Internet of Things

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In computing, the Internet of Things refers to a, usually wireless and self-configuring, network between objects, such as household appliances.

The idea is as simple as its application is difficult. If all cans, books, shoes or parts of cars are equipped with minuscule identifying devices, daily life on our planet will undergo a transformation. Things like running out of stock or wasted products will no longer exist as we will know exactly what is being consumed on the other side of the globe. Theft will be a thing of the past as we will know where a product is at all times. The same applies to parcels lost in the post.

If all objects of daily life, from yogurt to an airplane, are equipped with radio tags, they can be identified and managed by computers in the same way humans can. The next generation of Internet applications (IPv6 protocol) would be able to identify more objects than IPv4 which is currently in use. This system would therefore be able to instantaneously identify any kind of object.^[1]

The Internet of objects should encode 50 to 100,000 billion objects and follow the movement of those objects. Every human being is surrounded by 1,000 to 5,000 objects.^[2]

[edit] Universal addressability of dumb things

An alternative view, from the world of the Semantic Web ^[3] focusses instead on making all "things" (not just those electronic, smart, or RFID-enabled) addressable by the existing naming protocols, such as URI. The objects themselves do not converse, but they may now be referred to by other agents, such as powerful centralised servers acting for their human owners.

Obviously these two approaches converge as more objects become progressively addressable and more intelligent. This is unlikely to happen in any situation short of spime, and the two views have significantly different implications in the interim. In particular, the universal addressability approach rapidly includes things that cannot have communication behaviours of their own, such as abstract data documents.

[edit] References

^ Waldner, Jean-Baptiste (2008). Nanocomputers and Swarm Intelligence. ISTE, p227-p231. ISBN 1847040020.
^ Waldner, Jean-Baptiste (2007). Inventer l'Ordinateur du XXIeme Siècle. Hermes Science, p254. ISBN 2746215160.
^ Dan Brickley et al., c. 2001