There have been several recent articles that demonstrate how the data network has escaped the confines of data centers and office buildings. When people talk about the Internet of Things, it is really about all of the various connected devices that don’t fit into the traditional mode of a personal computer or equivalent (like a smart phone).
Earlier this month, there was a story about how “Ford investigates creating a mobile data network using the cars themselves” at
With every car being a node on a moving network, there are endless possibilities for new applications.
A couple of weeks ago, there was an Associated Press report about a “Tattoo-like patch breakthrough in patient monitoring” (http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/medical/story/2011/08/Tattoo-like-patch-to-breakthrough-in-patient-monitoring/49944506/1). The mission of the researchers at University of Illinois is “really to blur the distinction between electronics and biological tissue”. The little bandaid-like patch contains an antenna so its data can be transmitted to the network.
In “Computers That You Can Wear” (http://www.pcworld.com/article/237238/computers_that_you_can_wear.html), David Daw writes about wearable computers – which are, of course, on the network. He features the Looxcie camera, Jawbone and Nike+ sensor. There was a New York Times story on Looxcie last year at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/business/07novel.html
Then there is the work by Dartmouth Professor Andrew T. Campbell’s Mobile Sensing Group, which focuses on the use of mobile phones for various kinds of sensing. It will read your eye expressions and eventually read your mind. For more information, go to http://sensorlab.cs.dartmouth.edu/ and http://sensorlab.cs.dartmouth.edu/publications.html
© 2011 Norman Jacknis
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