The manufacturing industry is one of the first that will adopt the Internet of Things (IoT), introducing average consumers to the new technology trend, said a Google developer advocate who will be keynoting at ARM's TechCon next month.
Colt McAnlis, who will speak at ARM's annual hardware developer gathering, told Janine Love of our sister publication EDN that retail also will be an early adopter of the new paradigm of connecting myriad devices, machines, and others things-including even movie marquees--through a network of wirelessly enabled sensors. However, consumers won't care too much about the technology itself until it starts influencing their daily lives, he said.
"This is the classic IoT scenario, where a consumer can walk up to a movie poster, and when they glance at their phone, all the show-times are listed already," McAnlis said in the interview. "It's that type of interface between the location-aware content and human device, which should get consumers interested in these types of things. Once their primary device starts humming along with useful communications to the device-world around them, it'll start making more sense."
McAnlis described his position at Google as a bit of a middleman and scapegoat of sorts from both management who are looking for applications to have certain functionality, and developers who are looking for certain kinds of tools to do their jobs properly.
"I'm the person that the engineering team yells at when developers aren't building applications the 'right way,' and the person that developers yell at when the platform/tools don't work the way they want/expect," he said in the interview. "Basically, I spend half my time educating developers on the best ways to use the platform, and the other half of my time educating our internal teams on the best ways to improve the platform for our developers."
Along with the IoT, McAnlis also discussed advancements in battery technology, wearables, and smart Pop Tart boxes with EDN's Janine Love in advance of his appearance at ARM TechCon, which is scheduled for Nov. 10-12 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, Calif.
Google's Colt McAnlis Talks Wearables, Networked Pop-Tarts | EDN
Elizabeth Montalbano is a freelance writer who has written about technology and culture for more than 15 years. She has lived and worked as a professional journalist in Phoenix, San Francisco and New York City. In her free time she enjoys surfing, traveling, music, yoga and cooking. She currently resides in a village on the southwest coast of Portugal.