Things and Chips and Wearables - Oh My!
Feel like a little techno-challenge-i'm-confused-what-are-you-talking-about moment?
How about we discuss two Big Things on the horizon in technology today: the so-called Internet of Things (which we did mention in this space a long time ago when it was first mentioned outside the GeekLab) and Wearables.
I read a very interesting article recently that mentioned the two, and how they will impact your life in the not-so-distant future.
As we noted previously, The Internet of Things is just that - it's Things that are connected by the Internet. So this can refer to your car, your refrigerator, your TV, your Nest home control - it's all those controls that are increasingly manipulable from a distance.
Let's take the Nest home control for example, as I suspect this will be a device that more and more of us will want to have. We've had programmable thermostats since the Dark Ages. And we've had "Clap on clap off" for even longer than that - hey, Urg was chipping (all puns intended) away at stones when they came up with that one! The idea, though, was essentially the same: do the things you need to do with your appliances, but you needed crawl under the furniture (in the case of the latter) or even be at home in the case of the former.
You walk into a room, clap your hands, and on go whatever devices you have controlled with a sound-sensitive plug-in module. Light sensing sockets for light bulbs can turn on an outside light when you approach your front door. Key fobs can "tell" your car when you're nearby.
The Nest takes this all one step further and allows you to turn your heat up when you head home, or turn the porch light on. You can be alerted to moisture levels in a basement, or movement where there should be none. And all of this can happen via your smart phone.
These type of devices are becoming very inexpensive, and don't even require a lot of skill to set up.
Newer appliances will start and stop your stove or alert you to the fact that you're almost out of milk, and not on a timer, but in a "smart" fashion - real time, real data inputs so that the information you're getting is current, rather than simple "on-off" programming.
And, since we're on the subject of "smart," we've all been carrying around a lot of computing power in our pockets or purses for a long time now in the form of our smart phones.
New and developing technology is in chips that will allow hobbyists to create devices themselves to serve whatever purposes they feel are most needed. One company is even contemplating selling developer kits for these hobbyists that, for just a few dollars, will provide you with "this little tag and a battery and a USB cable. You get all the source code for an iPhone app and an Android app. You get all the hardware materials and manufacturing Gerbers. For 20 bucks you can be in the business of creating a wearable. This has a bunch of sensors in it. It’s Bluetooth, FCC certified. It has gyroscopes and barometers and thermometers and a compass and all sorts of accelerometers."
For those who care - and of course I do - "The Gerber format is an open 2D bi-level vector image file format. It is the de facto standard used by printed circuit board (PCB) industry software to describe the printed circuit board images: copper layers, solder mask, legend, etc. The standard file extension is .GBR, though other file extensions are very common.
There are two major versions of Gerber format:
So essentially, you can decide what you want to make why. One of his developers suggested a device that extreme sports enthusiasts could use to tell how much impact they'd absorbed from performing a trick, like landing on a skateboard. You get the idea.
Low power consumption and disposable (even degradable) format make it possible to consider things like swallowable cameras for medical testing (or strange movie making) or tags for tracing (and controlling) pets or livestock.
I recently was thumbing through some Young Adult fiction, and in this series, there are a set of "Earths." As The Traveler moves through time, Earth changes. He jumps into Earth 3, and find "dados," a form of human replicant who are busy doing all the work, while the "real" humans are busy - making more Things to add to the Internet!
What are you waiting for?
How about we discuss two Big Things on the horizon in technology today: the so-called Internet of Things (which we did mention in this space a long time ago when it was first mentioned outside the GeekLab) and Wearables.
I read a very interesting article recently that mentioned the two, and how they will impact your life in the not-so-distant future.
As we noted previously, The Internet of Things is just that - it's Things that are connected by the Internet. So this can refer to your car, your refrigerator, your TV, your Nest home control - it's all those controls that are increasingly manipulable from a distance.
Let's take the Nest home control for example, as I suspect this will be a device that more and more of us will want to have. We've had programmable thermostats since the Dark Ages. And we've had "Clap on clap off" for even longer than that - hey, Urg was chipping (all puns intended) away at stones when they came up with that one! The idea, though, was essentially the same: do the things you need to do with your appliances, but you needed crawl under the furniture (in the case of the latter) or even be at home in the case of the former.
You walk into a room, clap your hands, and on go whatever devices you have controlled with a sound-sensitive plug-in module. Light sensing sockets for light bulbs can turn on an outside light when you approach your front door. Key fobs can "tell" your car when you're nearby.
The Nest takes this all one step further and allows you to turn your heat up when you head home, or turn the porch light on. You can be alerted to moisture levels in a basement, or movement where there should be none. And all of this can happen via your smart phone.
These type of devices are becoming very inexpensive, and don't even require a lot of skill to set up.
Newer appliances will start and stop your stove or alert you to the fact that you're almost out of milk, and not on a timer, but in a "smart" fashion - real time, real data inputs so that the information you're getting is current, rather than simple "on-off" programming.
And, since we're on the subject of "smart," we've all been carrying around a lot of computing power in our pockets or purses for a long time now in the form of our smart phones.
New and developing technology is in chips that will allow hobbyists to create devices themselves to serve whatever purposes they feel are most needed. One company is even contemplating selling developer kits for these hobbyists that, for just a few dollars, will provide you with "this little tag and a battery and a USB cable. You get all the source code for an iPhone app and an Android app. You get all the hardware materials and manufacturing Gerbers. For 20 bucks you can be in the business of creating a wearable. This has a bunch of sensors in it. It’s Bluetooth, FCC certified. It has gyroscopes and barometers and thermometers and a compass and all sorts of accelerometers."
For those who care - and of course I do - "The Gerber format is an open 2D bi-level vector image file format. It is the de facto standard used by printed circuit board (PCB) industry software to describe the printed circuit board images: copper layers, solder mask, legend, etc. The standard file extension is .GBR, though other file extensions are very common.
There are two major versions of Gerber format:
- Extended Gerber, or RS-274X, is commonly used today.
- Standard Gerber, or RS-274-D, is deprecated; it is superseded by RS-274X" (Wikipedia)
So essentially, you can decide what you want to make why. One of his developers suggested a device that extreme sports enthusiasts could use to tell how much impact they'd absorbed from performing a trick, like landing on a skateboard. You get the idea.
Low power consumption and disposable (even degradable) format make it possible to consider things like swallowable cameras for medical testing (or strange movie making) or tags for tracing (and controlling) pets or livestock.
I recently was thumbing through some Young Adult fiction, and in this series, there are a set of "Earths." As The Traveler moves through time, Earth changes. He jumps into Earth 3, and find "dados," a form of human replicant who are busy doing all the work, while the "real" humans are busy - making more Things to add to the Internet!
What are you waiting for?
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