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In a world increasingly mediated by technology, we must ensure that our human core of activities remains untouched. Please email your comments to esbmarketing@sifycorp.com
The International Telecommu nication Union (ITU) recently released the ITU Internet Report 2005 on The Internet of Things. This report is the seventh in the series that was originally launched in 1997. Specially prepared for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held at Tunis this month, this report "takes a look at the 'always on' communication, |
which new technologies like the radio-frequency identification (RFID) and smart computing promise a world of networked and interconnected devices. Everything from tyres to toothbrushes might soon be in communication range, heralding a dawn of a new era; one in which today's Internet (of data and people) gives way to tomorrow's Internet of Things"(quote from summary report available at www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications / internetofthings / internetofthings_summary.pdf).
The vision underlying the Internet of things is anytime, anyplace connectivity for anyone and anything. The late Mark Weiser (at that time chief technologist at Xerox) is quoted to have said "the most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves in the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it". This is referred to in the report as the seminal vision of future technological ubiquity - increasing "availability" of processing power accompanied by its decreasing "visibility".
This has interesting, exciting (and also scary) interpretations. Nicholas Negroponte, head of the Media Labs at MIT has his favourite hypothetical device - a doorknob. This intelligent doorknob recognises who lives in the house, opens the door when the householder returns with arms full of shopping or sign for a package in their absence. It can let one dog out but won't let six dogs come in.
It will also discreetly advise you to take a phone call from your son! One day in 2020 in the report talks about a Spanish girl called Rosa who has quarreled with her boyfriend and wants to get away to the Alps. She has RFID based car that relays her driver's license and passport number at the French border; she buys jacket embedded with media player and weather-adjusting features and receives video call from her boyfriend on her sun glasses. On patch up, she disables her privacy option which will allow her boyfriend's car to track her down!
The report optimistically states that "even in a world full of smart interconnected things, human feelings continue to rule". In the evolving world where nanotechnology manipulates matter at the molecular level, bizarre may become pedestrian.
One does hope, however, that one's privacy is protected and as the report suggests, "In a world increasingly mediated by technology, we must ensure that our human core of activities remains untouched"
Rahul Swarup
President
Sify Enterprise Solution
We
welcome your comments and suggestions.
Please e-mail us at esbmarketing@sifycorp.com
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