Today might be World IoT Day, but we’ve got something to say that you might not want to hear: IoT is failing us. This isn’t hyperbole or a marketing gimmick; it’s an acknowledgment of the fundamental shortcomings of the Internet of Things in its current form. The vision that once promised to revolutionize every industry has encountered obstacles, but with the right approach, that promise can still be fulfilled, and we believe that the IoT’s potential is just beginning to emerge. 

The IoT landscape today often appears as a patchwork of insecure, slow, and ineffective devices. Traditional IoT approaches have struggled to deliver on their promises in many cases, with 74% of all IoT products failing to make it to market, and of those that do, 97% struggle with security, while ecosystem fragmentation has hindered true scalability and sustainability. 

At Blues, we’re not just committed to IoT, we’re working to evolve it into something transformative: Embedded Intelligence. 

IoT’s Security Challenge 

The fundamental challenge with traditional IoT lies in the approach: devices connected directly to the internet without proper security protection or comprehensive management. Each new device becomes another potential entry point for bad actors, creating a massive attack surface that grows exponentially with each deployment. 

The results speak for themselves. Major IoT security breaches have compromised everything from consumer devices to critical infrastructure. Many IoT devices can’t receive security updates, creating persistent vulnerabilities in our homes, businesses, and infrastructure. But these challenges are solvable with the right approach. 

What we need now are machines that combine their senses with secure agents that can think and act intelligently, both on their own and in concert with other machines. We see a bright future where connected technology evolves to meet these challenges head-on. 

Introducing Embedded Intelligence 

What exactly is Embedded Intelligence? It’s a combination of hardware, software, and services that create an intelligent machine. A machine that uses data to meet goals. A machine that utilizes sensors and incorporate embedded intelligent agents to unlock unprecedented value and responsiveness. Unlike traditional IoT approaches, which often simply connect devices to the internet, Embedded Intelligence creates machines that can think, act, and adapt autonomously while maintaining secure connections to their environment and the cloud. 

Embedded Intelligence represents a philosophical shift as much as a technological one. Instead of viewing connectivity as the end goal, we see it as just one component of a complete system. Our approach places the embedded agent at the center, creating a secure, adaptable foundation for every connected device. This agent doesn’t just facilitate connections, it manages them, protects the device from threats, and ensures optimal performance regardless of conditions. 

The Two Pillars of Blues’ Embedded Intelligence 

Our solution is made up of two parts that work together to bridge device and cloud, creating a comprehensive ecosystem that addresses the fundamental security challenges of traditional IoT approaches: 

The Embedded Intelligent Agent 

We call it Notecard, and it’s not just a connectivity module, it fundamentally transforms how devices connect, communicate, and operate in the field. Notecard provides: 

• Intelligent radio management: With automatic fallback across every major Radio Access Technology. This means your device can dynamically switch between cellular, WiFi, satellite, and LoRa based on availability, signal strength, and cost considerations. With Notecard, there are no single points of failure for connectivity, your devices stay connected regardless of changing conditions. 

• Inference-based energy optimization: The agent automatically adjusts sensing, computation, and data uplink patterns as needed, balancing performance and power consumption. It can even predict future energy availability and adjust operations proactively, extending device lifespan in unpredictable environments. 

• Unbrickable firmware management: Allowing remote reset, wipe, and “dynamic brain transplant.” This revolutionary approach enables code upgrades or downgrades without risk, provides remote diagnostic capabilities, and ensures long-term sustainability. Even if a firmware update fails catastrophically, your device can recover automatically; eliminating the “bricked ” or rogue scenarios that challenge traditional IoT deployments. 

Notecard is designed as an outboard coprocessor, physically and logically separate from your device’s main application processor. This architecture creates an air gap that fundamentally changes the security model. Even if your application code is compromised, the Notecard remains secure, maintaining control over communication channels and protecting critical systems. 

The Embedded Network Hub 

Your Embedded Network Hub is the command center for your entire fleet of embedded devices. For us, this is Blues Notehub, and it’s not just a cloud service. Unlike generic IoT platforms that try to be everything to everyone, Notehub is purpose-built for managing embedded intelligent agents at scale. It delivers: 

• Intelligent Fleet Configuration & Management: Notehub offers manual, programmatic, and intelligent automatic fleet assignments, providing both direct and polymorphic inheritance for instant, scale-free reconfiguration. This means you can update thousands of devices simultaneously with just a few clicks, or create sophisticated device groupings that adapt automatically based on device characteristics, location, or behavior patterns. 

• Intelligent Storage & Analytics: Event streams intelligently fan out into different storage systems for interactive access, analytics, and warehousing. With support for time-series, geospatial, visualization, and enterprise application integration, you can extract meaningful insights from your device data without building complex data pipelines or analytics systems. 

• Service and Manufacturing-Centricity: Notehub’s API-centric approach focuses on smooth integration with your product procurement, manufacturing, testing, and provisioning practices. It seamlessly connects with your existing enterprise systems, enabling data and event flow from large fleets of deployed devices without disrupting established workflows. 

Notehub isn’t just about managing devices; it’s about making device data actionable and valuable across your organization. It bridges the gap between operational technology and information technology, creating a unified view of your embedded devices and the data they generate. 

Embedded Intelligence: The Power of Integration 

When combined, the Embedded Intelligent Agent and the Embedded Network Hub create a secure, adaptive system that doesn’t just connect a machine, it manages it. Always on, always listening, always secure. This integration enables capabilities that are simply impossible with traditional IoT approaches: 

• Secure Auto-Provisioning & Health Monitoring: Starting with hardware embedded in Notecard, through to auto-provisioning in Notehub, you maintain complete visibility and control over device attributes and behaviors. The system automatically detects unusual patterns that might indicate security concerns, allowing you to quarantine suspicious devices before they can impact your broader network. 

• Air-gapped Security and Protection: Blues implements a ‘dual gap’ prevention system against internet-based intrusion. The first gap is a non-networked ‘request tunnel’ between your application processor and Notecard. The second gap ensures all cellular and satellite traffic between Notecard and Notehub travels on a secure off-internet private VLAN. With encryption at both the transport level and end-to-end encryption for sensitive data, attackers simply can’t reach your devices or data. 

• Intelligent Device Geolocation: Blues enables indoor and outdoor devices to be located using the fusion and triangulation of cell towers, WiFi access points, and LoRa gateways, as well as satellite GPS. The system intelligently adapts based on available signals and automatically detects device movement and orientation, providing reliable location data even in challenging environments without draining battery life. 

These integrated capabilities represent a powerful evolution of IoT, transforming the piecemeal approach where security, connectivity, and intelligence are often bolted on as afterthoughts. With Blues, these critical functions become the foundation of every device and deployment. 

Reimagining IoT for a Secure Future 

With Embedded Intelligence, we’re elevating IoT from simple “connectivity” to a true agent embedded within every machine. A secure, outboard coprocessor entirely separate from the machine’s senses. This isn’t replacing IoT; it’s fulfilling its original promise with embedded intelligence that can think, act, and protect itself. 

Think of the agent as the machine’s trusted advisor, always there, always ready, and always secure. The outboard agent architecture fundamentally changes the security posture of your devices, creating a separation of concerns that protects critical systems even if application code is compromised. 

This approach also creates unprecedented flexibility and future-proofing. As connectivity standards evolve and security requirements change, Notecard can adapt through secure firmware updates without requiring redesigns of your core product. You can even switch radio access technologies in the field, moving from cellular to satellite or WiFi as needed without hardware modifications. 

Let’s Build a Connected Future Together 

Here’s the thing: if your device doesn’t have an intelligent, outboard agent, you’re missing a crucial security component. Every device needs a brain, not just a connection. We believe the future of IoT is bright—filled with devices that can sense, think, communicate, and adapt autonomously while maintaining secure connections to their environment and the cloud. 

Join us as we build a world of truly intelligent, secure machines, machines that fulfill the original promise of IoT and deliver value beyond anything possible with traditional approaches. The future of connected devices is here, and it’s more secure and intelligent than ever.  

Additional Resources 

• Try Notecard for yourself, get started with a development kit  
• Fuel your AI applications with optimized data streams 
• Discover MinSpin, our in house design service to kickstart your product development