IoT INNOVATIONS

When you can communicate and act in real time thanks to intelligence derived from data, that’s when the magic happens. Picture a fire alarm going off in a 12-story hotel. The default course of action for management would be to evacuate all guests. But if a central intelligence platform could pinpoint the precise location of the alarm that’s going off, the front desk could activate a camera near the source and scope out the size of the problem.

Even further, guests on just that floor could be evacuated with guided signage for the closest exit, delivered in real time, to avoid crowding. Management can also relay live information about the problem to the fire department. Such efficiencies might seem minor, but they systematically add up over time and make business operations more efficient, according to Surya Varanasi, Chief Product Officer at Kloudspot, an edge intelligence service provider.

To help businesses get there, Kloudspot offers a situational awareness and intelligence platform, which ingests Wi-Fi and sensor data to deliver such intelligence. Depending on enterprise needs, insights can take the form of intelligent spaces, smart surveillance, or even hybrid work solutions.

“With a central #edge intelligence platform, we’re able to cut across all these disparate views and create outcomes across systems” – Surya Varanasi, @kloudspot via @insightdottech

A Unified Data Platform for Edge Intelligence

The IoT advantage here is that it gathers data from a large variety of sensors—HVAC and lighting controls, plumbing controls, parking lot cameras, and more. But the problem most enterprises contend with is in wrangling all that data to feed contextual information in real time to the right people. “When there’s so much data coming in, it’s very hard to actually process it all and make sense of it,” Varanasi points out.

By running on Wi-Fi or other available connectivity, Kloudspot’s platform can gather information from various IoT edge devices and camera feeds and layer relevant intelligence—whether it’s real-time reporting or historical data. The net result is “an intelligent space where all these sensors come together and we’re able to deliver outcomes in a very simple way,” Varanasi says. “All this allows you to make intelligent decisions based on what you see.”

Since all communication devices—whether it’s signage in the hotel or in an individual guestroom or through a mobile app—funnel into the central platform, system administrators can route relevant information to the right device. Management can also program alerts into the system so they can ensure a superior guest experience.

Depending on the kind of information a business’ intelligent space needs, system administrators can set up the Kloudspot platform with different layers of data. “If you look at any space today, you have a few views of what’s happening,” Varanasi says. “We have the building management view, the physical security view, and the third is the view from wireless networks and Bluetooth access points. With a central edge intelligence platform, we’re able to cut across all these disparate views and create outcomes across systems.”

In essence, Kloudspot unites otherwise siloed views to get the most out of data. Especially important, according to Varanasi, is the platform’s ability to work with existing systems. “You can use us in a way that’s not rip-and-replace,” he says. “Once clients see that we can augment data through this platform to deliver very unique outcomes across the board, it’s very easy to show the business value.”

An Edge Intelligence Prescription for Healthcare

Improved outcomes across the board are what Kloudspot facilitated for its client Aspen Medical, a global healthcare company. Aspen Medical won a contract to provide primary healthcare in underserved areas in Abu Dhabi, and Kloudspot helped execute a digital transformation strategy. Kloudspot’s unified platform used existing Wi-Fi service to improve the patient registration and wayfaring experience through the medical facility. Patients can log into the guest Wi-Fi portal and become part of Kloudspot’s platform so the facility can route custom messages and deliver a better experience.

The Kloudspot platform also delivers a gateway service to access a Wi-Fi portal across multiple service providers so disruptions from one provider do not disrupt business operations.

Kloudspot works with system integrators to deliver its solutions and uses Intel^® Xeon^® CPUs with integrated graphics engines for vision processing. Their software runs on Docker containers on Intel service. The Aspen Medical solution uses Intel^® Core^™ i5 NUC boxes, Blade Server, and the OpenVINO^™ toolkit.

The Many Uses of Unified Data Platforms

Healthcare and building management are not the only implementations for edge intelligence through unified data platforms.

For example, Kloudspot’s Immersive Work solution enables hybrid workers to access the same environment no matter where they’re located. Through Kloudspot’s unified intelligent spaces and smart surveillance platform solutions, airports can move security lines faster so passengers can spend more time at concessions and increase airport revenue. Similarly, camera feeds can conduct license plate tracking to ensure proper parking. Management can search video feeds with tagged metadata using natural language commands to track suspicious activity across terminals and improve security operations.

The future of intelligent spaces is about presenting actionable information in a visual and easily digestible format so relevant stakeholders can make decisions even more quickly, Varanasi says. After all, businesses save money and improve efficiencies when they make timely and contextual information available to relevant stakeholders through a single pane of glass.

This article was edited by Christina Cardoza, Associate Editorial Director for insight.tech.