Technology Roadmap - Wearables

Since I started working on my Masters in Information Systems, I have been learning a lot about many different aspects of IS.  Aside from it really helping me focus my perspective on what I want to end up researching for my post-grad work, I really have been enjoying all that I am learning, and this recent class (as of this post) is no exception.

The last paper I did in this class, CGMT557 Emerging Technologies & Issues, was to create a technology roadmap for an emerging technology.  While it is something I blogged on about a month ago, I chose wearables to extend the concept into a full plan.  Here's my 2 cents...~Geek

Technology Road Map: Wearables

Current State of Technology

            Wearables are extensions of our smart phones, tablets, and phablets offering a set amount of capabilities that are inferior to our smart devices but highly functional as they are currently designed.  With innovations through miniaturization and improved power efficiencies, curved glass high resolution screens, products like the various takes on the computerized watch accessory, Samsung Gear Fit bracelet accessory and other exercise monitors, Google Glass wearable computers, various applications of systems embedded into clothing for various purposes (muscular development, health monitoring, etc.), biological chips that hold medical conditions and history details embedded under the skin, are all wearable technologies that are already changing how a lot of services are being delivered.  Through improving miniaturization processes and improved manufacturing capabilities through more precision automation systems these wearable technologies will cause market disruption for various products that currently dominate the technology market such as laptop computers and other larger portable computing devices.

Business Initiatives and Drivers & Technology Landscape

            As the mobile workforce continues to expand through thinner and lighter computing devices with more available connections to high-speed access points, many businesses are able to follow their normal workflows without being physically tethered to their offices.  Currently there is a suite of devices that enable the mobile workforce, including smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers.  Their integrated devices, security feature sets, and in some instances rugged designs, lend themselves to providing a highly portable and productive work platform available from any location with a data connection.  As a sales person in a world of light speed communications and instant gratification, being able to access critical customer and product metrics with a couple taps of a fingertip are the difference between generating and landing opportunities versus potentially losing them completely.  Combined with back office line-of-business applications linked through the Internet, the mobile workforce is able to efficiently and effectively conduct business without geographic limitation.  Wearable technologies aim to revolutionize how business is conducting allowing for more efficient multitasking through wearable communication devices, powerful wearable computers, biological microprocessors that can use near field communications to interact with the environment and connect to wireless Internet devices to retrieve data from corporate data warehouses that then use the wearable computers to process and display said information for use and/or sharing.  Nanotech devices that can enable video and audio communications through cybernetic-like implants beaming high quality, high definition signals directly into the users sensory receptors providing for an immersive experience that functions at the speed of thought.  These same nanotech devices, once outfitted with artificial intelligence logic and processing, would become the next generation of executive or administrative assistant, able to recognize trends in a user’s usage patterns to help to anticipate potential reactions to situations and provide guidance on how to successfully navigate the landscape while providing useful data streams of relevant information enabling an intelligent and informed decision process.  When a worker is presented with all the relevant data pertaining to a situation and is able to perceive all the potential outcomes of reactions to interactions, with the assistance of intelligent nanotechnologies, they are able to make the best choice for a given situation resulting in improved satisfaction, a higher probability of positive outcomes, and in turn increased revenues. 

Gap Analysis & Migration Strategy

            In order for wearable technologies to successfully transition into the enterprise on a wide-spread basis, there are a few key gaps that need to be addressed as this emerging technology evolves.  The first gap to be addressed is the technologies themselves, as a majority of these capabilities are either in their early stages of development or are only partially implemented.  As mentioned, wearable technologies are currently used as accessories for their larger host devices integrating key functionality into said accessory, such as voice-to-text/text-to-voice capabilities, capturing of health data for monitoring purposes, both capable without the use of large or complex devices that may or may not be portable themselves.  In order for wearable devices to successfully evolve into independent computing systems, circuit, transistor, and storage technologies must continue to miniaturize to nano-scale form factors.  With the recent developments of carbon nanotubes and memristors these microscopic form factors are becoming reality.  There is a group out of Australia that has successfully created a nano-transistor that is a single phosphorus atom, whose atomic radii is 0.098 nanometers.  This is a direct step into nano-transistors that, once the research is complete, will result in sub-nano scale computing methods, and is should lead to quantum computing.  This would establish the foundation for very powerful systems that could be easily embedded into biological hosts to enable the advanced collaboration and communication methods necessary to conduct business in the next generation. The next gap to analyze would be embedding these systems into biological hosts, taking advantage of the bioelectricity generated to maintain continuous power states as well as neurologically connecting said bio-hosts to these nano systems to provide cohesive functionality that does not impede either entity.  Currently no solutions exist, however neural and material sciences have made advances creating technologies that can mimic such environments, and thus lead to an understanding on how to interface with them directly through biological and chemical processes.

Governance

            The Federal Communications Commission (n.d.) website states that they regulate interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.  They are the primary authority for communications law, regulation and technological innovation.  As such, they would be responsible for mandating policy on how to manage the integration of nano devices into mainstream use and where their use is inappropriate.  As the industry evolves and technologies continue to shrink, the FCC will be at the forefront of determining how and when the use of these technologies is ultimately appropriate for public integration once the core infrastructure is in place.  Currently, there are no specific laws dictating how or when these devices can be used, only that they cannot actively interfere with other electronics, and must receive interference from other electronics, such as is the standard mandate of all consumer electronics based on the stamp shown on each device approved by the FCC for use.

Conclusion

            There has been a shift happening the past couple decades that the author has been tracking along with some peers.  As technology advances and devices continue to shrink in size while increasing in power users are following suit by moving from clunky desktop systems, to laptops, to ultra-books, to tablets, smart phones, and now wearables.  With as capable as wearable computing is commercially available today, combined with the research being done in nanotechnology and artificial intelligence and cloud-based service offerings and vast storage facilities, the future of wearable computers is already well in hand, with more innovations coming as we begin to fully understand how to manipulate and integrate such technologies as nanotubes and nanowires to allow us to take computing capabilities down to microscopic levels.  The potential is nearly limitless, with the ability to theoretically build nanomachines that are self-sufficient, self-reliant, and highly aware.  Wearable microprocessors that are embedded in a person’s skin could be the hub that enables personal interactions with our various devices and daily system interactions, also medical facilities, civil and government facilities, as well as large scale advertisements to provide a highly customized and personal experience not previously capable.  There are privacy and security considerations to be understood, which will require that regulations be put into place to protect the providers of these devices as much as it protects the users of wearable devices.  Those can only be realized as these technologies continue to be developed and infiltrate the professional realm.

References

98 Pm in nm. (2014). Retrieved from http://tejji.com/convert/length-metric.aspx?q=98-Pm-in-nm

Anthony, S. (2013). Killing silicon: Inside IBM’s carbon nanotube computer chip lab. Retrieved from http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/147596-killing-silicon-inside-ibms-carbon-nanotube-computer-chip-lab

Federal Communication Commission. (n.d.). What We Do. Retrieved from http://www.fcc.gov/what-we-do

University of Phoenix. (2014). Week three supporting activity: effect of emerging technologies on services. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, CMGT557 - Emerging Technologies and Issues website.

Size of phosphorus in several environments. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.webelements.com/phosphorus/atom_sizes.html

Smith, D. (2012). Nano-transistor breakthrough to offer billion times faster computer. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/nanotransistor-breakthrough-to-offer-billion-times-faster-computer-20120221-1thqk.html