Foxconn tied to internet of things, a technology that's changing all of our lives — but with risks

It’s an odd mix of gadgets — from smart doorbells and refrigerators to medical devices and factory machines — but the internet of things is changing our lives.

You couldn’t, for instance, have a full discussion about Foxconn Technology Group — the Taiwanese electronics giant that has proposed to build a $10 billion factory in southern Wisconsin — without mentioning machines tethered to the internet.

At its core, "the internet of things" — a term coined more than 20 years ago — is about connecting devices so they can talk to us and each other.

An example in the home is a refrigerator that uses cameras to recognize items and sends the information to an app that generates recipes. It can also send the information to an internet-connected oven so it can regulate time and temperature for cooking.

Most factories now have automated machines that are aware of their surroundings, including other machines, and communicate what’s going on to humans.

Foxconn, the maker of Apple iPhones, says the internet of things is one of its strategic areas of focus.

The company says its Wisconsin plant, scheduled to open in 2020, will build liquid crystal display screens to be used in a range of devices — from the latest-generation televisions to self-driving cars.

FULL COVERAGE:Foxconn updates

Foxconn has an engineering services division in the Czech Republic focused on advanced technologies such as internet-tethered devices. 

“The Internet of Things has passed way beyond a merely futuristic technology trend … (and) fully automated, smart homes are neither science fiction nor a vision of the future. The technology is available to everyone,” Foxconn says on its Czech company website.

The company is using artificial intelligence in settings where humans program computers to talk to other computers, which then grow smarter by themselves.

Worldwide, the number of internet of things devices could hit 200 billion by 2020, according to semiconductor giant Intel.

The expanding collection goes mostly unnoticed by the public — sensors, actuators, gauges and other gadgets working behind the scenes.

But it’s created cyber eyes, ears and hands to affect our lives in many ways.

Certain smart technologies are now essential in the “very basics of modern life,” said Eric Durant, director of the computer and electrical engineering program at Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Consider the smartphone as a gateway for what’s around the corner.

“In a few years, credit cards could go away and you may need a cellphone to make purchases. You also may need it to confirm your identity and use services,” Durant said.

Powerful device in a 'dirt-simple shell'

Onkol Inc. of Milwaukee uses an internet-based device for seniors to send medical information and activity tracking to family members and caregivers.

It’s stylish enough to blend into a bookcase or a kitchen counter.

Onkol says its device can pair with virtually hundreds of medical devices from a wide range of manufacturers. It can monitor smoke detectors, window and motion sensors, and it can tell if someone has fallen and can't get up. 

It’s a powerful device hidden in a “dirt-simple shell,” said Onkol CEO Erich Jacobs.

“When Mom takes her blood pressure, we could send the data in a text message to a family member and through electronic health-care records to a doctor’s office. The idea is to create an integrated circle of care where family members and professionals are working with the same information,” Jacobs said.

Onkol’s device uses a cellular network connection, so that no home internet service is needed, and the little box — shaped like a toaster — is meant to be as unobtrusive as possible.

The company says it’s a simple plug-and-play piece of equipment. 

“We have a fundamental rule we try to follow, which is any time you ask an elderly person to interface with a new device, you are asking for trouble,” Jacobs said.

There’s a fine line between monitoring someone, for good reasons, and being invasive.

Yet Jacobs said internet-of-things devices could allow more older people to live at home on their own and receive timely, valuable care.

In some ways, he said, the internet of things is “wasted on the young.”

Local companies could benefit

Rockwell Automation and building-controls giant Johnson Controls are well positioned to benefit from connected technology aimed at creating smart homes, factories and office buildings.

Smaller firms are well positioned, too.

“We are rooted in the internet of things,” said Joe Scanlin, founder of Scanalytics Inc., a Milwaukee firm whose software helps create “intelligent buildings” by tracking the movement of people.

If there’s something that could pull the plug on internet-based gadgets, it would be a massive breakdown in online security.

Researchers have shown that “smart vehicles” can be hacked, and vulnerabilities have been exposed in everything from heart pacemakers to power plants.

Analysts showed how a flaw in the design of smart light bulbs could be exploited for a "bricking attack" that knocks out a city’s traffic lights, the Pew Research Center said in a report this summer.

“What used to be attacks against data and information have become attacks against flesh, steel and concrete,” the report says.

One recent survey, from AT&T, found that 85% of businesses were exploring or implementing internet-based devices but only 10% were confident in the security.

That survey covered 500 companies with at least 1,000 employees.

Still, the benefits of connectivity will probably outweigh uncertain future threats.

“The stickiness and value of a connected life will be far too strong for a significant number of people to have the will or means to disconnect,” the Pew report noted.

Everyone has their own tolerance for risk, and that line can move as technologies become more accepted, said Durant from Milwaukee School of Engineering.

But we are well past the point where any one person or government agency can completely understand the risks. 

“Even when government tries to keep up, they are three steps behind,” Durant said.

Akin to the early days of the personal computer, people in the internet-of-things field are grappling with issues such as standardization — so that devices are talking with each other rather than putting up walls of silence.

There will be greater emphasis on creating “ecosystems” where different devices, such as gadgets used in the home, work together harmoniously.

“We are not quite there yet, but that’s what the next level will be,” said Raj Veeramani, founding director of the Internet of Things Systems Research Center at University of Wisconsin-Madison.