Cisco Launches Alliance For the 'Internet of Things' 96
Yannis B. writes "This week, a group of leading technology vendors that includes Cisco, Sun, Ericsson, Atmel, Freescale, and embedded open source developers, founded the Internet Protocol for Smart Objects Alliance to promote the 'Internet of Things,' in which everyday objects such as thermometers, radiators, and light switches are given IP addresses and are connected to the Internet. Such IP-enabled 'smart objects' give rise to a wide range of applications, from energy-efficient homes and offices to factory equipment maintenance and hospital patient monitoring. For Slashdot readers who are interested in the underlying technology, a white paper written by well-known embedded open source developer Adam Dunkels and IETF ROLL working group chair JP Vasseur establishes the technical basis of the alliance (PDF)."
Re:Wasting IP addresses (Score:3, Interesting)
IP addresses are a virtual commodity. if we run out of IPv4/IPv6 addresses, we'll simply create new address spaces as needed. that's not really a problem. it's like complaining about p2p file-sharers using too much bandwidth--these are infrastructure problems that aren't limited by physical resources. instead, this type of technological infrastructure naturally grows to meet demand.
it's not like we're facing an IP address shortage. AFAIK we haven't hit any technological hard limit regarding the maximum number of devices the internet is capable of supporting. and using more IP addresses doesn't pose any detrimental effects, so why not give it a try? if people find this concept useful, then it will be adopted; if not, it won't.
personally, i think it's a great idea. with the growing availability of wi-fi access (and the ubiquity of internet access in general), there's no better method for smart devices to communicate with each other or to be managed remotely. the development of the Internet of Things could also spur the adoption of municipal wi-fi or other public wi-fi infrastructure.
lots of smart devices already have wi-fi/internet capabilities, but there's not really enough wide-spread adoption to make full use of these capabilities. having a cross-industry consortium of like-minded organizations facilitates collaboration on developmental strategy and helps establish a concerted effort to take the technology in an organized direction.
imagine having a portable media player that can access your media library anywhere with wi-fi access, or maybe it can automatically download new music from your favorite artists via the internet. or perhaps you can remotely program your PVR to record a show while you're at work or on vacation, or check your fridge contents to see if you need to pick up some eggs on the way home from work. you could even check your answering machine or faxes over the internet. there are millions of ways in which this concept could make life more convenient.
Power surges (Score:1, Interesting)
Just think about what happens when you get a power surge. In the past a surge on your phone line might have fried your modem. If you had your electronics plugged into a good surge suppressor they might have been spared from a surge on the power line.
As soon as you start putting digital circuits into everything then you will have to start worrying about everything failing. Between having sensors fail and having the embedded processors fail, you will end up with a whole lot of devices in your home that cost much more and don't last nearly as long as the cheaper things they are meant to replace.
Your smart house had better be extremely smart so that it can save enough money to offset all of the higher expenses.
Smackdown: Internet of Things vs. Internet of Obje (Score:2, Interesting)
Good - It's been minutes since we had a pointless fight over standards.
A quick look at the Internet of Things docs yielded no mentions of the existing Internet of Objects effort. The MIT AutoID consortium, followed by the EPCGlobal organization, have defined an Object Name Service, ECPIS, and Discovery Services.
Defining an orthogonal standard will lead to our poor entities having existential angst over whether they are an "object" or a "thing".