies is not primarily a technical challenge.  The technology, while critical to the task, is now well enough established.  Rather, in most companies, the biggest challenge is in getting management to adopt a new perspective on the nature of the business…the need for a new revenue model and a new business model The companies in the vanguard of smart services think differently about why they exist, what they do for their customers and how they profit from it-but they have come to this by degrees.

To share some of these experiences, and to outline the new business models they represent, a one day Smart Services Forum is being organized at this year's Hannover Fair, the largest Industrial Automation Show in the world.  The Forum is also linked to a key theme of this year's Fair, that of Wireless Automation.

The companies taking part in this event are Heidelberg, Air Products, ABB, Mitsubishi Electric, Invensys, Schmitz Cargobull and McDialog.

This forum will examine the new business opportunities that emerge once remote smart services have been deployed.  These opportunities transcend the traditional notion of a device and its role in the enterprise to encompass entirely new ways of doing business ( new business models).  The forum will focus on some of the emerging applications, the market disruptions they are causing, and look at how companies are changing the way they do business to take advantage of the changing landscape.

The impact of these smart services will be explored in a special, Forum organized at the Hannover Fair in Germany on April 27.  (see Forum).

Is it time to re-design or update your Revenue and Business Model  becasue of encroaching smart technologies or smart services ?

Call or email us

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Student designs an all-in-one machine that washes dries and irons clothes

Leonardo Da Vinci  would have been proud

Better then roses on Valentine's Day, a UK student designs  an all-in-one machine that washes dries and irons clothes.....Design may be homeowners' choice . The BBC reports on a new machine which washes, dries and irons clothes.

Oliver Blackwell, who designed the WashDryIron, is exhibiting the machine at next month's Ideal Home Show.

The University of Plymouth graduate hopes the machine will become an object of desire because it saves about 10 days a year in ironing time.

"A friend's father said he wouldn't have got married if I'd come up with this sooner," said Mr Blackwell.

The 23-year-old student's innovative idea was thought up for his final degree project.

He told BBC News: "There are thousands of exceptional students out there and I knew I had to come up with a damn good product idea to pass my finals.

"A washing machine seemed quite obvious and almost everyone uses one."

The machine washes, dries and irons clothes in separate compartments and is said to eliminate colour runs, shrinkage and ironing.

It can tackle up to 16 items at a time, including king-size bed sheets.

Because hangers are used, they do not become entangled and have 83% fewer creases, according to the designer. The items are then dried and ironed by hot air blown across them.

The designer claims another major benefit of the separate compartments is that muddy sports gear can be washed at the same time, but at a different temperature to delicate fabrics.

Mr Blackwell said he expected the WashDryIron to retail at about £800 to £900.

"There's been a huge amount of interest shown in my design, but what I really need next is for a major manufacturer to get involved with some investment to develop it further.

"It's simple, but it works and the real beauty is the ironing time it saves. I can't see many people arguing with that."

Mr Blackwell hopes his new machine will banish washday blues

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Smart Kitchen

Press Rlelease

Portable Grocery Shopping Device for the Home Builds Detailed Shopping Lists With Barcode Technology, Now Shipping With Introductory Pricing for Mac + PC 

IntelliScanner is now shipping Kitchen Companion 100, the Company's new handheld barcode scanner and software bundle for smart grocery shopping and nutrition/recipe management.

Kitchen Companion is powered by an Internet-enabled database of over 300,000 grocery items. Simply scan the barcode on anything as it's thrown away, then download the information like a digital camera for complete details including the name, brand, category, shopping section, and size. Users can print out a categorized shopping list, or send the list to an iPod, Palm, or cell phone.

For power users, Kitchen Companion offers advanced quantity management, scan in/out capabilities, consumption history, physical location tracking, custom searching, dynamic shopping lists, and nutrition information from the USDA.

The new Kitchen Companion 100 features:

• 1-2-3 Shopping -- Scan, Connect, Shop: Simply scan the barcodes from groceries as they're thrown away, connect the scanner to download, then view your automatic shopping list and bring it to the store.

• Printed, iPod, Palm, and Bluetooth phone shopping list export options.

• Advanced features for power users and dietary consultants.

• Complete bundled package includes portable IntelliScanner barcode reader and Kitchen Companion software in one box.

Pricing, Requirements & Availability

Kitchen Companion 100 is fully portable with an integrated 500 barcode memory chip, making it easy to scan groceries anywhere and download them to the computer. The scanner is Bluetooth wireless (Mac/PC) or serial (PC only), and is now available for $249.00 (introductory price through January 13th).

For more information, please visit the product web site at: http://www.intelliscanner.com/products/kitchen/

Study looks at smart appliances, grid

Right now in homes across the United States the water heater is pretty much a stand-alone and the clothes dryer is dumb as a brick.

But within 10 years, "smart" power grids passing information back and forth with "intelligent" home appliances may save enough energy during peak electricity demand to keep utilities from building expensive substations and major transmission lines, say backers of a year-long experiment that begins this month.

Hooked up by wireless connections with home computers and by broadband with local utilities, hot water heaters, air conditioners, dryers and other appliances in the study will shut off or limit power use depending on demand on the wider power grid.

About 300 home owners in Washington and Oregon have volunteered for the GridWise study conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory of the US Energy Department. Among other participants in the $2 million to $3 million experiment are IBM, the Bonneville Power Administration and Whirlpool.

"Creating a smarter grid and connecting to individual homes where customers can manage power use - with the incentive of money for cutting back during high demand - could save $US80 billion over 20 years in utility infrastructure such as high-voltage transmission lines that don't have to be built," said Ron Ambrosio of IBM.

"If we can squeeze more power through our existing assets, we can help homeowners, and giving price incentives to use power at night and other low-use times," said Rob Pratt, manager of the GridWise program for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said during a telephone press conference on Wednesday.

Most of the technology needed for the "smart" grid and appliances is on hand now, but it will take eight to 10 years before its use is widespread enough to notice major savings..

In the study and perhaps in wider use later, home customers will save on their power bills by using less electricity and also by getting payback for cutting use during high-demand times when the transmission grid is most fragile.

Customers can set preferences for levels to automatically adjust appliance power use. They can curtail or reduce energy use when prices are higher than their programmed preferences, said Ambrosio.

Whirlpool has given 150 new "grid-friendly" dryers to homeowners in the study. Study advocates say they hope that such "intelligent" appliances are soon readily available. Wider sales of such appliances will cut their current high costs, they said.

It costs about $US1000 on average to outfit a home for the study, but that cost includes the price of research unique to this study.

Within a few years, that cost will drop and once it reaches $US200 per customer and such programs as GridWise will spread, said Pratt.

 

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Smart Door

Smart Door

Back on Oct 8, 2005 we explored a Smart Door Handle Now we have a smart door to go with it.

Not only does it open by itself like in Star Trek, it does so in sections, opening up just enough in the shape of the person, or object passing through, such as a wheelchair or a car , or a parcel being dropped off at a drop-off box at the post office or your futuristic mailbox slot.

Using a smart motion sensor, it know just how far to open to let you through.

Benefits:

• Saves energy
• Keeps a room at an even temperature by not opening up all the way
• Keeps dirt out
• Will impress the hell out of your friends and neighbors

For more information:   (In Japanese)

© 2005

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Smart' meters promised for Ontario by 2010

The Canadian Press reports that Ontario’s 4.5 million electricity meters will be replaced by so-called "smart" meters by 2010 at a cost of $1 billion to hydro consumers. Advocates of energy conservation said they like the plan, but admonished the government for waiting more than two years to take its initial tentative steps towards conservation.

The installation of the new meters, which will allow utilities to charge consumers based on the time of day they use their power, is set out in new legislation introduced  by Energy Minister Donna Cansfield.

"Combined with a pricing structure that reflects the true cost of power production at certain times of the day and year, smart metering would allow consumers to make smart, informed decisions about their electric use," Cansfield told a news conference.

Source:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1131016955526&call_pageid=968256289824&col=968342212737

© 2005

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page.

Smart House for a Cold Climate-Solar Decathlon

Solar Decathlon

Last week, while the DARPA Grand Challenge driverless car race captured most of the media focus (a 2 million dollar prize sure helps to attract attention), another equally challenging event was staged in Washington D.C. The National Mall  played host to a solar village, a group of 18 solar powered homes constructed by the entrants in the 3rd annual U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon.

The University of Colorado won the competition, winning three out of ten categories.  Teams of students designed each solar house, knowing from the outset that it must be powered entirely by the sun. Each team was then judged on several requirements including architecture, energy balance, communication of ideas, comfort zone, dwelling, documentation, appliances, hot water, lighting and  getting around.

Among the 18 participants, there was one Canadian team -a combined effort from Concordia University and Université de Montréal. The team scored 14th out of 18 teams

The Team Web site  describes the project as follows:

Smart House for a Cold Climate

"In chilly Montreal, the appearance of the sun in winter is a welcome sight for more than one reason.  "We hope to use weather prediction and smart controls as much as possible to effectively control the home," says Mark Pasini, Canadian Decathlon team project manager.

The Canadian Solar Decathlon team, made up of building, electrical, civil, and mechanical engineering students from Concordia University and industrial and architectural design students from L'Université de Montréal, set out to design a high-tech house in which most of the technology is invisible, seamlessly integrated through a special home automation system.  The automation system monitors the home's temperature and links to controls throughout the house.

To help with designing the automation system and other aspects of the house, team members designed their own software to simulate the thermal behavior of the house.  The software combines all the unique components of the house, including the automated blinds and the thermal storage.  Phase-change materials and a wall of water placed adjacent to window glass serve as thermal storage and perpetuate the house's invisible-technology design approach.

The solar panels are also intended to be an unobtrusive, if not nearly invisible, technological feature.  "People may not even realize they are solar panels," says Pasini.  Whereas some PV systems are almost a double roofing system, the Canadian team's PV panel is basically an energy-generating roofing material.

Tight walls, lots of thermal storage, and plenty of foam insulation are important ingredients in this home built for a harsh, northern climate.  But the students also boldly designed their house with large windows on the south-facing facade.  Of course, the windows are triple glazed for the cold climate.

In addition to the need to design for a colder climate than many of the other schools, the Canadians also have other unusual responsibilities.  The first is getting their house through U.S. customs, which requires extensive documentation of the materials they bring to the competition in Washington, D.C. And, finally, the students are proud to represent a larger constituency than most teams.  Says Robert Moussa, student and leader of the electrical/PV team, "We are the only team from Canada, and so we feel we are representing a whole nation."

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To explore the impacts and opportunities of smart technologies in your industry - Contact Me

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page.

Smart Backpack generates its own power

Digging into my archive of cool smart gadgets, I thought I'd introduce you to a backpack that generates its own electricity. No, it's not based on solar power, but on walking power.

New Scientist magazine reports that:  "a backpack that generates electricity as its wearer strolls along has been developed by US experts in human locomotion.

The backpack's load is suspended from the frame on springs.  As your hip moves up and down (from five to seven inches), the load rises and falls.  The mechanical energy generated when a backpacker carries 80 pounds of gear -- standard for an Army load -- at four miles an hour generates about 7 watts,  enough to charge a cell phone, a global positioning system, and a night-vision device. The heavier the load the more power you generate.

PROS:

The developers hope their suspended-load backpack will benefit troops, field scientists, explorers and disaster relief workers in remote locations, who need uninterrupted communications. This could help rescue workers in hurricane, mudslides, and earthquake zones.

Kids could also benefit, since it makes book loads easier to carry to school.

ETA:

one to two years, before we see it on the market

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Smart Homes networked together

Germany's smart homes on display

A smart show home in Germany's Ruhr Basin is now open to the public for viewing.

Why do people accept state-of-the-art systems engineering in their means of transportation, such as cars and airplanes, yet mostly fail to see the need for it in their own houses or apartments? 

Scientists are trying to answer this and other similar questions. 

"One reason is surely that hardly anyone yet regards information technology in the home as an integrated product," believes Klaus Scherer, who heads the Systems and Applications Technology department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS. 

"Interest levels drop still further when the concepts under discussion are designed to cover more than one building."  The director of the Duisburg inHaus center and his team have set out to demonstrate that a home equipped with fully integrated, interoperable technology can be both attractive and affordable.

The 'Innovation Center for the Intelligent House' project, 'inHaus' for short, was launched in Duisburg five years ago.  This anniversary is one of the reasons why the partners staged a special forum on September 27 and 28.  Experts from several Fraunhofer Institutes, participating firms and various initiatives held demonstrations and lectures to show what has been achieved so far, and evaluate which developments they consider to be worth pursuing in future.  'SmarterWohnenNRW' - a model project that won the Ruhr district innovation prize last April - was also introduced at the forum.

The tangible result of the project so far consists of eight model homes in Hattingen south of Bochum, one of which has recently been opened for viewing. 

Its purpose is more than just to demonstrate remote-control and Internet-based technology for activating windows, radiators and recording devices or for monitoring persons entering the building. 

Smart Networked Community

The Hattingen housing association (HWG) plans to link together almost 200 of these homes in a kind of intranet over the next three years- in fact creating a smart networked community.

source: Press Release, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

PROS: Opens up possibilities for many new-to-the-world services

"A whole range of services will be supported.  "Linking homes in a common network opens up tremendous potential for the IT sector as well," insists head of department Frank Lindert of the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering ISST in Dortmund.

"Particularly for the increasingly elderly population, a sensible combination of selected information technologies will provide greater security and convenience in the living environment." 

For older persons, the main focus is on 'Home Care', or medical and social care in the home. 

For young single households, on the other hand, the dominant topic is multimedia.

CONS: Risks of personal identy theft; network security -hackers breaking into your code; risks of a virus infiltrating your home network.

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"

- old Japanese proverb

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page