Continuing our series of features on the internet of things (IoT), Housing Technology interviewed Appello’s chief technology officer, Carl Atkey, on the digital-care provider’s view on the subject.
Why is the internet of things important?
From smart toothbrushes that can monitor your dental health to connected cars that know before you do that a part will need replacing, the internet of things has the ability to transform how we interact with devices, objects and appliances.
However, the real transformational potential of IoT lies in the different commercial or business models that can be applied. For example, it’s one thing to make a smart toothbrush that can analyse how hard a person is brushing and motivate behaviour through reminders and incentives, but this can be copied. But what if the connected toothbrush came with a dental plan that rewarded the user on appropriate dental hygiene that can now be measured. This could then be supported with a subscription for additional products, such as toothpaste and other dental products, delivered on a regular basis. Now the business model has morphed into a recurring payment model, with additional revenue from insurance and consumables and an end-to-end service for the consumer.
But the housing industry, from design to build and provisioning, has been slow on the uptake. With more domestic appliances becoming digitally connected, appliances such as a fridge or television can provide information to aid and support the tenant. For example, smart devices on taps can monitor whether people are consuming enough water in a day, and smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors can constantly monitor air quality, giving warnings to people with allergies or breathing difficulties. Most importantly, housing technology is being upgraded from becoming time-saving to potentially life-saving.
What are the benefits of IoT to housing providers?
The real benefit of IoT for housing providers is the significant increase in the management of information. With new digital technologies, we can now get much greater visibility of care needs. For example, we can now collect data that can be shared with healthcare professionals and families, that can directly influence assessment of residents’ care needs.
At a time when housing providers are under pressure to cut costs with reforms, such as the government’s proposal to introduce the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap in 2019, and merger activities on the increase, the ability to drive greater efficiencies and productivity is an attractive proposition. One way IoT can help is to provide analytics to drive predictive maintenance on equipment so the provider knows when something is likely to fail, before it actually does so, enabling proactive scheduling of works to be planned.
This can also be applied to digital telecare systems. As well as vastly improving response times to care monitoring centres, these systems can be remotely monitored for uptime and if a fault appears, the ability to diagnose and fix offsite. This brings not only greater benefits to tenants, because the risk of the system failing is greatly reduced, but also operational efficiencies in the reduction of call-outs for traditional systems where the engineer might arrive and can’t fix the issue on the first visit.
Most importantly these benefits all lead to improved trust and wellbeing among tenants. My advice to housing providers and housing development managers is to look at how these new digital technologies can be used to improve the provision of care to their tenants and meet their rising expectations.
Any thoughts on the possible plethora of devices (vs. standardisation) from different suppliers for different IoT applications?
The telecare industry is traditionally reactive and its monitoring centres are set up to respond to ‘alarm events’ generated by alarm units. Many IoT devices are now generating a wealth of data of residents’ daily activities and sending them to monitoring centres. However, this information can’t always be used by the monitoring centre unless there is suitable middleware in place that will connect to the IoT device and decipher the data for the telecare service. This middleware enables all the information to be brought together in one place, from the old legacy world of reactive alarms systems and the new world of IoT providers, such as FitBit, Weight Watchers and Microsoft Healthvault, for example.
What will IoT-based properties look like in, say, five years time?
In five years’ time, you will start to see a lot more digitally-connected consumer products. There will be more white goods with smart capabilities where applications would enable the fridge, oven or microwave to carry sensors which record their use. For example, an opened fridge door might suggest food is being prepared and eaten, a water jug emptying may show a person is drinking and a flush sensor could suggest that a person is using the bathroom. These sorts of IoT devices will help monitor many long-term health conditions and provide vital information so that proactive care and support can be undertaken to improve the lives of many.
Carl Atkey is chief technology officer at Appello.
