By: Nuala Moran /
Visit Alton Towers, the United Kingdom's biggest theme park, and you are offered a wristband. Wear it, and as you scream your way from Nemesis to Oblivion you activate an all-seeing network of video cameras that are supposed to capture your best Alton Towers moments - instant ‘golden memories' - as they happen. A ‘Your Day' video is burnt onto DVD by the time you're ready to leave. This is a modest and slightly frivolous example of The Internet of things in action.
The Alton Towers wristband is studded with a minute Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag - and it is these miniaturised sensors, allied to wireless broadband technologies and Internet Protocol developments, that promise a new wave of machine-to-machine Internet services in much the same way that Web 2.0 activated social networking.
In a sense we have been here before. Twenty years ago the motor racer Stirling Moss fronted the launch of the Intelligent House, in which you could programme your bath to run the moment you opened your garage door. It never quite took off – but the difference now is that most of the enabling technologies are securely in place.
This is perhaps best exemplified by the use of the technology in the retail sector. It is now five years since the Electronic Product Code (EPC) network was launched with the vision of replacing the bar code, and three years since the world's large retailer, Wal-mart, mandated its largest suppliers to use RFID tags.
The AutoID Center, established at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999 to develop EPC, is credited with coining the Internet of Things term, and the EPC network can be viewed as one brick in its fabric. The edifice will be complete when every object in the world is tagged and can be identified, monitored and tracked over a ubiquitous Internet Protocol network.
To have a sense of the transformative power of such a network – where one object can freely relate to another object – think of the way in which mobile phones have transformed person-toperson communication. Now imagine objects having a virtual identity and communicating between each other to provide services from healthcare to transport security.
There is now a consensus amongst governments, academics, and IT and Internet stakeholders that the economic and social possibilities of an Internet of Things are about to become a reality.
In fact the French Government has made facilitating the Internet of Things a priority for its current EU Presidency. The European Commission published an Internet of the Future (in effect an Internet of Things) position statement in September 2008 and expects to make recommendations to the EU Telecom council at the end of November 2008. Similarly, a public consultation on the challenges of the Internet of Things should produce an EU report in 2009.
Bernard Benhamou, of France's Ministry of Research and Higher Education, told a conference on the subject, held in Nice in October 2008 as part of the France's EU Presidency, that, given the momentum and penetration of mobile services, Europe is particularly well placed to surf this new Internet wave.
“Mobile technology is changing the way we interact with the Internet. When everyday objects can interact with the Internet too, we'll see major new value-added services. Europe is the key market for mobile technologies, especially for high speed mobile access. It also has a unique wealth of geographic, cultural and personal data that will be key to the development of Internet of Things services.”
RFID
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are small low-cost circuits, fitted with tiny transponders capable of communicating with fixed or portable readers. These readers are linked to middleware software. Consequently RFID technology provides a link between the material, physical world and its virtual representation in a computer system.
Three types of RFID device are in use today:
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Passive RFID tags activated by a sensor or reader
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Semi- passive RFID tags with tiny built in batteries, capable of working independently of readers and at greater distances
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Semi- Active RFID tags with an on-board power supply and greater functionality
Obstacles to integrating RFIDs into everyday life include standardisation issues and the availability of radio frequency.
EUROPE’S BUSINESS COMMUNITY IS HAPPY TO AGREE
Daniel Nabet, director, Machine to Machine, of Orange Business Systems comments, “In the last ten years the Internet connected people, then places. Now I'm absolutely convinced that the Internet will connect things – cars, refrigerators, houses. This is both a major business opportunity in Europe and the answer to many social needs.”
At the same conference, Marc Fossier, chief technology officer of France Telecom, argued that the Internet of Things is set to explode. “All the conditions are met for the Internet of Things – all the technologies are available. The potential for change in our daily lives is enormous,” he says.
This optimism is built largely on advances in cost, performance and miniaturisation that are making RFID tags into far more than nano-bar codes. The smallest tags are now two square millimetres in size, and 0.0075 mm thick, so they can be embedded in not just electrical goods, but shoes, garments, packaging, and paper. In the near future there is the prospect of polymer-based tags and printing technologies replacing silicon-based tags. As a result, the European Commission calculates that the application of RFIDs is expected to increase by a factor of ten by 2016.
Parallel advances in sensor and actuator technologies mean that RFIDtagged objects or equipment can detect changes in their environment, such as increased pressure or temperature, while embedded intelligence enables them to process the data they acquire.
At the same time, wireless, always-on networks allow for communication and interaction between items and between people and items. The technologies may be available, but there remain significant technological hurdles to building the Internet of Things. Even a convert like Fossier concedes that realising the vision is “not simple.” Whilst the improvements in RFID technology are demonstrable, “You have to identify the right objects, secure them, monitor them, and then there are issues for systems management,” he says.
There is a huge and urgent research effort in this field. A project at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, is tackling the very basic practicalities of locating and accessing ubiquitous devices moving in the real world through a model it calls service federations. The company is also working on applications including systems for scanning a bar code on a mobile phone and then accessing related product information on the Web, and a visual recognition system, in which users take a picture of, say, a famous building on their mobiles, sparking a search for more information about the building on the Web.
At a more prosaic level there are widespread concerns about the availability of RFID skills in Europe to exploit the technology properly.
Nonetheless, there is a feeling the stage is finally set for industry hype to meet science fiction and deliver the vision of identifying every object in the world and communicating with it via the Internet.
But there have already been arguments and consumer boycotts over RFID tagging of supermarket products and it is recognised that ethical and privacy concerns present a further obstacle to the Internet of Things.
Eric Besson, French Secretary of State for the Development of Digital Economy, says, “Civil Liberties and Privacy protection will have to be taken into account so that the future Internet can harmoniously coexist with EU citizens' principles and values. Networks security and stability have also become a major concern for companies and governments. Today, these issues require an enhanced international cooperation.”
Benhamou adds, “We need to know how this (Internet of Things) will change people's lives and what we'll have to do to ensure that the technology is in our own hands. Privacy will be key to trust in these new networks.”
EU Information Society Commissioner, Viviane Reding, agrees that amongst the challenges presented by the Internet of Things concept – the rolling out of Next Generation Access networks, the opening of radio spectrum to wireless services, extending the reach of broadband, the security of communication infrastructure, and Internet governance – privacy concerns about the mass deployment of RFID tags is one of the most pressing.
HOW THE INTERNET OF THINGS COULD CHANGE THINGS
Disability: In a world of ubiquitous tags and sensors a blind person with access to the Internet of Things could walk down a street knowing exactly what is around them.
Social Care: An elderly person could have their grocery needs anticipated by an intelligent refrigerator that could communicate with their supermarket. Similarly their clothes could be capable of measuring key health indicators.
Travel and Transport: Internet of Things could transform airport baggage handling and retrieval systems, whilst embedding RFID in electronic travel documents, in so-called e-passports, would ease check-in and security.
Retail: Internet of Things will facilitate supply chain management, storage, stocktaking, theft protection, encashing, recycling and waste disposal. “Out of Stock” could be eliminated.