The Internet of Things Is Spreading

The Internet is now rapidly moving beyond the familiar territory of information exchange and consumer spending, according to New York Times technology reporter Steve Lohr, writing in the paper's Sunday Review. Instead, computing and communications technologies are now burrowing their way into the more muscular worlds of physical objects and systems. This is sometime referred to as The Internet of Things.

Said Lohr, "Low-cost sensors, clever software and advancing computer firepower are opening the door to new uses in energy conservation, transportation, health care and food distribution."

The idea is that the combination of sensors and data can improve industry and domestic technology, making them more effective and efficient. It's sometimes called 'smart' technology, making machinery operate as if a very intelligent person were constantly monitoring and adjusting it. And it's already in practice.

"The smart industrial gear includes jet engines, bridges and oil rigs that alert their human minders when they need repairs, before equipment failures occur. Computers track sensor data on operating performance of a jet engine, or slight structural changes in an oil rig, looking for telltale patterns that signal coming trouble."

Lohr cited the example of I.B.M. which decided in 2008 to use its decades of big-systems computing experience to, "create more efficient systems for utility grids, traffic management, food distribution, water conservation and health care. Smarter Planet was the label the company tacked on to the initiative, and industry analysts wondered if it was more than a sales campaign...Today, I.B.M. says it is working on more than 2,000 projects worldwide that fit in the Smarter Planet category."

As Lohr observes, the old Internet we've come to know isn't going away, but is being supplemented. "The next wave of computing," he said, "does not step away from the consumer Internet so much as build on it for different uses."

The Internet Gets Physical (The New York Times, Dec. 18, 2011)