Internet of Things

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In computing, the Internet of Things refers to a, usually wireless and self-configuring, wireless network between objects, such as household appliances. The concept of the internet of things is attributed to the original Auto-ID Center, founded in 1999 and based at the time in MIT[1].

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.[2]

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.[3]

[edit] Universal addressability of dumb things

A complementary view, from the world of the Semantic Web [4] 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] Characteristics

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The « Internet of Things » will likely be a « non deterministic and fully open cyberspace » in which autonomous and intelligent entities or virtual objects will act in full interoperability and will be able to auto-organize themselves depending on the context, circumstances or environments : it will host Ambient intelligence (built upon Ubiquitous computing).

This will give those entities / objects the ability to « share » with any other player to make their own « objectives » converging (general, delegated or internal ones).

It will be event driven, « bottom-up » made and will act at any subsidiary level ; each actor will be self-referenced.

It will also be considered as a « Complex system » due to the huge amount of different and various links, interactions, between various and different actors and due to its capacity to integrate new actors with no difficulty.

In this « Internet », the meaning of an event will not necessary be based on, either a deterministic or syntactic model but will be based on the context of the event : this will also be a Semantic Web.

Consequently, it will not necessary need any « common system of reference » or « common standard » that would not be able to address billions of exceptions and errors being generated in such a complex environment.

Actually, predicting everything in this environment would be no more than defining a "global finality" for everything that is just not possible with the current « top down » approaches.

In this Internet of Things, made of billions of parallel and simultaneous events, time will no more be used as a common and linear dimension but will depend on each « entity » (object, process, information system, etc.). This Internet of Things will be accordingly based on massive parallel IT systems (Parallel computing).

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Dodson 2003. The Auto-ID Center was replaced by the Auto-ID Labs in October 2003. More precisely, EPCglobal was formed as the successor organization to the Auto-ID Center, while its sister organization Auto-ID Labs manages and funds research on the EPC technology.
  2. ^ Waldner 2008.
  3. ^ Waldner 2007
  4. ^ Dan Brickley et al., c. 2001

[edit] References

  1. Waldner, Jean-Baptiste (2007). Inventer l'Ordinateur du XXIeme Siècle. London: Hermes Science. pp. p254. ISBN 2746215160. 
  2. Waldner, Jean-Baptiste (2008). Nanocomputers and Swarm Intelligence. London: ISTE. pp. p227-p231. ISBN 1847040020. 
  3. Sean Dodson (2003-10-09). "The internet of things". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2003/oct/09/shopping.newmedia. 
  4. Sean Dodson (2008-10-16). "The net shapes up to get physical". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/oct/16/internet-of-things-ipv6. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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