Data-Everywhere Devices

Now that we have examined a brief history in communication methodologies, it is time to move to the next fundamental element in the Inescapable Data world: data-everywhere devices. A handful of radically new technologies will be pervasive in our business and personal lives, spewing volumes of data continuously. Like fuel in a rocket, data is the "energy" of the new world. This section explores a few of the base (or dominant) new sources of data to provide some background for later chapters.

RFID

We refer to radio frequency identification (RFID) often throughout this book because it is a foundational Inescapable Data tech nology. An introductory discussion is warranted up front. An RFID tag is a small electronic device that can be affixed to a box, product, or crate and wirelessly announces itself to a nearby RFID reader. They are somewhat similar to UPC bar codes, with the advantage of using radio signals and thus do not have to be carefully scanned. Some "tags" are large and more costly, holding a great deal of information, whereas others are quite small and can be embedded in clothing, for example.

RFID receivers and tags have been around for well over a decade (they were actually invented after World War II), but they have not gained widespread visibility until recently. Their recent popularity has been driven partly by the technological improvements and costs shrinking and partly in relation to critical mass.

Consider the history of those ubiquitous, black-bar UPC labels you now see on the side of every container of any consumer or business product. UPC coding was in use for over a decade before the introduction of supermarket scanners. Why? Often in technology, widespread adoption cannot occur until there is significant market penetration (the "tipping point"), thus making it worthwhile for businesses to make the often-considerable investment required to implement the new technology. Are we presently moving in the direction of ubiquitous RFID? "Absolutely," says Mark Palmer, a prominent RFID expert, "Wal-Mart alone drove 25 percent of all retail productivity increases in the last decade, and they are now mandating all their suppliers confirm to their 100 percent RFID expectations." What Wal-Mart does, the retail world does. So begins RFID's pervasiveness.

What is in an RFID tag? Well, that depends. Some of them today are as large as a small palm print and perhaps a ¹/₂" thick. These tend to be the reprogrammable ones that contain a great deal of information. According to Palmer, "In the Iraq war, RFID tags were on nearly every major shipping container. The tag listed exactly the contents of the containerboots, masks, bricks, etc.as well as the exact location within the container, avoiding unnecessary searching or dumping. The efficiency gains alone, versus paper tracking slips, which where often lost, are simply staggering." Such tags could cost perhaps $5 to $50, but are easily offset by the high value of the container goods. "Reprogrammable tags can also accurately reflect the contents of a container as parts are being depleted; a level of detail and tracking never before realized," claims Palmer.

Similar but cheaper tags are now being used extensively in warehouses. Currently, we find them on the edge of forklifts, the exteriors of crates and pallets, and on the insides of cartons (e.g., a 24-pack of corn flakes), and soon we will see them on the actual products themselvesall driven by mass retailers such as Wal-Mart. A massive acceleration takes place due to the widespread adoption (albeit perhaps through some industry economic pressure), which drives the pricing for RFID tags even lower. Newer tags are interestingly becoming less capable (and thus cheaper) and merely announce a single number (akin to a UPC value). "The goal," says Palmer "is to ultimately replace the printed UPC label with an ink-based printed RFID tag costing pennies."

The Inescapable Data interest in RFID will be clearer in subsequent chapters. As a quick prelude, the ability to know exactly where everything is at all times is critical to business optimizations and even personal (home-life) efficiencies.

Hybrid PDAs (Personal Communicators)

Hybrid PDAs combine three entirely different business and personal communication mechanisms (cell, e-mail, IM) into a single embraceable device. Their expected ubiquity will enable significant efficiency gains in our business and personal lives. Although many thought that the older PDAs would be a dominant device in our lives, they were unable to achieve penetration beyond a few small business circles. Hybrid PDAs will succeed because of three important conditions:

• Ubiquity of cell phone use. After all, it is no longer "weird" to be on your phone while in a supermarket, and you can be sure that someone next to you on the street is carrying a cell phone (to the same extent that you can be sure that those around you are wearing shoes).

• Seemingly overnight change from one type of cellular technology optimized for voice to a completely different architecture optimized for data, and without anyone even noticing.

• The increased business and social needs for higher immediacy of digital information sharing when away from a computer for down-right normal citizen needs (e.g., "Change of field for baseball practice tonight" or "Meeting at the alternate customer site up the road").

We use the term hybrid PDA, or simply HPDA, because some confusion exists within the industry as to the proper terminology. Existing PDAs that now have cell capabilities are called one thing by some manufacturers, and cell phones that now have e-mail are called something different. If the device is capable of voice, e-mail, and messaging, we call it an HPDA.

The trend toward holding your electronic life in the palm of your hand started when cell phones were crossed with PDAs. The result was a cell phone that could also keep your calendar and your contact database. Next, text messaging was added, and then Internet access and e-mail. There appears to be no end in sight to the future versatility of these multifunction handheld devices.

For example, NTT DoCoMo has introduced in Japan a cell phone with so many functions, one could get lost trying to find them all. This unit does the following:

• Sends and receives e-mail

• Plays games online

• Accesses iMode compatible Web sites and plays downloaded music

• Takes digital photographs

• Records sound

• Reads bar codes (and someday RFID tags)

• ... Oh, and makes phone calls

The phone also contains a specialized Sony-developed chip called a FeliCa chip or "smart card" that enables users to pay bills and make purchases over a wireless electronic banking system, operate appliances that can be controlled via a connection to the Internet, unlock doors, and the list goes on.

Consider the previous section where we examined various communication methodologies. Sometimes, an e-mail is the best way to deliver a message (perhaps something less time critical, possibly larger, or something that requires some deeper thought). Sometimes, IM is the best method (for quick and important correspondence). Sometimes, even a phone call is appropriate. Imagine the utility of having access to all those modes from a single device that you carry with you (pervasively) anyway.

The relevant point to Inescapable Data is that now we all carry with us an intelligent device that is wirelessly connected to the world's vast data networks continuously. This is monumental and has quietly snuck up on us. The utilities that will be discovered will be mind numbing.

Why Not Just Call Someone?

If we admit that we are heading toward a world where 100 percent of people carry cell phones, why not just call someone when you have a desire to communicate? The answer: because synchronous communication is a poor use of time. You have to interrupt your targeted party, the targeted party has to give you full attention for the duration of the exchange, and the targeted party cannot prioritize and optimize his or her communication exchanges. Furthermore, you cannot give the target the actual business object (e.g., the soccer schedule, the competitive analysis report, the "pictorial" directions to the airport). Even a message such as, "Mom, I'm outside Macy's waiting for you" is best delivered asynchronously yet immediately (given that Mom is finishing a client interview). The significance of cell phones plus text messaging is that these devices provide a way to reach nearly everyone nearly every hour of the day now, which is ideal for high-immediacy asynchronous communication without forcibly interrupting the target.

Video Cameras and Webcams

The popularity of consumer digital cameras has driven down the price of their main components and the quality up. The key component of a digital camera of any type is the CCD element (the chip that actually "sees" a scene and turns it into a digital blip); the price of this component has dropped so low that high-resolution color video-capture devices can be built in to nearly anything. In parallel, wireless networking stormed through the computer industry over the same time period and has a natural home with video cameras. It is now trivial to litter an environment with video-capture devices because the costs and wiring complexity have been nearly eliminated.

Certainly, we discuss the values of video in surveillance, for both home security and the larger societal (public) security. But as interesting is the deployment of this new source of data for real-time business optimizationsfrom observing shoppers' habits to tracking products to inspecting and controlling manufacturing machines. Advances in image-processing algorithms now enable machines to actually understand scenes. Video is perhaps the largest data source we have ever had to wrestle with in the computer world. Whereas a single text page may consume a mere 1,000 bytes of information, a single video frame typically contains megabytes of information. Multiply that by 30 frames per second and we are dealing with streams of data that are unprecedented.

In our Inescapable Data world, we will see video capture everywhere, and forevermore video data streams will be an integral part of our information lives.

Wireless Pervasive Monitoring and Sensing Devices

It is now possible to equip just about any electronic sensing device with a wireless network interface such that the entire electronic package, including power source, is no larger than your thumb. These include chemical sensors that can alert people working in manufacturing plants of hazardous chemical spills, for example, or biosensors that can alert communities when a toxic airborne virus is released into the atmosphere by terrorists, or bracelets on your infant used to monitor body temperature. These interfaces can be wirelessly networked together to form an invisible sensory "mesh." The list of potential applications for these highly discreet but powerful sensory networks is nearly endless. Because the sensors themselves transmit their data over wireless networks, they are much easier and quicker to deploy than their wired counterparts and, therefore, will become far more pervasive.

We examine many such devices throughout a wide variety of industries. The point to Inescapable Data is this: We are entering an age where just about everything (and everyone) will be emitting data and forming ad-hoc data networks. Together, we will discover values in intertwining different data sources and trending and analyzing these new streams.