Mar 19, 2009

The Internet of things

Sometime between now and 2010, the internet is poised to reach beyond virtual space and take root in the physical world. According to many futurist thinkers, almost every object you can see around you carries the possibility of being connected to the internet. This means that your domestic appliances, your clothes, the books on your shelves and your car in the driveway may one day soon be assigned a unique IP address, just as both computers and web pages are assigned them today, to enable them to talk to each other.

In the past month, a coalition of big technology companies, Cisco, Ericsson and Sun Microsystems among them, have formed the Ipso (IP for Smart Objects) Alliance with the aim of shaping a set of standards for the coming internet of things. "We could incorporate internet protocol (IP) into nearly everything," enthuses Geoff Mulligan, chair of the Ipso Alliance. "There's no reason why the internet shouldn't be in every single appliance."

The next development of the net: the internet of things | Technology | The Guardian

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