Web-connected devices, not just mobile phones and 3G tablets but everything from home electronics to consumer packaged goods instrumented to transmit data to the Web, have become a part of every major speech here at the wireless industry's giant conference in Orlando, CTIA. "All devices that can benefit from connectivity will be connected," Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson, said in a keynote, predicting that the world's nearly 5 billion mobile phone subscribers today will be surpassed by 50 billion connected non-phone devices in 10 years.
Some people think that may be a conservative estimate of the possible impact of what's called The Internet of Things. Chetan Sharma is one of the most respected analysts in the wireless industry; his original research is cited everywhere from the world's biggest business and technical publications to the CTIA leadership's opening adress at this, the wireless industry's leading conference. I sat down with Sharma today and listened to him describe what he thinks a future of ubiquitious connectivity will look like.
From embedded sensors to high-frequency stock trading to everyday mobile Web applications, the race is on for technologists to build the most efficient systems for quickly streaming large sets of data from one device to another. Sometimes the language that data is communicated in can come with high costs in terms of efficiency. Today the Web's most venerable standards body, the Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C), announced official support for a new standardized data format for super-efficient transmission of data.
Efficient XML Interchange, or EXI, is described as a very compact representation of information in XML (extensible markup language). EXI is so efficient that the W3C says it has been found to improve up to 100-fold the performance, network efficiency and power consumption of applications that use XML, including but not limited to consumer mobile apps. It is particularly useful on devices with low memory or low bandwidth.
Above: WiFi signal spills gently into the street from an old Oslo apartment building built in the 1890's. Video below.
Wireless communication channels are all around us all the time, but their variable strengths in different places create a textured, invisible part of the urban landscape. A team of Norwegian researchers, arguing that WiFi is "a fundamental part of the construction of networked cities," created the beautiful video below visualizing the strength of WiFi signals around their neighborhood in Oslo. They used a four meter pole that measured signal strength and lit up to a great or lesser degree. Then they took time delayed photos of themselves walking through the snowy streets.
"The strength, consistency and reach of the network says something about the built environment where it is set up, as well as reflecting the size and status of the host," writes the team in Immaterials: Light painting WiFi "Small, domestic networks in old apartment buildings flow into the streets in different ways than the networks of large institutions. Dense residential areas have more, but shorter range networks than parks and campuses."
Imagine getting points in an online game each time you drink more water, floss your teeth or take a step toward some other healthy lifestyle goal. That's the promise of Green Goose, a company that uses tiny sensors and accelerometers on stickers or credit cards to track everyday behavior and record it online.
The company demonstrated today how its technology, which is currently in pre-production in China, lets a user put a sticker containing a tiny sensor and a year's worth of battery power, on the handle of a toothbrush, for example. The motion of the toothbrush sends a message to the Green Goose base station which then publishes a record of the activity online. A wide range of everyday activities can be tracked and the whole system was a big crowd pleaser at Jason Calacanis's Launch conference. Two members of the panel of investor judges put $100,000 into the startup on the spot while the company was still on stage. A third, Bill Warner, had already invested. "It's amazing and there's so much more you haven't even heard," he said about the company.
Wireless connectivity: it's not just for cell phones anymore. Why then should apps be thought of as just for phones? A fast growing number of non-phone devices is coming online and publishing data about their surroundings and activities to the internet. From e-readers to bathroom scales to traffic signals and connected home sensors, the network enablement of formerly disconnected devices is just beginning. The Internet of Things, Web of Things, or Machine to Machine (M2M) communication are the names many people have applied to this trend and it's widely expected to be one of the next major technology disruptions.
How will the data be interfaced with by users? In large part, through apps. AT&T announced four new partnerships today with Machine to Machine application development platforms, aiming to make it easier for device manufacturers to build apps that get their devices onboard with what used to be known as a giant phone company. AT&T was reported this month to have added more connected non-phone to its network last quarter than any other network provider.
Waze, a user-driven collaborative mobile traffic mapping and sensor service, today added voice notifications and input concerning traffic hazards to its iPhone app. The company said the feature would soon be added to its apps on other platforms.
Waze hopes that the addition of a read/write voice interface will both lower barriers to input and create sensory interruption at essential times - when a driver nears a hazard. Waze is a well-funded startup, says it has 2.2 million users and is in the process of moving its headquarters from Israel to Palo Alto. It's one of the most user-friendly iterations of a larger trend of everyday devices turning into instruments of data capture. The narrator in the video above is Di-Ann Eisnor, previously co-founder of trailblazing DIY mapping startup Platial.
