"Using open source technologies, like Arduino-based sensor units or mobile apps, data-citizens will be able to gather their own real-time data regarding issues they are really concerned about, such as air quality, noise levels, street deficiencies, plagues, etc. All data will be shared in open public repositories, like Pachube, available for everyone. Long term data archival will allow citizens to gain a better understanding of the urban environment and to improve their daily personal habits."
Via Howard Rheingold
Web of Things
Tiny printers converging with the Web of Things. 
Yuri Milner is one of the savviest technology thinkers in the world; he was a pioneering investor in Facebook, a bet that was wildly vindicated last week.
Milner has a presentation in which he describes the nine most important changes in the world today. Three of them are about what Arthur has dubbed the second economy: the rise of what Milner calls “the Internet of things,” or the machine-to-machine economy; the growing power of artificial intelligence; and the emergence of a “global brain,” which is the network of all of the people and the machines in the world and their connections to one another.
Rise of the machines - by Chystina Freeland Reuters 
From smart TVs to transparent smart windows, more and more devices are connected to the Internet and deliver and track data. Calling the concept the “Internet of Things,” Gartner reports that while the vision has existed for years, “there has been an acceleration in the number and types of things that are being connected and in the technologies for identifying, sensing and communicating.”
2012: The Year of Acceleration | Forbes 
Zonoff is a platform that creates a network of all of your household objects so they can interact with the Internet and each other. This means blinds that automatically adjust to the sun’s position when the TV is turned on or a security system that is smart enough to text you when someone enters your front door.
The cost of desalinated water could be cut by almost half using new wireless bacteria sensors, according to the technology’s creators.
via The Engineer.co.uk
Things in the Brain
We are not things.
We are beings. 
ThinFilm Electronics says it has assembled the pieces for a simple printed-on-plastic computing device with processing power, memory, and display that will enable 'smart objects' and an Internet of things. 
"The number of wireless devices continues to grow into a large ‘Internet of things’. When searching a desk, we now have to grab the desktop computer but also look out for USB drives disguised as pens, digital cameras disguised as tissue boxes and a myriad of MP3 players, smart phones and other devices. Never has there been so much data and so many different ways to hide it."
- SMT Online - Security industry news and information 
"Together, three trends lead to an Internet of Things, where smart phones use NFC to make statements about the physical world. For example, there has already been an art exhibition that lets visitors vote for their favorite display by tapping with their smartphone. But more importantly, there’s an Internet of Secure Things coming. You will be able to use your smartphone to badge in to work, unlock your PC, start your car or motorcycle (the prototype of that is already working), as well as merely pay for things.
It isn’t going to all happen in 2012, but we are likely to look back at 2012 as the year when it took off."
By Jon Callas, CTO, Entrust One - on the confluence of few major trends.
SecureIDNews 
Graham Fisher, a Director at Cambridge Wireless, welcomed the efforts made by the Technology Strategy Board. He told TechEye that there are plenty of opportunities to be had with an Internet of Things, though there is more that needs to be done in terms of infrastructure in order to create the ecosystem the TSB is striving for.
Read more: http://news.techeye.net/internet/technology-strategy-board-invests-in-internet-of-things#ixzz1jZkvlAJz" 
When Vint Cerf talks about Google's upcoming global Science Fair, you can hear the infectious enthusiasm in his voice.
And of course, there’s Google’s revolutionary self-driving cars.
“We’re very proud of those cars,” said Cerf. “This is turning out to be an incredible period of time when we’re able to harness the power of computing in small devices and also harnessing huge computing power in the form of clouds.” 
"There are aspects to this internet of things that really are profoundly concerning, however. Privacy is one of them. No one can doubt that if all cars are all wi-fi or LTE connected, busybodies in government will no doubt want access to exactly where people are, where people have been, and where people are going. The upside, of course, is that licences, car tax and insurance will all be digitised too, and if a car doesn't check out on the police database, menaces driving without isurance or without passing a test will be easily identifiable."
via TechEye.net "Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL ) filed a patent at the tail end of 2009 dubbed "Local Device Awareness," which describes automated connections between a number of close-range devices. Some potential applications could be device position targeting (think locating your keys) or proximity-based gaming."
"If Apple's patent seems overly broad, patent hoarder InterDigital (Nasdaq: IDCC ) has gone for specificity. It holds some 33 known patents covering machine-to-machine communication."
"Motorola and Google seem to be behind in patents, with only one highly technical machine-to-machine patent showing up for Motorola Mobility, and none for Google. But as you'll soon see, the two companies might be hoping for a more open environment."
"IBM sees the Internet of things as a source of growth, and it recognizes that the best way to capitalize is to make it easy to adopt. Keeping the underlying framework open-source will undoubtedly improve competition and encourage startups, much as the growth of the public Internet led to an explosion of newly public companies. Let's hope that the growth of this new industry isn't hampered by patents, but we should also be wary of any new bubbles that might inflate."
via The Motley Fool |
Just yesterday we talked about Evrythng pushing for “The Internet of Things” involving the digital interconnectedness of all physical objects around us, well Ericsson has long had an even grander vision applied to growing urban areas in what the company calls its Networked Society Project. Recently, they’ve delved deeper into this initiative with a new video called “Thinking Cities” to show the potential beauty of information and communication technology when deeply woven into cities backed by positive motives.
via - SlashGear 
Eventually, Google will want to have a device that does more than control entertainemt, but also the entire home. Remember the Android@Home initiative? Google has said that this was the first step into "the internet of things." During a demonstration, Google showcased a tablet that could control lights and music around the house. Google said its aim was to let a range of devices "discover, connect, and communicate" with each other. "We want to think of every appliance in your home as a potential I/O device." 
Presenting a keynote at the Cisco Live event this week, Cisco's chief futurist Dave Evans highlighted how there are already more devices connected to the internet than people using it, which he described as the Internet of Things.
"There are around 10 billion connected devices now, with up to 50 billion expected by 2020. That's almost seven devices per person."
"IBM has set out to prove it can revolutionize the food industry with data, starting with China. Six industrial slaughterhouses and 100 markets in Shandong Province are part of a large scale test in tracking pork from farm to customer. Pigs are marked with ear tags containing unique barcodes, those same barcodes appear on the bins that carry their meat during processing, and on the packages for the pork placed in stores. In the near term, IBM hopes that knowing the history of every piece of meat will enable fast and super accurate recalls in case of contamination. Eventually, this kind of comprehensive tracking could help farmers keep pigs healthier, improve the quality of meat after it is cut, and even place a picture on the store package of the exact pig made into that pork product. Knowledge is power in this new take on the supply chain."
via Singularity Hub
@ddrrnt - maybe China and the rest of us should quit eating pork.
"Using open source technologies, like Arduino-based sensor units or mobile apps, data-citizens will be able to gather their own real-time data regarding issues they are really concerned about, such as air quality, noise levels, street deficiencies, plagues, etc. All data will be shared in open public repositories, like Pachube, available for everyone. Long term data archival will allow citizens to gain a better understanding of the urban environment and to improve their daily personal habits." Via Howard Rheingold 
Thinfilm’s first-gen sensors will be able to cache data about the object itself, on the item itself. In this case, the sensors will record data concerning the object’s temperature history, tracking precise time, temperature and exposure information, and also displaying it in a low-power readout. The data within can be accessed as needed, insomuch it doesn’t need to be retrieved from the cloud, or require a constant wireless connection.
In the past, we’ve seen thin food sensors that change color as food begins to spoil. But this type of technology doesn’t retain data, and thus doesn’t provide information about the history of a product as it shipped. “With these non-conventional materials you have a great deal of freedom. We believe this approach to circuitry in substrates will lead to the creation of smart substances, and once you start thinking about the possible applications, it’s hard to stop: surgeon’s gloves with smart skin, walls of a house that store energy and generate large-scale displays, magazines with interactive video in the pages, devices that dissolve the toxins in water, bio-interfaces in mobile phones with diagnostic capabilities, clothing that generates energy – the possibilities are endless!” 
The Internet of Things drive, where every electronic device can communicate with each other in a mesh of digital linkery, continues to gather pace, with Texas INstruments unveiling a low-cost embedded WiFi chipset targeting everyday gadgets.
- SlashGear
The best things in life aren't things.
How might the "Web of Things" help us realise this? 
"If everything is traceable, that means that we’ll be more aware of the entire life cycle of our stuff — even once we’ve given it up willingly.
This means that when, say, the laptop bag you gave to Goodwill ultimately ends up in the landfill a few weeks later (like a reported 40 percent of things that go to Goodwill do) it will be hard to ignore your role in polluting the world. The old green axiom of “You can’t throw anything away, because there is no such thing as away” will become very real to everyone."" 
"Not everyone is looking forward to this with open arms however, for the same reasons people are against ID cards, and have rightfully suspicious views of centralised data. Not everyone wants their underpants to beam their movements directly to the government or their spouse. Throwing a surprise party? Forget it. Hide-and-seek? Out of the question.
via HumansInvent.com "A UK GOVERNMENT backed project is giving 10 British companies up to £50,000 each to conduct preparatory studies for moving towards an applications and services marketplace, or 'internet of things'. |
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