As enhanced video surveillance (EVS) technology has proliferated through industrial facilities, business and technology leaders have realized that these tools also have broad potential applications in the world of workplace safety. Like the security guards responsible for detecting intrusions, workplace managers faced an almost insurmountable task of identifying unsafe conditions and correcting them before an accident led to injury or property damage. Applying new analytics techniques to the video streams provided by the surveillance system allows managers to receive the same type of proactive alerting for safety issues. Powered by artificial intelligence, these analytics systems interpret what’s taking place on the video and alert stakeholders of issues that require attention.

The asterisk has long been used to highlight exceptions or to call attention to a footnote or annotation. For example, a home run record that was influenced by an extended baseball season was noted with an asterisk. This mark is also used to call out legal terms or extended information on a topic.

I think we should be using an asterisk in our conversations about Industry 4.0. This blog explains why I chose an asterisk instead of some other mark in my description of Industry 4.0*.

A few years ago, many lines of business (LOBs) started bypassing their IT departments to buy cloud services directly. That’s because IT couldn’t provide the resources they needed fast enough to build and test new products — projects that would enable the company to make more money and stay competitive. History may be poised to…

When most people think about wearables and the Internet of Things, it’s usually smartwatches and fitness trackers that come to mind. But the world of wearable IoT is a lot bigger than that, and the devices do much more than alert users to text messages or track their number of steps. By 2020, the number…

Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been around for a long time. In the 1940s it was used successfully to identify airplanes. In the ’60s and ’70s, still a government technology, it was used to keep secrets safe and restrict access to sensitive areas. In the ’80s, passive tags were created. This helped reduce the price…

The days when digital technology lived only on our desktops and in our data centers are gone. Now almost everything in our work environment is digital, from our vehicles to our air-conditioning systems. And we have powerful computers in our pockets at all times. IT leaders must understand — and respond to — this new…