Welcome to the internet
Imagine you are passing the favorite grocery
store of your family and at that time, you get a text warning from the
refrigerator that it is running out of milk. Yes, from your refrigerator. As
veteran analyst ABI Research, Michael Morgan, a combination of technologies
will help the convenience become so popular. "Milk can be located on a
weight or pressure plate which can send signals when you are close to a
store". Of course, the refrigerator will be connected to the internet.
Your personal contact center will be set to send text signals from there and
any device connected to the phone in which installed GPS also knows your
position and when special messages from home will be the most appropriate. In
the coming world which is called “Internet of Things”
by many technology futurists, websites as we have known
for decades will not be a computer network and server talking to each other. It
would be machines talking to machines.
TV with the network, smartphones and tablet
PCs, and web browsing in automobiles which consumers desire now are just small
potatoes. Those who are the futuristic envision tens of billions of devices,
from the parking meter hours to film posters, automobile engines to home
thermostats, all of which use a combination of sensors, computing and
connection to make inanimate objects (even inanimate objects such as your
body) become smarter. It is not a world where web extends only to the bathroom
mirror or car dashboard. "Not everything needs a browser," Morgan
explained. "Internet of Things is mostly the flow of information and data
management rather than interoperability."
In
initial effort on a “Wi-Fi fridge”, Samsung arranges applications at the front
door. In the future, refrigerators can send text warning that it is running out
of milk or it even orders the grocery store.
This is the world of sensors making use of the
internet to gather information in many different active ways. A "networked
car" will not only be Netflix and Pandora transmitted through mobile
connection. It will also have sensors which are able to report in real time
about the short distance to the other car, heat engines or fuel usage; data can
be used to manage the arrangement of street lights to optimize traffic flow,
enthusiastically sending the most effective instruction to all GPS devices in
an area, or help customers determine a way to work to save gas or save the most
time every day. "Smart thermostats" will not only increase or
decrease the temperature at the certain time of day but also recognize how many
people are staying in the room to optimize energy use.
Secret projects
While many people among us were trying to
show web on the TV and learning how Pandora running on our smartphone could
plug to the stereo system of automobiles, researches in many large companies
all over the world explored a bigger vision about the connectivity everywhere.
Sometimes it is called machine to machine (M2M) computing, “industrial
Internet”, or “smarter planet” (according to IBM), the model related to web
usage to collect information get new ability in business and provide new
service for customers.
Google
X is as secret as CIA
In the end of 2011, The New York Times
revealed top secret “Google X” lab of Google where the searching giant were
discovering what it called “Web of Things”. Network
objects such as refrigerators will automatically order the grocery store, or
your plate can post what you are eating to the social network. Google has
announced their plan to launch LED lamp with the network which can be
controlled by your Android phone. Also, their "unmanned car" uses
video camera, Google Street View data, and sensors in the car to operate
automatically. However, in Google X project, Times reported that the leaders
such as Microsoft, Nokia, Stanford, and MIT had been recruited to carry out
such things as home robots which could control everything from watering plants
to making coffee through the web.
Nevertheless, many prestigious backbones of
American industry have been working for years to try to understand how they
could benefit from Internet of Things. General Electric deeply related to the
generation of the smart hospital room where video, sensors and facial detection
software could keep track of the moment patients went in and out of the bed or
show signs of pain. The system monitored activities of nurses to remind staff
of which and how often hospital protocols needed to be done.
project
based on the IBM Smarter Planet branding
Smarter Planet project of IBM used151 houses
in Dubuque last year to test a combination of sensors and cloud computing to
save water. Measuring system was connected to the internet to analyze weather
data, water usage, characteristics of the house, and other data to warn
consumers of the water leak and using water models. The trial project announced
that it had reduced water usage of about 6.6% of connected houses. Pacific
Northwest, national lab conducting a "friendly-grid equipment
project" said that the notice to customers in real time from home digital
tools had helped them reduce home electricity bills about 10%.
Many companies are researching "internet
industry" to predict how sensors on food packages or shipping containers
can provide important information about the breakdown and become more efficient
in distribution. When the price of sensors decreases, finally marketers hope to
see them be implanted on the instruction board of stores or even on boxes so
that users can interact with manufacturers through cellphones on departments.
