Back in 2011, Industry 4.0 had emerged from the seamless integration of smart and connected technologies. Industry 4.0 reshaped the production and manufacturing landscape by enhancing operational efficiency. Since then, there has been an ever-growing network of products, machines, and people enhanced by the massive use of the internet. Industry 4.0 focused heavily on automation, productivity, and profit. On the flip side, this left some issues such as environmental degradation and social consequences unaddressed.
Industry 5.0 was launched to focus more on green manufacturing and mass customization, emphasizing the human-machine collaboration, sustainability, and resilience within the industrial processes. The foundation paved by Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 and technological advancements in AI, IoT, Robotics, Cloud computing and many other areas helped to bring automation everywhere. We have now transitioned to the next evolutionary phase, named Society 5.0, which puts humankind at the center of innovation. Let us dive deep into what Society 5.0 is, the goals that can be achieved using it and how eInfochips plays its role in building Society 5.0 solutions.
Society 5.0 as a super smart society, is a much broader concept with better human-technology integration. It is all about achieving concurrence between the digital and physical worlds to build a sustainable society, with the help of artificial intelligence. Sustainability is the need of the hour, and it is to be achieved by minimizing the carbon footprint and optimizing the resources to the maximum level. It is essential that people develop a positive attitude towards technology for sustainable development across all social sectors including medical, education, democracy, and economy.
Society 5.0 Solutions for The Sustainable Development Goals
Society 5.0 represents a new paradigm for societal development, creating a new society that leverages technological and social innovation to address complex challenges and build a sustainable, human-centered future. Technology can be the catalyst for realizing each of the above United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Society 5.0 will help industries, corporates, and governments to meet the goals of nations including an improved quality of life, social responsibility, and sustainability with economic progress. The evolution of societies has progressed from the hunter-gatherer society (Society 1.0), to the agricultural society (Society 2.0), which marked a significant shift in human civilization, followed by the industrial society (Society 3.0) characterized by mechanization and urbanization, and then the information society (Society 4.0) driven by information and communication technologies—each stage setting the foundation for the super-smart, human-centered Society 5.0. Let us understand how eInfochips made a transformational impact with its engineering solution for clean water, which is one of the 17 goals to build a better world.
eInfochips designed and delivered a single-board-computer (SBC) based solution for an AI enabled IoT platform, named Saafwater, in 2022 to analyze water quality in real-time. It tells how fit water is for consumption and suggests water purification methods to make it consumable for improvised public health. eInfochips supported the client with the complete hardware design including procurement and manufacturing.
Our team helped the client improve the speed, reliability, range, and performance of the IoT device, with reduced power consumption. It is connected to different water sensors, measures the data, and transfers it to the Cloud over 4G LTE network where it further processes the data and defines the quality of water. Collectively, we delivered a fast, power-efficient, and miniaturized the Society 5.0 solution. Digital technologies and new technologies such as AI, IoT, and robotics are the driving forces behind this societal transformation, enabling innovative solutions that address both economic and social needs. It truly fulfills the purpose statement of eInfochips – “Enriching lives through engineering excellence”. This is what drives all of us each day to innovate and make a transformational impact on society through our work.
Let us take smart hospitals and smart agriculture as examples. Society 5.0 solutions can revolutionize healthcare by enhancing patient care, improving operational efficiency, and ensuring seamless interactions between medical staff and patients. Through AI-powered diagnostics, IoT-enabled medical devices, and real-time data analytics, smart hospitals can provide personalized treatment plans, monitor patients remotely, and predict potential health risks. These technologies also enable more efficient management of hospital resources, reduce administrative burdens, and streamline communication, fostering a more connected, responsive, and patient-centered healthcare environment. Next generation healthcare, enabled by technological development, aims to improve quality of life, increase societal resilience, and deliver integrated, human-centered care.
In the agricultural sector, innovations tied to Society 5.0, such as the use of meteorological data, crop monitoring, market trends, and food demands, hold the potential to create new value. Smart agriculture, which integrates automation in farming tasks, automated crop data collection, weather-driven water management, and shared expertise, allows farmers to create efficient and adaptive farming strategies. This continuous adaptation to evolving data helps ensure sustainability and stability in food supply. Technological development and social innovation in agriculture are key to building a sustainable society and fostering a new society that is resilient and inclusive.
eInfochips has established a Center of Excellence(CoE), named “Edge Labs”, in collaboration with Qualcomm and Arrow Electronics to accelerate the development of connected intelligent Edge AI devices across verticals. eInfochips can play an integral role in delivering Society 5.0 solutions. Basic research and collaboration between industry, academia, and government are essential driving forces in developing innovative Society 5.0 solutions. Our “Aikri” portfolio of off-the-shelf system-on-modules and dev-kits de-risks design cycles and accelerates time-to-market for healthcare, industrial automation, robotics, cameras, displays, audio-video collaboration, security, and other connected Edge AI applications.
Conclusion: Addressing Societal Challenges
Advancements in fields like artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, autonomous systems, energy storage, and quantum computing are expanding the horizons of what is possible. The speed and scale of these breakthroughs are prompting a reevaluation of how nations should approach development, how businesses should innovate and create value, and what it truly means to engage in society. It is helping us to create an inclusive, citizen-centric future. eInfochips, an Arrow company is at a vantage point to efficiently deliver vast and comprehensive engineering solutions that can help the organizations fulfil their engineering goals and their vision of delivering a “Better Human Life”. We believe in contributing to humankind’s journey to Society 5.0.
