Google Acquires Nest

In what seems to me like the perfect snapshot instagram of current technology trends, Google announced yesterday that it acquired the home automation pioneer, Nest.

Buying Nest, after forays into home energy data and hardware, seems like a great fit for Google.  Similar to the Android platform, Google is once again making use of hardware outsourcing (or corporate crowd sourcing) in order to focus on its core competency, smart data acquisition.

Nest's products are a great example of how known technology can be totally reinvented with the introduction of machine learning and UI enhancements.

The thermostat is no new product, and one of the most common technologies used in the sensing of temperature for thermostats has remained mostly unchanged over the past century since the first patent.  Simple circuits using thermistors can mimic the thermostat for less than $20.  Adding a fancy microcontroller only adds to the fun.  I've built a few temperature sensing projects which i hope to share in this space.

What makes the Nest thermostats and smoke detectors so exciting is the integration of the simple technology of household appliances and adding the relatively new and buzzy machine learning approach to existing technology.  A remote controlled thermostat is interesting, a bluetooth controlled thermostat might be fun, but an intelligent thermostat can actually change the way we interact with the technology.  Sensing and adapting to human behavior makes Nest's products both trendy and useful.



It has been my feeling for some time that consumer technology in this decade will be defined by the marriage of smart technology and big data.  Google's announcement only cements this path, and their place in the development of the machine learning era.

Metadata

Part of the motivation for writing has been my slow realization of the impact my work in data has had on my outlook.  Instead of seeing streaming bits of green CRT nonsense floating in front of my face I have become awakened to the ubiquity of data (recorded and potential) indifferently existing in our world.

Among other straw men, I might say there are two extreme reactions to the idea of the digitization of reality.  One position may state that the mining of data from our existence has a corrupting effect on the real-time bio-analog experience.  "Why look for patterns in clouds when we can use machine learning to build then mine Clouds?"  Another viewpoint may be imagined as the enthusiastic defense of the plugged-in lifestyle, where the internet of things includes the tweeting toaster and the social media keggerator.

I have come to view the data revolution as a positive influence, and hope to learn what I can and perhaps play some part in my generation's version of dawn of the transistor era.  I understand the legitimate concerns of the enabling of a sometimes narcissistic or detached attitude, or the privacy/security risks of a data rich world.  Not in spite but because of these concerns I feel it is important to keep an optimistic view of data and electronic enhancements.  While market competition may provide some of the necessity impetus of invention, an over cautious pessimism can stifle the risks necessary to create.  Optimism and the tilting at green-energy windmills are among the most sustainable fuel sources for creative progress in data and electronics.


I hope to use this space to document my efforts in learning and building data driven projects and give back to the online community of digital artists and inventors I have come to love.  I may even build a tweeting trash can...