Sunday, February 11, 2007

Physical World Connection....The Next Wave

Connecting the physical world to the Internet isn't limited to scanning a barcode with a camera phone.

The Next Generation of the Net occurs when any device and or physical object can be connected to the Internet.

From MyFox Wireless sensors extend the Internet's reach

A building constructed atop a decommissioned nuclear reactor at the University of California, Los Angeles could pass for high-tech office space. A closer inspection of the glass-and-steel facade reveals dozens of miniature, low-resolution cameras and sensors. They're wirelessly linked to computers throughout the 6,000-square-foot space, keeping tabs on traffic flow in public areas and monitoring temperature, humidity and acoustics.

Those sensors and cameras are physical world hyperlinks.

Such networks could monitor the environment for pollutants, gauge whether structures are at risk of collapse or remotely follow medical patients in real time.

"I see this as the next wave of extending the Internet into the physical world," said computer scientist Deborah Estrin, who heads the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, a UCLA-based consortium of six schools

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