While researching for this article I found out that ‘smart’ didn’t come from its obvious meaning – that happened later. Smart originally comes from ‘Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology’ – SMART. A great definition of what we aim for.
“What makes any kind of available computing and telecommunication technology ‘smart’ is its ability to communicate, integrate and work with other networked technologies that did not previously have such capabilities, and through this ability allow automated or adaptive functionality as well as letting users access and operate remotely from anywhere by connecting with internet networks. The totality of smart technology is often referred to as the Internet of Things.”
The devices we design are a means to an end: the value of what they do lies in the data they generate – and the intelligence that comes from data.
Smart for us is where the data generated by tags and sensors create not only an object’s real time performance status, but also uses the data, combined with earlier data and external data, to project forward, predicting likely status if things carry on the way they are going.
Or better yet, deliver information that can optionally or automatically trigger an action based on predictive behavior, to keep a situation within established parameters, or leverage the opportunity to improve performance.
The quick advance of machine learning and AI is transforming companies’ abilities to speed up internal work processes, in this case calculating predictive data from very large data sets: data generated from tags and sensors; extracted from data repositories and product libraries; and externally sourced data, such as weather and road conditions.
Doing that means the object being monitored will perform more safely, and will do so more efficiently, extending the object’s life. This is turn makes the entire process less costly and more sustainable.
Smart makes data and information supremely valuable.
Further reading:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p8Yjkctv3gtw4PMqX5iK6TdSvnnDPpYjbfqCTabXXdc/edit#heading=h.qrqc0zdchew8
https://www.rezaid.co.uk/post/smart-technology-and-its-benefits
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/what-is-smart-technology/