14th Jan 2020
New technologies will impact every market and every industry in a way that many of us have not yet begun to consider. Here is how to make the most of it.
If you are a tennis player who also loves design, like me, you’ve probably already heard about the internet-connected tennis racket that uses sensors within the racket to determine your swing and why you keep hitting the ball off the court. Maybe you’ve heard about the Commuter x Jacquard, a jacket that connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth – the result of a collaboration between Google and Levi’s. With a haptic buzz on your cuff, you are reminded about the phone you left behind; by swiping your sleeve, you can skip a song; while a tap on the shoulder strap takes a picture.
Everything that can be connected, will be connected
The above exemplifies how companies can adopt the Internet of Things (IoT) to maximize business value – by embedding sensors, software and other technologies into their physical assets to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet.
How this rapidly advancing technology is deployed to reduce food waste by supply chain optimization is another cool example of its potential. According to a UN report, as much as 30% of the world’s food is lost or wasted between farm and fork, equivalent to around $750 billion. The Danish company Globe Tracker, which specializes in monitoring refrigerated shipping containers, offers a solution to remotely monitor and control power loss and equipment failures as containers travel the world. By transmitting real-time tracking data from refrigerated containers and its sensors, near real-time data is shared with their customers, throughout the supply chain, from end to end. This prevents load loss and spoilage and some of the 1,3 billion tonnes of food wasted around the world every year are, instead, saved.
The smartphone and 4G have already transformed the way we communicate, consume and live; with 5G, we are entering the next generation of mobile communication. Coupled with an array of other new technological solutions like IoT, edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, 5G is powering the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the same way that steam, electricity and silicon powered the previous three. Outfitted with superpowers such as capacity, speed and lightning-fast response time, 5G provides a solid foundation for this transformation. With faster and more reliable connectivity, industries can digitally transform their businesses and manufacture their products in much smarter ways.
5G – 400 times faster than the blink of an eye
By being a software-defined network, 5G will replace the need for cables by operating on the cloud instead. It will have a hundred times better capacity than 4G and will dramatically improve internet speed. Response times will also be much faster with 5G. The 4G network responds to our commands in just under 50 milliseconds; with 5G it will take around one millisecond – 400 times faster than the blink of the eye. For a world that is increasingly dependent on the internet to function, a reduction in time delay is critical.