Digital Lifescapes

The commercial aviation industry has been at the forefront of innovation, constantly pushing the creative boundaries of what's possible in aircraft design and manufacturing. However, with this pursuit of advancement comes an unwavering responsibility for safety. Recent events have cast a spotlight on the importance of rigorous adherence to aircraft assembly, testing, and maintenance procedures -- serving as a stark reminder of the critical role technology plays in ensuring the safety of passengers and crew alike. Aerospace Digitalization Market Development The dramatic images of a hole appearing in a Boeing aircraft operated by Alaskan Airlines sent shockwaves through the aviation industry, highlighting the potentially catastrophic consequences of even the slightest deviation from established quality-control protocols. In the wake of this incident, aerospace manufacturers have been galvanized into action, recognizing the urgent need to embrace appropriate technologies that can enha...

The spectrum of possibilities for device applications within the Internet of Things (IoT) may be limited more by our own imagination than any other factor. As an example, consider the variety of demonstrations for small drone aircraft technology at the International CES 2015 this week in Las Vegas. Imagine capturing live video from a drone aircraft and streaming it over the internet, via a 4G LTE wireless network connection. This is just one of the emerging applications for this new technology category. The Small Unmanned Arial Systems (sUAS) market  -- that's the formal name for a class of drones -- will surpass $8.4 billion by 2018, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. By 2019, the Commercial sector will dominate the overall sUAS market with revenues exceeding $5.1 billion (that's a 51 percent CAGR from 2014 to 2019), or roughly five times larger than the Prosumer/Hobby market, and 2.3x greater than the Military/Civil market segment. Moreove...