The idea of bringing machines to life or storing a huge trove of electronic data in a compact kiosk might have seemed far-fetched just a few decades ago, but the digital age has made the impossible become possible. A tap on the screen of your smartphone will show you how the digital revolution begins right in your pocket.
Just as the internet was the buzzword at the start of the millennium, the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) are now part of our everyday vocabulary, helping mankind to complete tasks of widely varying complexity. From simple commands such as automatically turning off an air-conditioner when you're not at home, to solving fiendishly complex algorithms, nearly anything can be done at the touch of a button.
Size does not always matter in the digital world. A miniature cube, equipped with an integrated power supply and power-saving features, can now be controlled remotely through mobile phones to provide convenient and intuitive power controls.
"If a family user installs this kind of solution in his home, he can see energy consumption data from a smartphone [through a simulated power meter application] and all the details about [household] power usage," Martina Yi, marketing director of NextDrive Inc, told Asia Focus.
The marvel of the IoT is certainly not limited to energy saving. In the world of preventive healthcare, the Comgo health wristband fuses technology and wellness by integrating cloud data analysis and health monitoring to measure pulse, blood oxygen, blood pressure and other physiological information at the tips of your fingers.
From a chess-playing robot to virtual-reality games and even an AI application that claims to reduce car-finance risk, Computex Taipei 2017 offered a glimpse into the not-so-distant future. Photos: PATHOM SANGWONGWANICH
"Having several related patents and working closely with top universities and medical institutions, we are able to integrate the latest health monitoring technology by combining areas which consist of health prevention, electronics and cloud technology into a smart bracelet and aid solution," said Peng Che-Ming, research and development engineer at Giant Power Biomedical Technology Corp of Taiwan.
DATA IS EVERYTHING
In simple terms, the IoT is the interconnection via the internet of computing devices embedded in commonplace objects, enabling them to send and receive data. The interconnection is made possible through the conduit of cloud computing technology to deliver data to different IoT devices.
"Some of the most remarkable technology transformations happening today are all fuelled by and directly related to our ability to collect, analyse and otherwise use data," said Gregory Bryant, senior vice-president and general manager of the client computing group at the US processor maker Intel Corporation.
To truly understand the depth and sophistication of the world of data, consider the sheer magnitude of data that is present today and predicted to proliferate further in the near future.
"By 2025, we estimate that about 80 billion devices will be connected to the internet. That is up from about 11 billion today," explained Mr Bryant. "And what is significant about this is that we're not just talking about phones and personal computers, but soon devices like autonomous cars, drones and smart devices are going to be connected. That is going to quickly lead to an explosion in growth of data creation and consumption."
In the near future, it is estimated that the average person will generate 1.5 gigabytes of data per day, according to Intel. An autonomous car is expected to generate around 4 terabytes of data on a single day, and a smart factory one petabyte (one million gigabytes). In a nutshell, the bigger they are, the more data they send.
"Every device, every sensor, [and] every console that connects to the internet is generating a vast amount of data that is going to help accelerate that virtuous cycle of growth," said Mr Bryant.
"Smart cities across the globe are replacing outdated infrastructure, phone booths and static signage with smart kiosks equipped with city maps, security footage, public WiFi, and emergency alerts for natural disasters. Such cutting-edge kiosks will generate around 200 terabytes of data per day."
"Smart Cities" is a term coined by IBM in 2008 to describe the use of digital and ICT technologies to enhance the quality and performance of urban services. Cloud computing, advanced sensors, the IoT, energy management, advanced urban transport and many other developments are helping to make cities more livable and sustainable.
In Taiwan, the cities of Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung have developed numerous applications and programs that have contributed to their success in the smart city sphere. For example, Taiwan's YouBike shared public-bicycle system is able to track, locate and manage thousands of bicycles in real time. Intel IoT technology also supports Chunghwa Telecom monitors affixed to street lamps to help regulate the energy usage of each light, as well as track rainfall, temperature and air pollution. This data is then utilised in public planning strategies.
Singapore is another force to be reckoned with in the smart city world. Through its Smart Nation programme launched in 2014, the city-state is creating tech-enabled solutions to improve future livelihoods and quality of life. The plan involves building a network of sensors placed throughout the island to enhance public transport networks, fostering healthcare infrastructure, and ensuring a secure but open data marketplace.
Virtual Singapore, a three-dimensional city model and collaborative data platform, also aims to take real-time technology to a whole new level. The idea is similar to SimCity where an ordinary Joe can navigate embedded data on traffic flows, energy consumption metrics, census numbers, climate information, among others, in a real-time setting.
As the technology landscape continues to evolve, computing could become invisible, and IoT devices now considered inconceivable will be innovated in the next 10 years, says Dipesh Patel, the president of the IoT services group at the semiconductor and software maker ARM Holdings.
"By 2035, IoT or connected devices will become a part of our lives, [both] public and private, and a part of our business," he said.
Around 50-60% of the IoT opportunities over the next 10 years are in connected buildings, factories and cities, where the goal will be to realise operational efficiency at a maximum threshold, said Mr Patel, citing a report by the international law firm Baker McKenzie.
Although these active devices will create a network of intelligence, they will need to be managed effectively. "Just leaving the devices to get on and do things is not going to work. We are going to have to actively figure out how to manage them," he stressed.
'AUGMENT WHAT HUMANS DO'
Judgement Day, the day that AI becomes fully self-aware and launches a devastating nuclear strike against mankind, has yet to arrive and might never happen realistically, but the rise of machines is something we all must adapt to.
Contrary to some perceptions, AI is not always limited in shape and form similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator or the sophisticated robots in the HBO series Westworld. Think of Apple's personal assistant Siri, Tesla's self-driving vehicle, or Netflix's movie recommendation application and you will have a better understanding of AI. With a market projected to reach US$70 billion by 2020, AI is poised to have a transformative effect on consumers, enterprises, governments and markets worldwide, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report.
AI has already become an essential component in developing graphics processing unit (GPU) computing technology.
"Much of the rise of GPU, in the past few years, was thanks to the rise of AI," says Marc Hamilton, vice-president of solution architecture and engineering at the graphics chip maker Nvidia.
Jefferey Rhoda, general manager of the Greater China Group at IBM, takes the AI discussion up a notch, saying, "Our stance continues to be that it will augment what humans do -- make our call centres better, help doctors make diagnoses and more."
In some cases, humans and machines are forming revolutionary partnerships. An example can be seen in how Amy Robotics, a company based in Hangzhou city in China, has developed intelligent mobile service robots capable of speech interaction and autonomous navigation, telepresence, software development kits and cloud platform services powered by sophisticated technology and cloud computing.
Even more impressive is how the Amy robot can understand speech and make conversation with people in a noisy environment, recognise specific people and say hello to them, and follow a person in front of it with a command, "Hello Amy, follow me."
Indisputably, AI is a force to be reckoned with. In a major breakthrough last month, the Google AI program AlphaGo defeated Ke Jie of China, the world's No1 Go player. It was a major milestone for AI as the ancient Chinese board game is vastly more complicated than chess, possessing more possibilities, it is said, than the total number of atoms in the visible universe.
A similar example of dominance occurred at Computex Taipei 2017, Taiwan's annual grand computer expo, where a chess-playing robot held its unbeaten record firmly. To get a glimpse of how this AI works, the embedded intelligent vision system allows it to see different objects on the chessboard, enabling the eye-to-hand coordination necessary to play the strategic game -- and even generously pour coffee into a cup for its opponent -- said Jenny Lin, senior administrator for the intelligent vision system division at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute.
The possibilities of AI are endless. For instance, a Vietnamese-built product called Sero.ai helps untrained farmers detect crop abnormalities in advance via an AI imagery engine. Sero.ai helps diagnose plant diseases and identify pests using mobile photos, locate fields on the map, measure farmland, and follow crop development and potential problems throughout the growth cycle. It can also obtain data on weather conditions in the region and compare own productivity with that of nearby farms.
SECURITY CONCERNS
While costs related to infrastructure, connectivity and device development are barriers to wider adoption of IoT, network, device-to-device and connection security is a key challenge, said ARM's Mr Patel.
"Security is very hard because it can never be perfect, [but] can only be better," he said. "As it gets better you are going to have to update things, maybe updating devices [and] software that runs on devices."
As mobile and stationary devices alike increasingly want full access to cloud-based technology, "faster, more reliable and secure connectivity" will be required, says Martyn Humphries, vice-president and general manager of i.MX applications processors for consumer markets at NXP Semiconductors.
Patrick Ekdahl, head of platform security research at the Swedish network provider Ericsson, said developing and scaling the fifth generation of mobile network technology around the world would not only call for a new trust model and a new service delivery system, but also call forth new security concerns and an evolving threat landscape.
"With the sheer amount of information technology devices that will be connected, the threat is going to be much bigger," Mr Ekdahl warned.
While the benefits of AI development to humans are clear, potential pitfalls remain on the horizon and cannot be discounted. In the words of Stephen Hawking: "The rise of powerful AI will be either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity."
While science-fiction writers and filmmakers tend to focus on catastrophic Judgement Day scenarios, concerns about ethics and social inequality are more pressing in the real world.
"There are two main economic risks: first, that a mismatch may develop between the skills that workers have and the skills that the future workplace demands; and second, that AI may increase economic inequality by increasing the return to owners of capital and some higher-skill workers," said Edward Felten, a professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton University in the US.
It is also worth noting that autonomous weapons are AI systems that are programmed to kill. In the hands of a wrong person or a warmonger state, these weapons could easily cause mass casualties, while an AI arms race could inadvertently lead to an AI war with terrible consequences for humans.
