More on EBBITS, IoT and UC

This is the fifth of an eight-part weekly series of articles that leads up to the UC Summit 2012 that will take place May 6-9 in La Jolla, CA. See the UC Summit website for more details. Delivered by Samantha Kane of Kane-MacKay & Associates, a UCStrategies Expert.

The EBBITS Project (Enabling Business Based Internet of Things and Services) is part of the Cluster of European projects and is partly funded by the European Commission. It's a four-year program that was started in 2010 that has planned a significant number of deliverables, many of which are available as free downloads to the public.

What is unique about EBBITS is the Project Aims. To understand more about the project is this overview: "The EBBITS project does research in architecture, technologies and processes, which allow businesses to semantically integrate the Internet of Things into mainstream enterprise systems and support interoperable real-world, on-line end-to-end business applications."

"The EBBITS platform will support interoperable business applications with context-aware processing of data separated in time and space, information and real-world events (addressing tags, sensor and actuators as services), people and workflows (operator and maintenance crews), optimisation using high level business rules (energy and cost performance criteria), end-to-end business processes (traceability, life-cycle management), or comprehensive consumer demands (product authentication, trustworthy information, and knowledge sharing)."

"The EBBITS platform features a Service oriented Architecture (SoA) based on open protocols and middleware, effectively transforming every subsystem or device into a web service with semantic resolution. The EBBITS platform thus enables the convergence of the Internet of People (IoP), the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of Services (IoS) into the "Internet of People, Things and Services (IoPTS)" for business purposes."¹

The EBBITS platform looks to create a communication infrastructure that would link Enterprise Information and Resource Systems, Public Information Systems, Manufacturers, Consumers and Professional Users.

For example, tags or sensors could provide user information regarding use or potential product issues back to the EBBITS platform that could be used to improve the product. It could prompt a service call from field service or notify technical support that a user was having issues and provide specific technical reporting. This could also be used to anticipate potential production schedules based on volume requirements of any item that may need replacement, including food items stored in a refrigerator or perhaps the refrigerator itself.

Because of the end to end business processes nature of the EBBITS, the connected Smart Home owner would be able to scan a prescription to arrange for a re-fill or to request information about potential drug reactions from the manufacturer or physician.

The connectivity of a platform like EBBITS could be leveraged to assist with providing Smart Cities all types of useful information. Using GPS and Geospatial capabilities combined with Smartphone's, transit users would be able to provide location pickup requests that, when combined with other requests would provide some indication of ridership and transit needs. Traffic patterns could then be influenced by synchronizing traffic lights to improve rush hour flows.

New Smartphone chips like the new Broadcom BCM4752² means that location information can be provided down to the inch, even inside buildings. This type of information could be invaluable in an emergency situation when EMS responders are looking for E911/NG911callers.

Add the EBBITS Platform and the Smartphone could make the shopping experience for consumers look considerably different, as information could be provided to guide the consumer to specific locations and then using the Near Field Communication (NFC) capability, be able to confirm the required information on any product and complete the transaction using a secure NFC payment method.

This type of forward thinking will provide some significant benefits to anyone that is involved in supplying products for the UC market. Become a "GO TO" UC Vendor and not a "Me Too" UC Vendor to your customers.

References

¹ EBBITS http://www.ebbits-project.eu/articles.php?article_id=1

² BespokeTC Blog http://bespoketc.com/blog/?p=1864