The Age of Interconnectivity
According to Swedish cellular infrastructure vendor Ericsson, there will be 50 billion Internet connections in the world by 2020. This is a staggering number, considering that there are 7 billion people in the world and that, according to WolframAlpha, only 1.8 billion of them have Internet connectivity.
So when Ericsson predicts 50 billion connections in the next nine years, it does not just mean everybody connecting to the Internet, but everything.
There are obvious examples of this, for instance vending machines and digital billboards are increasingly being connected to the Internet for monitoring and remote loading of content. But a movement is underway to get the less obvious bits and pieces of the digital world connected too.
The company NXP Semiconductors in Holland, for example, is working on WiFi-connected light bulbs that would be connected to your home or office network and the Internet.
Earlier this year Finweek published an article about what is now being referred to as the ‘‘Internet of things’’. It mentioned an initiative called Arduino that develops open source (anyone is free to copy and modify the plans) digital hardware for, according to the Arduino.cc website, “artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments”.
Well, since then Arduino has been embraced by individuals and companies the world over. One of the more interesting uses of the technology is by a start-up called Supermechanical, which is developing a simple device called Twine that can be used to monitor just about anything.
The Twine gadget roughly resembles a bar of soap and contains a WiFi radio, along with internal and external sensors for temperature and motion. According to its creators, it will run for weeks on two AAA batteries. Accompanying web-based software will allow users to set rules surrounding what Twine is detecting in its environment.
So, for example, you could stick a Twine on your front door and tell it to send an alert to your phone when someone knocks on the door. A collection of external sensors can also be added to Twine. A moisture sensor could be used to tell you when pot plants need watering, or a magnetic sensor could be used to alert you when the fridge door is open.
Supermechanical pitched its idea on the Kickstarter website to attract funding from the public, and at the time of writing has accumulated just short of $118,000 – almost R1 million – to get going. It was hoping for just $35,000 (about R280,000).
Once you start considering the possibilities being created by Arduino and similar technologies, the possible usage examples just begin to flow.
We live in the digital age and it is becoming inclusive, not only in terms of people, but also of the things that we connect to and engage with everyday. If you are looking for the next frontier of growth in digital technology, this is undoubtedly it. Until biotech gets going in earnest, that is.
Copy courtesy of Finweek. Call 086 010 3911 to subscribe.
Story by Simon Dingle
