Smart Products
Although currently Smart Products are not well defined, there is an EU research project looking at some aspects of the realisation of them and offers a definition of them rather academically as “autonomous objects designed for self-organized embedding into different environments over the course of its lifecycle, supporting natural and purposeful product-to human interaction.”
The project information adds, Smart Products are envisioned to be the next generation addressing new trends, such as the need for interoperability in open environments. A consequence of this will be the need to handle the growing amount and diversity of product-related data, information and content. One key element of Smart Products will be the use of proactive knowledge, which encompasses knowledge about the product itself (e.g. built in features, past usage), its environment (e.g. physical context, other smart products) and its users (e.g. preferences, abilities). In addition, proactive knowledge comprises executable workflows and knowledge of how to interact, enabling the smart product to proactively engage in multimodal dialogues with the user.
If these definitions leave you cold, then it may be more helpful to consider a practical example! Perhaps the best current example of a Smart Product is the Smartphone. Not just because it is also a video camera, web browser and email reader to name but a few of its functions; it is Smart because it is capable of being used in ways that were never originally envisaged at the design stage. As an example, black cabs in Edinburgh now predominantly use a Smartphone communicating to an enterprise software system running in the cloud for booking and routing information. This has traditionally been the province of a proprietary hardware/software product which was easily recognisable as a product. The capability for this new application of the Smartphone has been added afterwards and crucially by someone else. This example also shows that the boundaries of what have been thought of in the past as products, systems and services are becoming blurred. The product which has been sold to the taxi operator is clearly only the software/service which runs on the mobile device and in the cloud and its usefulness comes from the capabilities of the phone to be aware of its environment, adapt to it and to communicate with and enable useful interactions with both the dispatcher and the taxi operator. How the product interacts clearly needs to take account of where a vehicle is, its availability etc much of which will be deduced from sensors.
Looking at this example a little deeper, perhaps a definition of a Smart Product should therefore be reserved for those products that are capable of being adapted to do new tasks which were not anticipated by their designers, in this case the mobile phone designers. As other Smart Product hardware emerges, such as multi-function home entertainment systems, then the field will be open for new entrants to develop and sell new Smart Products which comprise only device specific embedded software to deliver the functionality to the user and enterprise software running in the cloud to facilitate the product/service.
Ziconix is already at the forefront of developing such products, including booking systems for small businesses that do not use e-systems, where the style of interaction with users is defined by their current environment and preferences. Another example of our work is the development of a customised trusted portal for consumers, the Alphadaughter’s service.
As Smart Products continue to be introduced, they threaten to radically change industry structures which have hitherto been heavily underpinned by hardware manufacturing/sourcing and the logistics of delivering physical items to customers. Smart Products by contrast can be delivered by new entrants at the click of a button!
If you wish to discuss how the future of Smart Products may affect your business then contact us for more information.
Further Information