I am sure most of you remember Star Trek and fully realized that it took on many societal questions way ahead of the mainstream media or even public concern. I still remember the warring nations they ran into between the white-black people who were in an all out to the death battle with the black-white people. It seemed that people whose left side was white, felt they were superior to those whose left side was black.
Well, more recently another Star Trek concept is about to go mainstream – the Tricorder. You remember that it would magically scan the body and tell the medical team what was wrong. Of course we now have personal wellness monitors, breathalyzers, etc. But, it appears we are about to see a new range:
To me, this is nothing more than another example of how sensors and analytics are improving our lives in areas where subjective opinions dominated. Don’t get me wrong … I truly appreciate the opinion of medical professionals, but having lived through all too many errors in these opinions and spending money like water to give them a nice warm feeling they have covered their legal risks, I am ready for a better solution.
The phrase I would like you to consider here is “replace anecdotes with analytics.” Energy audits are one of our first new product areas where we are now using precision temperature analytics to tell the auditor the actual operating efficiency of the HVAC … even the gas furnace! Now, the energy auditor visits the house knowing precisely where to look for operating problems. Yep, we too now have the Tricorder … for the home and small business customer.