Future of the IoT addressed at Freescale event

The event saw 12 quick fire presentations from a range of companies and start ups. TV white space start up Neul used the opportunity to talk about the challenges of extreme connectivity and explore how the unused spectrum can be tapped into for IoT/M2M access. This was also picked up by Microsoft, which spoke about the business opportunities presented by the IoT, as well as the associated costs and security risks. In the medical world, Edinburgh University spin out Speckled Computing presented an innovative device which measures a patient's respiratory rate and volume via a 3d accelerometer worn as a patch on the chest – eliminating the need for wires. One of the most interesting presentations, however, came from Dr Rob Brogan, a consultant psychiatrist for the NHS. Excited by the possibilities presented by the IoT, he presented attendees with a challenge: to come up with a solution that helps doctors monitor whether or not patients with schizophrenia are taking their medication. One possible solution, he suggested, is a device which measures the acoustic signature of different pills when they are swallowed. "While applications like this may seem ridiculous now, the IoT could make this kind of thing possible within the next ten to twenty years," said Tim Summers, Freescale's group manager of digital networking, EMEA. "However, the future of the technology is very much dependant on connectivity. We're talking about 50billion connections by 2020. Our network today just isn't scaled to handle that." (For more on the IoT, see the 12 November cover story)