Farming with Internet of Things

Traditionally, farming required a lot of time, labor, and water. After Industrial Revolution, people started to use machine to save time and labor. However, farmers still have a great need for fresh water. According to research, agriculture uses 70 percent of the world’s available fresh water which is a shrinking supply with a growing demand expected to increase by 55 percent in the next three decades. However, there is good news, there is a system that can help farmers not only save time, but also use less water and electricity, reduce costs and increase yields.

The SCADAfarm, developed with Schneider Electric on Microsoft’s Azure IoT platform by WaterForce, a New Zealand irrigation and water management company, is an industrial Internet of Things solution, to monitor and manage water use. “We’ve been helping transform the industry for a long time, and sustainable farming and water conservation are ways we’re delivering on our commitment to sustainability,” said Rob McGreevy, vice president of information, operations and asset management at Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management and automation.

With SCADAfarm, farmers can remotely monitor and operate their irrigators and pumps; customize sprinklers for individual crops, soil types and moisture levels; and incorporate real-time data from a weather station on the farm, which helps farmers quickly adjust irrigation for rain, wind, heat and other conditions.

Craig Blackburn looks at overview of green farms on laptop while holding a coffee mug

The SCADAfarm makes it easier for people to analyze watering plans and comply with reporting regulations. It alerts farmers if something is wrong, and it monitors the water storage and allows farmers to analyze spot prices, so they know how much they need and when to pump more based on spot price trends, a task automated and optimized for cheaper electricity at night.

This system helps farmers become more agile and efficient, and at the same time, it helps the environment to be more sustainable for the future.

“That’s why we went with Schneider Electric and Microsoft,” said WaterForce director Ron McFetridge. “Sustainable farming is going to be more important every year that goes by. We believe technology is one of the tools that can help farmers stay sustainable as a financial business, but also within the environment they operate.”

https://news.microsoft.com/transform/schneider-electric-transforms-agriculture-internet-of-things-sustainable-farming/

Keeping Your Home Safe with Artificial Intelligence

Talking about home security, people may think about dogs and guards. It is not wrong, but it is no longer the most effective method. Nowadays, people have started to use artificial intelligence as the “dogs and guards”. The idea of using A.I. exists mainly because even with guards and cameras, there is still an inevitable aspect which is human error. Using the AI can effectively reduce human error from existence. However, using A.I. still has some challenges today.

The first challenge is that the A.I. system is still expensive. The cost ranges from $20,000 for eight cameras to $600,000 for large estates. Monitoring costs $8 to $12 an hour, but homeowners can choose when to turn them on. This level of security is highly functional; however, only wealthy homeowners and property owners can and are willing to offer. The following story revealed the point very well. A few years ago, the actor Joe Manganiello realized the weakness of his home security system. He was at home in Beverly Hills, California, with his wife, the actress Sofia Vergara, when he heard someone walking around their property. Ms. Vergara checked the security cameras and noticed they were blacked out. Two men on their property had been spray-painting the lenses for nearly 45 minutes, which the company monitoring the security feed had missed. “These guys were trying to crowbar in the kitchen window; then they moved to the living room door,” said Mr. Manganiello, who is known for his roles on “True Blood” and “Magic Mike.” “I was standing at the top of the stairs with a weapon.” When the men broke through the front door, the security alarm sounded and they ran off, he said. But the attempted break-in made him realize it was time for a security upgrade. What he did is to upgrade the security system to the one that used A.I. technology. A few months ago, Mr. Manganiello and Ms. Vergara’s home was targeted again. But this time, their new system from Edgeworth with geofencing technology and A.I.-enabled cameras detected three men before they could get close to the house. “As they were trying to figure out where to come in, the command center was guiding the police to our house,” Mr. Manganiello said. “They were able to apprehend them and their getaway driver before they could even touch the house.”

Another challenge that A.I. system has to deal with is the inherent biases in the computational systems. It means that in the real world, the commercial software is nearly flawless at telling the gender of white men, but not so for dark-skinned women. In 2015, there is even an rather insulting issue that the image-recognition photo app of Google mistakenly labeled photos of black people as “gorillas”, and Google had to apologize for that. Also A.I.-enhanced security systems still struggle to determine whether a nonwhite person was arriving as a guest, a worker or an intruder. The best way to avoid this bias is to let humans verify the videos.

However, even with such challenges, artificial intelligence, they say, can see more things faster than systems that rely on humans, who may not be paying attention. To apply A.I. technology into security system is still innovative, and it has a large potential. The home security is expected to be a $47.5 billion business by 2020. Home Security will grow into a huge business that no one can neglect. Other than that, the trend is to continuously apply innovative and advanced technology into daily life.

In conclusion, A.I. technology has been widely applied in various aspects in our life, and home security is very much likely to be the aspect that widely accepts A.I.. Probably in the near future, you will welcome the A.I. to be your “dogs and guards”.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/your-money/artificial-intelligence-home-security.html