Imagine…

…Ubiquitous sensing enabled by wireless sensor network technologies  permeating multi-faceted areas of modern-day living.

…The ability to measure, infer and understand environmental indicators, from delicate ecologies and natural resources to urban environments.

…The proliferation of digital organisms, in a communicating-actuating network, creating the Internet of Things (IoT), wherein, sensors and actuators blend seamlessly with the (industrial) environment around us, and the information is shared across platforms in order to develop a real-time COP (common operating picture), enhancing immediate accurate situational awareness, review, decision-making, action.

…RFID tags and embedded sensor and actuators nodes communicating with server digital nodes linked to comprehensive digital OID (object identifier) libraries.

…The next-gen AI technology, transforming the internet into a fully integrated all-encompassing Future Data-On-Demand Services (M2B interface) internet.

…A cloud centric vision for worldwide implementation of Internet of Things.

…Endless (business) possibilities, by turning every industry layer into M2M and M2B technology domain economies.

As we suspected, the term IoT is nothing new. It was first coined in 1999, in the context of supply chain management. More recently, some critical voices dubbed IoT the process of enclosing ordinary/industrial life with computational casings, or simply a new sales pitch of existent technologies, with a longterm vision of exploitative incrementalism. And yes, we are facing tremendous challenges with regard to security of hardware-embedded UbiComp systems, super-visibility issues, an ever-growing data collecting SDE (sensor driven environment) riddled with vulnerabilities.

Either way, lots of work to be done – so let’s get to it.

Where will it lead us?, you ask, metaphorically pointing at the walkway in the picture. Risser’s Beach, on the south shore of Nova Scotia. That’s where I sometimes, on a warm summer day, would stretch out in the sand, pondering about the yet unbeknownst sphere of AI-driven IoT. And no, my smart phone won’t alert me of the Atlantic ocean’s freezing water temperature, a rotted-out post under the walkway, or the critical emergency services response time. It’s switched off, for the total lack of cell phone reception in this blissfully remote area.