Weekly IT Digest #3: Adding Individuality to Clothing with Internet of Things
April 26th, 2016
Internet of Things (IoT) technologies pervade all spheres of our lives with increasing persistence - even postmen and retailers are testing the use of this technology now. Web analytic services help to understand how many users are blocking the ads, and data analysis tools help to diagnose diseases.
La Poste Groupe, French postal service, is experimenting with using Internet of Things technologies in their work. There is a dedicated Digital services department that will be responsible for its implementation. La Poste Groupe is a member of the French IoT state program. In the nearest future, La Poste will test the Domino device that notifies the postman regarding the new parcels to deliver. Domino will be a part of the Colissimo parcel tracking service. The sender will have to put a gadget, that looks like a regular USB flash drive, into their mailbox and push a button. The postman, in turn, will get a text message that there is a parcel waiting for him in the mailbox. In addition, the coordinates of the mailbox will be displayed in an app on his smartphone. This function is being tested right now in several regions of France.
Yandex.Metrika web-analytics service now offers its customers a new report dimension where you can find out how many of your website users are using ad-blocking tools. With AdBlock analogs’ increase in popularity, such report is highly relevant to content projects that earn on advertising. The service, however, does not disclose what exact kind of ad-blocking software the site visitors are using.
Dell has released a new version of data analysis platform - Dell Statistica 13.1 - last week. This instrument is targeted at professionals who deal with data (including data processing involved with IoT devices). Dell Statistica 13.1 members will be able to apply the analytical tools on devices and gateways regardless of their location. In particular, it can be used for data analysis of IoT devices directly from their places of the collection. Internal analysis tools will be available on such platforms as Apache Hive, MySQL, Oracle, and Teradata. The new version of Dell Statistica 13.1 also includes the workflow and analytical models’ templates that can be shared with other users.
IoT technologies can be applied in many ways, not just to connect devices or home electronics to the internet. Avery Dennison company and EVRYTHNG startup, that are focused on creating digital IDs for various things, decided to use the IoT technology in clothes and shoe retail. In the next three years, the company wants to equip more than 10 billion things with digital IDs. Everything - shoes, shirts, or pants - will have its own unique numeric ID and its own profile.
Once you purchase a clothing item or shoes with such an IR, users will be able to launch an app on their cell phones and with the help of IDs from EVRYTHNG receive additional information about products, their manufacturers, or upcoming sales. Besides, the purchase of such thing would be more interesting to the customer - for example, in case you forgot where your other shoe is, no need to run around your apartment in a frantic search. Just Google it.
Such a solution has a number of advantages for manufacturers as well. For example, with the help of the ID and a mobile app, it will be easier to buy new products. Another advantage of such digital identification is copyright protection, which will be an additional level of security to the customers who will be sure they have got an original product and not counterfeit.
Researchers from Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis demonstrated the efficacy of non-textual data analysis algorithms to detect cancer. Studies have shown that algorithms can analyze the results of surveys and various tests of patients no worse and sometimes better than a person and diagnose cancer in the early stages. At the same time, algorithms can analyze a large number of parameters and take into account even the border settings (upper limit of normal). 7,000 test cases from 30 hospitals were used in the tests. Earlier, Regenstrief Institute experts have used data analysis and similar algorithms to determine the spread of infectious diseases. On average, the algorithms could detect the outbreaks 7-10 days earlier than Center for Disease Control (CDC).
Studies show that hackers have become increasingly more interested in health institutions than financial organizations. Last year, it was the medical institutions that have been leaders in the number of organized cyber attacks on them. Hackers are interested in, above all, patient records as well as the information that can be used for identity theft - bank account numbers, IDs or social security numbers, information about accommodation and medical history. The next “leaders” in the number of cyber attacks against them were manufacturing companies, banks, and state agencies.
FindFace, RuNet’s popular people search by photo became a tool to expose actresses who starred in porn. The service works with Vkontakte, popular Russian social network, and allows to search for social profiles on a given photo using neural networks. Last week, users of Russian’s website called Dvach used the FindFace’s neural network algorithms to search for girls who starred in porn films. Once the profiles of the pornstars were found, the Dvach trolls threatened the girls that their “innocent entertainment” would be exposed. FindFace’s service was also a great help in the search for two arsonists, who caused a house fire in St. Petersburg.
Data analysis of the musicians’ life expectancy helped to determine the most dangerous age - the most probable end of musicians’ life. After analyzing data about the stars’ deaths during the period between 1950 to 2014, the analysts concluded that this most dangerous age is 56-57 years old and the most frequent cause of death for them is an accident or suicide. At the same time, the analysis has refuted the theory that the age of 27 is the most dangerous for the musicians; at least the death at this age is not so large scale.
Google’s new algorithm will analyze the expression of the user’s face after getting the search results - for this purpose, Google has applied for a patent that would use biometric data for this purpose. The company plans to use the technology on mobile devices and the photo will be taken with the frontal camera. In other words, Google will analyze a person’s response to the received search results to improve search engine results pages (SERPs).
