Smart Industry 1/2018

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DJI AeroScope
Keeping an eye on drones
Registration #:
093157183856368
Drone owners can now voluntarily identify their flight
operations to authorities without sacrificing privacy
thanks to IoT technology. AeroScope, a new aerial ident
ification system from Chinese drone manufacturer DJI,
allows law enforcement and aviation officials to track
airborne drones remotely in response to safety and
security concerns. The system broadcasts the drone’s
location, speed, heading, and serial number to receivers
installed by the authorities at sensitive locations or in
response to complaints. DJI says AeroScope addresses
the concerns of authorities who have to identify and
track illegal drone activity. The company says it will work
with other drone manufacturers to create a standardized
version of its “electronic license plate for drones.”
Microsoft
IoT simplified by Microsoft
cing the time, investment, and the
skill sets required to develop a robust
enterprise-grade IoT solution,
Microsoft claims IoT Central will enable
clients to reap the business benefits
of IoT faster than ever.
Berg Insight
Connected care is booming
will be overtaken by next-generation
telecare as the largest segment of
the connected-care market with a
forecasted 8.1 million users in 2022.
However, traditional telecare will still
boast around 6.2 million users, and
telehealth will have 4.0 million users
by the end of the same period.
Finding people skilled in building
and managing connected solutions
can be a major obstacle to successful
IoT solutions. No more: Microsoft
is now offering a highly scalable IoT
software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution,
Microsoft IoT Central, which supports
best practices and high security. It also
provides the reliability, regional availability,
and global scale of Microsoft
Azure cloud.
The goal is to allow companies to build
production-grade IoT applications in
hours without having to manage the
back-end infrastructure or to teach
employees new skills. Devices can be
connected in seconds and users can
move from concept to production in
a few hours.
IoT Central leverages advanced privacy
standards to ensure clients can remain
in control of their data. By redu­
IoT Central
Microsoft employs
automation to speed up
IoT back-end programming
Anders Frick
Social and health care
need to be delivered
more efficiently
IoT analyst firm Berg Insight reports
that connected-care solutions are
booming, and the number of users
is expected to grow at a compound
annual rate of 18.7%, reaching 16.5
million within the next four years.
Next-generation telecare systems are
also appearing with added features
such as video communication and
remote visits.
“There is a strong need for solutions
that enable social-care and health-care
services to be delivered more costeffectively
without compromising
the quality of care,” says Anders Frick,
senior analyst at Berg. He believes
traditional telecare alarm buttons
Amazon
Alexa enters the office
Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa has
been welcomed into many homes
(see Robot 2020, p54), but now the
voice-command, virtual assistant is
heading into offices across the world.
Alexa for Business will be able to book
conference rooms where attendees
can start meetings and control the
equipment in the room through
spoken commands. Companies can
tailor Alexa by building customized
“private skills” which can be integrated
with IT applications and other office
systems. The additional functionality
for Alexa was revealed last December
at Amazon’s annual AWS Re:Invent
conference in Las Vegas.
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