Global intelligent IoT messaging platform Unified Inbox and IBM Watson deepen conversation between people and machines

SINGAPORE – 15
March 2017 – IBM (NYSE: IBM)today
announced it is collaborating with Unified Inbox, a Singapore-based
intelligent IoT messaging platform, to provide businesses with the world’s first
intelligent ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) messaging platform, using IBM Watson.
IBM will also provide Unified Inbox, an IBM Cloud (Bluemix) partner, API and
platform support. 

Known
as the UnificationEngine, the messaging platform is to date, the only
technology compatible with over 20 international messaging platforms and
protocols including legacy channels of email and SMS; social media channels
such as Twitter, Weibo, and Facebook; and messaging apps and chatbots from
Line, WhatsApp, Viber, Skype and others. IBM Watson powers the natural language
and conversational intelligence of UIB’s unique UnificationEngine platform,
which makes it possible for users to communicate with their appliances.

For
example, you can chat with your coffee maker on WhatsApp or Viber to make
yourself a cappuccino, and it will ask you how strong you want it, and with how
much sugar and milk. The coffee maker can then message you again on WhatsApp or
other channels to alert you that your espresso is ready. 

Beyond
consumer appliances, the UnificationEngine can also be used in smart enterprise
use cases such as messaging commuters waiting for a bus. In a smart city
scenario, it can be used to message city officials on crowd movements and
formations.

Bosch
is one of the leading innovative companies that has started to integrate the
UnificationEngine into its surveillance cameras. Bosch surveillance cameras are
‘smart at the edge’, where intelligent video analysis takes place within the camera,
while Unified Inbox provides the messaging platform for people to interact with
to connected things. With the two technologies combined, users are able to
communicate with their surveillance cameras in a natural and intuitive manner
via text to receive real-time information such as human traffic.

“Bringing
together IoT with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and unified messaging, we have
created the world’s first UnificationEngine. UnificationEngine is a device- and
platform-agnostic middleware that enables products and software to simply
communicate with people and things,” said Toby Ruckert, Founder and Chief
Executive Officer of Unified Inbox. 

He
added, “UnificationEngine enables this communication seamlessly, with the
significant benefit of eliminating the need for an app. UnificationEngine can
help companies to succeed in the rapidly expanding new markets of IoT and AI.
The IBM Watson Conversation Service makes this capability possible, performing
virtual personal assistance across a wide variety of use cases and powering the
cognitive conversations within UnificationEngine.”

With
an estimated 20.8 billion connected things in use by 2020 according to Gartner,
IoT is driving the growth of new ecosystems and collaboration between small
startups and large enterprises that are seeking to create innovative customer
services and business models. 

 “IBM
is excited to be working with Unified Inbox on exploring the tremendous
possibilities of IoT and collaborating even more to bring best-in-class IoT
solutions to customers around the world,” said Jason Jameson, Director, Watson
Internet of Things, Asia Pacific. “IoT has the potential to create real
business value and transform industries. From connected cars to smart homes, to
wearables, security, emergency services, health & safety to consumer
services, the industry is primed to disrupt long-standing business models by
infusing intelligence into devices and connecting them to virtually everything
from refrigerators, televisions and coffee machines to manufacturing equipment,
aircraft engines and implantable medical devices.” 

Watson
APIs are available on the IBM Cloud (Bluemix). Since its launch in 2014,
Bluemix has rapidly grown to become one of the largest open, public cloud
deployments in the world. Based in open standards, it features more than 150
tools and services spanning categories of cognitive intelligence, blockchain,
security, Internet of Things, DevOps and more.