Increasing Connectivity of Networks for Assisted Living
The article from Financial Times is about Panasonic’s goal to pioneer a ‘smart city’ in Berlin, Germany. The company has been researching Japan’s ageing population and is now applying the knowledge to a new ‘smart city’. The city is estimated to be completed in the summer of 2018. Panasonic is planning to include a whole array of technologies that center around Internet of Things connectivity. These include “a refrigerator could detect when food was missing, so it could then contact a local grocery store and schedule a delivery without any human interaction” and televisions that can monitor a person’s health. Internet of Things is a budding technology that results in a network between everyday machines, like coffee makers and thermostats, allowing them to communicate and accomplish tasks without the help of a human. In addition to machine assisted living, Panasonic plans to incorporate renewable energy into the city allowing for self-sustainability and a smaller carbon footprint.
This idea stuck out to me because as a child, I thought it would be extremely cool to live in a smart house but never really thought it would be possible. Now we have companies like Panasonic creating these ‘smart’ appliances to do what I have always dreamed about. Connectivity in Internet of Things is related to the course because it is a combination of mainly Technological Networks and somewhat Who-talks-to-Whom Graphs, but its more of what-talks-to-what. What is interesting about this is now society is not only analyzing networks, but also creating networks in a way that can be beneficial to the parties involved. It allows for a separation of tasks, but continues to keep everything together as one cohesive unit. Networks occur naturally in everyday life, but it is when a network is purposely created that it can have a large impact.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/86877b34-6f6d-11e6-9ac1-1055824ca907.html?siteedition=intl#axzz4JJVvA1lb