LETTER FROM THE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CO-CHAIRS
Dear Reader :
As of this publication date , there have been more than 50.5 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide and more than 1.2 million deaths 1 . The virus has been detected in nearly every country . The impact on global business has been unprecedented as millions of workers have moved their office to their homes .
According to Kate Lister at Global Workplace Analytics , one of the leading authorities on how integrated work-at-home strategies can maximize employer , employee , and environmental outcomes , the longer people are required to work at home , the greater the adoption we will see when the dust settles .
“ Based on historical trends , that those who were working remotely before the pandemic , will increase their frequency after they are allowed to return to their offices ,” explains Lister . “ For those who were new to remote work until the pandemic , we believe there will be a significant upswing in their adoption .”
According to the company ’ s projections , 56 % of the U . S . workforce holds a job that is compatible ( at least partially ) with remote work and 25-30 % of the workforce will be workingfrom-home multiple days a week by the end of 2021 . 2
Working at home is just one of many significant ways that our lives will be impacted in the postpandemic aftermath . The Internet of Things will play a crucial role in helping IT organizations adjust to the new normal . In this 15 th edition of The IIC Journal of Innovation , authors from our IoT community give us access to crucial ongoing research that falls under the umbrella of “ IoT Enabling Rapid Response to COVID and Future Pandemics .”
The result is the following informative , enlightening , and thought-provoking articles that we hope you will find beneficial to your own IoT initiatives :
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Physical Distancing and Crowd Density Monitoring Using Computer Vision , by several authors from the SAS Institute , which provides an analysis of physical distance compliance in everyday spaces using video , deep learning and streaming analytics .
Safely Back to Work – How IoT is Enabling Redesign of Spaces in Response to COVID , by several authors from PwC Advisory , which looks at how IoT and AI are helping to define
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