Cisco has designed an infographic that offers a simple example of how Internet of Things will affect you in your everyday life. It also states that by 2020, there will be 50 billion 'things' connected to the Internet - everything from your body, car, alarm clock and even cows.

Regardless, as the infographic below shows, the number of things connected to the Internet has already exceeded the number of people on earth. So this is a big trend - and big business for Cisco and other technology companies.

Infographic via All Things D

Mark Roberti, founding editor of the publication RFID Journal, writes in an editorial this month that while M2M communication has great potential, the "real value" for sensor technology lies in machine-to-object communication. The costs associated with requiring machine devices to actively transmit data about their status back to another machine (power, broadcast, etc.) will likely limit the deployment of that type of communication to contexts where fluctuations in data are extremely valuable in-and-of themselves. Using low-cost transponders to passively monitor changes in the status of objects will become far more common and important, Roberti argues.

"On the other hand, a firm could put passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) transponders inside a container at various levels. Since the liquid would interfere with the ability to read the tags, a company could determine liquid levels by ascertaining which tags can and can not be read...you can't put a Wi-Fi transmitter or a cell phone on every box of Tide detergent, bag of Granny Smith apples or Van Heusen shirt. Low-cost RFID tags will, one day, be put on all of these things, enabling M2O communication."

Leading wireless industry analyst Chetan Sharma detailed a similar vision to us in an interview earlier this year. (How 50 Billion Connected Devices Could Transform Brand Marketing & Everyday Life.) Sharma talked with us about cereal boxes with sensors inside them. Manufacturers could monitor those sensors to know when to prompt you to order more cereal (online, cutting out retail middlemen altogether) and to offer social, nutrition and communication features online or on your mobile device regarding your favorite brand of breakfast food.

Roberti says this will be a defining opportunity for the rest of the century.

"This change - enabling computers to see and understand what is happening in the real world - is enormous. Most people have yet to grasp it, seeing RFID as a more expensive alternative to bar codes. They don't comprehend that when computers can automatically collect information regarding what is happening in the world, new insights and business strategies then become possible. And the companies that leverage these capabilities most effectively will be the big winners in the century ahead."

Such a vision raises questions of consumer privacy, data ownership, silos vs. effective cross-company development platforms, corporate vs. consumer power and much more.

For now, though, let's simply consider that machine-to-object communication may, according to one very informed perspective, be the biggest game in town above and beyond social data and machine-to-machine communication in the fast-approaching data-centric future.

Perhaps it's time to start thinking about your machine-to-object strategy.

Imagine what could happen if your enjoyment of art was augmented further by the kinds of social technologies that you already use on the internet. Thousands of visitors to the STRP art festival in Eindhoven, Holland this Fall got to experience exactly that. The festival's creative integration of its existing art exhibits with Twitter, Facebook, a recommendation engine, a print-on-demand service, tag clouds and RFID chips might represent the kind of experience that art lovers everywhere may be able to enjoy elsewhere soon. If life imitates art, such technologies could bust out of the museums and enter into the rest of our cities sooner than we think.

Prior to entering the festival, attendees were encouraged to fill out online profiles describing themselves and, if they like, signing in with their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Then when they arrived, they were given Radio Frequency Identification chips (RFID) in a variety of different formats (badges, bracelets or their municipal services card) that they logged-in to associate with the online accounts they'd created.

Inside the part of the festival that included an art show, the attendees were able to visit any of 37 kiosks that could read their RFID chips and recognize who they were.

They were then asked about particular pieces of art they had just viewed. How would they describe each one? How would they rate their appreciation of the pieces of art?

If attendees had signed in with their Twitter or Facebook accounts, their reviews could be published immediately out to the web and shared with friends. Have you seen van Gogh's Starry Night at the New York MoMA? It's surrounded by people waving cell phone cameras at it all the time. Could we just skip that part and publish a picture, along with our responses, out to Facebook? Personal annotation, in an existing social context. Ought that not be every bit as much an option while standing in front of a beautiful painting, or river or tree, as it is when reading an article on a website you've visited?

After describing each work, the kiosks showed attendees a tag cloud of the most frequently used words used by other people to describe the same works. Perhaps you've experienced a work in an unusual way, or hadn't considered a particular emotion or theme that other viewers had experienced when looking at the same work. Wouldn't that be informative to learn?

Pandora for art. Depending on which pieces they rated the highest, the kiosks also offered attendees personalized recommendations of other pieces they would likely enjoy and should make sure not to miss. That's very cool. (MIT Media Lab does something similar, recommending exhibits based on your past experiences at the Lab.)

The more art an attendee rated, the more likely they became to win a graphic badge displayed on the profiles of top participants.

Walking throughout the exhibit were festival staff members with RFID scanners, netbooks and digital cameras. Attendees could have their cards scanned, their photos taken and then purchase a personalized photo book printed to commemorate the event.

"Many of the STRP attendees are high-school kids, and they think [RFID] is really cool," Ties van de Werff, a curator of the event, told RFID Journal. "To them, it's an extension of the Web."

What do you think of this kind of technology being involved in the world of art? If you think it could enrich the experience without too great a cost in attention and engagement, perhaps you can imagine this kind of experience extending beyond the museum and into our everyday lives.

Begole's group at PARC (Palo Alto Research Center, a subsidiary of Xerox) puts more emphasis nowadays on technologies such as predictive analytics, context engines and "Behavioral Ware". It's much more about the software, than the sensors.

According to Begole, "the early Ubicomp [in the late 80's and 90's] was all about making machines aware of the environment." However this was "really hard because the sensors didn't exist - or they weren't cheap enough - and we didn't know exactly how to use sensors to detect the environment."

But the world of sensors is "not hard anymore," Begole claimed. He pointed to accelerometers and gyros on the iPhone and Android, which "any developer can access."

Begole explained that PARC is trying to take sensor technology to the next level, by adding a layer of meaning atop the sensor data. "It's not just the state of the world," he told me, "but what does that state mean to the user? What's important, what's significant about the situation? That's what we're trying to focus on."

He noted that new types of sensors are being developed too. For example, his Ubicomp group at PARC have been experimenting with biochemical sensors. "We haven't done much with biochemical sensors," he added, "although we do some chemical sensing in one of the hardware labs here."

He also mentioned disposable sensors, using print, that can be put on your body like a band aid.

Here is a presentation by Bo Begole that explains PARC's Ubicomp software developments further:

The software side of the Internet of Things is where much of the innovation is happening. PARC, HP, IBM, Cisco and others are all working hard to develop algorithms that will process and make sense of the explosion of data coming from sensors.

Of course, consumers stand to gain too. Data from the food supply chain will enable consumers to more easily judge food quality.

Food safety is the primary concern of consumers. Yet according to an IBM report, only 1% of foods entering the U.S. are inspected. The report further states that imports make up "nearly 60% of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the U.S. and 75% of the seafood."

Data about where food was produced and how it has traveled would increase consumer confidence about food safety. Given the choice of two similar food products, but one has more data about how safe it is - as a consumer, which would you choose? That's an opportunity for food companies to gain an advantage over their competition.

The back story of a particular food item is valuable to consumers, too, for reasons such as managing health to being able to make moral or ethical judgments. As the Christian Science Monitor recently noted, "every gadget, piece of food, or article of clothing comes with a back story."

There is already a growing movement to quantify data about the way we live - and eat. From web apps like Health Month (which enables you to set health goals and track them over a month, including dietary goals) to the self-explanatory TweetWhatYouEat. These apps will become much more sophisticated once food businesses give consumers data from the supply chain.

The web site The Quantified Self, run by Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly, has more tips and tools for consumers who wish to track and manage the data about their lives.

As a diabetic (type 1), I'm more careful than most people about what I eat. So I can't wait for the day when I'll be able to scan a food item with my smart phone and find out if it's a healthier option for me than a competing product.

This is a huge opportunity for the food industry. Compete on the quality of the data you provide; and win. Let us know in the comments if you've spotted some early examples of food companies utilizing sensor or similar data.

Image credits: psyberartist; IBM

As you seen from the video, a simple black-and-white marker is used to trigger a 3D experience with animated objects at which the user can "shoot." Nothing new there. But notice as the objects fly out of the wall and the camera turns, the phone continues to track the objects in their relative virtual position even after the 2D marker has left the camera's vision. That's pretty impressive.

"Sensor fusion" refers to the software's ability to simultaneously use camera and accelerometer data to create better spatial awareness. Since the phone can tell it has been turned a certain way thanks to its sensors, the software can translate that motion and continue to project 3D objects in their relative positions.

The other interesting thing about this demo is it is a streaming session between two people in a multiplayer game experience. Two people can "shoot" at the same set of 3D models and play together to fight virtual foes. Layar says it is the first online multiplayer AR game, but I seem to remember a very early "virtual tennis" promotion where two people could bat a tennis ball back and forth in virtual space.

Either way, the demo is very fascinating and points to a bright future for mobile augmented reality. "Sensor fusion" that includes GPS chips and gyroscopes is going to be an important feature to interactive AR experiences in the near future. Being able to continue an AR experience even when the camera moves away from a marker will open the door for some amazing experiences.

If you have a few hours this weekend, you can build this automatic Foursquare check-in system yourself, with very little upfront investment. If the idea sounds appealing, but you're not sure if you have the skills needed to make this happen, don't worry - the hardware may soon be available for purchase alongside re-modded sensors that dangle on your keychain.

Materials

To get started, you'll need the following materials:

• A Nike+ sensor: If you don't already have a Nike+ sensor, you can pick one up by locating the nearest store that sells Nike gear using the company website. Sensors are sold either with a pair of running shoes or along with the Nike+ sportsband. (If you don't have a sensor on hand, you can still do this. Stumble.to's service can register Wi-Fi clients via MAC addresses, too.)
• A USB+iPod Serial Adapter: This $25 breakout board (available here from Sparkfun Electronics) sends and receives commands to the receiver and listens for individual foot pods. Your local electronics hobbyist shop may carry something similar.
• A computer

Accounts

• Obviously, you'll need a Foursquare account. (Twitter check-ins and Fire Eagle are also supported.)
• Secondly, you need to register an account with Stumble.to and obtain an API key.

Software

• Python
• PySerial
• The shoe-agent Python script (direct download): This is the script that connects the Nike+ sensor to the Stumble.to software.

Just Do It!

Once you have all the components in place, here's how to get started:

1. Install Python and PySerial
2. Plug in the serial adapter.
3. Obtain your API key from Stumble.to
4. Edit the shoe-agent script with your API key information and specify the serial port your USB adapter appears as.

That's it! Halverson is working on a more detailed how-to guide, so stay tuned to his blog for an update on that, if you need further details. (Update: Here it is!)

Garage Project to Become Commercial Success?

Although the above guide is meant for electronic hobbyists who want to have a little fun with Foursquare and hardware sensors, this DIY "garage project" may end up leading to commercial success for those invovled. Halverson says he's thinking now about how he could build a different type of sensor, like one that hangs on your keychain, for example, instead one that sits in your shoe or pocket. The new sensor could be thinner and lighter or maybe have an on and off switch that would register your check-ins automatically when on while still allowing an easy way to go off the grid when needed.

The Stumble.to Web service created by Eric Butler and Ian Gallagher has incredible potential as well. Although it only works with Foursquare, Fire Eagle and Twitter for the moment, additional services like Facebook Places, Gowalla and other check in-based social networks can and will be added in the future. Stumble.to essentially works as a middleman between hardware devices and location-based networks. It works with sensors, but also with Wi-Fi clients like laptops and smartphones that register their MAC addresses with the service.

Bringing Check-Ins to Non-Smartphone Users with Low-Cost Sensors

In reality, this project isn't all that different from the system created by mobile check-in service Shopkick, but with cross-platform appeal. Shopkick, now available as a mobile application for smartphones, offers deals to users who check in at popular retail establishments like Best Buy and Macy's. However, it forces the venue to install the company's proprietary hardware to verify that the check-ins come from people who are actually in the store. It also requires a smartphone.

Using low-cost components at the venue level and short-range sensors like the one from Nike+ offers the same benefits but without excluding users who prefer using other location-based services... or even those who don't own smartphones! A sensor combined with an online account at Facebook, Foursquare or another site could engage feature phone users who want to participate in this hot, new check-in game, but can't install mobile applications on their phone.

For the end user, the experience could be simple: it would only be a matter of registering an account with Stumble.to and associating their preferred services with their keychain sensor. Afterwards, they could continue to enjoy the features of location-based apps, like the discounts, mobile coupons, tips, reviews and other rewards, without having to actually having to perform a manual check-in on their phone.

Another interesting side note: Stumble.to has a "check out" feature too, meaning it can calculate the time you spend at a venue. Although no location-based service tracks this metric today, it could be implemented in future iterations to discourage the so-called drive-by check-ins (those where the user checks in as they pass a venue, often while driving, in order to get the points or rewards in a given location-based game like Foursquare). A service could perhaps dole out more points or better rewards to those who actually stayed put for awhile instead of those who were just cruising by.

What Do You Think?

Whether you geek out on the DIY project or want to wait for a commercially available system, you can see there are clear advantages to automated, hardware-based check-in services. Whether or not companies like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and others will actually want users to skip using their apps in favor of automation is another matter entirely, though. Some smaller services may be dependent on in-app ads for example, or links posted by their users that drive traffic to company homepages. Automation would have an effect on how the services could be effectively monetized, and that's something they will need to consider thoughtfully before embracing a system like this.

But that's just them. We think it's awesome - what about you?

It's still very early in this era and the platforms we'll profile here are at this point more about experimentation than commercialization.

HP is building a platform called CeNSE, which stands for "Central Nervous System for the Earth." The goal is to create a worldwide network of sensors, which will create a feedback loop for objects and people. These sensors will measure data such as:

• Vibration
• Tilt
• Rotation
• Navigation
• Sound
• Air flow
• Light
• Temperature
• Biological
• Chemical
• Humidity
• Pressure
• Location

Earlier this year I visited HP Labs and spoke to several of their leading scientists. Parthasarathy Ranganathan, a Distinguished Technologist at HP Labs, told me in May that there will soon be millions of sensors working in real-time, with data sampled every second. He said there'll be lots of different applications for this data; including retail, defense, traffic, seismic, oil, wildlife, weather and climate modeling.

Hewlett Packard is at heart a computer hardware and IT services company. It's building this platform because it sees that the coming data explosion will lead to huge demand for more powerful computers and better processing of all that data. Or, in the words of CeNSE lead Peter Hartwell, "one trillion nanoscale sensors and actuators will need the equivalent of 1000 internets: the next huge demand for computing!" HP also says that producing sensors is "very similar" to producing ink cartridges, which it has a lot of experience in.

IBM

IBM's Smarter Planet campaign is about connecting objects to the Internet and applying intelligence and services on top of that. Like HP, IBM uses the central nervous system analogy. "The planet has grown a central nervous system," it states on the Smarter Planet overview page.

In January of this year, IBM CEO Sam Palmisano gave a speech in London which shed light on Big Blue's sensor platform. He said that IBM had developed 1,200 "smarter solutions" up till that time.

Due to its scale, IBM has the ability to provide sensor systems to support city infrastructures. Palmisano talked about "four cities where IBM has helped deploy congestion management solutions, traffic volume during peak periods has been reduced by up to 18 percent, CO2 emissions from motor vehicles were reduced by up to 14 percent, and public transit use increased by up to 7 percent." He listed other examples from healthcare, banking, power metering and retailing. IBM is also busy working with manufacturers and goods suppliers, such Danish transportation company Container Centralen.

A great introduction to the Internet of Things is this video, which IBM released in March:

Pachube

Of the three platforms for sensor data profiled here, Pachube (pronounced "PATCH-bay") is the most open - no doubt because it is a tiny speck of a company compared to HP and IBM. So Pachube is hoping its open platform will entice external parties to build on it, whereas HP and IBM can rely more on partnerships.

We first reviewed Pachube in May 2009. It lets you tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments both physical and virtual. Pachube founder Usman Haque is one of the leading thinkers in the Internet of Things movement. His goal is for Pachube to become a platform that is responsive to and influences your environment - for example your home.

A glimpse of what products may look like built on an Internet of Things platform is the partnership Pachube announced in June this year. It's with Current Cost, a producer of real-time energy monitors. Current Cost is using Pachube's Internet of Things platform for the Bridge, an ethernet device that connects Current Cost electricity monitors to the Internet. Pachube is being used for data management on the Bridge, enabling the device to deliver tracking, notifications, comparison tools and more.

Who is Building the Best Central Nervous System?

HP, IBM and Pachube are all platform companies to watch when it comes to Internet of Things. In upcoming posts, we will look at some products being developed on these platforms.

Let us know in the comments what you think about the three platforms profiled here. Do you think any one of these Internet of Things platforms is poised to be a big winner, or is there another one that we didn't mention which you think has potential?

From open-source software that runs on hardware built of old webcams to expensive contact lenses and glasses, a new era of eye-controlled tools are developing at a rapid rate. What follows is a summary of some of the ways that these new designs are going to make it easier to read and write not just on the Web but also when it comes to controlling objects in real life.

The scientific study of eye movement began in the 19th century; Alfred Yurbus developed today's modern tracking techniques in the 1950s. Yurbus' often-quoted 1967 book, Eye Movements and Vision, explains how a person's purpose and motivation affects how they move their eyes. Below, Yarbus shows how eye movement over a picture is different for each task assigned to the viewer.

The most recent utilization of this type of research comes via Tobii's Eye Tracking Glasses, which, according to Internet Retailer, sell for $45,000 a pair. Large corporations such as Procter and Gamble haven't shied away from the price of the glasses because it allows for highly precise testing of how branding, product placement and marketing work for target demographics both in the store and on the Web.

A Web-Connected Contact Lens?

Last summer we wrote about Babak Amir Parviz and his University of Washington students embedding LEDs into contact lenses. Says Parviz, "We already see a future in which the humble contact lens becomes a real platform, like the iPhone is today, with lots of developers contributing their ideas and inventions. As far as we're concerned, the possibilities extend as far as the eye can see." Parviz's in-depth article about this subject can be found at IEEE Spectrum. .

Smart Words Watch Your Eyes As You Read

Text 2.0 is software that discerns and reacts to reader eye movement via an infrared light and camera. Eventually, according to EyeTrackingUpdate, "If a reader takes a little more time on a certain word or phrase, eye tracking could trigger a translation, pronunciation or sound effect, a biography on a name, a definition, or an image/animation to supplement and provide meaning." Created by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, this software works with Tobii Eye Tracking technology and will soon be able to recognize when we are skimming and respond by slightly fading non-essential words. Or if your eyes react strongly to a significant passage on a page it could be highlighted and shared with colleagues.

In the same way the Internet thrives on links, eye tracking technology can help us expand the ability of those links to not just more information, but to also control real-life objects - also known as the Internet of Things.

eyeDriver Allows You to Steer A Car With Your Eyes

The research vehicle Spirit of Berlin is a fully automated driverless car. Software called eyeDriver allows a remote driver to steer this car with eye movements. Using similar tools as Text 2.0 eye movements are converted to signals that control the steering wheel. If the remote driver averts their gaze, the car will begin to brake until the driver has put their eyes back on the road. The project, which is funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research, goes by the name AutoNOMOS and intends to make cars safer by eliminating user error, as well as by developing semi-autonomous and entirely autonomous driving.

Affordable Eye Tracking

In a blog post last November, Clicktale claimed to be "The definitive method for conducting accurate eye-tracking on a massive scale at a fraction of the cost." There is also OpenEyes, which promises open-source eye tracking for the masses. Then there is the Ycombinator-funded GazeHawk, which has dropped eye-tracking research costs for websites under the $50 per test subject barrier. And because websites as big as Google get accurate results using only a half dozen test subjects, eye tracking analytics is now affordable for most businesses. Here's a sample of a GazeHawk eye tracking heat map:

Helping the Disabled

Tony Quan is a legendary Los Angeles graffiti writer, publisher and activist. His tag name is Tempt One. Quan was diagnosed with ALS in 2003 and other than the movement of his eyes, he's completely paralyzed. Free Art and Technology (FAT), OpenFrameworks and the Graffiti Research Lab got in touch with the Not Impossible Foundation to bring together a group of open-source hackers to create Eye Writer. Now Quan has virtually returned to the streets to again tag walls, this time with a hi-power video projector. Thought his artist days are over, eye tracking has freed Tempt One to express again. With it he says, "Art is a tool of empowerment and social change, and I consider myself blessed to be able to create and use my work to promote health reform, bring awareness about ALS and help others."

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

If you know of other innovations in eye-tracking software and hardware that have not yet been mentioned please add your links and comments below.

First photo from Paul Sapiano.
Second photo from WikiCommons.

From the first-ever thought-generated tweet, to the U.S. military funding the development of advanced prosthetic limbs, to implantable brain sensors, advancements in BCI are not only transforming the lives of people who are locked in because of total paralysis, but are ushering in an era where we will be able to build the Internet as fast as we can think.

First Person to Think a Tweet

On April 1, 2009 University of Wisconsin doctoral student Adam Wilson became the first person to think a tweet: "USING EEG TO SEND TWEET." Wilson was wearing a cap that was connected to a standard electroencephalograph while staring at a screen of flashing letters. He wrote the software that connected his brain to Twitter in only a few days. According to the press release, "Wilson is among a growing group of researchers worldwide who aim to perfect a communication system for users whose bodies do not work, but whose brains function normally." Time magazine recognized his work as the ninth best invention of 2009.

Ever Thought About Hacking a Thought-Sensing Toy?

Mattel's MindFlex is a toy where you use your thoughts to move objects on a gameboard. The device is a headband with sensors on each side, as well as wires that that clip to your ear lobes. Thought signals read by the sensors control the speed of a fan that levitates a styrofoam ball. Once you learn to keep the ball aloft you can turn a knob that will guide the ball around an obstacle course. While this toy doesn't yet connect to your computer it's one of the first inexpensive mass-produced devices, along with Force Trainer to use a thought controlled chip. Beginning last fall, hackers began looking for a way to alter the MindFlex, and by March of this year the device was hacked to give users a severe electrical shock if they didn't stay relaxed.

NeuroSky

NeuroSky's first commercial product is a brainwave interface headset with medical-grade data acquisition capabilities. The device has a non-gel sensor and supports a Bluetooth headset with MP3 and VoIP capabilities. The first function of the headset was to help users pay attention and focus; subsequent upgrades now allow it to help users relax and meditate. If you're inclined to design your own programs based on this device you can download the SDK, as well as learn more, here.

EPOC's Neuroheadset

We featured the Emotive EPOC neuroheadset in our Smart Clothes You'll Be Wearing Soon post. The device features 14 saline-based sensors and a gyroscope. Primarily marketed to gamers, the device also helps people with disabilities regain control of their lives. Included with the device is the EmoKey, which is a lightweight application running in your computer's background. It allows you to map out thought-controlled keystrokes. This headset is the preferred device of the Dartmouth Mobile Sensing Group, which created a brain-to-mobile interface that allows you to call your friends by thinking about them.

Injectable Brain Implants

In the future, instead of wearing headsets we'll have the option of getting implants. One of the devices being developed is a 1.3mm "multi-contact brain probe" that is injected into you. Dr. Jon Spratley from the University of Birmingham says the device consists of four coiled antennas that are 1mm across. Once implanted, they unfurl on the surface of the motor cortex portion of the brain. Signals from the sensor are sent to a 16mm receiver that is placed in the hole left behind by the needle. Spratley says that this will allow "patients with conditions that lead to severe communications difficulties or muscle control problems to be able to control communications devices and other computer controlled aids."

Electrode Arrays, Prosthetics and Military Investment

Tiny electrodes physically plugged into a person's brain was an idea made possible by the 100-electrode Utah Electrode Array at the University of Utah. This device literally plugs into the brains of people who are paralyzed so they can map out new ways to communicate. According to this month's Neurosurgical Focus, the university's latest research suggests that sensor advancements now make it possible for the instrument to sit on the surface of the brain rather than penetrating it. This new, less-invasive technique considerably extends the current 10-year life span of the previous 100-electrode array. This research is funded in part by the Pentagon's $55 million investment in thought-controlled prosthetic limbs. Some of the military's most advance thought-controlled software technologies might find their way to the public sector via this research program.

First photo by Dierk Schafer. Last photo University of Utah Neurosurgery

Considine gives one example of a British murder conviction that was based on evidence obtained via Electrical Network Frequency Analysis (ENF). While detectives have long been rendering this kind of data by deciphering faint signals from the machines we use, what's new is the huge increase in devices that can be monitored. The cost to capture and store data continues to drop, too. Enter the talented salesperson who knows the more they know about you, the more money they make. Enter a new era of a trillion Web-connected devices known as the Internet of Things. Got privacy?

Google Street View

As routinely covered in This Week in Online Tyranny the Google cars are in trouble for trolling neighborhoods for web traffic data. Or how about today's coverage of Google vs. World, which is a map that highlights Google legal woes, many of which are related to privacy. Considine refers to the basis upon which these legal concerns are being raised when he says:

"Without privacy, the social contract is changed. Zero tolerance combined with no privacy removes every civil right we have. The CEO of Google has stated "Privacy is dead, get used to it." On the other hand, the German high court recently mandated early deletion of all cell tower data, web traffic, IM tracking, and other "personal acts." The battle for privacy is already publicly engaged. The more people know, the more people are going to care."

They'll Want To Run You the Way They Run Casinos

Considine also explains how an early adopter of building unique data profiles for each individual customer are casinos in Las Vegas. The super secret Wal-Mart data centers in Missouri and Arkansas have also long been suspected of similar surveillance technologies. In short, your behavior is being charted to maximize your profitability. What's more, once users start wiring their homes to a smart grid in order to be more green your unauthorized sales representative may be able to discern your purchasing patterns based on the types of devices you plug into your walls. Or what if you didn't know that you were pinging TV advertisers every time you took food out of your internet-connected refrigerator?

Ads With Eyes post explained the Center for Democracy & Technology's report about how digital signage with face recognition and RFID sensing are going to identify you and communicate with you in ways that are profitable for advertisers. But what about your right to opt out? Will these ads be able to sell your facial recognition and purchasing data to other advertisers?

Public Oversight

Learning how to maintain our privacy amid so many newly introduced Web-connected machines is not going to be easy. Yet European leadership and even US congressional hearings are beginning to take note. As Internet of Things continues to develop more privacy issues are going to arise. That's in part why ReadWriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick's recorded a new podcast called: Thoughts on Privacy and the Internet of Things

If you have any additional insight that may benefit our readers regarding this issue please post them in the comments below.

photos from (in order) Wiki Commons, John Delorey and A. Strakey.

Could that get you wearing a watch again? After hearing the company's reasons why a watch could be best suited for certain types of notifications, I went from skeptical to definitely interested. Here's why Fossil thinks a watch is what the real-time web needs.

Some types of notifications can best be consumed at a glance - ones that are short, actionable and time sensitive, Geiser argues. Think geolocation, Twitter DMs, medical or industrial alerts. "Imagine the hundreds of interruptions we're going to get in the future," he says.

"A watch is the world's greatest glancable display but you need to be able to consume it all in a glance. As a product team, we have to have a very healthy respect for the Input/Output capacity of your device. Watches have little of both. But for a particular kind of push notifications, a watch is a very cool place to consume those."

Right: Related. Google transit geek Joe Hughes writes, "This is my Sony Ericsson MBW-150 bluetooth watch, showing the next few SF Muni bus arrival times for a nearby stop. The code to fetch the arrival times is running on my Droid phone, and communicating with the watch using Marcel Dopita's OpenWatch software for the Android platform."

I'm interested in location-bookmarking and geofencing. Hit my phone whenever I'm near an important historical landmark. Is there an historical photo available on Flickr of the place I'm at from more than 50 years ago? Has the intersection I'm standing at been in the news lately, for good or bad reasons? I'd like to glance at that info on my wrist, in case I want to view said photo or news stories on my phone. The possibilities are wide ranging. Add some internet of things data and you'll be able to see on your watch if your refrigerator is running, so you can go run after and catch it.

Unlike a mobile phone, a watch's default display mode is on, Geiser points out. The forthcoming Fossil programmable watch will be an analog display with a little bit of digital space. Think of the opportunity and social cost of pulling out your phone and turning it on, compared to glancing at a watch display that's already on and at hand. That small difference in user experience could have a big impact on our data consumption habits. Bill was in China when I DMd him on Twitter requesting an interview. His wristwatch vibrated, showed him my message and he got back to me almost immediately.

"The rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated," Geiser says of the wristwatch industry.

"People are saying the wristwatch will go the way of the buggy whip - in no way is that true. The mobile experience already isn't tied to one display. If I've got a hands free kit in my car, my car dashboard becomes a display for my phone. But if you're going to wear something, it had better look good. Our best days are in front of us because of these kinds of possibilities. The watch actually serves to create a very useful experience."

The next Fossil programmable watch is still in development but will be available as a developers' preview before it hits the mass market.

"With the current state of the economy, we get more used instrument donations than anything else these days, but it's been an amazing ride. New Orleans is going to have a rough summer with Gulf Coast tourism dropping already after the oil spill. Hopefully people will keep the city and its music in their hearts."

Podcasts were a powerful way to reach out to both a distributed public and a fractured musical scene, as was the blog they started. They used social media and more old school Web tools to beat the bushes and pass the hat. Straight out donations, walkathons, downloads and t-shirt sales. Money came in to help get people home, to help them repair storm damage and to pay rent and, above all, to give them back their means of making a living: get them back their bones. In addition to money, people donated trumpets and trombones, traps and guitars and even pianos.

Joannie Hughes, a New Orleans native who became a volunteer with NOMRF, said after Katrina, the most disconcerting thing was the absence of music.

"The one thing that struck me in my heart and soul when I returned was the silence. Having lived here all of my life and grown up in a music household I just was not prepared for the lack of live music that usually poured into the streets. The entire city owes (Jeff and Karen) a great deal of gratitude for bringing back our cherished music."

There's a feeling that once a certain amount of time passes after a disaster, people should have the decency to be OK. Unfortunately, given the sheer bulk of the mess, both physically and politically, that's just not been the case with New Orleans, as co-founder Jeff Beninato reminds us.

"If you think this tragedy is over think again. There are still families out there in corners of this country trying to figure out what they are going to do to get their lives back to some normalcy. There are so many musicians who were well known in New Orleans that are totally unknown where they are now. Imagine building your fanbase or your work base in your workplace and suddenly it all disappears."

And now what promises to become the single largest ecological catastrophe in the nation's history, the Gulf oil spill, is bearing down on the city. The travelers and the money they bring are starting to dry up again. The resource economy, fishing, shrimping and crabbing, that all funnels into the city, is faltering. The need to plug in to this newest of technologies - the Web - to save the oldest - music - is pressing, again. There is some truth to the notion that this technology we cover levels and democratizes. NOMRF is using it to make the process of helping the men and women who provide the soundtrack to your hopes and dreams more egalitarian and more direct.

Think trading tracks and files is "peer-to-peer"? Pass the hat at the Green Dragon and buy a guy a trumpet so he can gig and get his kids new shoes. That's peer-to-peer, brothers and sisters. Can I get an amen?

I said...

Can I get an amen?

Alright, then.

The company has raised millions of dollars in venture capital, at a very high valuation, and is rumored to be in a nasty spat behind the scenes with Facebook leadership. It's also been a great place to get inside dirt on Silicon Valley startups. Ready to take a peak inside? The site is open to new users today.

ReadWriteWeb posted the first screenshots of the service in January, but Quora has been subject of intense press scrutiny ever since - while remaining accessible only through a loose invitation system.

Meanwhile, Facebook itself is developing a Q&A system and is rumored to be engaged in a back-and-forth war of IP blocking between its employees and Quora's. We've heard that there's more animosity than that going on behind the scenes as well.

Meanwhile, Quora has remained a small site building itself to ensure scalability when this time finally came. Public launch day was marked by a very nice write-up in the Wall St. Journal. Quora is a good little site, but it's hard not to wonder if the hype, funding and press coverage is warranted given the traction-to-pedigree ratio.

Those of us who have enjoyed using it among a select group of early adopters may find the new public Quora to be a different animal. That's certainly what happened when the marginally-related Aardvark went from red-hot to Google acquired to uselessly swamped with half-baked questions from the Google-using public. (Sorry, it's true!)

Quora is closely tied in to the Facebook "social graph" of its users, something that may help it avoid Aardvark's fate if if ever gets in front of a large number of people.

Let's see what you've got, Quora.

Arrayent, Arduino, Pachube, Logiboxx and Nabaztag are also examples of devices that do what Iris can do. From tracking objects, to objects communicating on our behalf, to objects that gather information about their surroundings for us, our awareness and activity-tracking technologies will soon create a Web with over a trillion nodes.

The 2.4ghz Iris is meant to connect the world around us to product and information management tools. As of today, the software development kit that can run the Iris is available for download for free. What's unique about the IBM platform is that it runs on a small footprint. So it takes very little energy, memory and processing power to operate these devices even though they can be linked to more complex energy-intensive languages like Java.

Arrayent offers embedded system designers the tools they need to connect their products to Web apps and Web browsers in only one day. Arrayent has been previously featured here as the company that wants to become the Cisco of the Internet of Things. Companies that make smoke alarms, thermostats and children's toys are currently working with Arrayent. Given the potential of the Internet of Things to revolutionize consumer products, we're picking Arrayent as one to watch.

As we said at the start of 2009 "Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform made up of open-source hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments." An Arduinos is programmed with wiring language, which is based on C++ with a few simplifications. We recently mentioned Arduino's blog as one to keep an eye on.

Last week we covered Pachube's announcement that they were partnering with Current Cost, a producer of real-time energy monitors. Pachube's mission statement is: "To deliver the world's leading open, interoperable platform for the internet of things that is." One of the great things it's done is the dashboard on its landing page, which features a map of all the Pachube-based sensor data sources in the world in real-time. This geo-location-based interpretation of sensor data is our pick for the most ideal standard for an Internet of Things control panel.

Logiboxx offers organizations continuous visibility of all its stuff in real-time. Its box is an RFID card reader that works with GPS enabled RFID tags. Some of its tags monitor delivery vehicles, while other tags can act as non-mechanical seals on shipping containers. Key to the devices and software that Logiboxx offers is the ability to customize specific devices to small and large businesses' existing software and inventory systems. Logiboxx communicates via GPRS and uses Global Asset Tracking Identification System (GATIS) as its Web-based application. This allows operation centers to view all critical data about their stuff in real time, all of the time.

With all these devices and software platforms still in their earliest stages of development it's not clear how we'll be using them in our everyday lives yet. But thanks to Nabaztag, an internet connected rabbit-shaped robot, it's easier to understand. Much like how our phones work, this device allows you to stay in touch with friends. But unlike a phone it can also communicate with you by moving its rabbit ears, or by reading RFID tags. What's even better is that Nabaztag is already a consumer product that you can buy and use even if your skills with computer programming are limited.

What's great about doing roundup posts like these is that it inspires our readers to post comments about other devices that we don't yet know about yet. So if you know of any we left out, please post info about them in the comments below. Check back with this post later in the week to see the comments that have been added.