Amazon Patent Menagerie

When I wrote about the potential Amazon-Whole Foods merger last week, I may not have adequately (or at all) connected it to the nominal subject of this blog: The Internet of Things.  I'd like to take some time this week to correct that oversight.

First, let's all remember that 'Things' are physical and require a physical space in which to operate.  Amazon has had that through its distributions centers (DCs), but not in an publicly accessible space.  At best, they've had a few experiments with Amazon Go and physical bookstores in select metros.  With the Whole Foods thing, this changes.

In last week's post, I mentioned that these 450-ish stores give Amazon an opportunity to observe us shopping.  Not to sell IoT products to consumers, but to use them on us.  To see how we shop in physical spaces and then use that information to improve product placement, to optimize store layout, to optimize product choice.  To improve the shopping experience, not for the shoppers, but for Amazon.

And, on the heels of the merger announcement, we saw a patent that may be the kind of thing that will result from that learning.

Drones Are a Thing

It's time we talked about drones.  GoPro is launching the Karma, the new registration rules have gone in affect and I got the opportunity last weekend to fly some.  With all that going on, it's a criminal shame that I have not tapped in my hot take on these things any earlier.

Are UAV's 'Things'?

(courtesy The Verge)

But before we get rolling, a point of order: drones/quadcopters/hexi-copters/UAVs/whatever are things, but are they 'things' for the 'internet' to be 'of'?  After all, most of them are not directly connected to the internet or even to a network.  Having said that, I do not believe that I need to use my 'because it's my blog and I say so' trump.  The starting point of the Internet of Things is the rise of  the smartphone, cheap chips, sensors and connectivity.  Drones take advantage of that same paradigm.  Most are controlled through a smartphone, often with little input from the purported pilot.  They use various wireless networking protocols for that control and to send the video feed back.  So, while not directly connected to the internet, they are a product of the same culture.  From that view point, they are subject to my keyboard.