Humans are great – when things get rough, the smart get going. We have risen to the top of the food chain because we can think our way out of problems. Sure, it often takes a crisis to get the smart going, but once they do get a thinkin’, the problems we face get smaller.
- Google has developed software that can run on low-power devices and give them the ability to communicate with other connected devices nearby.
The above might seem obvious and inconsequential in this day of wireless everything, but underneath the surface of the obvious runs a deep current of possibility for solving at least two major problems facing humans today – expensive energy and a lack of water.
- Smart-glass windows transform from transparent to opaque, and every shade in between, in seconds. They often rely on electrochromic thin films embedded in the glass. Where it gets really interesting is the intersection of smart glass and the internet of things—the connected objects and devices that are quickly infiltrating homes, as well as other places.
Smart-glass has the ability to control temperature by automatically adjusting the amount of sunlight entering a room, a home, or a commercial building. It has the potential to dramatically reduce the amount of energy needed to both cool and heat places where humans exist.
And when you combine that ability with Google’s rather obvious network software designed specifically to manage myriad devices that use or manipulate energy, such as smart-glass windows, you have the possibility of incrementally but radically reducing the huge amount of energy consumed for just about everything.
- Sage recently launched a mobile app that lets users control the tinting of entire windows, or sections of them, with their smartphones.
The smart-glass manufacturer, Sage, is onto something big here, as it connects its smart-glass to the Internet of Things. Google is the supporting player, true, but support is just what the burgeoning smart-glass industry needs, as it grows into a major industry unto itself, an industry that will go a long way to reducing the cost of energy once the economy of scale brings the price of smart-glass down to a price point that makes it a must in every new building that goes up.
There are numerous startups and young companies flush with venture capital that are entering the field of smart-glass, and they are doing so for one simple reason – solving our energy problems is a money-making deal.
- View [smart-glass manufacturer] CEO Rao Mulpuri told Forbes that even if smart-glass makers capture only a small portion of the overall glass market, they could create a market worth $100 billion.
As to the water issue, well, Google has a hand in solving this human problem as well. As it is with smart-glass, the problem with water is about energy, but, it is also about food.
- The vast majority of the water we use goes toward generating power (41 percent) and nourishing agriculture (37 percent). But one in 12 gallons of water is consumed at home.
Yes, the problem with water is not that we don’t have it – we do and plenty of it – it is that we use most of it to produce our energy and to grow our food. So, solving our water problems is not about showering less or killing off our lawns (although this will help); it is about reducing our energy demands and finding more efficient ways to use water when growing our food.
- A survey conducted last year by the American Farm Bureau Federation, a farm trade association, found that 39 percent of respondents in major corn- and wheat-growing states were using sensordriven technologies on their farms.
Now, that is smart idea, yet, like smart-glass windows, the efficiency factor is magnified dramatically when the sensors (or the glass) are wirelessly connected to the Internet of Things. There is a reason Google is, well Google.
- This shift has been made possible in the United States by the proliferation of wireless networks in farm regions and the popularity of smartphones that can deliver information to farmers working in the fields.
Smartphones, smart-glass, and smart-farming are all part of the solutions to the problems we humans face. Clearly, these tools will help us move past expensive energy and a lack of water, but are they enough? No, they are not. We have to have a mindset transformation.
First, in the smart-glass realm, early adoption at higher cost with a trade off in energy savings needs to happen, so an economy of scale will develop. This will take a shift from traditional construction thinking.
Second, in the agricultural realm, traditional farm thinking needs to become modern farm thinking.
- Farming is moving from being an act of intuitive decision making to an act of analytical decision making,” says David Friedberg, CEO of Climate Corporation, a data modeling firm that Monsanto bought for $930 million in 2013.
And there you have it – humans are great. We solve problems when we need to solve problems, which has brought us to and might likely keep us at the top of the food, water, and energy chains.
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