If you haven’t heard much about the Internet of Things (IoT), get ready to. I recently attended the IoT World tradeshow in San Francisco and, judging by the array of speakers, products and apps being deployed, the industry is about to unleash a whole bunch of new, how-freaking-cool-is-that technologies. And this was the “second annual” show. Things are still very much in their infancy, so I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of stuff we’ll be seeing at the 15th or 20th iterations of the event.
Samsung was the biggest star and chose opening day to launch their new Artik platform, which promises to give developers the modules they need to build a whole gaggle of gadgets. Other noteworthy products I saw included Adidas, with their miCoach Smart Ball; Muse, with their brain-sensing headband and CHIP, the world’s first $9 computer (because $35 is apparently too much to spend on a Raspberry Pi 2).
As I walked back to my hotel after the show, I passed a movie theater displaying a poster for Ex Machina. It’s a tall tale about an eccentric technology zillionaire who creates a creepy, AI femme fatale robot who (warning: spoiler alert) kills said zillionaire with a sushi knife before escaping to integrate into society with all of us carbon-based life forms. All silly, crazy, fictional stuff, right? Right?