More on the IoT

More on the Internet of things…

So I bought a few more Dewalt batteries and a hammer drill for a Boy Scout project with my son. Needed a hammer drill at a remote site with no power so it was a good excuse and I decided to look at the pawn shops first – sure enough I found a nice nearly new 20v Dewalt drill, charger and two batteries for about ½ the price. Dewalt is an amazing recreation from lame orange Black and Decker junk tools to the current really good black and yellow Dewalt industry leader.

I got them home and noticed the blue tooth logo on the batteries… Strange I haven’t seen that on my other batteries… So I look to be sure and yep these newer batteries have the Bluetooth logo and my slightly older ones do not… but why?

I do a little surfing and low and behold I find out Dewalt HAS added Bluetooth to each battery and hence if connected with a tool the tool and battery are “online” even off a tool the battery is still connected. When tools and batteries are a $100 plus maybe it’s a good idea. You can download an app and review the charge and last time your phone “saw” your tool. Low and behold the Internet of Things is surrounding us. Dewalt isn’t using mesh but they still track items. You can even set an alert for when you lose connection. Take a tool to a job site forget it and drive away and your phone will text you an alert… Even better you can ask the tool to identify and it will flash a blue LED on the battery – holy cow Dewalt has created 2 way coms to each battery.

This sounds great UNTIL you consider the following. In many secure environments electronic communications are prohibited, especially two-way communications. Imagine a repair guy coming into a secure space with an escort and being asked you don’t have a cell phone or computer correct? No… But you didn’t ask if any of my tools are smart.

The genie is out of the bottle and we are quickly entering into the world of the Internet of Things. It will not be long before we have shopping carts telling us the total cost of what we have selected (without scanning) – however the stores might not want that and the ability to temper shopping desires before we reach the cash register. That’s the rub, IoT has features we haven’t really discovered yet. How long before the location of a Dewalt battery is used to infer an affair or improper hour keeping? Will the smart shopping cart decrease spontaneous sales? Could you figure out which truck has a bunch of nice Dewalt tools in it by listening to Bluetooth broadcasts?

The technology is here and probably in your home – the effects are still being explored… It’s nice I can track my batteries and tools but I wonder what will happen next in IoT.