Signify launches Interact IoT platform, will deliver insights, benefits and new services to customers

There is lot of exciting things happening this last week in tech space, thanks to CES 2019, however there is another less talked about development happened last week. First Philips Lighting will be now known as Signify (this was due to some legal reasons). Second, Signify also launched its IoT platform for connected lighting systems named as Interact.

Mr. Sumit Joshi, CEO Signify Innovations Limited

Interact will enable its professional customers to unlock the full potential of connected lighting for the IoT. The platform delivers new insights to help customers drive operational efficiencies and take more effective decisions. It also supports the company’s strategy to deliver new data-enabled services as value expands from lighting products and systems to services.

Signify has already installed 29 million connected light points worldwide and plans for every new LED product it produces to be connectable by 2020. This growing number of connected light points, sensors and devices, as well as systems, can collect large volumes of data for which Interact was designed to handle. The highly secure, scalable cloud-based Interact platform uses sophisticated and modern data management and data processing capabilities, including machine learning, to bring sense to all manner of data – creating data-enabled services for customers that will deliver benefits beyond illumination. It also offers a growing suite of licensed open application program interfaces (APIs) which will foster innovation from third-party developers, development partners and customers, enabling various data enabled services to be developed.

A typical example of such a service is occupancy data from different buildings, combined and analyzed to help managers to understand and predict how people use office space. Such insights can help deliver savings by optimizing the use of existing office space and support better designed, more efficient buildings.

In addition, data from authorized third-parties can also be analyzed by Interact. For example, for a municipal authority, news articles and social media posts, reacting to a new lighting installation on a bridge, can be analyzed and data sent to a social impact app dashboard that summarizes the public sentiment.

Launching the platform, Sumit Padmakar Joshi, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Signify Innovations India Limited (Previously known as Philips Lighting India Limited) said, “First, we led the way in energy efficient LED lighting, then in connecting lighting to deliver operational benefits for our customers. Now that light points are smart enough to collect data on their performance and the environment around them, we are tapping into that intelligence. By analyzing the data from our connected lights, devices and systems, our goal is to create safer cities, energy efficient buildings and industries and smarter retail stores in the country. We are confident that this platform will deliver immense value for our professional lighting customers in India”.

Interact connected lighting systems

These connected lighting systems, offering a unified user experience, feature applications that address industry-specific verticals. Available now are:

·       Interact Office – enables you to turn your office into a smart sustainable workspace with software that allows you to increase building efficiency and employee productivity.

·       Interact City – helps improve street lighting, safety, reduce energy consumption, improve efficiency and support your sustainability goals and beautify the urban landscape across roads.

·       Interact Retail - enables customers to group, zone and schedule connected lighting to create stopping power in stores. It also supports in-store location-based marketing services to increase shopper engagement and indoor navigation to improve staff productivity.

·       Interact Landmark – aids in managing and triggering light shows with dynamic architectural lighting to help increase tourism, regenerate downtown areas, and stimulate commerce.

·       Interact Pro - an intuitive cloud-based software for small and medium enterprises that automates lighting and allows management via the Interact Pro dashboard.

·       Interact Sports – aids in monitoring, managing and coordinating across all lighting infrastructure from a single dashboard from pitch lighting, entertainment light shows, hospitality areas and exterior architectural lighting.

Signify became the new company name of Philips Lighting as of May 16, 2018. The legal name of Signify has been adopted in India from 2^nd January, 2019.

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Amazon today introduced Alexa Skill Blueprints in India, a new way to create your own personalized skills and responses for Alexa

Amazon today introduced Alexa Skill Blueprints in India, a new way to create your own personalised skills and responses for Alexa. Using a set of easy-to-use templates anyone can create customised experiences for Alexa within minutes just by filling in the blanks. Whether it’s your own answer to the question “Alexa, who makes the best Rajma Chawal in the world?” or a skill that helps you surprise parents with a personalised story narrated by Alexa, “Alexa, open My Dad's Story.” Alexa Skill Blueprints allow you to build experiences into Alexa that are personalised to you and help make Alexa even more useful around your home. The skills you create are specially designed for you and your family, and will only appear on the devices registered to your Amazon account.

“Alexa Skill Blueprints are a new way for you to customise your Alexa experience. Personalised skills and responses make Alexa even more knowledgeable, delivering a delightful experience that is unique to you and your family,” said Dilip R.S., Country Manager for Alexa Skills, Amazon India. “You don’t need experience to build skills or coding to get started. At home we created our family trivia skill in a matter of minutes, and Alexa is keeping everyone entertained in a totally new and personal way.”

Using Alexa Skill Blueprints is as easy as filling in the blanks. You can have fun customising responses to questions like “Alexa, what is the best city?" or “Alexa, who has the best sense of humor?” You can also use Skill Blueprints to create an interactive adventure story with your child as the lead character and rename the skill as desired, “Alexa, start Tina’s Story” or create a skill to relive hilarious family moments, “Alexa, open Family Jokes.” The skills and responses you create with Alexa Skill Blueprints will be available instantly on the devices associated with your account.

You can also share your personalised skill with family and friends to use on their own Alexa-enabled devices. Skills can be shared via email, text, WhatsApp, or social media including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Recipients will receive a direct link where they'll be able to see details about your skill and have the ability to enable it for use on their own account.

Getting Started with Alexa Skill Blueprints:

Creating your own Alexa skill and responses is simple. Just ask “Alexa, tell me about Alexa blueprints” and follow three easy steps:

1.       Select your blueprint template by visiting the Alexa Skill Blueprints website: blueprints.amazon.in. There you can browse through 30 Skill Blueprints across four categories including Fun & Games, Learning & Knowledge, At Home, and Storyteller.

2.       Unleash your creativity. Each blueprint comes with pre-filled content that can be used as-is or customised as you like.

3.       With just one click your skill will be available on all Alexa-enabled devices associated with your Amazon account.

There is no limit to the number of skills you can create. Need to add even more hilarious jokes to the “Family Jokes” skill? No problem, editing is simple on the Alexa Skill Blueprints website.

Alexa Skill Blueprints available at launch include:

Fun & Games

1.       Inspirations: Curate a list of your favorite motivational quotes.

2.       Roast: Roast your friends and family with lighthearted burns.

3.       First Letter: Play a game of categories starting with a certain letter.

4.       Family Jokes: Create a list of your favorite jokes for when you need a laugh.

5.       Trivia: Create a multiple choice trivia game on any topic.

6.       Couples Quiz: Play to find out which couple knows each other best.

7.       Birthday Trivia: Play to see who knows the birthday girl or boy best.

8.       Compliments: Flatter your favorites with a list of custom compliments.

9.       Family Trivia: Play together and brush up on your family history.

10.   World's Best Dad: Celebrate dad with a list of customised compliments.

11.   Interactive Story: Create a story and test your memory.

12.   Three Word Sort: Train your brain in this topsy-turvy sorting game

13.   World's Best Mom: Celebrate mom with a list of customised compliments.

14.   Five Item Rush: Score your friends in this wacky categories game

Learning & Knowledge

15.   Flash Cards: Study, test yourself, and master any subject by voice

16.   Facts: Keep a list of facts on your favorite topic, all in one place

17.   Quiz: Challenge yourself and others with a customisable quiz

18.   Listening Quiz: Listen and recall with this listening quiz skill.

At Home

19.   Custom Q&A: Customise responses to your questions

20.   Houseguest: Make your guests feel at home with quick access to important info

21.   Whose Turn: Figure out whose turn it is to do something by having Alexa choose for you.

22.   Task Chart: Schedule and track weekly chores for your entire household.

23.   Roommate: Help your roommates by providing them with all the important information they should know.

24.   Sidekick: Alexa always has your back with these supportive and funny responses.

Storyteller

25.   Adventure: Write an adventure story where your child is the hero

26.   Fairy Tale: Customise an interactive prince and princess-themed tale

27.   Sci-Fi: Create an interactive story with a far-out theme

28.   Fable: Create a short narrative with a moral of the story

29.   All About Dad: Surprise dad with a personalised story narrated by Alexa.

30.   All About Mom: Surprise mom with a personalised story narrated by Alexa.

Alexa Skill Blueprints is available now for customers in India. To get started with Alexa Skill Blueprints visit:http://blueprints.amazon.in/. For frequently asked questions: blueprints.amazon.in/help/frequently-asked-questions/.

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Blackberry to acquire AI and ML leader Cylance for $1.4B in its largest acquisition

oday announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to wholly acquire Cylance, an artificial intelligence and cybersecurity leader, for US $1.4 billion in cash, plus the assumption of unvested employee incentive awards. Pending regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, the deal is expected to close prior to the end of BlackBerry’s current fiscal year (February 2019).

“Cylance’s leadership in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity will immediately complement our entire portfolio, UEM and QNX in particular. We are very excited to onboard their team and leverage our newly combined expertise,” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO of BlackBerry. “We believe adding Cylance’s capabilities to our trusted advantages in privacy, secure mobility, and embedded systems will make BlackBerry Sparkindispensable to realizing the Enterprise of Things.”

According to Gartner in its most recent Internet of Things Backbone Survey: security was cited as the top barrier to IoT success (35%), with privacy concerns (25%), and potential risks and liabilities (25%) also in the top five.

Cylance is a pioneer in applying artificial intelligence, algorithmic science, and machine learning to cybersecurity software that has proven highly effective at predicting and preventing known and unknown threats to fixed endpoints. The fast-growing company has become a market leader with an advanced and lightweight agent that resides on the endpoint, operates both online and off, and requires a minimum of memory and power to function. Founded in 2012, Cylance generates highly recurring revenue from over 3,500 active enterprise customers, including more than 20% of the Fortune 500.

“Our highly skilled cybersecurity workforce and market leadership in next-generation endpoint solutions will be a perfect fit within BlackBerry where our customers, teams and technologies will gain immediate benefits from BlackBerry’s global reach,” said Stuart McClure, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Cylance. “We are eager to leverage BlackBerry’s mobility and security strengths to adapt our advanced AI technology to deliver a single platform.”

BlackBerry Spark Platform

BlackBerry Spark is a next-generation secure chip-to-edge communications platform for the EoT that will create and leverage trusted connections between any endpoint. Designed for ultra-security and industry-specific safety-certifications, such as ISO 26262 in automobiles, BlackBerry Spark will leverage the company’s deep portfolio of technology that includes FIPS-validated, app-level, AES 256-bit encryption to ensure data is always protected. BlackBerry Spark enables organizations to comply with stringent multi-national regulatory requirements. In fact, BlackBerry is the only EoT platform provider to achieve Common Criteria EAL4+ for both iOS and Android, offering the highest level of security in the market.

BlackBerry expects that after the anticipated close of the transaction, Cylance will operate as a separate business unit within BlackBerry Limited.

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Coca-Cola partners with Vodafone Idea & eBest IoT to introduce Connected Coolers to understand consumer behavior

Coca-Cola India, one of the country’s leading beverage companies, has collaborated with Vodafone Idea Business Services, the enterprise arm of Vodafone Idea Limited, the largest telecommunications service provider in India and eBest IoT, to introduce state-of-the-art Connected Coolers across the country. The IoT enabled fleet of Connected Coolers will enable Coca-Cola to understand consumer behaviour and use the insights to enhance consumer experience.

Under the partnership, Connected Coolers will be powered by Vodafone SuperIoT – an industry-first solution that enables end-to-end management of device, application, connectivity, service platform, support and security. The technology will also equip Coca-Cola’s partners to manage inventory, sales tracking, monitor usage pattern and track locations, thus enabling them to increase sales and enhance customer experience.

Commenting on the collaboration, Sanjay Rawal, Chief Information Officer for Coca-Cola India and South-West Asia said, “Coca-Cola’s portfolio is expanding, and we are harnessing the power of technology to get consumer insights which can help us engage better with our consumers and provide choices tailored to their location and behaviour. The connected cooler is the next milestone in our journey towards digitizing the marketplace and establishing a connected environment with our consumers. We are delighted to have partners like Vodafone Idea Business Services and eBest IoT.”

To ensure that customers get the best taste, this IoT solution has turned static cabinets into intelligent assets through a sensor that detects temperature, humidity and door closing/opening and helps maintain the quality of the bottle of Coke delivered to the customer.

Announcing the partnership with Coca-Cola India, Nick Gliddon, Chief Enterprise Business Offer, Vodafone Idea Business Services said, “Vodafone Idea Limited is extremely pleased to partner with a global leader like Coca-Cola India to bring the benefits of Internet of Things closer to the consumers. As organisations embark on their digital journey, collaborations like this will enable them to harness the power of IoT, driving innovation and growth. I am confident that the introduction of Connected Coolers is the beginning of Coca-Cola’s journey in building a digital ecosystem for deepening their engagement with the Indian consumers.”

Karan Bakshi, Chief Executive Officer at ebest IoT said, “We are extremely happy to partner with Coca-Cola India for our Connected Retail Solution. We are confident that our solution will provide relevant insights to Coca-Cola and help them realize better ROI on their Cooling assets”

The pilot for the Connected Coolers has been successfully completed and they will be introduced in phased manner across the country.

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Ericsson launches customized network solutions for the Indian market

Ericsson announced that it is bringing the best of technology innovations to the Indian market to enable a smooth evolution from 4G to 5G. The company has introduced a new category of radio products called Street Macro; a new site type that addresses the need of operators to grow in cities with limited available radio locations. The company has also launched new radio products that support Massive MIMO technology. These products enable a smooth evolution from 4G to 5G and address the need for increased capacity, while simplifying use for wider adoption.

All installed base of radios from the Ericsson Radio System delivered since 2015 will be 5G NR-capable by a remote software installation. Ericsson recently completed its 5G platform with the launch of 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) commercial software, based on the recently approved first 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) standard. The 5G radio network software complements Ericsson’s already launched baseband and 5G radios. Operators can simply activate their 5G networks and take the first steps with commercial 5G capabilities and new applications leveraging advanced mobile broadband services.

This will cater efficiently for growing data traffic and enable access to multimedia content, such as 4K/8K video streaming and virtual reality/augmented reality. According to Ericsson’s new economic study of enhanced mobile broadband, evolution to 5G will enable 10 times lower cost per gigabyte than current 4G networks. To help operators capture growth opportunities presented by new 5G use cases, Ericsson has expanded its 5G Core System offering with new capabilities to support 5G NR and also enhanced its Distributed Cloud solution.

Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, Ericsson India said, “Operators today are looking at ways and means to increase network capacity especially in urban areas. It is here that Ericsson’s Street Macro adds a new layer in the network layer to boost capacity enabling service providers to cater to the growing demands of data users. Our studies in fact indicate that Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) will be the first large-scale global 5G use case, driven by a need for more efficient networks and better user experience.”

The announcement came on the sidelines of Ericsson’s annual technology roadshow in India, where the company recreated a “Do Zone” to showcase the highlights from Mobile World Congress 2018. Over 20 state of the art proof points were displayed at the ‘Do Zone’ to give a glimpse of the future that will be enabled by 5G.

Build your 5G Future on Today’s 4G – Efficiencies and business innovation can be created today on 4G. By running scenarios on a city model, we showcase Centralized and Decentralized Radio Architecture, Core and RAN Virtualization, Network Slicing, 5G deployment scenarios, Transport Evolution, among other technological deployments on the road to 5G.

VR Experience Optimization – As networks evolve to 5G, issues in the E2E scenario will need to be addressed to ensure best end-user experience. The demo deals with scenarios where ‘App Experience Optimization’ detects issues like latency spikes and low throughput, suggests and implements actions to improve end-user experience.

NFV here and now – NFV is a prerequisite for 5G. It is crucial to enable efficiencies and agility to support new business. The demo showcases Ericsson’s complete distributed NFV-based core network, ready for delivery for 4G and 5G platform. It enables shorter TTM for new services and higher efficiency with short upgrade cycles.

Cellular for Massive IoT – NB-IoT and Cat-M1 leverage existing network infrastructure, open up great business and revenue growth potential for mobile operators with new services and applications. This proof point addresses the potential use cases with the new technologies and Ericsson e2e Massive IoT solutions.

Mixed Reality Mining – This demo displays the future concepts on AR and VR which can be adapted for a mining use case. It offers users a chance to experience what could be done with great connectivity, i.e. 5G, precise positioning, and augmented, mixed and virtual reality (AR/MR/VR) in a mining context.

Insight Driven Automated Operations – Data-driven network analysis in real time enables more precise service operations and Customer Experience Management, thereby creating more value. Ericsson Expert Analytics makes analytics-driven CEM a reality by creating insights based on unique real-time network correlations across different domains. After many years of work with standards and technology, 5G is moving into the commercial phase. To date Ericsson has signed 39 memorandums of understanding with service providers for trials. Even more importantly, Ericsson has signed several commercial contracts with deliveries already by the end of this year.

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LogiNext launches its voice-controlled automation integrated with Alexa, Siri, Cortana and Google Assistant

LogiNext launches its voice-controlled automation feature as it integrates with Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana. LogiNext is working on this with five enterprise clients and looking to do more pilots. The clients can now just talk to their digital assistants and get all the required information about their logistics movement instantaneously. They can give instructions to LogiNext's system to optimize routes, plan delivery schedules or assign a specific order to a delivery personnel.

With LogiNext's voice-controlled automation, managers can plan the entire schedule and route with load balancing across the last mile fleet and send ETAs by just talking to the LogiNext system. If they want a specific parcel to be assigned to a courier who is more well-equipped to deliver it, they can simply say so and it would be done. It can carry out dispatch automation with a single skill-defined command.

Manager: "Alexa! Ask LogiNext to find my Truck on Route 27!"

Alexa: "Your Truck has crossed the intersection of Greenville Road moving towards its destination."

Manisha Raisinghani, CTO, LogiNext, had this to say: "Imagine a world where all you need to do is speak to your digital assistant to manage your logistics. You can track the exact location of any vehicle simply by asking a question. What's more, you can ask a question in your native language or dialect."

Dhruvil Sanghvi, CEO, LogiNext, said: "Voice-controlled automation through digital assistants has the potential to simplify enterprise communication and cut down the reaction time for any event or circumstance. It would also bring transparency as information would flow directly to the concerned people without intermediate misinterpretations. The implications of such automation are beyond just numbers, it can drive a change in the way things are done and eventually result in better strategic balance within companies."

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