Restaurants as a Perfect Ecosystem
When the internet was originally set up, it was developed as a military grade transfer of data tool to protect information by ensuring it was broken up and travelled along different routes. This way a message that was to be sent to a missle silo was divided into about six parts and each part was sent along a different channel. So, if one channel got hacked, or broken, the message would not be understood by the hacker and the whole message would not be compromised.
If you divide a message onto six different pieces of paper and put it into six different envelopes, then send them to the same address using six different carriers, the envelopes would arrive on different days and not necessarily in the same order. The person who received the messages will be able to put the whole message together, but nobody intercepting just one of the envelopes would know what the message was.
Now, the problem is every time the data packet gets handed off from one person to another, across the country, there is the possibility of it being interrupted, added to, or subtracted from. Therefore, you need a ledger to determine if the information you've just been given came from where you thought it came from and if the location you are to send it to is correct. Blockchain Ledgers are nothing more than electronic handshakes between data, which basically says, "I know where this has come from, I trust it, I know where it's going to, I trust it, and I'm going to pass it on." Multiply this by six because that's what pure internet messages are divided into, and you can see where this thing starts to work in real time, instantaneously.
A Real World IoT & Smart Contract Application
We need to determine who is going to benefit from knowing the data, either before the event or after the event. If I'm a restaurant, I'd like to know who is finding out about my restaurant, who is going to come to my restaurant, and who is writing reviews about my restaurant.
Social media, is effectively an IoT environment because I might be browsing restaurants on my mobile phone, on my laptop, on my PC at home, or my wife's PC. What the restaurant is trying to find out, regardless of which device I'm using, is where am I and who am I? Do I have influence or am I just a casual browser? The Internet of Things is basically collecting data so it knows as much as it can about Nicholas Jeffery. It then differentiates between Nicholas Jeffery being a big broadcaster of content versus an influential broadcaster of content.
I might talk a lot about football, but I don't know everything about it. However, there might be somebody in the same pub or the same restaurant who doesn't say very much, but happens to be the owner of the Chelsea Football Club. One is of influence and the other is of broadcast volume and there's a difference between the two.
There is a business to business application for IoT and blockchain and there is a business to consumer application for IoT and blockchain.
That's where the IoT starts to get interesting. As I get close to the restaurant, it would be nice for the restaurant to say, "I see you are close to our restaurant, we know that you've looked at our site several times, we'll give you a 15% discount, and we have space now, would you like to come in this evening?" That's clever. When I start to walk into the restaurant, it could say to me, "wonderful to see you, Nicholas and Zuzanna. Take advantage of 15% off your favourite wine this evening." So, even before I've sat down to look through the menu, the restaurant has started to have a relationship with me, and this does not require human interaction. I've had a wonderful meal, I've left my tip, and the till receipt can be turned into data, after I've left the restaurant.
The German company called, Y-Receipts, is turning all this data into information about Nicholas Jeffery, which can be used by the restaurant, and bizarrely used by anybody, to improve my experience. The company knows, I prefer red wines and my wife doesn't like girly red wines. When the sommelier comes up to the table, he can be pre-notified that Nicholas prefers this wine and Zuzanna prefers that wine, so he can create an appropriate blend of what we both want.
This information can then be used by a retailer of wine, like Safeway, to say, "are you aware that this wine is available in Safeway?" Thereby, encouraging a relationship between the restaurant, the customer, and the retailer. On the way home, I can stop and buy the same bottle of wine from Safeway, because my preferences, my likes and dislikes, are being collected. Again, this doesn't require any human interaction.
What about Privacy of Personal Information?
Everybody is nervous about the security of information that is passed across the internet because the media reports on numerous data hacks and cyber identity theft incidences. I get quite frustrated when people get paranoid about security of their personal data, we lost our security about a decade ago, and anybody who still thinks we've got it, really should stop smoking.
We're in a situation, whereby, I think the balance of power needs to change. If I get involved in an accident, I'm happy that all of my health care details are available to the paramedic on his mobile phone. However, I'm certainly not going to let my insurance company have the information because they'll start changing my rates, depending on how many colds I've had this year. So, we need to engage in permission based marketing, which means, I will give you my data providing I get something in return from you.
If you'll tell me which car parking spaces in Vancouver are still available, I will tell you when I'm leaving home. In today's world, the consumer is paranoid and the corporation is beaten over the head with a big stake. There needs to be common ground where the consumer believes there is something worthwhile having and the corporation collects useful data to improve the consumer's experience.
I believe that health and personal security are massive drivers, both of which, will be at the forefront of how the internet of things devices will work together. As we continue into the 21st Century, we will interact more with machines that know our buying, working and living habits because of the data collected by IoT devices.
Will you embrace the change? Let us know what you think about IoT and the future of technology in the comments section. Be apart of the conversation.
Nicholas Jeffery is a Smart City Consultant in Vancouver, BC who works with companies in the Internet of Things space to help cities develop their technology footprint for the 21st Century. More about Nicholas Jeffery.
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