Cognitive IoT: Connected Devices to Get More Advanced with Sentient Tools

When demands are high and resources are yet to be explored, it is wise to encourage advancement through the amalgamation of technologies and give rise to exclusive mechanisms. Today, IoT or Internet of Things has also advanced to serve as cognitive IoT. Cognitive IoT is the process of implementing cognitive computing technologies on the data generated by connected devices.

According to research firm Frost & Sullivan, IoT will transition to cognitive, predictive computing over the next 12 to 18 months. The report further claims that IoT, overall, is also about to grow rapidly. It predicts a 20.3% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) worldwide leading up to the year 2023. That will be a jump to 45.3 billion devices, up from 12.4 billion IoT devices in 2016.

Frost & Sullivan also noted that cognitive computing, which is when a machine is programmed to simulate human thought processes, will partly drive that growth, along with further microelectronics development and "ubiquitous connectivity."

Moreover, the research firm further said, "We are about to shift to the "use of artificial intelligence to transform smart devices". IoT devices will react to changes in the environment without human intervention."

It also predicts it won't just be predictive or cognitive AI that rolls in over the top of IoT, that cognitive computing wrapped into the IoT will be augmented by sentient tools. Sentient computing adds perceptions, awareness and even feelings to machines.

If this prediction about sentient functions goes correct, the industry will see sensors perceiving their environments and acting accordingly. IoT could become mindful of location and social situations which is a step beyond a device or a platform's backend merely thinking like a human.

Experts even assert that sentient tools will be the next leap for computational systems overall, anyway. Futurist Brian David Johnson wrote in a paper published on Frost & Sullivan's website, "Situational awareness, intelligence, social awareness and the ability to communicate are all to be considered parts of a sentient tool."

According to Johnson, "These tools are 'what comes next.' They emerge from a base of computational, sensing and communications technologies that have been advancing over the last 50 years."

He further noted that local and networked sensors will envisage the outside world through both expertise sharing and data. That will be coupled with processing, comprehension and "making sense of the world," says Johnson. Tools will understand what they are working with from a social point of view, and communication will be enhanced. He uses examples of voice and haptic feedback.

To recall, Johnson says in his September 2016 paper for Frost & Sullivan that sentient tools are not meant to copy humans exactly but merely provide an augmentation — working alongside humans.

To get there, data becomes everything. It's the most important element of cognitive and sentient IoT AI, the researcher says.

Interestingly, as noted by Network World, Frost & Sullivan says data collection, storing and communication need to be standardized across varied industries. That would be good for large platform vendors, it suggests. If that comes about, expect to see perhaps just a handful of IoT platforms in the future.

But of data itself, the firm says: "AI will get smarter with data, and the IoT will become useful with AI."

In other words, data and IoT will go together as a matter of course. According to Johnson, "No company will be around in 20 years' time without a fundamental understanding of this fact."