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Sensor AI has a role not only in industry, but also in sectors such as medicine and consumer electronics

Corporate artificial intelligence and robotics are no longer just futuristic concepts but are becoming an integral part of everyday business operations. They enable companies to improve efficiency, productivity, and responsiveness to change. They also help with product innovation. One of the key aspects of this integration is the use of sensor AI, which allows for data collection and analysis using a variety of sensors and devices.

Let’s take a look at some examples of how sensory AI can transform various industries and innovate businesses. The following examples illustrate practices already in use today:

• Industrial automation: In industrial automation, sensor AI is used to monitor and control manufacturing processes. Sensors can monitor essential parameters such as temperature, pressure, or humidity, but also detect microscopic changes in the environment that could signal potential issues. For example, sensors detecting changes in air pressure can warn of impending equipment failure, allowing maintenance to be carried out before the problem becomes serious.

• Medicine: Sensors enable the monitoring of heart rate, blood pressure or glucose levels. This data can be analysed by artificial intelligence, for example to diagnose and monitor health conditions or to predict the future course of a disease or a patient’s response to treatment. Sensory AI detects patterns of changes in blood pressure that may predict when the next hypertensive crisis will occur and warn the doctor or patient well in advance.

• Autonomous vehicles: Sensors are crucial for collecting data about the surrounding environment. In addition to traditional sensors such as lidar, radar and cameras, modern vehicles often use other advanced sensors such as ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles in the vicinity of the vehicle or sensors to measure road quality. This information is essential for the proper functioning of autonomous systems, which must be able to quickly and accurately respond to various situations on the road to ensure safe driving.

• Smart cities: Sensor AI in smart cities is used to monitor traffic, air quality, noise levels, and other factors affecting the environment. Modern sensors measure essential parameters and identify specific pollution or problems in public infrastructure. For example, a sensor network in a city can detect gas leaks in the distribution network and automatically alert the relevant authorities, enabling rapid action.

• Wearables: Sensors in electronics such as smart watches or fitness bracelets collect data on movement, heart rate and other physiological parameters. This information is not only used for personal monitoring and improving the health of users but can also be shared in the form of anonymised data with research institutions or public health organisations to analyse and predict epidemics or to track population health trends.

Why don’t Czech companies use AI?

Despite all these potential benefits, many Czech companies are still hesitant to implement AI into their processes. There are several reasons for that.

Firstly, there is a shortage of qualified experts in the Czech Republic, who would be able to design and implement AI systems into corporate infrastructure.

According to RSM, a local IT consulting firm, 48% of companies have the technical conditions for rapid implementation of AI, but the development is hindered by both managers and legislation. According to the analysis, specific challenges such as managers’ low willingness to bear the risks associated with pioneering phases of AI implementation, including legislative and security aspects (e.g., personal data protection), are obstacles. It may be difficult to agree across the company on how the corporate AI should work. Moreover, significant revisions of existing legislation and updates to the national AI strategy are needed, a process that is still in its early stages.

Some companies don’t have a clear idea on how to use AI to improve their processes or innovate products and services. This lack of awareness may lead to a lack of motivation for investment in AI technologies.

However, organisations should not resist this trend. In countries such as Japan and the US, AI is already widely used, including in autonomous taxis. Once Czech companies overcome their concerns and embrace AI as an essential part of their operations, they can enjoy higher efficiency, innovation, and a competitive advantage. There is hardly any company that cannot benefit from what AI has to offer, be it from small things such as data processing and analysis, to process automation, automated car control, to fully autonomous factory or shop floor operation.

The age of semantic automation

The combination of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) creates a powerful symbiosis that can elevate business productivity and efficiency to a new level. Semantic automation, based on generative artificial intelligence, is a driving technology with the potential to fundamentally change the way companies operate.

In a time when digital transformation is a necessity rather than just a trend, RPA is becoming a major player. With its ability to automate mundane, repetitive tasks, RPA significantly enhances employee productivity. Together with AI, they form a synergistic duo, combining automation with the creativity of the human mind.

According to IDC, automation in companies reduces operating costs by 13.5% and saves an average of 1.9 hours of work per week (source: Worldwide Automation Spending Guide 2022 by IDC) per employee. These figures highlight the transformational potential of RPA and AI in increasing productivity and reducing costs.

RPA and generative AI – the combo for perfect automation

Generative artificial intelligence, as a subset of AI, focuses on the creation of content or data rather than just processing it. It uses machine learning techniques such as neural networks and deep learning to create new content in various forms. “Generative AI models learn from existing data and use this knowledge to produce original, creative and contextually relevant output,” explains Viktória Lukáčová Bracjunová, Head of Robotics and Automation at Soitron.

RPA excels in repetitive tasks, follows rules and procedures, doesn’t make mistakes and doesn’t need breaks. It dominates in structured processes, minimizing deviations. It is a key technology component for companies to reduce costs, reduce errors and speed up routine tasks.

Using semantic automation in a dynamic environment

In a dynamic automation environment, the combination of RPA and generative AI creates a powerful synergy that goes beyond the capabilities of either technology alone. “RPA successfully handles routine tasks, while generative AI is strong at processing complex, unstructured data and solving creative challenges. RPA ensures process consistency and minimises errors, while generative AI analyses data and provides deeper insights, improving the quality of strategic decisions,” says Viktória Lukáčová Bracjunová.

In the field of AI and natural language processing, semantics play a crucial role. It provides the foundation for creating advanced generative artificial intelligence systems that are better able to understand and interact with human language, which is crucial for the success of many AI applications.

Implementable in any company

RPA’s integration with existing systems and applications makes this technology an ideal choice for automating tasks within existing workflows. Next-generation automation can work with a variety of data types and formats, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of processes. Generative AI integration enhances customer experience through personalized interactions, understanding natural language and solving complex queries with empathy.

Where semantic automation can help

Advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities – it can understand and respond to the customer’s natural language, which is key to automating customer care, order processing and maintaining customer relationships.
Machine Learning (ML) – allows robots to learn from data and improve their performance over time, which is crucial for tasks requiring adaptivity or decision making.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) – enables the reading of information from unstructured digitized documents such as PDFs and images.

Meeting the challenges of the modern market

In a rapidly evolving market environment, the combination of RPA and generative AI delivers precision automation, as well as creative innovation, providing a competitive advantage when deployed. Ignoring this technological symbiosis means missing an opportunity. “Now is the right time to let RPA and generative AI technologies collaborate and achieve improved results,” concludes Viktória Lukáčová Bracjunová.

Czech Companies Lose Hundreds of Thousands of Czech Crowns Annually Due to the Absence of Energy Management

Czech companies monitor their energy consumption, but not meticulously enough. This results in unnecessarily high operating costs month after month. Although half of the respondents in Soitron’s survey said that energy prices significantly affect their margins, with another 5% admitting severe financial struggles with energy costs, only few companies diligently track their consumption. Yet, simply monitoring consumption and breaking down costs by specific energy sources can eliminate inefficiencies and save up to a tenth of their operating costs.

High inflation and unclear future prospects have plagued Czech companies for over a year. One of the most effective solutions for saving costs is to monitor their energy consumption. “Just observing consumption alone motivates companies to think about how to avoid unnecessary losses of expensive energy,” says Martin Hummel, IoT specialist and product manager at Soitron, a leading IoT integrator operating in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

It would suffice to switch off machines that are momentarily not in use and consider the choice of new equipment in the future. Or use automation to automatically help reduce energy consumption.

A Soitron survey with 86 participating companies reveals that almost every company (92%) tracks their energy expenditures. Those not monitoring consumption either claim they do not need this data or lack the necessary equipment to collect it.

As for companies monitoring their energy consumption, their approach varies. Some companies primarily look at data for the whole company (47%); more than a third (35%) monitor consumption through secondary metering at the building or individual hall level; and only 9% monitor through secondary metering at the level of individual lines and machines. The remaining respondents do not concern themselves with the detailed breakdown. Depending on the size and type of the company, they are unnecessarily losing up to hundreds of thousands of Czech crowns per year. These inadequately-spent funds could be better used for further development, bringing about both savings and the simplification of day-to-day work.

This problem can be solved by implementing an energy management system, commonly used in modern operations to manage and optimise energy consumption. The first steps to monitoring and managing energy consumption are inexpensive. “The metering system monitors the consumption of the technologies, heating, cooling or lighting in real time. It is thus able to quickly identify specific points of inefficiencies, such as the lights turned on in an empty building. In several implementations, companies have reduced their consumption by 5 to 10% just by obtaining this data alone. So, their investment was paid back in a matter of weeks,” explains Hummel.

Without input data, optimisation is difficult

The key factor for most companies is to save on production costs. For 60% of respondents, the amount of total energy consumption is the most important, possibly in combination with the price of energy on the spot market, and possible penalties for exceeding their 15 min maxima. Companies follow their energy consumption and energy prices and optimise their production processes based on these factors. Production profitability, i.e. the ability to produce a product for less than what it sells for, is an important indicator for one-third of respondents (34%), suggesting that everything is working as it should.

However, the majority of companies (74%) do not use any specific system to collect and analyse energy consumption data. Those that do use data collection claim that having such data is useful. “Any software that enables accurate data analysis is worth it,” declares Hummel. Five percent of the respondents who said they could not manage without external help also admitted that they had no idea what percentage of the total cost of a product is the energy cost. Another five percent of companies was unable to assess the impact of high energy prices on the profitability of their production. To such companies, data collection would provide the easiest help.

Vulnerable: there are 96 medical devices connected online in the Czech Republic just “waiting” to be hacked

Medical devices connected to the internet are a great innovation and as such have a great potential. They improve patient care and reduce the costs of medical examination and treatment. On the other hand, most of these devices are relatively easy to hack; therefore, they pose a cyber security risk. If they are compromised, this could have a negative impact on patient care and the overall health care benefits of these devices.

Typická nemocnice má dnes k internetu připojených stovky specializovaných zdravotnických zařízení jako jToday’s typical hospital has hundreds of specialized medical devices connected to the internet such as X-rays, computed tomography, infusion and insulin pumps, and many more. In addition to collecting various data, they are remotely controlled, serviced, and updated.

“These specialized devices are designed primarily for medical use; however, most of them lack basic IT security protection and as such they can easily become an entry point for access to a hospital network,” says Martin Lohnert, a cybersecurity specialist at Soitron.

Since these medical devices use very specific proprietary communication protocols, they are relatively easy to track down when connected to the internet. There are even public lists of these devices.

This makes the attacker’s job so much easier. Firstly, they get acquainted with the situation. Next, they can check the list of potentially communicating medical devices on the internet and choose any one of them. They may also choose to verify the information: with Google Maps they can check the address to see if there is a hospital or other medical facility with the localized medical device. If they visit the facility’s website and use the Street View feature, they can even compare photos to make sure that the information is correct. Using readily available hacking tools, they can then identify which of the facility’s systems are accessible from the internet. “At that moment, the attacker has everything they need,” Lohnert points out. They have identified the target, and they know how to hack into the device.

To communicate with such a device, it is enough for an attacker to know a certain programming code, which can sometimes be as short as thirty lines. They can adapt the code to suit their needs and then use it as they see fit. They get inside the device without ever hitting any protection or having to bypass any security features. They don’t even need to log into the device. “Medical devices often lack any security features, such as a login and password requirement that would protect them against unauthorized entry to the communication interface,” Lohnert explains. This should be taken into account, and adequate security should be provided. Ideally, devices should only communicate with a server within the organization.

What is the situation in the Czech Republic?

If we look at how many medical devices are currently connected to the internet in the Czech Republic, and are thus potentially “ready” to be hacked, we find that there are 96 such devices. More than 80 of them are in Prague. What is alarming is the number of these connected medical devices as well as the knowledge that the trend is on the rise. Instead of securing existing devices through a proper installation, new unsecured devices appear on the internet all the time. And as you can see, they are relatively easy to find so that they can then be exploited.

It is, however, no secret that hospitals are a popular target of ransomware attacks. By infiltrating into a hospital network or a medical database, cybercriminals get access to thousands of personal medical records. This is largely due to insufficient security protection and the growing number of unprotected connected devices. Although there is no documented evidence that hackers could have harmed patients through a medical device as yet, cyber security experts point out that every medical device is hackable. And something needs to be done about these vulnerabilities.

Solutions for securing medical IoT devices

How can you get out of this situation? “By raising cyber security awareness; implementing corporate security strategy in practice; proactively monitoring one’s own ICT environment, risks, and new threats; and finally, preparing for critical situations and being able to respond appropriately,” Lohnert concludes.

Start metering your energy consumption and you will save on one of the biggest costs

Trading, manufacturing, and service companies as well as entities such as hospitals and public organisations tend to perceive energy as a necessary cost item which is constantly growing.

They do not pay much attention to it, because some of their managers believe that continuous consumption monitoring, identifying inefficiencies, and adapting their power consumption to the “reserved capacity” contracted with their energy distributor is too complicated, if not impossible.

And yet for many businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, energy is one of the largest cost items. The most energy-intensive sectors include food, pulp and paper, and the chemical industry as well as services. Indeed, the industrial and services sectors account for almost two-fifths of the EU’s total energy consumption (including households).

It is often said that if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage and optimise it. Energy is a perfect example of this. Only a detailed overview of the largest expenditures or leaks and an understanding of when, where, and how they occur can make subsequent remedial action possible.

The good news is that current technologies based on the Internet of Things (IoT) make it relatively simple to monitor energy consumption in great detail. The basis for this is the use of smart meters providing real-time data on the consumption of energy such as electricity or water. Based on our experience at Soitron, our customers achieve energy cost savings by using this technology in the three following ways:

Identification of errors and energy wastage

The first way to use metering to reduce energy consumption, and thus also your costs and carbon footprint, is to compare invoices from the energy provider against your own metering. This can reveal energy losses, such as water pipe leaks in larger industrial facilities.

More detailed consumption metering, monitoring, and comparisons also tend to reveal unnecessary waste, such as when a specific facility has a significantly higher consumption than other comparable ones. A detailed consumption overview has helped some companies realise that they kept their air conditioning running unnecessarily, even on weekends or outside work hours. In our experience, organisations can save up to five percent of their energy costs in the first year after metering implementation.
Current consumption and energy supply contract optimisation

If a company is unable to monitor their electricity consumption over time and actively manage individual energy consuming systems, they can easily repeatedly exceed their reserved capacity. In such cases, distribution companies charge penalties for overconsumption, often amounting to several thousand euros.

Some organisations deal with this problem by increasing their reserved capacity. However, such a solution may turn out to be even more costly as they have to pay higher fixed charges for a capacity that they seldom use.

A smarter solution is to meter the energy consumption continuously and to intervene when necessary by temporarily turning down room chilling or reconfiguring the operation of any large appliances that do not necessarily have to all run at the same time. A similar approach can be used to avoid power outages if the infrastructure is hitting its technology ceiling and the distributor is unable to reserve a higher capacity.
Feedback for maintenance and changes in behaviour

Detailed reports on energy consumption down to the level of individual workplaces or even machines may also have other positive effects. For instance, they provide more insight into the technical condition and the intensity of use of machines. If the consumption is too high, it may indicate a fault, but if it is too low it may indicate that the machine is not being used enough.

Finally, if the metering results are well communicated, they also help to change employee behaviour, which can lead to further savings and higher efficiency.

Conclusion
Of course, there are several ways to achieve energy savings. A company can change their energy supplier, try to get better conditions by renegotiating the energy supply contract, and invest in more energy-efficient machines and equipment.

However, consumption metering is very affordable and can be implemented relatively quickly, which is why it is proving to be one of the most effective ways to reduce energy costs.
Contact our IoT team and find out how much your organisation can save on energy.

Soitron wants to help hospitals and authorities manage the coronavirus crisis free of charge

Soitron responds to the coronavirus crisis and offers assistance to healthcare facilities and public authorities. Through our partnership with RPA software company UiPath which donates free licenses for software robots to hospitals and public sector institutions until September 2020, Soitron will oversee free implementation and subsequent IT support. The offer is valid for the Czech and Slovak Republics. Software robots, which are able to process very large amounts of data quickly and accurately, can become digital assistants to medical staff and public workers.

The RPA automation software can be used in any repetitive and rules-based process. As a result, it can learn and execute a “robot” or computer software based on algorithms. So-called unattended robots will find widespread use. They can process invoices at the authorities, enter new patients in the healthcare system and predict health consequences for the existing ones.

“Working on the UiPath RPA platform, we are able to put RPA into practice very quickly in hospitals as well as in public administration institutions. Nowadays, repetitive, time-consuming activities without much added value can be delegated to software robots, who can perform complex tasks without interruption and error without the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).”

VIKTÓRIA LUKÁČOVÁ BRACJUNOVÁ
Head of Automation and Robotics

Faster application processing and more efficient testing

Due to the pandemics of the new coronavirus, the Social Insurance Company (SP) is currently experiencing a major onslaught in Slovakia as part of applications for family member care (OCR) and for sickness benefits. If the insurance company deployed RPA technology, the process would be automated and significantly accelerated.

Problems are also expected elsewhere – labor offices are preparing for a large increase in citizens’ applications for inclusion in their records and for the processing of unemployment benefits. At the moment, everything is handled by officials only by e-mail or mail. Automation can also speed up the processing of applications by companies and sole traders for financial support due to a decrease in revenues under state measures. The implemented algorithm would only submit applications that meet the specified criteria after evaluating the staff of the authority. This eliminates the error rate of the human invoice.

In healthcare, RPA can help, among other things, automate patient records, search for medical history, and test for coronavirus infection. An automated process can make a significant contribution to reducing the time it takes a patient to wait for exams to be received.

“The big advantage is that RPA is a technology that we can relatively easily implement remotely and therefore help where it is most needed,” concludes Victoria Bracjun, adding that Soitron provides assistance in more areas. For example, it can protect hospitals from cyberattacks.

Soitron’s offer of RPA assistance is still valid until 30 September 2020, with a potential option of extending it for the duration of the pandemic.

A leaking server room or a congested network: What IT in healthcare should (not) look like.

Soitron IT expert: Some hospitals open their door to hackers themselves.

We talked to Soitron IT expert Martin Čaprnka about what modern IT in a hospital should look like and how to build it with a limited budget.

Many hospitals today are struggling with lack of personnel and desolate buildings. What about their IT in the light of these challenges?

The situation with their IT is very similar. When you see the old and unfit buildings in which they often reside, their communication infrastructure is in a similar condition. It often looks like 20 to 30 years ago. Problems are just plastered over. Staff do not have the time or money to do the overall renovation the communication infrastructure would deserve.

What does IT infrastructure look like in a typical Slovak hospital?

I’ve seen a few them. Some were in a rather woeful state. In one of them, the boiler room was in a better state than the room in which the data and telecommunication equipment was housed. With leaks and mould on the walls, uninterrupted operation could not be guaranteed. Wiring is often undersized for both power and data. I was in one hospital where we would have to turn half of the hospital upside down if we wanted to install another wireless access point.

Let’s say I’m the hospital director and I’m deciding how to best allocate my budget. What’s the benefit of investing in IT infrastructure compared to, for example, training people, renovating the building, and so on?

This can be viewed from several perspectives. Firstly, what do I need to provide for patients and doctors? For instance, I may have a portable X-ray machine and need to send the images somewhere. Or I may need to register patients, store data, and so on. These are the services that hospitals want to provide.

Secondly, how do I keep the technology operating? This is what I have to have in mind when building the whole infrastructure. In the event of a failure, I must be able to keep at least critical systems in operation, the functioning of which may depend on infrastructure: for example, patient monitoring.

And finally, security. Cyberattacks don’t avoid hospitals. The network should therefore be built from the ground up to be secure. Of course, it is more complex than that, and security should be addressed on other tiers as well. However, the more you neglect this aspect, the easier the attacks will be because the communication infrastructure is the foundation of all other systems.

Some hospitals already have Wi-Fi. Is patient data safe?

Some hospitals are more advanced. They have implemented segmentation and use separate secure networks, i.e., one network accessible by visitors or patients and another one not accessible by ordinary people, so that sensitive data is protected.

But of course, sometimes it is the other way around. Several facilities use devices that you can readily buy in supermarkets. I wouldn’t use them even for my home. Such devices are not patched at all, or perhaps are only patched after a year. In this way, they open the door to potential attackers. Not to mention that if Wi-Fi is designed and installed incorrectly, it does not serve its purpose at all. So, it is quite common that there is Wi-Fi in a hospital, but you cannot connect to it because it has not been set up for a large number of users.

Can medical devices run on Wi-Fi?

It is more secure to connect them by cable. However, some devices, such as those that do not monitor patients, can certainly run on a wireless network as well. This includes devices that assist in service tasks, such as an automatic drug dispenser. In this case, a Wi-Fi connection allows the device to monitor the medication the patient takes and prepare it for them. Should this system fail, it is not a critical problem. The system just makes the work for the staff easier.

A typical example of Wi-Fi use is the localization of portable devices such as X-ray machines, sonographs, and so on. It allows staff to quickly find out where each device is and how to get it to where it needs to be as quickly as possible. Again, it saves time.

What common IT problems you see most often?

Undersized network and transmission capacity. In such cases, there is nowhere to connect a new device. The second major problem is security. There is often lack of continuity when the systems are built. If the chief IT expert happens to leave, nobody has a clue how the whole thing is built. Another common problem is lack of redundancies. Critical elements the entire communication depends on often don’t have two power supplies in place, or two physical paths available to prevent the whole system from collapsing in the event of a failure.

Can a hospital on a limited budget significantly improve its IT infrastructure?

In public hospitals this is probably difficult, but in private hospitals this is accounted for. They want to differentiate themselves from past practices and build modern hospitals. IT infrastructure can also be built for reasonable money. We have witnessed it mainly in the private hospitals we have worked with.

If I’m the hospital director who wants it, where should I start?

Start with an audit. First, look at the building. Are the premises suitable? The next thing you should look at is what your hospital provides, i.e., how the departments are structured, how you need them to communicate with each other, what services you provide to patients, and what role the data communication plays. Once the whole hospital has been mapped, a plan of how to build the infrastructure from zero to the final state is designed, and then you can start building it, sort of like with building blocks.

Can it be done part by part?

Definitely. Actually, this is how it’s usually done. It would be ideal to have the whole thing built in one go, but usually hospitals identify critical parts to start with. These investments may sometimes take up to five years, but if you want to get somewhere, you must take the first step. After all, once you fix the problems with unsuitable premises or structured cabling, you benefit from it right away. And you also have the conditions prepared for the future.

Give us an example of a hospital in Slovakia with a good IT infrastructure.

A very good example are the new private hospitals. Since they are filled to the roof with technology, we often have to build an extremely stable and secure network for them. This was also the case of the New Generation Hospital in Michalovce.

However, we can also find good examples in some public hospitals that have made several investments. They have undergone renovations, and some of them have built completely new departments that look like those in the Dr House TV show. And I am happy to say that this is happening all over Slovakia.