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'Viral innovation' to bring industrial revolution?

NI has released NI Trend Watch 2015 report which examines topics – from the industrialization of the Internet of Things to the maker movement

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Sanghamitra Kar
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BANGALORE, INDIA: NI has released NI Trend Watch 2015 report. The second annual report examines topics – from the industrialization of the Internet of Things (IoT) to the growth impact of the maker movement.

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NI Trend Watch 2015 covers trends in these areas:

5G: The Internet for Everyone and Everything – The mobile Internet encourages innovation and inspires researchers to think beyond faster data and greater capacity. New networks, referred to as 5G, may unleash enormous economic potential.

The report reveals that by 2020, 50 billion devices will be connected to mobile networks worldwide, and these aren’t just devices connected to a human hand.

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The findings state that to unlock the potential of IoT, 5G must address network response times (latency). Control without deterministic response times limits the utility and adoption of these technologies. It’s estimated that latency on current networks is on average in the tens of milliseconds range with a very wide standard deviation.

When exposed to IoT, Big Iron ATE Will Rust – "Design is an incredible challenge for smart devices. All the devices needs to be tested which makes the process expensive. Then the test engineers need to find ways to save costs and redesign the product. The costs enhances when new version, new functionality comes in. This again involves rebuilding and re-testing," said Victor Mieres, VP, emerging markets, National Instruments.

For the testing challenges of tomorrow, traditional automated test equipment (ATE) falls short. Test engineers need smart ATE for the smart devices of the IoT.

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The Industrial IoT (IIoT) – The IIoT is a vast number of connected industrial systems that are communicating and coordinating their data analytics and actions to improve industrial performance and benefit society as a whole.

The report stated that this challenge becomes even more daunting and complex when comparing the requirements of the industrial internet to those of the consumer internet. Both involve connecting devices and systems all across the globe, but the IIoT adds stricter requirements to its local networks for latency, determinism, and bandwidth.

The Impact of the Maker Movement – The maker movement is driving engineering into the mainstream. Makers around the world are inspiring each other to create (or “make”) smart gadgets, robotic gizmos, autonomous drones, and wearable devices. These innovations are no longer monopolized by multimillion dollar companies. Instead, makers work in home garages and collaborative workspaces with their peers.

More importantly, they openly share their inventions online to inspire new innovations from other makers. This type of grassroots “viral innovation” is disrupting the status quo. Is this the beginning of the next industrial revolution?

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