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"At AT&amp;T's Innovation Showcase in New York City Friday, the company showed off a variety of projects being developed within AT&amp;T Labs. The event's general theme was the shift to more cloud-based networks and the greater interconnectivity of devices (the horribly titled, \"Internet of Things\").\nMost of the projects on display at the Innovation Showcase are proof-of-concepts or foundations for larger ideas. These aren't necessarily technologies that will make their way to market as commercialized products, but the research and development work may be used as the basis for more fully-formed products in the future.\nIt's worth noting that many of the technologies aren't intended to be consumer-facing. Some are clearly targeted at the enterprise, while others offer a glimpse at features that AT&amp;T or its partners could implement into future services.\nMore than a dozen projects were on display at the event; here are three of our favorites.\nNanocubes: Visualize big data-sets with ease\n\nFor me, the most-impressive project at AT&amp;T's Innovation Showcase was Nanocubes, a project designed to let users interact with massively large datasets through visualization.\nBig data visualization tools are not a new concept. Plenty of companies have different offerings that makes it easy to visualize a huge swath of data - like crime rates in a city over a period of time, or a geographical view of Twitter or Foursquare data from a period of a year.\nWhat makes Nanocubes unique is that visualizing the data doesn't require tons of local resources. You can browse and interact with the data on a standard laptop or tablet. The Nanocubes team demoed the product running off an 11-inch MacBook Air. You can also pull up some of the visualization demos in your browser or on your tablet.\nA combination of homegrown AT&amp;T software technology, cloud computing and exposed APIs are what allows Nanocubes to run smoothly in a web browser. The visualization experience is fast and easy to use on a desktop or mobile device.\nYou can select or pan over a geographical region to view more information in a dataset. What impressed me was the way the data was visualized in such a way that made it easy to pinpoint spikes of activity (or severe drops) over a given length of time.\nOne demo, which showed crime statistics in Chicago, showed that narcotics crimes tend to occur with the same frequency regardless of the time of year. Conversely, more thefts take place when the weather is warmer.\nNanocubes is open source and available on GitHub. To view visualizations, a user just needs to submit a CSV or database file that contains latitude, longitude and a time stamp.\nSmart Luggage: Track your bag from your phone\n\nThe most consumer-friendly project at the AT&amp;T Innovation Showcase was called Smart Luggage. It's exactly what it sounds like. The idea is that a built-in GPS sensor inside your luggage can make it possible to track the location of your bag. The luggage can even send its owner a text alert once it arrives at an airport or other destination.\nWe've all had lost or misplaced luggage, and the ability to keep an eye on your bag \u2014 or at least track where it is in the system \u2014 is compelling.\n\nThe one downside about smart luggage? Image:  Mashable,  Christina WarrenUnfortunately, the concept as demoed doesn't seem quite ready for market. As presented, a GPS and 3G data sensor are embedded inside your suitcase. AT&amp;T says it's also possible that the tracking technology could be shifted to a removable fob you attach to your bag. \nThere is an online and mobile website/application that lets users track the location of a bag. The problem, however, is that location accuracy isn't as good as it could be. As long as the plane's cargo area is open, the GPS can communicate and say it's at an airport \u2014 but users won't be able to further track where in the airport a bag is. And if you want to track where you bag is as it flies across the Atlantic, prepare to be disappointed. The FAA regulations for wireless and GPS activity prevent the tracker from working in those instances.\nIt is cool that you can get instant text alerts when a bag arrives at a destination \u2014 especially for users who are traveling abroad or have to make multiple connections. Be aware, however, the battery life for the current technology is only 3 days. That means you'll need to plug your suitcase into a USB port to charge before traveling. I don't know about you, but I have enough things to charge before a trip without also having to worry about my suitcase.\nThe good news is that this system is just a prototype. AT&amp;T says there is no reason that it couldn't be further integrated with technologies such as beacons or RFID.\nRight now, Delta allows users to track the status of their bags inside its mobile app. That tracking isn't based on geolocation, but rather when the baggage tag is scanned. \nFor me, the coolest part of the Smart Luggage is the ability to activate a blinking LED light on the bag from your phone. That's super handy if you want an easy way to locate your bag as you wait for baggage claim.\nProject Halo: Logistics maintenance for the future\nFor me, one of the most fascinating projects on display at the AT&amp;T Innovation Showcase was Project Halo. Project Halo is the fusion of a bunch of different technologies that would make it easier for businesses to manage logistics around equipment maintenance.  \nThe scenario presented by Project Halo is for a Kitchen of the Future done in conjunction with Disney. The idea behind Project Halo is to streamline and improve the maintenance process in Disney kitchen's across its resorts.\nSay a dishwasher is broken inside one of Disney's kitchens. Project Halo would send out a \"broken dishwasher\" alert to workers nearby who are qualified to repair the appliance. The worker could accept the assignment on her phone or tablet. Once at the location, Project Halo would then show the worker exactly where the broken appliance is located. \nThe worker could then create the work order in an app, view any repair manuals for the appliance and look over repair instructions. Before leaving the site, the worker would complete the work order and submit it \u2014 all from a mobile or tablet device.\nProject Halo works in conjunction with Disney SyncLink. Disney SyncLink is designed to connect the right information to the right person at the right time and location. \nAn internal AT&amp;T platform known as Air Graffiti combines SyncLink with AT&amp;T's location based services (LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) as a way to capture everything that's happening at a specific location.\nAlthough the current implementation might be focused on kitchens for a theme park and resort, the longer-term implications for this kind of technology and bridging of devices and data could impact a variety of industries.\nImagine applying this type of logistical workflow to another industry \u2014 say, a hospital. That could allow doctors, nurses and physician assistants who have expertise or training in a specific area to connect with patients needing assistance nearby. Moreover, additional data from within the patient's room, chart and monitoring equipment could be used to offer the attendant more information about exactly what is happening.\nConnectivity everywhere\nLooking at the various projects on display at AT&amp;T's Innovation Showcase, I was struck by an an underlying assumption about the future: connectivity will be ubiquitous.\nIt's not a bad assumption. If one compares the landscape today to what we had only five years ago, it's amazing how much has changed in regards to connectivity speeds and areas of access. \nOf course, the big challenge that AT&amp;T and other wireless carriers will have to face is maintaining their networks so that all of these connected devices can live in harmony. \nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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