Last week, news of the establishment of the Ambient IoT Alliance was officially announced, counting Wiliot, Intel, and Infineon among its ranks as founding members. A press release was issued explaining that the Alliance was founded to support the development of ambient IoT, but to get to the heart of it, IoT Insider spoke to Steve Statler, spokesperson of the Alliance.
The newly-formed Alliance represents a widespread acknowledgement of the capability ambient IoT not only has to connect devices, but to more broadly improve industries like retail and healthcare. In one concrete example, ambient IoT tags made by Wiliot are now being used by delivery company Royal Mail to track and monitor parcels. The tags are attached to Royal Mail’s 850,000 containers and will provide information on location, humidity, and temperature.
Ambient IoT refers to an ecosystem of connected devices and sensors that harvest energy from the environment around them. As Statler explained: “Ambient IoT is more than just the tags, it’s the infrastructure. IoT was expensive because you had to build these big, custom devices. Ambient IoT differs because we’re integrating things via phones, Wi-Fi, and cellular infrastructure. Before IoT was more widespread, there were no radios in people’s homes and cars and appliances. Now there are, we can leverage these radios.”
In addition to the aforementioned companies, other founding companies who are part of the Alliance include Atmosic, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, and VusionGroup.
Aims of the Alliance
One aim of the Alliance is supporting Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cellular standards, on which ambient IoT is built, as they are expected to evolve. “We can expect over the next couple of years to see the fruits of the work going in Wi-Fi and cellular,” Statler explained, “there’s going to be a standard, 802.11bp, which will be the Wi-Fi ambient IoT standard, which will mean you can use battery-free tags with the Wi-Fi infrastructure that will eventually support the new standard.”
Another aim is promoting best practices and awareness around ambient IoT, as it remains a relatively new technology that requires education.
As Statler put it: “You can have the best tools in the world, but if people don’t know what they do and how to use them, that’s not going to help anyone. This is a paradigm shift. It’s a different way of thinking about connectivity.
“Before, you bought a $1,000 scanner or big $100 sensors, and when you have technology that is so small and pervasive, it requires a new set of skills.”
Because of this “paradigm shift” and the need to educate, Statler said this was why nobody was fighting for a “slice of the pie” and companies that ordinarily compete with one another in the market are willing to cooperate in the name of advancing ambient IoT.
Addressing real-world problems
“We’re working on these standards but also [are] very conscious that the standards need to be harmonised and offer different tools to tackle the same challenge, which is harnessing the power of AI and the Cloud,” said Statler. “There are a lot of standards that never get used and so we want to make sure that ambient IoT standards address problems individuals and companies face.”
The overall hope is that by working together on ambient IoT, real-world problems are addressed, such as food safety, sustainability, and reducing the cost of goods.
“These are all problems that we know ambient IoT can solve, but it’s going to work better when there’s interoperability and consistency, and that’s what the group is focused on,” Statler concluded. “That’s what the group is focused on. It has to be an open playing field for everyone.”
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