Month: September 2019

The presence of IoT technology in the petroleum industry is not a new concept. However, the value derived from this information is what differentiates an organisation from another. As uncertainty in the global oil and gas industry ensues, businesses are looking above and beyond merely managing assets and are now focusing on integrating data across their entire value chain, developing advanced workflow solutions to predict market shifts, reduce costs, and create new revenue streams, says Anton Albrand, vice president, SkyBitz Tank Monitoring.

According to Berg Insight, the global installed base of active remote tank monitoring units reached almost 1.8 million by the end of 2017. Growing at a compound annual growth rate of 37.2%, it is estimated to reach 8.6 million units worldwide in 2022. These are staggering numbers that will surely prove profitable for leaders that capitalise on the value of IoT tank monitoring solutions across their entire operation.

How it works

Today, the Internet of Things (IoT) means pairing sensors with communications systems and data analytics capabilities to provide different areas of business with valuable insight that help eliminate ineffective business processes. Wireless devices are typically at the core of IoT, usually capturing data via cellular connectivity and then translating it back to a data centre where critical calculations take place. Ultimately the data is translated and either presented via a web-based portal or mobile application or in many cases integrated directly with back-office software.

At relatively low costs, wireless tank monitors are easy to install sensor-based devices that are dropped into a tank to measure the level, temperature and pressure of the product in the tank. Usually exposed to outdoor elements and potentially extreme weather, the tank monitoring device is extremely rugged and highly durable.

For more specialised hazardous locations, the device must also be certified for Class 1 Division 1, intrinsically safe for deployment. Battery life is equally important as the origin of data collection begins with the IoT device. Since the tank monitor operates in remote locations, the battery is designed to transmit data periodically over many years without the need for a replacement.

Visibility starts at the device level, capturing tank level and product consumption. The information is then shared across verticals and customers for total transparency across the value chain. Alerts and notifications are established based on business rules which directly correspond to specific tank levels, giving customers the ability to proactively plan and manage different functions including operations, sales, management, finance, customer service, and maintenance. See the diagram below:

How IoT affects the tank monitoring industry

There are use cases for each area of the petroleum industry, from upstream, midstream, and downstream, each representing their own set of challenges and obtainable result including production planning, inventory management, resource and equipment scheduling and of course eliminating shut down.

Anton Albrand

Specific to the downstream use case, IoT integration addresses your most sought after asset – the customer. Delivery efficiency is the most significant savings as most tanks on average, are over serviced by 35%. While many field marketers and operators are still [...]

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Recent IDTechEx research in their report, Electronic Skin Patches 2019-2029, has revealed significant opportunities in the development and use of electronic skin patches, with more than US$7.5 billion (€6.8 billion) in revenue made from the technology in 2018 and a growth forecast of over $20 billion (€18.2 billion) per year over the next decade.

However, as James Hayward, principal analyst at IDTechEx says, it also shows that reimbursement and regulatory consideration aren’t necessarily keeping pace. He also highlights the dangers of a closed market driven by regulation and reimbursement strategies which favour devices for simplicity and cost rather than effectiveness; deterring new entrants.

Electronic skin patches are wearable products attached to the skin of a user incorporating sensors, actuators, processors and communication technology, allowing the device to connect to the internet to become ‘smart’. Skin patches are one of the latest waves in health monitoring; their non-intrusive design meaning they are comfortable and discrete. Unsurprisingly, interest in electronic skin patches has soared, driven by significant hype and market growth around wearable devices starting in 2014.

A number of significant applications of electronic skin patches are now having a profound impact on health and quality of life. Some of the foremost use cases centre around healthcare and medical applications, while the consumer health market is another early adopter. As such, several product areas, particularly in diabetes management and cardiovascular monitoring, have grown exponentially to create billions of dollars of new revenue each year for the companies at the forefront of this wave.

Cardiovascular monitoring faces reimbursement and competitive roadblocks

Alongside this growth has come the need for forward-thinking regulation and reimbursement, especially given the life-changing medical context of their applications. Following regulatory approval, the funding of medical devices can come from different sources, including government-led reimbursement schemes. These provide funding for medical devices defined within certain categories according to central definitions and understandings of the performance and cost of the device. While systems do vary by country, it is typical for central procedural terminology to be linked to reimbursement amounts for each device.

Take cardiovascular skin patches for example, which exist in a highly competitive landscape alongside consumer wearables such as watches and chest straps (which provide cardiac data but with limited medical usefulness due to a lack of medical approval) as well as cardiac implants which offer a more accurate but less safe approach.

Effectiveness must have a role to play in future developments

Electronic skin patches for cardiovascular monitoring must strike a compromise between data quality and patient comfort. A patient can remain active while wearing the device, minimising additional issues caused by remaining in a hospital bed for too long. However, they also typically produce simpler data sets than the full 12-lead standard monitor and offer less control over the quality of the data produced. These competitive landscapes drive positive product development but it is often the central regulatory and funding bodies that have the power to drive change.

Previously, these mobile cardiac telemetry products have benefited from a favourable reimbursement scenario in the US, defined under [...]

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According to Frost and Sullivan’s smart cities report, the global market is forecast to be worth a staggering $1.56 trillion (€1.43 trillion) by 2025. This perhaps comes as no surprise given the continuous rise in the number of smart cities being ‘created’ world-wide, from Amsterdam, Dublin and Peterborough, to Dubai, Taipei and New York City.

Earlier, we discussed why smart cities are the secret ingredient to socio economic success. In this part, Mikael Sandberg, chairman of VXFIBER, says, it is being driven, in part, by the need for national and local governments to address the key economic and socio-economic issues facing their citizens – a better and safer quality of life; access to improved digital public services; and a more sustainable, but cleaner, way of living, to name a few.

These good intentions to make life more convenient, secure and sustainable may be clear to those directly involved in the efforts to build a smart city, but they are not always communicated effectively and efficiently to the citizens involved. This has led to misconceptions and miscommunication, which can, in part, be linked to the shift in public opinion toward the use of their personal data by governments and private companies.

For example, in June this year, UK privacy campaigners warned that Peterborough residents were ‘being treated like lab rats in a surveillance experiment’, as the city conducted a trial to turn it into a smart city. The reality was that full consent had been sought and given by residents involved in the proof of concept, but that didn’t stop the haters.

This, and other instances just like it, highlight the importance of a collaborative approach when building – or regenerating areas to become – smart cities. Part of this is helping citizens to understand the positive impact that becoming a smart city will have on their local area, helping them to see the opportunity for what it really is – a solution to bring about socio-economic, as well as economic, change.

Working with local communities, councils, as well as citizens and business, is just as important to preserve local identities, and create a future that is beneficial for all. Engaging with the city – its residents and businesses – helps those involved with the project to gain invaluable insight into the make-up of an individual area and have a clearer understanding of what the community wants to achieve. Aligning objectives also encourages citizens to have their say over a project that is going to have an impact on their daily lives, and quite simply, gives them the opportunity to really take charge of their digital futures.

Some could argue that having too many ‘voices’ from invested stakeholders (including citizens) could be a hindrance to momentum and project roll-out, but this is not the case. South African fibre-to-the home (FTTH) provider Vumatel believed that it was important to engage with the local community at the proof of concept stage. Before it commenced with its first-ever roll-out of FTTH in the Johannesburg suburb of Parkhurst in 2015, Vumatel held [...]

The post Putting the local community at the heart of the smart city: Part two appeared first on IoT Now - How to run an IoT enabled business.

From Lahore, Shanghai and New York City, to Barcelona, Manchester and Milton Keynes, we’re seeing an exponential rise in the number of smart cities being ‘created’ globally, with the intention of making citizens’ lives more convenient, secure and sustainable.

Only last month, Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs announced a 1,500-page master plan to redevelop two Toronto neighbourhoods into a ‘hyper-connected, digitally-assisted utopia’. These new neighbourhoods will also be installed with connected streetlights and embedded with sensors to provide a constant stream of information about traffic flow, noise levels, air quality, energy usage, travel patterns, and waste output, says Mikael Sandberg, chairman of VXFIBER.

There is no doubt that the latest technologies central to the creation of smart cities – such as AI, robotics and machine learning – can offer huge improvements in the way that cities are run. But on the flip side, it would also seem that technology that is being designed to enhance lives is being continually criticised and demonised.

Smart cities are being heralded as helping to create a world akin to the omnipresent government surveillance in George Orwell’s 1984. Rather than citizens knowingly sharing their data with local authorities and city councils to create a seamless living experience, they are in fact experiencing a world where lamp posts are always watching them, smartphones can predict their every move, and knowledge on them is instantly accessible from the simple click of a button.

What’s more, there’s also a – perhaps exaggerated – misconception that some smart cities are simply ‘gilt-edged tax-exempt gated communities conceived by private multinational corporations’ where the elite can live in a new ‘Black Mirror-esque’ world. Popping up across the globe, from ‘Kenya to Kazakhstan’, they are faceless, “city in a box” luxury developments – with Songdo in South Korea being heralded the poster child offering little or no benefits to its inhabitants.

All those involved in the deployment of smart cities – from governments, local authorities and city councils, to technology vendors, telecoms operators and connected device manufacturers, and more – are determined to quell these conspiracy theories. Part of this is helping citizens to understand the positive impact efforts to build a ‘smart’ city will have on their local area and see smart cities for what they really are – helping to bring about key socio-economic, as well as economic, change.

Mikael Sandberg

A starting point is ensuring that the technology that is being deployed to create a smart city is viewed as an enabler, one that is crucial to the regeneration of both the urban and rural areas surrounding the city. Indeed, fully aware that OFCOM’s Spring 2019 statement stating a mere 7% of UK homes and businesses are connected to full-fibre is far from ideal, the UK government has pledged to achieve 100% connectivity by 2033, if not earlier.

Not only is having the right infrastructure in place central to reducing the digital divide by connecting the unconnected, it is also vital to helping businesses adapt to, and grow and prosper from, the onset of the digital or Industrial [...]

The post Why smart cities are the secret ingredient to socio-economic success: Part one appeared first on IoT Now - How to run an IoT enabled business.