What the Internet of Things means for you

March 19, 2012, 10:41 AM PDT

Takeaway: What to expect when intelligent computing is embedded into the world around us.

Imagine a basket of shopping that suggests healthier alternatives to your favourite snacks, or a car that can route you around a jam before it has even formed, or doing an internet search to find the glasses you lost down the back of the sofa.

This is the vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) - a future where internet-connected tags are embedded into everyday objects, bestowing intelligent behaviour on inanimate objects.

The potential of connected everyday objects is demonstrated by the soon-to-be released Twine, an internet-connected box about the size of a credit card that can be set up to message its owner when some real-world action has occurred, and is able to signal events as diverse as the washing machine having finished or someone breaking into a garage.

The box works by listening to sensors that measure temperature, motion and moisture and then communicates with the owner over the internet.

Nigel Shadbolt, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Southampton and head of the web and internet science group, said the internet of things could bring intelligence to everything from your car to your fridge to a chip on an apple that has some sense of its sell-by date, speaking to TechRepublic at the recent Digital London conference.

The simple messaging capabilities of early IoT-devices are just the beginning: the real leap forward will come once a critical mass of items, services and people are networked together.

Once a wide variety of things are able to talk then their data and decisions can be combined to give people access to information that wouldnt have been possible before.

Shadbolt said: I think we will see this digital landscape keep evolving - were going to see whole classes of new service meshing between your lifestyle, your health, what youre doing on a daily basis, transport and the like.

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What the Internet of Things means for you