Birth of an industrial ecosystem

The Internet of Things was in dire need of a first rank actor to propose an overall industrial vision. It is to this position that Intel has stepped up to in the last months, with a 360° view that covers many aspects neglected or omitted by the protagonists of this emerging sector.

The multiple actions and product launches these last years around IoT foreshadowed two possible outcomes. A top or a flop. With a tendency for the latter, as the abundance of creative but disorganized initiatives raised fears of incompatible standards and above all, riddled with risks and potential vulnerabilities after massive adoption which would mean a huge hangover for its users. A consensus had emerged: the IoT platforms were not safe!

Given the massive amount of personal data at risk, Intel reckoned it needed to act. Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, has therefore taken the lead in demonstrating several times since Intel Developer’s Forum, an open initiative several floors and at the disposal of developers worldwide. Enough to ensure solid and reliable foundation to support the emergence The Intel Developers Forum is the place where you speak, see and experience the future of technology and innovation by looking at the past and future progress due to developments around Intel technologies “Intel builds Products and developers make them accessible to users, ” declared Krzanich during his opening address. Three days of preview of the new generations of Intel Products and a creativity at its highest level according to Intel’s CEO “this is the first time that there are as many diversity in terms of opportunities for developers. We arrive at the age of customization computing…” And IoT participates significantly to this market development for cars, clothing, home…

A POTENTIAL IN THREE AXIS
Intel categorizes this potential development in three axis that describe and guide innovation. The first is “Sensification” a neologism that designates the sound, the touch and the usual interface between user and machine. The need today is to have the same feelings between a machine and its user than that one would have with another human being. More natural sensations during exchanges with its IT equipment. Exchanges which are not necessarily at the initiative of the user, that do not require to push a button for the machine to respond to the interrogations of its user. The second axis is “Smart and Connected”. It refers to the “personalization” of the computing environment for a given user. Finally the last assertion, “Extension of You” represents, according to Intel, the computer that becomes an extension of a person.

The Sensification, some achievements
We talk and we hear: this basic principle gave birth to a product co-developed by Intel and Microsoft: Wake-on-Voice runs on Windows 10. The computing device remains listening permanently using the included audio technology in the processor and, in one low power state which does not exhaust the batteries. It works with Cortana, Microsoft’s digital personal assistant, competitor to Apple’s Siri, Google Now and Blackberry Wizard. Google, Intel tackled rather to the reduction of latency in the field of audio and it is here substantially closer exchanges audio in real time. Regarding Intel’s RealSense technology, it may allow, among other things, robots, drones and generally any moving camera that incorporates this technology, avoid obstacles encountered on his path. Still using technology RealSense, Tango is a GoogleèIntel co-developed project which opens new possibilities for developing applications on smartphones. For example, in the field of augmented reality, scanning physical environments in 3D using a smartphone almost in real-time. At the heart of all these innovations, the equipment like the software are often open source. And in the case of the Jeeves home robots, Robotics Foundation made the Opensource part of the endeavour. In connection with the RealSense technology, a new ecosystem has formed around Intel with over 13 supported platforms: Linux, Android, Ross, Windows 10, Unity, Twitch (company that offers the technology to stream video games, VoD and social gaming), Scratch, OSVR, Xsplit, Structure SDK, project tango, Unreal engine … Sensification is also prevalent with the focus on sensors with respect to video games, physical and virtual. The idea is to change the relationship between the gamer and play. Everything is in the felt as demonstrated by the game co-developed by iRacing and VRX. Beyond software development, all this is made possible through Skylake, the sixth-generation architecture of Core Intel processors.

SMART AND CONNECTED WORLD …
… Or how to customize the world for the user. For example, to be able to watch in the mirror and see how a garment fits you in different colors without even needing to change, as demonstrated the early virtual shopping project developed by Memomi. Another example is a project developed by Nabi, the “Baby Seat Clip” which ensures whether a child is properly secured in his seat with embedded sensors in the belt. To facilitate application developments like these, Intel has made available to developers a complete IoT platform coupled with Big Data and composed of all the essential functions (as reusable building blocks) to rapidly develop IoT-based applications: “Visualize monetize data and insight “(provides information, triggers actions, automates operations and allows the creation of services) as well as more specific functions such that “turn data into insight,” “Cloud Management “” Gateways “,” connect and things devices “, and a function “intelligence at the edge” (which filters the data, carries out data analyses and ensures that the data informs devices).

A FRAMEWORK FOR SECURING THE INTERNET OF THINGS
Intel also created a last and essential End to End Security building block to fill a crucial gap in the IoT. The market envisioned by Intel is 42 billion US dollars. Also on the security side, Intel has developed a component named Enhanced Privacy Identification, which already has two partners in its ecosystem, Microchip and Atmel. Intel provides a reference design to secure IoT applications. The results of Intel’s IoT developers program Intel launched last year are conclusive according to its CEO: 252,000 developers already use Intel’s “IOT ZONE”, and no less than 18 roadshows and 31 hackathons were held and approximately 250 co-development projects are underway.

EXTENSION OF YOU
A consequence of the fact that everything is moving towards the “Smart and Connected
IT” is ultimately to extend our own capabilities. Which in turn allowed the wearables market to explode in 2015 by +170%. Which reinforces Intel in its partnership with a specialist in this market, watch manufacturer Fossil. Within the next few weeks co-developed connected wristwatches will be announced. Last January, at CES, was unveiled Curie, a tiny computer the size of a button. Curie among other features sports Bluetooth technology, a radio and sensors. Curie allows real-time capture of data. Intel has developed such a probe that can provide real-time data from a BMX bike like the spin, the number of flips per second, the time in seconds spent in the air, the landing impact,etc. This real-time data capture can help correct and improve very rapidly the athlete’s skills.

IOT SOFTWARE KITS...
… For a strong integration between the software and equipment on Curie platforms. To facilitate this type of development, including in digital sport, Intel has now already made available specific development kits:,body IQ (physical activity) IQ and social (social interaction). Two new kits have been announced: Time IQ (managing tasks and planning) and Identity IQ (which allows to confirm an identity and provide functions when the access control). Intel has also demonstrated a proof of concept of wearables providing authentication and password: the goal is that when one approaches a device that belongs to you, it changes from locked to unlocked automatically, thanks to the “Safe” bracelet from Intel’s labs. It helps wear one’s authentication device for a PC or smartphone. The opposite is also true: when one moves away, the device automatically goes in the locked state. If one removes his bracelet, the gesture is detected and in this case the owner must go through a traditional one or two-step authentication to reactivate the bracelet. An important detail: the technologies developed in this framework have been approved by the Bluetooth SIG and are destined to become a standard, the UAS (Bluetooth low energetic and User Authentication Service Service). For the developer, these software interfaces can be used via the Identity IQ kit that is part of the “wearable” component of the software platform available with Curie.

3D XPOINT: TOMORROW’S MEMORY AND STORAGE TO SUPPORT IOT
According to the latest projections the Internet of Things promises 50 billion connected objects by 2020, which will represent a heavy load on the current infrastructure of data centers, which could come to a crawl because of current architecture bottlenecks. Intel has partnered with Micron to develop 3D Cross Point (3D Xpoint) technology. Expected in 2016, this new class of memory technology is based on a 3D architecture designed to offer a high density and which has two possible modes of operation: as conventional memory or used in storage mode. 1000 times faster and 1000 times more enduring than NAND technology and 10 times more dense than DRAM, this new architecture promises genuine revolution in memory and storage. This technology goes on sale next year under the Intel brand Optane. Intel also plans to integrate the architecture 3D Xpoint in future Xeon processors.