In this installment of Kaleido Insights’ video series exploring the future technology-related impacts of COVID-19, we cover the topic of “ambient computing.”
Ambient Computing: How are technologies digitizing the physical world that we interact with?
Consumers may become familiar with several new “safety and sanitization” technology, including interfaces such as thermometers or thermal cameras in order to enter a store, or contactless kiosks to interact with service representatives. Home owners, office managers, and transportation administrators will look to new technologies to detect, manage, and sanitize spaces with frequency. These technologies may include UV cleaning devices, automated aerosol sprays, or wandering sanitization robotics that use chemicals or UV to sanitize the world.
Increased monitoring of human movement and biometrics will become the norm. Sensors such as GPS on devices, mandatory contact tracing apps, machine learning of video feeds, and automated drones will become commonplace to track the movement of humans.Technology will strive to ensure social distancing in public and workplace areas using cameras, machine learning, thermal devices, and more.
Supply chains of raw materials and finished goods will require greater flexibility as the world shifts shipping routes and final consumption locations. Existing 5G and IoT opportunities, such as factory automation, digital twins, “pop-up” or “roaming” retail, will be increasingly oriented around resilience. Sensors, networking, edge, and cloud supported decentralized networks, will make scaling up or down operations easier and eliminate redundancy.
