iMinds insights - Internet of Things

A WORLD OF
THINKING OBJECTS
The Internet of Things will radically
transform the ways we interact
with our world and control our
surroundings.
THE APPLICATIONS
GO BEYOND SHIPPING
- FROM GARBAGE
COLLECTION
TO PARKING SPACES;
THE POSSIBILITIES
ARE ENDLESS.
“
“
Jan Van Herbruggen
BASED ON INTERVIEWS WITH ACADEMIC AND INDUSTRY EXPERTS - WWW.IMINDS.BE/INSIGHTS

EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
AWORLDOFTHINKINGOBJECTS
By connecting and embedding
intelligence in everyday objects—
from single factory machines to
the complex infrastructures of
entire smart cities—the Internet
of Things (IoT) has the potential
to give us unprecedented control
over our surroundings, and enable
intelligent interaction with those
surroundings in ways we cannot
fully imagine today. It will bring
as massive a change to society
as the first Internet has done—if
we can successfully solve some
crucial technological challenges
and answer fundamental questions
about how we want to live in an
immersively connected world.
Because after all, the Internet of
Things is still an Internet for People.
ATHREEFOLDRESEARCHCHALLENGE
MAKING THE IOT PLUG-AND-PLAY
Objects in the Internet of
Things cannot require complex
configuration. They have to deploy
in a plug-and-play fashion or the
whole system will become too
unwieldy. Wireless connectivity is
key to this: networks that can be
rolled out nearly anywhere and
(re)configured easily, supporting
an ever-evolving and ever-
growing ecosystem of devices.
That’s the model iMinds has
worked with weaving machine
manufacturer Picanol to achieve
as it builds intelligence into its
next-generation equipment. Yet
wireless connectivity is less stable
than wireline connectivity. For
the IoT to be truly plug-and-play,
researchers need to solve a further,
related challenge.
MAKING THE IoT RELIABLE AND
SECURE
For mission-critical applications
in particular, network lag times
must be negligible. This can be a
challenge in industrial environments
that often obstruct wireless
signals—a challenge iMinds worked
with Volvo to help solve in its IoT-
THE
INTERNET
OF THINGS
IS STILL AN
INTERNET FOR
PEOPLE.
“
“
02 | iMinds insights

enabled truck plants. Capacity and
speed will ensure the reliability of
the Internet of Things—and yet at
the same time stand to put pressure
on network infrastructures,
especially with potentially billions
of devices talking to each other
over the public Internet. And so
another question arises: how do we
keep the IoT from overburdening
the world’s networks?
DISTRIBUTING INTELLIGENCE
THROUGHOUT THE IoT
The answer is to make smart,
flexible decisions about where data
is processed within the Internet of
Things. The proposed model is a
distributed and intelligent ‘fog’: a
hybrid scenario in which certain
‘thinking’ happens at the device
level while other functions, such
as the generation of encrypted
keys for secure transactions, will
occur in the cloud. That’s a vision
Flanders’ own Track4C is exploring,
with help from iMinds researchers,
as it develops networked sensor
technologies for cargo tracking.
INFUSINGTHINGSWITHWISDOM
The Internet of Things represents
only a beginning. Combining
the intelligence of connected
things with other sources of
information will allow our ‘things’
to respond to the dynamics of a
given environment, leading to a
new reality characterized by the
‘Wisdom of Things’, where devices
use contextual awareness to make
intelligent, autonomous decisions.
In a new strategic research
program, 20 of iMinds’ most
forward-looking IoT researchers
will take on this and many of the
field’s other fundamental research
challenges.
FORMOREINFORMATION
about iMinds’ expertise in the field
of Internet of Things, please contact
Thomas Kallstenius
thomas.kallstenius@iminds.be
iMinds insights | 03

REALIZINGTHEVISIONFOR
ANINTERNETOFTHINGS
For a sense of just how far the
impact of the Internet of Things
will reach, we should look past the
obvious example of tomorrow’s
hyper-networked metropolises and
instead consider a farmer’s field in
the heart of the countryside.
For about 12,000 years, farmers
have lived more or less at the mercy
of the elements. Not knowing which
specific seed will take root in a
given soil, agriculturalists today still
spread blends of seeds over vast
tracts of land with fingers crossed
the weather will provide optimal
growing conditions.
The Internet of Things (IoT) stands
to wipe away all that inefficiency
and imprecision. Putting the IoT
to work, a farmer might deploy
miniaturized, networked devices
to gather real-time data on soil
quality and moisture levels, and
to track, analyze and exchange
information on weather patterns
and effects. With such tools, he or
she could know exactly which seed
type to plant on which acre of land,
how much fertilizer to apply, and
how to contend with all types of
weather—saving time and money
while boosting crop yields.
The impact of the Internet of
Things will be felt everywhere: in
rural villages and urban centers;
in every economic sector from
transportation and logistics to
medicine, manufacturing and food
production.
A WORLD OF
THINKING OBJECTS
THEINTERNET
OFTHINGSWILL
BRINGASMASSIVE
ACHANGETO
SOCIETYASTHE
FIRSTINTERNET
HASDONE. “
“

50 BILLION‘SMART OBJECTS’
Rapid adoption rate of digital
infrastructure: 5x faster than
electricity and telephony
TIMELINE
2010 2015 2020
10
6.8 7.2 7.6
20
30
40
50
BILLIONSOFDEVICES
WORLD
POPULATION
INFLECTION POINT
12.5
25
Source: iMinds analysis, Cisco IBSG, April 2011
The IoT will optimize business
systems, enable fine-grained asset
tracking, and facilitate cost-saving
predictive maintenance in machine
parks. It will make household
environments highly adaptable, for
example by boosting the volume of
the stereo automatically when the
dishwasher is running, or quieting
the TV when someone picks up the
phone.
By connecting—and embedding
intelligence in—everyday objects
from single factory machines to
the complex infrastructures of
entire smart cities, the Internet of
Things has the potential to give
us unprecedented control over
our surroundings, and to allow us
to interact intelligently with those
surroundings in ways we cannot
even fully imagine today. In doing
so, it will bring as massive a change
to society as the first Internet
has done—if we can successfully
solve some crucial technological
challenges and answer fundamental
questions about how we want to
live in an immersively connected
world.
Over the past 10 years, iMinds
researchers have actively explored
areas key to realizing the vision for
the Internet of Things, advancing
real-world IoT applications in a
variety of sectors. What’s more,
they are already investigating
the next step—in pursuit of a true
‘Wisdom of Things’, the Holy Grail
of engineering.
>>
WHAT‘THINGS’WILLBEINYOURIOT?
Virtually any ‘thing’ could
be part of the Internet of
Things. That’s what will make
it immersive: intelligent
appliances that ‘talk’ to one
another, from a wearable
health monitor that doubles
as a watch to power sockets
and light fixtures that monitor
energy consumption-all
the objects we come into
contact with on a daily basis
will fold into our personal
and professional mesh of
connectivity.

INTERNETOFTHINGS:PRACTICALUSECASES
Early IoT applications are being
investigated and deployed in a wide
range of sectors. In transportation
and logistics, for example,
vehicle and driver movements
are closely tracked to facilitate
just-in-time delivery, optimize
fuel consumption and enable
business-critical benchmarking.
As well, the condition of goods
being transported—including
refrigeration levels for food items—
can be monitored and controlled
along every stage of a product’s
journey.
In other sectors, organizations are
looking at ways of using built-in
device connectivity to automate,
streamline and bring intelligence
to systems and processes. Picanol,
an international manufacturer of
weaving machines based in Belgium,
is currently working with iMinds
on an IoT solution to automate
and optimize the operation of as
many as 500 weaving machines
at once. Another iMinds research
project, GreenWeCan, explored
the development of a sensor
network that included parking
sensor devices so that citizens (in
particular, disabled drivers) could
be directed to empty parking spots
by a mobile app. Such technology
could be expanded to encompass
traffic monitoring or city-wide
parking management, making it an
important step toward improving
quality of life in a smart city.
Health and care is another sector
exploring the possibilities of the
Internet of Things. Physicians have
begun to look at ways intelligent
objects can support the increasing
digitization of their practice,
integrating remote monitoring of
patients with accurate, always up-
to-date electronic health records.
Smart pill boxes that record and
report back on medications taken
will help eliminate errors and give
physicians greater confidence
in managing patients after they
have been discharged—not only
improving the efficiency of care
systems but also patient recovery.
MAKINGTHEINTERNETOFTHINGSAREALITY
To realize the vision of a true
Internet of Things and lay the
foundation for the Wisdom of
Things, several challenges demand
THE IOT LANDSCAPE
In the near future, the Internet of
Things will be a part of daily life
and business operations.
Soil info determines
the best moment to
harvest your crops.
Lights and
termperature power
down automatically
as you leave home.
Find an open parking
spot.
Track and trace will
become track and
tell.. Tell me in what
condition my goods
are, now!
Robotics and sensor
technology are
essential for the
factory of the future.
A WORLD OF
THINKING OBJECTS

the attention of researchers and
policy-makers. Many of these are
technical in nature while others—
such as those pertaining to
security, individual privacy and the
problem of technologies that are
inaccessible to and uncontrollable
by non-specialist users—demand
social science research and policy
solutions.
On the technical front, iMinds
researchers have identified three
primary challenges to be addressed
for the IoT to be made real:
1. The Internet of Things must be
plug-and-play—easy to use and
(re)configure
2. The Internet of Things must be
reliable and secure—delivering
performance that meets the
needs and expectations of
individuals, businesses and
governments
3. The Internet of Things cannot
add further burden to the
world’s already strained
networks—meaning intelligence
must be distributed in a flexible
and efficient way
All three are interrelated. To be
plug-and-play, for instance, the
IoT requires wireless connectivity.
Wired networks may provide stable,
very high bandwidth connections,
but they are cumbersome to deploy
and inflexible to change. Wireless
networks, on the other hand, can
be rolled out nearly anywhere and
(re)configured easily, supporting
HOWCANWE
AVOIDNETWORKS
FROMBECOMING
OVERBURDENED
INANINTERNET
OFTHINGS?“
“
>>
INFUSING‘THINGS’WITHWISDOM
Metcalfe’s Law, as it is
sometimes called, says
the value of a network is
proportional to the square
of the number of connected
users. This holds equally true
for connected ‘things’. Yet
connectivity by means of an IP
address is only the beginning.
Combining the intelligence
of connected things with
other sources of information
stands to make services and
applications situationally or
contextually aware. Using
that awareness so ‘things’ can
make intelligent decisions and
respond to the dynamics of the
environment is what’s meant
by the ‘Wisdom of Things’.
The potential applications
are many. Imagine a next-
generation navigation system
in which information about
the arrival of a big container
ship is transmitted to public
navigation systems, helping
predict traffic jams in-land
related to unloading and
transporting containers from
the ship. With such systems at
work, moving from one point to
the other will look completely
different in a few years from
now and the productivity
losses linked to traffic jams will
be significantly reduced.

an ever-evolving and ever-growing
ecosystem of devices. Yet wireless
networks are less stable than their
cabled counterparts: in solving
the plug-and-play challenge we
are suddenly confronted with the
second challenge of reliability.
The reliability problem is
compounded by the fact that, for
mission-critical applications in
particular, network lag times must
be negligible. The need for capacity
and speed will put pressure on
network infrastructures, especially
with potentially billions of devices
talking to each other over the public
Internet. And so a further question
arises: how can we avoid networks
from becoming overburdened in
an Internet of Things? We will need
what has been called a distributed
and intelligent ‘fog’.
iMinds’ interdisciplinary research
teams are working with industry
partners and other strategic
research institutes to address each
of these challenge areas, building
on real-world use cases.
TOWARDAPLUG-AND-PLAY
INTERNETOFTHINGS
Plug-and-play capabilities have
been vital to the mass adoption
of technologies such as personal
computers and mobile phones.
Users—whether individual or
corporate—have little interest
in becoming configuration
OBJECTSNEEDTO
BEABLETOSPEAK
TOOTHEROBJECTS
OUTSIDETHEIR
OWNVENDOR
GROUP. “
“
A WORLD OF
THINKING OBJECTS
EASEOFUSEISESSENTIALTOUPTAKE
Users cannot be expected to
become technology experts to
set up and take advantage of IoT
applications.
F e w m a n u f a c t u r i n g
companies, for example, are
expert in information and
communications technology
(ICT), and many are cautious
about embedding ICT into their
operations. While they recognize
the potential efficiencies the
Internet of Things can bring
to mass production, they are
not interested in carrying out
complex configurations or
having to deploy (and manage
and maintain) intricate networks
in their production facilities to
realize those benefits.
They require machines that can
be deployed without days of
configuration and integration,
and are able to discover services
and join the existing network of
objects automatically. In fact,
as more devices join these
networks, the less practical –
or even possible- it will be to
configure and manage them
manually. Complexity will make
automatic configuration non-
negotiable.

specialists: they simply want to put
technologies to work. Ten years
ago, a cellphone user may have
had to specify which network the
device was to connect to; today, he
or she pushes the ‘on’ button and
the phone configures itself.
Looking at plug-and-play problems
is relatively simple from the
perspective of a single user working
with a single application, which
has largely been the focus of IoT
research in the past decade.
In a true Internet of Things,
however, circumstances are bound
to be much more complex. Take
the example of a smart city, where
machines supporting the daily
activities of dozens of distinct
municipal departments interact
with each other and with countless
devices distributed among citizens,
service providers and local
businesses. There is no single owner
of the infrastructure or the various
applications.
iMinds has been investigating
these kinds of multifaceted IoT
environments for several years—
for example, as related to the
shipping of goods, where multiple
parties may have an interest in
a container, its contents or the
vessel transporting it. In such
complex IoT environments it will be
essential for users to identify high-
level business goals, performance
expectations and the like—what
they each ultimately need the
system to do. Something then has
to translate those expectations
into executable instructions for the
underlying platform that manages
and monitors software components
distributed throughout the
entire system: in other words, a
multivendor, multiprotocol layer of
middleware.
In creating this middleware, the
challenge for the architects of the
Internet of Things will be to find
the right balance of automation
and control—shielding users from
excessive complexity while at the
same time allowing parameters
to be controlled in what has been
called a ‘consumable level of
abstraction’. Today, one requires a
PhD to program IoT deployments;
that clearly is not scalable.
In an open standards envi-
ronment, domain indepen-
dent IoT enablers (such as
CoAP) will be usable for a
wide variety of applications
and application providers.
TOWARDS
OPEN STANDARDS
Source: iMinds analysis, Cisco
PROPRIETARY VERTICAL
SOLUTIONS: PROPRIETARY
PROTOCOLS & TECHNOLOGIES
IP CONNECTIVITY
DOMAIN INDEPENDENT APPLICATION ENABLEMENT
RECONFIGURABLE TECHNOLOGIES
APPLICATIONS
SENSORS AND
SMART DEVICES
>>

THENEEDFORSTANDARDIZATION
Standardization will be essential
to enabling the kind of automation
envisioned for a plug-and-play
Internet of Things. With today’s
emerging IoT applications, many
protocols still tend to be solution-
specific and vertically segregated: if
you buy a sensor from one vendor,
it will talk only to other sensors
made by that vendor. Establishing
‘horizontal’ standards will allow
the same protocols or mechanisms
to be applied across the full
range of solutions—enabling the
interoperability that will be essential
to a genuine, scalable Internet of
Things. Objects need to be able to
speak to other objects outside their
own vendor group or solution family.
Industry bodies are working toward
open standards to overcome this
hurdle. For example, Bluetooth
Smart has emerged as a small-
scale standard for wearables and
other applications. The Constrained
Application Protocol (CoAP)
defined by the IETF CoRE Working
Group is expected to become the
standard for integrating constrained
devices into IP-based Internet and
web services.
iMinds has closely followed the
development of IoT standards from
the very beginning. It is actively
involved in IETF CoRE efforts
A WORLD OF
THINKING OBJECTS
iMINDS
HASCLOSELY
FOLLOWEDTHE
DEVELOPMENTOF
IOTSTANDARDS
FROMTHEVERY
BEGINNING.“
“
ANADDRESSFOREVERYDEVICE
The Internet Protocol
(IP) has been extremely
effective as the glue binding
together the world’s network
communications.
The dominant version of IP
today is IPv4, which was
introduced in the early 1980s
and could support as many
as 4 billion individual device
addresses. While that may have
seemed like an abundance 30
years ago the supply of IPv4
addresses has since been
exhausted – and even if it hadn’t
been, could not accommodate
the 50 billion devices expected
by 2020. IPv6, the latest version
of the IP standard, will support
340 billion addresses enough
for the far-foreseeable future.
Sticking with IP as the standard
is key to our connected future,
as the task of migrating billions
of users and devices to a new
‘clean-slate’ protocol is almost
unimaginably complex.

to develop reference-solution
implementations, and also takes
part in CoAP interoperability
testing. iMinds teams have
built on CoAP to develop new
enablers that facilitate the design
of IoT applications or reduce
‘communication overhead’ in sensor
networks. Specifically, iMinds’ work
provides the basis for fine-grained
control over CoAP resources,
with extensions for monitoring
sensors in a given network and
for enabling interactions between
sensors and actuators (the devices
that activate sensors) without
human intervention. Some of
these extensions have been taken
up by IETF CoRE. iMinds is also
working on the middleware that
will sit between IoT applications
and the underlying communication
platform.
MAKING THE IOT RELIABLE AND SECURE
The next research challenge is
how to ensure the reliability of the
Internet of Things. As mentioned,
the flexibility of wireless networking
is essential for the easy deployment
of IoT solutions. Yet today’s wireless
networks still do not deliver the
reliability of wired networks. While
organizations such as hospitals,
factories and logistics companies
stand to benefit greatly from
IoT capabilities, they cannot
afford to risk suboptimal network
performance, data loss or downtime.
While today’s 802.11 (Wi-
Fi) standards family includes
mechanisms for dealing with
transmission errors, those
mechanisms involve re-
transmissions that can introduce
unacceptable delays for
environments demanding real-
time wireless and ultra-fast
reaction times (for example, to
activate safety shutdowns when
equipment overheats, in which
case ‘acceptable delay’ may not
be more than a few hundred
milliseconds).
Further potential slowdowns may be
Depending on applica-
tion, user and policy
requirements, it is de-
cided where to place
the intelligence to op-
erate functions such as
processing, security
and QoS and how to
optimally conﬁgure the
communication infra-
structure.
DISTRIBUTED
INTELLIGENCE
EMBEDDED PROCESSING LOCAL CONNECTIVITY INTERMEDIATE PROCESSING GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY CLOUD PROCESSING
IOT APPLICATION(S) USER NEEDS/POLICIES
>>

caused by the fact that Wi-Fi is not
designed for dense deployments: its
mechanisms for avoiding collisions
between signals narrow the available
spectrum, introducing inefficiencies
that create latency and lag.
Industrial settings in particular pose
additional challenges for wireless
transmission, in that a factory full of
metal machinery and steel beams
constitutes a virtual obstacle course
for wireless signals.
Finally, wireless networks are
highly dynamic, often requiring
reconfiguration on the fly to
respond to changing conditions.
iMinds researchers have actively
addressed these problems through
a number of research projects
with industrial partners such as
Picanol and Volvo: in the first
case, developing solutions for
deploying stable and self-healing
wireless communication in large-
scale factory environments; and
in the second, to create a secure,
reliable infrastructure that can be
installed and maintained despite
constant reconfiguration of factory
layouts, with multi-device support
and no interference or dropped
connections.
To address challenges such as these,
iMinds has created a mobile test
bed for IoT applications that can be
deployed in complex environments,
and that enables public and private
sector research partners to gain
greater understanding of reliability
and scalability issues in their
specific wireless network settings.
One particular example includes a
collaboration with Airbus Group,
which was developing a wireless
cabin management system for its
aircrafts. In order to come up with a
good solution, the Airbus engineers
needed to understand how the
wireless signals propagate inside
the plane - a complex and time-
consuming measurement, since
aircrafts are not very accessible.
Bringing a portable version of
their mobile test bed, iMinds
researchers were invited to set up
their equipment in a mock-up of
an Airbus cabin, and were able to
conduct a lot of highly specialized
measurements in a short timeframe
- providing the Airbus engineers
with valuable input.
CONSIDERINGPRIVACYANDSECURITY
Beyond the integrity of the signal,
the information transmitted by the
wireless network must also be kept
secure—for the sake of operational
safety as well as, in many cases,
personal privacy.
This applies both to institutional
environments, such as hospitals,
and for people in their everyday
lives at home. If one’s household
objects can communicate with
one another, the information they
exchange could be shared invisibly
with other devices, organizations
or people. This takes the ‘reliability’
challenge of the Internet of Things
beyond the realm of the merely
technical. Users need to be able
to control what happens with
data collected by their homes,
appliances, vehicles and bodies—
and to propagate their personal
wishes for privacy throughout the
network.
Imagine, for example, a vending
machine in one’s workplace
equipped with RFID technology
A WORLD OF
THINKING OBJECTS
iMINDSHASCREATED
AMOBILETESTBED
FORIOTAPPLICATIONS
THATCANBE
DEPLOYEDINCOMPLEX
ENVIRONMENTS.“
“

to recognize each individual
purchaser and match selections to
his or her food preferences, taking
into consideration concerns such
as food allergies. Who is entitled
to know about those allergies?
Would the company that employs
the individual be made aware?
What would be the implications?
Issues such as these—related to
how people manage their digital
destinies—may require regulatory
frameworks or legislation.
iMinds’ multidisciplinary research
approach focuses strongly on the
interaction between human beings
and technology, looking directly
at ethical, social and economic
implications of the Internet of
Things.
MAKING INTELLIGENCE DISTRIBUTABLE
People often use the term ‘smart
devices’ when talking about the
kinds of things that will make up
the IoT. Smart implies that the
devices themselves either possess
some intelligence of their own or
at least deliver information as part
of a higher-order system that can
translate data into actions.
The third main question facing
researchers is where that
intelligence should live. Several
answers have been proposed.
At one extreme, some suggest
all processing and intelligence
should live in the cloud, making
the IoT infrastructure in essence
a single, macro infrastructure.
This has the advantage of making
communication relatively easy—
everything talks to the cloud—but
it comes with a control cost. If a
specific actuator is attempting to
lock or unlock a single container
on a ship, for example, it can talk
only to the cloud: there is no direct
one-to-one interaction available
between the actuator and the
device. This could introduce delays
and, of course, cause potentially
massive network congestion if all
traffic is flowing into and out of
the cloud.At the other extreme is
the suggestion that intelligence
should be embedded in each
individual device. This permits all
kinds of one-to-one interactions,
but makes it virtually impossible to
obtain a macro view of the entire
network. Going back to the point
made above about plug-and-play
A RESEARCH PROGRAM FOR BRINGING
THEIOTTOLIFE
In October 2014, iMinds
kickstarted a strategic Internet
of Things research program,
tackling a number of the most
fundamental and demanding
research challenges – from
low-level platform design
and connectivity to decision
support at the highest
abstraction layers for the
Wisdom of Things. The IoT
strategic research program
will develop and demonstrate
solutions and concepts
that improve performance
beyond today’s state-of-the-
art technologies by at least
one order of magnitude. The
program involves 20 of iMinds’
most forward looking and
promising researchers in the
IoT domain.
>>

SYSTEMS
SHOULD
HAVETHE
FLEXIBILITY
TOMIGRATE
INTELLIGENCE
TOTHEBEST
SPOT.
capabilities, users will want to
establish high-level expectations
of outcomes and performance for
IoT applications: but with each
device as its own autonomous
agent, there is essentially no way
to know if those expectations are
being met.
Furthermore, many of the devices
in the Internet of Things will be
significantly resource-constrained.
While processors continue to
miniaturize and advance, and
battery lives continue to extend,
there is only so much computing
a small, single sensor can
support. As a result, functions
like authentication can’t typically
be performed at the device level,
because they require too much
computing power.
As is so often the case, there is
no single solution for determining
exactly where intelligence should
sit in the Internet of Things, but as
a general rule the answer will lie
somewhere in the middle of the
two extremes—a hybrid scenario
in which certain ‘thinking’ happens
at the device level while other
functions, such as the generation
of encrypted keys for secure
transactions, will occur in the cloud.
This is the approach advanced
by iMinds in its research, with
systems having the flexibility to
migrate intelligence to the best
spot—closer to the sensor in some
cases or toward the cloud back-
end in others, in a truly distributed
and ever-shifting fog. Again, this
is where the importance of a
managerial middleware layer is
crucial. Someone, the user, must
define the overall goal for the
system (for instance, to ensure
a particular shipping container
maintains a specific internal
temperature); the middleware must
determine how this will be done,
evaluating all the alternatives in
a dynamic way. Maybe it will be
most efficient to have the container
sensor evaluate its real-time data
in situ, or maybe it will be more
energy-efficient to pass the task
along to the nearest gateway.
ENABLING SELF-OPTIMIZATION AND
ADAPTATION
Ideally, just as IoT solutions will be
self-configuring for plug-and-play
implementation, they will also be
self-optimizing, able to distribute
and redistribute processing and
A WORLD OF
THINKING OBJECTS
“
“

intelligence according to the
evolving demands of the system. A
good example comes from the use
of robots in manufacturing settings.
Currently, robots use cameras
for wayfinding. These cameras
are statically integrated. If a new
camera is installed in the factory
ceiling, the existing robots won’t
use it because they don’t know it’s
there and can’t communicate with
it. However, if some intelligence is
shifted into the factory Internet so
that the robots can be alerted a new
camera has been deployed—and
then find it, search for the protocols
they need to communicate with
it, download those protocols and
integrate them—the system gains an
evolutionary capability that will allow
it to continue to make optimal use of
deployed resources on a real-time,
ongoing basis. This kind of capability
is in fact going to be essential when
IoT deployments reach scales at
which manually controlling each
independent machine becomes
prohibitively complex. In the past
few years, iMinds researchers have
been building expertise in smart
manufacturing and robotics control
to address precisely these kinds of
requirements.
THEWAYFORWARD
The Internet of Things will
radically transform the ways
we interact with our world and
control our surroundings. It will be
accompanied—and enabled—by
the ongoing massive increase in
the number of connected devices,
the so-called ‘Big Bang of Things’.
To realize the vision of the IoT,
researchers must solve three
primary technical challenges:
making the Internet of Things
plug-and-play; ensuring it can
function reliably and securely;
and determining how best to
distribute intelligence throughout
it for optimal performance. Non-
technical challenges must be
addressed as well. While the IoT is a
network of objects, its applications
are for people. This matters because
human expectations of usability
and reliability, and concerns
about privacy and security, will be
some of the crucial challenges to
overcome in making the Internet of
Things real and successful.
The complexity of these challenges
demands the application of broad
expertise—in social sciences,
public policy, hardware design,
cryptography, network protocols,
middleware development and
application development, to name
a few. iMinds, with its broad,
multidisciplinary base, is well-
positioned to bring together
the required disciplines, in
collaboration with the industry,
to develop the kinds of solutions
required. Today iMinds is working
on a software development kit for
application developers to program
IoT applications without requiring
a detailed understanding of the
underlying architecture. Early
tutorials have been fruitful: after a
half-day, developers were able to
program simple applications. As
well, iMinds is working on a state-of-
the-art operating system based on
the open source Contiki operating
system, creating a platform for
future IoT development—and
bringing the concept of a true
Internet of Things one step closer
to reality.

WE
CURRENTLY
HAVE 50
UNITS IN THE
FIELD BEING
EVALUATED BY
CUSTOMERS.
“
“

Q: What are the outstanding
challenges in bringing the Internet
of Things to the shipping industry?
Jan Van Herbruggen: Sensor
technology—a key enabler of
the Internet of Things—has been
evolving since the 1990s, but there
are still a handful of practical issues
that need to be solved. Power is one.
Sensors and transmitters need a
power supply, which of course isn’t
available in a shipping container. So
you have to rely on batteries. But
batteries have a finite lifespan, and if
they wear out too quickly they make
the whole system impractical. The
current Zigbee wireless protocol for
sensor-to-sensor communication is
quite energy intensive. On top of
that, it is neither capable of offering
ubiquitous external connectivity to
the Internet nor providing accurate
positioning. So the first challenge is
to develop suitable technology of
sufficiently low voltage batteries
that can last years without being
replaced while at the same time
ensuring that all tracking and
monitoring requirements can be
met.
The physical environment of a
loaded vessel also poses difficulties.
Containers on ships are stacked:
the ones in the middle are boxed in
by steel on all sides, creating what’s
called a Farraday cage—a shield
that blocks electromagnetic signals
like radio waves and wireless. So the
question is how to get information
out from the middle of the stack up
to a satellite.
Q: Are those challenges what led
you to connect with iMinds?
Jan Van Herbruggen: iMinds
had actually come to me on a
different project involving wireless
and rail transport. Through that
initiative I connected with Ingrid
Moerman, an iMinds researcher
based out of Ghent University. She
asked me about the feasibility of
GPS tracking and monitoring of
shipping containers. I admit, I was
skeptical: I knew the power issues,
the transmission issues. But Ingrid
was persuasive! So we launched a
project in 2010.
>>
SETTING SAIL FOR
THE INTERNET OF THINGS
Shippers moved more than eight billion tonnes of cargo around the
world in 2013. With fuel costs rising, competition intensifying and
logistics increasingly ‘just in time’, the precise monitoring and tracking of
containers is only going to become more important. Belgium’s Track4C is
proving out its conviction that the Internet of Things will open up a whole
new world of capabilities for container tracking.
Leveraging its proximity to the Port
of Antwerp, Track4C specializes in
end-to-end container and cargo
tracking. The company emerged out
of a collaboration between wireless
and mobile computing company
Multicap and digital research center
iMinds to overcome some of the
fundamental technical challenges
associated with container tracking.
We spoke with Track4C’s JAN
VAN HERBRUGGEN to learn more
about the innovative technology his
company is developing.

Q: And here you are, four years
later, with a product currently being
evaluated by the marketplace. Can
you describe that journey?
Jan Van Herbruggen: In terms of
research approach, we tackled the
power issue first. We went right back
to basics. We knew a lot of modern
programming and protocols use
too much energy, so we took our
inspiration from programming in
the 1980s, when there was much
less memory and power to work
with. We also created a proprietary
wireless protocol to use instead of
Zigbee—again to deal with power
drain. What we ended up with was
a small, low voltage device with
batteries that last three to five
years. We’re working to extend that
battery life to seven or eight years
as a next step.
Then we turned to the transmission
issue—how to get the signal out
from containers in the middle of
a stack. Our solution was a sort
of ‘signal relay’: a container in the
middle would send its signal to an
adjacent container, which would
pass it along to the container beside
it, and on and on until it reaching a
node on the ship that collects and
stores all the data for transmission
to the customer.
Q: What are the potential
applications of your technology?
Jan Van Herbruggen: Tracking is the
main thing: customers want to know
where their product is, how long it’s
taking to travel, whether there are
delays, things like that. But there’s
a lot more information that can be
gathered. The sensors can monitor
conditions inside the container,
for example, which is critical if
you’re shipping perishable items
or temperature-sensitive products.
Another benefit is security. We can
monitor the opening and closing
of the doors, so we know a sealed
container has remained sealed. That
SETTING SAIL FOR
WE TOOK OUR
INSPIRATION FROM
PROGRAMMING IN
THE 1980’S.
“
“

helps discourage theft, and—very
critically—helps speed things up at
customs. If agents know a container
hasn’t been opened since it was last
checked, there’s no need to search
it again. All this information can
be collected and stored, and we
provide an application the customer
can subscribe to, allowing them to
access it all, and use it to improve
the efficiency of their shipping
practices.
Q: Is the market ready for this type
of device?
Jan Van Herbruggen: There’s
certainly a demand for the type of
data. But there are many different
players involved: shippers, ship
owners, container owners, so the
market can be tricky to navigate.
And depending on the size of the
company, they approach this type
of solution differently. Smaller
companies prefer to buy a solution
once and focus their spending,
while larger companies would
rather stretch their expenses out
over time through a service-based
model. The product has value in
both scenarios: we need to be
flexible in how we make it available.
Q: Where is Track4C technology
currently deployed?
Jan Van Herbruggen: We finished
our prototype in 2012 and currently
have 50 units in the field being
evaluated by customers. Feedback
has been very positive. Customers
are satisfied, particularly with the
increased security: they don’t have
to hedge against loss as much as
they used to, which increases their
working capital. We’ve gotten some
feedback from a pharmaceutical
company that was very pleased
with how the devices allowed them
full control over the supply chain.
Q: So what’s next?
Jan Van Herbruggen: We’re
planning to scale up, of course.
We’re also looking at enabling
‘supplied communication’, which
essentially means that individual
containers are tracked until loaded
onto a ship, and then the entire
ship is tracked—with container data
collected by a node on the ship.
There are efficiencies in that. We’re
also moving to proof of concept
with pallet-level tracking inside
containers, and are developing a
dashboard that gives customers
full control of the data being
monitored. The applications go
beyond shipping, too: from garbage
collection to parking spaces. Really,
the possibilities are endless.
ABOUT IMINDS’ MONITORING OF CONTAINERS PROJECT
The Monitoring of Containers (MoCo) project, which ran from April 2010 till March 2012, investigated the
design and implementation of a wireless network system to monitor and track products stored in shipping
containers. In contrast to existing solutions, MoCo wanted to create a system suitable for stacked containers
that monitors the position, environmental condition and security of shipped products from point of origin
to final destination. Building on MoCo, the Control and Management of Constrained Devices (COMACOD)
project is now looking at data transfer, configurability and management of constrained tracking devices with
the goal of creating more efficient, flexible, manageable, automated and reusable tracking and monitoring
systems for a variety of markets.
ABOUT TRACK4C
Founded in 2012 and led by
a management team with
extensive experience in
telecoms and other diverse
fields. Track4C is supported
by a network of business
incubators, including iMinds,
The University of Ghent, IWT
(Agency for innovation by
science and technology)
and several other Flemish
government initiatives.
Significant funding has
come from leading venture
capital firms in Belgium,
including Qbiq, PMV and
iMinds.

WEAVING TEXTILE
MANUFACTURING INTO
Intelligent weaving machines
that are part of the Internet of
Things (IoT) can warn textile
mill operators of maintenance
requirements long before
equipment problems arise. They
can also pinpoint opportunities
to make operations more
efficient. Recognizing these
potential benefits, Belgium’s
Picanol is working to overcome
the key technical challenges
involved in integrating IoT
technologies into harsh
manufacturing environments.

Q: When did Picanol first start
thinking about bringing its
machines into the Internet of
Things?
Matthias Marescaux: We’ve been
looking at interconnecting machines
and collecting data since the 1990s.
We saw it as a way to differentiate
ourselves from competitors and
add value to our product. But for
a long time the technology wasn’t
ready. Most customers didn’t have
an intranet on their production
floors. Wireless networks weren’t
widespread. The cloud didn’t exist,
either, so there was no place to store
data or make it available for the
types of applications and processes
that would make this data useful.
Picanol has a heritage of being early
technology adopters, however, so if
a technology isn’t ready, we follow
it until it is. That’s where we are
today. The technology has finally
caught up with the inspiration.
Q: What are some IoT applications
for the textile industry?
Matthias Marescaux: Proactive
and reactive maintenance are key
ones. With intelligence embedded
in a networked weaving machine
you can monitor metrics like oil
temperature, for example. You
collect the data, run an algorithm
on it once a day, know if one or
more machines is exceeding a
given threshold and so might
need to be serviced. Reactive
maintenance goes a step further,
so that machines can be shut down
remotely if a threshold is exceeded
by a certain amount, preventing
further damage. To support these
various functions, we’re working on
two architectures: one is a point-
to-point solution that connects
individual machines to each other
and to human operators, and the
other gathers data from all the
machines for comparison and
storage on a single server.
A pioneering manufacturer of weaving machines for more than 75 years,
Picanol partnered with digital research center iMinds to reimagine its
products in the context of the Internet of Things—evolving traditional
weaving machines into smart, connected devices. We spoke with Picanol’s
R&D Engineer, MATTHIAS MARESCAUX, to learn about the company’s
approach to the Internet of Things.
>>
THE TECHNOLOGY
HAS FINALLY
CAUGHT UP
WITH THE
INSPIRATION.
“
“

To end up with a robust solution for
these two different architectures,
we are collaborating with iMinds.
Q: Are your customers all looking
for the same types of data?
Matthias Marescaux: We have a
very diverse customer base, and
they all need different types of data
because their business models are
very different. Many of the textile
mills focus on producing huge
quantities—sometimes in high-
volume plants where production
never stops and a single machine
may put out 4,000 square meters of
material a day. For our customers,
preventing stops is critical, so we
would collect data to help them
proactively prevent breakdowns.
Other customers have very low
thresholds for error—makers of
airbags or parachutes, for example,
can’t allow more than one mistake
per 100,000 insertions. So their
sensor data will be looking for issues
that affect quality. The question is,
how do we build a solution that
accommodates all the various data
collection needs?
Q: What’s the solution?
Matthias Marescaux: What’s needed
is a platform that is adaptable to
the kinds of requirements I just
mentioned and can keep up with
evolving hardware. In a good
year, we build several thousand
machines, which would mean
thousands of chipsets. That volume
is, however, not enough for us to
convince a manufacturer to build
a chipset that lasts 10 years. So
the chips will have to change with
some regularity, but we don’t want
to have to change the firmware and
software every time that happens.
We have developed a solution that
will last, that will evolve and is
flexible. iMinds has been working
with us on this.
WEAVING TEXTILE
MANUFACTURING INTO
WE WANT TO
EQUIP OUR
CUSTOMERS
TO RUN THEIR
OPERATIONS AS
EFFICIENTLY
AS POSSIBLE.“
“

ABOUT PICANOL
Picanol develops, produces
and markets high-technology
weaving machines. Today,
about 2,600 weaving mills
around the world use Picanol
machinery—a deployed base
of roughly 130,000 weaving
machines in total. In 2013,
Picanol Group’s revenues
exceeded 559M€. With
more than 2,000 employees
worldwide, the Picanol
Group has been listed on
the Euronext Brussels index
since 1966.
Q: What are some of the challenges
that still need to be addressed?
Matthias Marescaux: There are
some challenges with the layout
of plants. Many factories have very
limited available space with a high
density of machines. Sensors need
to be designed very compactly, in
a way that keeps them protected
from moving parts. Temperature is
also a concern for our machines and
the networks we’re trying to create.
We sell our machines all over the
world. In Asia, for example, we’ll
have areas where it gets below zero
in the wintertime, but the factories
heat up immensely once production
gets underway, so our machines
have to start below freezing and
then run in extreme heat. Moreover,
these environments are often very
dynamic, in that machines are
turned off and on frequently, which
could cause them to drop off the
network.
Q: What’s next for your project?
Matthias Marescaux: We’re building
use cases to show customers what
they can do with IoT intelligence in
their textile operations. We want
them to see that our machines
provide more value. The ability to
optimize performance could mean,
for example, reducing the number
of times a machine has to stop in the
course of a day—down from once
every 30 minutes to once every
60. That increases productivity
and profitability. Ultimately what
we want is to equip our customers
to run their operations as efficiently
as possible.

DRIVINGTHEINTERNETOF
THINGSONTOTHEFACTORYFLOOR
Wireless communication is an essential enabling technology for the Internet of Things,
allowing devices to exchange information in dynamic environments where cabling
isn’t a practical option. Yet fast, reliable wireless connectivity can be elusive when
those same environments are full of structures and machinery that obstruct signal
transmission. Volvo’s ALEC PAEPENS and KRIS VAN CAUWENBERGE share some of
their experience trying to bring stable wireless communication into their company’s
production halls - in pursuit of the installation of Internet of Things applications.
Q: When did Volvo first become
interested in wireless technologies
- as a preamble to pursuing the
installation of Internet of Things
applications?
Kris Van Cauwenberge: It was
around 1997. In our warehouses, we
started using handheld terminals,
which proved particularly useful:
instead of going back and forth with
paper lists for inventory, workers
would simply enter information
directly into the terminals, saving
time and minimizing the potential
for mistakes. It was similar in the
factory, where we started using
forklifts equipped with wireless
devices to help track and guide
them around the facility, like a
simplified, in-house GPS.
Q: What were the challenges at the
time?
Kris Van Cauwenberge: Honestly,
the solution worked fairly well. Of
course, we were using a narrowband
connection, and the transmissions
were very basic, very simple. Just
text, no complicated information.
Today that’s certainly not the case.
We need to do much more with our
wireless connections: send richer
data, support real-time tracking,
enable voice communication, so
our technology and network needs
are much more demanding.
Q: What sorts of Internet of Things
applications are you exploring
today?
Alec Paepens: In the factory, we
use technology to instantly request
refills of parts on the line through
PDAs. And we have a huge fleet of
automated guided vehicles (AGVs)
driving around with chassis: these
are equipped with wireless trackers
and sensors and connected
by carefully placed antennae.
Applications like these are shaping
up our ‘Internet of Things’.
Q: Are there issues you need to
solve to make those applications
possible?
Kris Van Cauwenberge: There are
some challenges. The biggest is
the constantly changing geography
of our warehouses and production
lines. In the warehouse, wooden
crates full of metal parts are
sometimes stacked up like ‘walls’
that move and change very often.
That has a severe impact on
wireless coverage. We can’t be
constantly redeploying cables, and
moving access points—or adding
new ones—takes time and planning.
As well, our AGVs and wireless-
enabled forklifts move as such
speeds that it can be very difficult
to maintain a connection.
Alec Paepens: Security is a big
challenge, as well. Obviously, with
so much automation, and so much
proprietary information flowing
back and forth, we need a secure
network. But the more robust the
security infrastructure becomes,
the more complex it is, and the
bigger the barrier to successful
wireless connections. There’s also
the interaction between clients and
access points, which are usually
made by different companies. >>

It shouldn’t be an issue, since
providers are supposed to be
consistent with IEEE standards.
But in our experience, that isn’t
always the case—which can cause
problems with devices, clients and
access points establishing and
maintaining robust connections.
Kris Van Cauwenberge: Device
interaction is a big issue in the
warehouses. Currently, we’re using
Bluetooth headsets that connect to
terminals. We’re dealing with a lot
of interference, though, especially
when you get a lot of devices
working close together. And that
happens quite often, as we often
have uneven usage patterns. At
certain times, in certain areas,
you might not have any devices
connecting at all, while in other
areas we have too many devices
trying to connect and authenticate.
Q: What’s the solution?
Alec Paepens: It’s all about creating
a secure, reliable infrastructure
that can be installed once and
maintained independently of
the changes to the layout in the
factories and warehouses. And we
need it to support multiple devices,
multiple technologies, in a way that
minimizes interference or dropped
connections. That’s where iMinds’
FORWARD project comes into play.
Q: How did you become involved
with iMinds?
Alec Paepens: Initially, we were
involved in another project: iMinds
had asked us to sit on a steering
committee reviewing certain
research results. We got to talking
about our use of wireless in a
production environment and found
we were a perfect match for the
FORWARD project, which began
in 2014 and will continue through
to the end of 2015.
Q: FORWARD involves a number
of different organizations. How do
they all contribute?
Alec Paepens: With Arcelor, we can
offer a number of use cases: what
we’re using wireless for, what we’re
IT’S ALL ABOUT
EMBEDDING
INTELLIGENCE.
YOU NEED AN
INTERNET OF
THINGS.
“
“
DRIVING THE INTERNET
OF THINGS ONTO
THE FACTORY FLOOR

ABOUT IMINDS’
FORWARD
PROJECT
The iMinds FORWARD
(Factories Operating on
Robust Wireless Automation:
Research and Design) project
is bringing together a diverse
group of stakeholders to
research and develop wireless
solutions for industrial
applications. These should
make the factories of the
future more intelligent, more
efficient and more profitable.
Project partners include
Arcelor Mittal Belgium,
Egemin NV, Excentis, Siemens
and Volvo Group Belgium.
ABOUT VOLVO
The Volvo Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of
trucks, buses, construction equipment, drive systems for marine
and industrial applications; we also provide complete solutions for
financing and service. Volvo’s Ghent plant is one of the largest truck
assembly factories in the Volvo Group. It assembles over 35.000
trucks a year.
It is also home to the Volvo Group’s world’s largest spare parts
distribution center for trucks, buses, construction equipment and
marine & industrial engines. With over 200,000 part numbers in the
warehouse, the distribution center handles more than 6,8 million
order lines per year.
planning to do with it, what are the
challenges. Egemin NV specializes
in wireless solutions for warehouses,
so they offer invaluable insight.
Excentis does a lot of research
in wireless technology, making
performance measurements for
different cards and networks, testing
against product specifications.
And Siemens provides a range of
wireless technology and access
points for testing. iMinds has the
cross-disciplinary expertise to
weave all of this together and
elevate it into the context of the
Internet of Things. While all of this
focus on problem solving around
wireless communication is vital,
iMinds holds the bigger picture
in mind of using that wirelessly
connected environment to allow
devices to intelligently monitor and
exchange information.
Q: How will production at Volvo
change with the rise of a true
Internet of Things?
Kris Van Cauwenberge: It would
be a great help if we could, for
example, equip our conveyors and
automatic strapping machines, as
well as our warehouse vehicles
with intelligent sensors. Right now,
we’ve got more than 300 forklifts
that require manual maintenance.
We can only service them and
check for problems when they’re
not being used, which isn’t a lot
of the time. With IoT-enabled
technology, we can shift to a
proactive approach to maintenance,
collecting performance data in real
time and preventing problems
before they bring down the vehicles
or production installations.
Alec Paepens: In our Ghent factory,
we also envision enhancing our
forklifts with devices and sensors
that combine tracking with picking.
So we could do more work, higher
quality work, and perhaps increase
productivity to attract new
models to the plant. It’s all about
embedding intelligence into the
system—and for that, you need an
intelligent network, and intelligent
machines. You need an Internet of
Things.

USERS WILL
NEED GREATER
INSIGHT INTO
WHAT THEIR IOT
APPLICATIONS
ARE DOING.“
“

AN INTERNET
OF THINGS IS STILL AN
INTERNET FOR PEOPLE
The Internet of Things (IoT) will bring unprecedented convenience to our
daily lives—making our homes and workplaces responsive to our needs
and giving us intuitive control over our environments. But who will be
accountable for the intelligence embedded in the objects that make up the
IoT? How will we, as individuals, be sure our right to privacy is protected in a
world of ‘things’ that know our preferences and habits? iMinds researchers,
such as KATLEEN GABRIELS, are committed to asking questions like these,
knowing the answers will shape our society in essential ways for decades
to come.
THESEEDSHAVEBEENSOWN
While the IoT is only just emerging,
the proliferation of smart devices in
recent years has already exposed
some of the social implications of
living in a world of intelligent things.
Most of us as smartphone users, for
example, are only vaguely aware
of the data collected, pushed and
pulled in the background by our
devices and accessed by a variety
of programs, such as geo-location,
email, social media and calendaring
apps.
Web searching is another example.
Search and recommendation
engines employ all kinds of
optimization algorithms to improve
search results. The underlying
mechanisms are invisible to users,
yet have a profound impact on
which data are displayed.
Researchers call this the ‘black
box problem’—and it will only be
compounded in the Internet of
Things. With data being handled
deep in the background by billions
of devices, technology stands

to become increasingly opaque,
reducing users’ knowledge of, or
control over, functionality. This will
be a problem not just for individuals
but also for organizations:
already today, technology-driven
enterprises rely on proprietary
solutions (such as Google’s Gmail)
over which their internal IT teams
have limited control.
OPENINGUPTHEBLACKBOX
One of the keys to a transparent
Internet of Things is creating a
standardized, open source platform
that will give users greater insight
into what their IoT applications are
doing.
iMinds is developing such a
platform, building on the open
source Contiki Operating System,
which is designed to run on the
kinds of low-power wireless
devices that will make up the
Internet of Things. The challenge
is to provide an open foundation
that gives users more control while
at the same time ensuring strong
security to protect individual and
corporate data. To put it simply,
the platform should be open but
the data must be closed.
An open platform alone, however,
is not enough to guarantee user
control and privacy. The solution
can’t be for every user to become
a technical expert. What can be
done is to raise public awareness of
individual rights and responsibilities
and the value of keeping data
private.
iMinds is currently working with the
Flemish government on the Media
Wisdom project (www.mediawijs.
be), a research-driven initiative
to raise technology awareness
amongst the general public. As part
of this project, for instance, iMinds
researchers are conducting privacy
studies to determine the kinds of
information younger users disclose
through social media.
CONDUCTINGMORALFIELDWORK
If an informed public is key to
successfully realizing the vision
of the Internet of Things, so
are informed public policy and
legislation. Privacy and data
TO WHAT
DEGREE CAN
WE RELY ON
MACHINES
TO MAKE
THE RIGHT
DECISIONS?“
“
AN INTERNET
OF THINGS IS STILL AN
INTERNET FOR PEOPLE

security are just two of many IoT-
related issues policymakers will
need to address, and potentially are
among the most straightforward.
More challenging questions relate
to responsibility and accountability
in an increasingly automated world.
As we depend more and more
on a network of devices made by
numerous manufacturers, to what
degree can we rely on machines
to make the right decisions and
where do we place the blame
when the wrong choice is made?
Wired magazine recently devised
a thought experiment in which a
self-driving vehicle about to crash
must choose whether to swerve
into a lane containing a packed
SUV or into a lane with a smaller
automobile. If the computer’s
choice causes a fatality, who is
accountable? The computer? Its
programmer?
While the question is (partly)
speculative, the need for an answer
is not. Laws and regulations will
have to be clear in the interest of
the public good. iMinds is studying
ethical issues like these by fusing
theory and practice through “moral
fieldwork”, which applies empirical
data collection and analysis to
philosophical questions, going out
in the field for surveys and studies
that can provide hard data to
evaluate moral issues.
The questions raised by the
Internet of Things are complex but
not entirely new. As mentioned,
the technological developments
of the past decade have already
introduced issues related to
privacy and data security: it is the
specifics—and magnitude—that will
differ in the IoT.
Further research will help us
determine how to adapt and
evolve existing policies and laws
to encompass the challenges of
the Internet of Things, ensuring we
enjoy all the benefits of a connected
world while protecting citizens’
rights and freedoms.

THOMAS KALLSTENIUS
iMinds Research & Innovation Director
LIST OF SUBJECT-MATTER EXPERTS
WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THIS PAPER
STEFAN BOUCKAERT
iMinds - IBCN - UGent
Business Developer iMinds
Technical Testing
KRIS VAN CAUWENBERGE
Technical Support Manager Volvo
JEROEN FAMAEY
Post-Doctoral Researcher
KATLEEN GABRIELS
iMinds - SMIT - VUB
Doctoral Researcher
JAN VAN HERBRUGGEN
CEO Multicap
JEROEN HOEBEKE
Assistant Professor
DANNY HUGHES
iMinds - DistriNet - KU Leuven
Assistant Professor
WOUT JOSEPH
iMinds - WiCa - UGent
Professor
THOMAS KALLSTENIUS
iMinds Research & Innovation
Director
KRIS LUYTEN
iMinds - EDM - UHasselt
Professor
MATTHIAS MARESCAUX
R&D Engineer Picanol
INGRID MOERMAN
Professor
SAM MICHIELS
iMinds - DistriNet - KU Leuven
Industrial Research Manager
ALEC PAEPENS
Network & Telecom Manager Volvo
WIM VERHAVERT
iMinds - CUO - KU Leuven
Researcher
iMinds editorial team: Sven De Cleyn, Koen De Vos, Thomas Kallstenius, Els Van Bruystegem,
Wim Van Daele, Stefan Vermeulen
Copy: Ascribe Communications
Design: Coming-Soon.be
Photography: Lieven Dirckx, Nils Blanckaert
©2014 iMinds vzw - CC-BY 4.0. You are free to share and adapt the content in this publication
with reference to iMinds.
Additional content will be published on www.iminds.be/insights.
FORMOREINFORMATION
about iMinds’ expertise in the field of Internet of Things,
please contact thomas.kallstenius@iminds.be

iMinds insights - Internet of Things

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