THE FLAVOUR OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS

The alarm rings. As you open your eyes blearily, you see that it’s five minutes
later than your usual wake-up time. The clock has checked the train times
online, and your train must be delayed, so it lets you sleep in a little longer.

See:Makezine

In your kitchen, a blinking light reminds you it’s time to take your tablets. If
you forget, the medicine bottle cap goes online and emails your doctor to let
her know.see:Vitality
On your way out of the house, you catch a glow in the corner of your eye.
Your umbrella handle is lit up, which means that it has checked the BBC
weather reports and predicts rain. You sigh and pick it up. Materious
As you pass the bus stop on the way to the station, you notice the large LCD
display flash that the number 23 is due. It arrives when you turn the next
corner. When the bus company first installed those displays, they ran on the
expected timetable information only, but now that every bus has GPS tracking
its location, they simply connect to the bus company’s online service and
always give the updated information. Various transport organizations have
implemented this. London’s TfL has some useful information on their signs at
www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/11560.aspx.

When you get to the station, your phone checks you in automatically to a
location-based service (such as Foursquare). On your mantelpiece at home,
an ornament with a dial notices the change and starts to turn so that the text
on it points to the word “Travelling”. Your family will also see later that
you’ve arrived at “Work” safely.see:Wheredial
On your lunch break, a pedometer in your training shoes and a heart
monitor in your wrist band help track your run around the block. The wrist
band’s large display also makes it easy to glance down and see how fast you
are running and how many calories you’ve burned. All the data is automati-
cally uploaded to your sports tracking site, which also integrates with your
online supermarket shopping account to make it easy to compare with how
many calories you’ve eaten.see nikeplus
As you can see from the preceding links, each of these products is feasible
with today’s technology. Each has been prototyped, and many of them exist
as craft or mass-market products.

See also:

the-internet-of-things