Internet of Things

Description

"The "internet of things" is a concept that describes a wireless network between objects. In a way, it parallels the current network of addressable web pages (aka the "world wide web"), except "the internet of things" would include addressable inanimate objects that could be anything from your home's refrigerator to the shoes on your feet." (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/5_companies_building_the_internet_of_things.php)

Software Tools

Excerpted from an overview by Sarah Perez:

(full article and links [1])

• With a Tikitag starter kit and some client software, you can program your own RFID tags so that they can do anything you want them to do.

What's great about Tikitag's tags is that you don't need a specialized RFID reader in order to scan them - they're compatible with third party readers like NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled mobile phones. There are already over 40 million of these phones available and analysts expect over 250 millions to be sold in 2012.

• Mir:ror is a device from a company called Violet that detects the objects you show it and gives them powers. As you wave a device over the USB-attached mirror, you can trigger applications and multimedia content automatically. The "magic" mirror isn't actually sensing the object itself, but is reacting to an RFID tag placed on the object which then tells your computer what to do.

Those tags are embedded in the company's Ztamps, colorful RFID stamps that you stick on the objects you want to connect. They also work with the company's other more well-known internet-connected object: the Nabaztag, an adorable rabbit that can deliver anything from ambient information through lights and sounds to verbal information - like when he reads your email or RSS feeds to you.

• Pachube is a service that lets you "tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments around the world. The key aim is to facilitate interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual." On their web site, you can either input a feed or use one of the feeds available. The feeds come from devices, buildings, or interactive installations that are already connected to the internet or that send out SMS messages. Also supported are Second Life installations.

By registering a feed on the site, you can share your real-time data with other objects, keep historical records of your data, or create online graphs to use in a web page.

• Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform made up of open source hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments - that is, "the internet of things."

• ZeroG Wireless is a semiconductor company that's focused on building low-power wireless chips. Their low-power Wi-Fi chips can be embedded into any system including consumer electronics, smart energy devices, home and building controls, portable medical sensors, and sensor networks. The company was founded "based on the belief that a new paradigm of wireless connectivity is upon us. According to their web site, they envision a "4th Age of Wireless™ -- the Internet of Things."

(http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/5_companies_building_the_internet_of_things.php)

Report

Report: Rob van Kranenburg, The Internet of Things. A critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID. Report prepared by Rob van Kranenburg for the Institute of Network Cultures with contributions by Sean Dodson.

URL = http://www.networkcultures.org/_uploads/notebook2_theinternetofthings.pdf (Series =[2])

Summary

"The Internet of Things is the second issue in the series of Network Notebooks. It's a critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID by Rob van Kranenburg. Rob examines what impact RFID and other systems, will have on our cities and our wider society. He currently works at Waag Society as program leader for the Public Domain and wrote earlier an article about this topic in the Waag magazine and is the co-founder of the DIFR Network. The notebook features an introduction by journalist and writer Sean Dodson.

In Network Notebook #2, titled The Internet of Things, Rob van Kranenburg outlines his vision of the future. Rob tells of his early encounters with the kind of location-based technologies that will soon become commonplace, and what they may mean for us all. He explores the emergence of the "internet of things", tracing us through its origins in the mundane back-end world of the international supply chain to the domestic applications that already exist in an embryonic stage. He also explains how the adoption of he technologies of the City Control is not inevitable, nor something that we must kindly accept nor sleepwalk into. In van Kranenburg's account of the creation of the international network of Bricolabs, he also suggests how each of us can help contribute to building technologies of trust and empower ourselves in the age of mass surveillance and ambient technologies.

The Network Notebooks series is edited by Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer. Network Notebooks #2 is supported by Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) and Waag Society."

Table of Contents:

1. Forward: A tale of two cities Sean Dodson 2. Ambient Intelligence and its promises 3. Ambient Intelligence and its catches 4. Bricolabs 5. How to act

Overview

Concepts

1. Blobject
2. Blogjects
3. Gizmo
4. Physical Bookmarking
5. Spime

Podcasts/Webcasts

1. Bruce Sterling on the Internet of Things
2. Bruce Sterling on the Internet of Things and Spimes

Projects

1. Buglabs
2. Open Source Programmable GPS Devices
3. Open Spime
4. Semapedia

Resources

1. Key tag: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens/P2P-Objects
2. Key conference: http://www.the-internet-of-things.org/

Technologies

1. RFID
2. QR Code

More Information

1. Bruce Sterling's SIGGRAPH 2004 lecture: http://www.boingboing.net/images/blobjects.htm
2. ITU Report 2006: The Internet of Things, at http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/internetofthings/
3. Specialized conference website at http://www.the-internet-of-things.org/
4. The Internet of Things. A critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID, Network Notebooks 02, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2007. ISBN: 978-90-78146-06-3. Order a free copy by emailing: books@networkcultures.org [3]