IBM Watson IoT Platform to Add Intelligence to Buildings Worldwide

We’ve seen IBM’s iconic Watson come to the Internet of Things (IoT). Now, the supercomputer’s approach of cognitive IoT is being put to use in buildings.

The ISS Group (no, not the space station), which provides facilities management services, recently announced an agreement with IBM’s Watson to enhance offerings with Watson’s IoT cloud platform and cognitive computing. The agreement will see buildings retrofitted with IoT sensors, from which Watson will gather and analyze information about the building’s operations.

Currently, the goal is to get the building to work for employees that work in the building. Because of the cognitive elements to the software, it has a very human feel when interacting with the system. ISS and IBM are analyzing the data and are looking to uncover insights that will makes these buildings places in which people will want to work.

Have a look:

ISS has turned its headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, into a beta testing lab by fitting the building with hundreds of sensors connected to IBM’s Watson IoT platform and TRIRIGA facilities management software. It very quickly received a wide variety of valuable data from Watson, including the number of people in the building and whether anyone had shown up to a particular meeting.

This information is very important, as it holds the potential to reduce waste, both in the kitchen, where staff knew the appropriate amount of food to prepare, and in the meeting room, where the facilities management software can cancel the meeting automatically. There are also applications with which Watson and TRIRIGA can act as a concierge. For example, through an interface similar to a text message, employees can request a taxi to get them to the airport.

Although it is currently being implemented to track humans, this type of technology could someday help with a broader array of facilities management. (Image courtesy of IBM.)

ISS will then use the knowledge it gained from installing these systems at its headquarters to begin implementing them at selected customer sites.

Although the technology is currently being used to monitor human movement in buildings, it could easily be adapted to help facilities managers with 4D (scheduling), 5D (finances) and 6D (facilities management) building information modeling as well—especially when retrofitting existing buildings.

For more information, check out the Watson IoT website.