You Too Cab Join the Internet Of Things

“Technology is only cool if it solves a real problem, hopefully, this is a nice way to get the technology in the hands of a lot of people. “

-Simon Ford of ARM Holdings

The article “You Too Can Join the Internet of Things” appeared in the New York Times on September 20^th and is written by Ashlee Vance. This article is talking about the new advancements in what is starting to be called the “Internet of Things”. This is referring to the new technologies that are allowing inanimate objects to think and act on their own. One example given in this article is talking about a refrigerator that includes a sensor. This sensor can allow the refrigerator to recognize that the current gallon of milk is close to empty. The refrigerator can then place an order to a delivery service to order a new gallon of milk. This same technology can be placed inside of dinner plates at a restaurant. The purpose of this would be to track the service and speed of the waiting staff in the restaurant.

ARM Holdings, a British chip designer, is one company helping to develop this technology. An “mbed” is what is helping to make all this possible. An mbed is a microcontroller that costs only around $59 and is currently available for purchase. These microcontrollers can be used with software, also by ARM, to then basically be brought to life. Once it is “brought to life” the microcontroller can be linked with items such as accelerators, cameras and thermometers for a variety of uses. This may sound complicated but Simon Ford, the ARM researcher in charge of the mbed division, has said that this will actually help to eliminate the headaches associated with technology. As impressive as this sounds, they are also simple and convienient and can plug directly into a USB port of a computer.

This technology also can have a personal use. In the video attached to this blog it shows one of the mbed workers explaining the use of his microcontroller combined with an RFID(Radio Frequency Identification) to update his twitter account with a new tweet. It seems a bit complicated to be set up, but once running, the possibilities seem endless. The man in the video has the sensor read his RFID and his twitter account then tweets that he has arrived home.

I think this technology is beyond impressive and has endless possibilities to its uses. The article also talks about a bar owner using the sensors to inform him when his tapped kegs are running low. I can potentially see the mbed technology being used in every industry in the world one way or another. It can be something as simple as updating a twitter account or something as complex as maintaining inventory of a warehouse.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/you-too-can-join-the-internet-of-things/