Deane Rimerman - ReadWrite

6 Ways Eye Tracking Is Changing the Web

Deane Rimerman — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:30:00 -0700

Tracking eye movement is more than just a great way to test website usability. It's also a way to help the disabled, to remotely drive cars and to reinvent multimedia reading.

From open-source software that runs on hardware built of old webcams to expensive contact lenses and glasses, a new era of eye-controlled tools are developing at a rapid rate. What follows is a summary of some of the ways that these new designs are going to make it easier to read and write not just on the Web but also when it comes to controlling objects in real life.

Eye Tracking Basics

The scientific study of eye movement began in the 19th century; Alfred Yurbus developed today's modern tracking techniques in the 1950s. Yurbus' often-quoted 1967 book, Eye Movements and Vision, explains how a person's purpose and motivation affects how they move their eyes. Below, Yarbus shows how eye movement over a picture is different for each task assigned to the viewer.

The most recent utilization of this type of research comes via Tobii's Eye Tracking Glasses, which, according to Internet Retailer, sell for $45,000 a pair. Large corporations such as Procter and Gamble haven't shied away from the price of the glasses because it allows for highly precise testing of how branding, product placement and marketing work for target demographics both in the store and on the Web.

A Web-Connected Contact Lens?

Last summer we wrote about Babak Amir Parviz and his University of Washington students embedding LEDs into contact lenses. Says Parviz, "We already see a future in which the humble contact lens becomes a real platform, like the iPhone is today, with lots of developers contributing their ideas and inventions. As far as we're concerned, the possibilities extend as far as the eye can see." Parviz's in-depth article about this subject can be found at IEEE Spectrum. .

Smart Words Watch Your Eyes As You Read

Text 2.0 is software that discerns and reacts to reader eye movement via an infrared light and camera. Eventually, according to EyeTrackingUpdate, "If a reader takes a little more time on a certain word or phrase, eye tracking could trigger a translation, pronunciation or sound effect, a biography on a name, a definition, or an image/animation to supplement and provide meaning." Created by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, this software works with Tobii Eye Tracking technology and will soon be able to recognize when we are skimming and respond by slightly fading non-essential words. Or if your eyes react strongly to a significant passage on a page it could be highlighted and shared with colleagues.

In the same way the Internet thrives on links, eye tracking technology can help us expand the ability of those links to not just more information, but to also control real-life objects - also known as the Internet of Things.

eyeDriver Allows You to Steer A Car With Your Eyes

The research vehicle Spirit of Berlin is a fully automated driverless car. Software called eyeDriver allows a remote driver to steer this car with eye movements. Using similar tools as Text 2.0 eye movements are converted to signals that control the steering wheel. If the remote driver averts their gaze, the car will begin to brake until the driver has put their eyes back on the road. The project, which is funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research, goes by the name AutoNOMOS and intends to make cars safer by eliminating user error, as well as by developing semi-autonomous and entirely autonomous driving.

Affordable Eye Tracking

In a blog post last November, Clicktale claimed to be "The definitive method for conducting accurate eye-tracking on a massive scale at a fraction of the cost." There is also OpenEyes, which promises open-source eye tracking for the masses. Then there is the Ycombinator-funded GazeHawk, which has dropped eye-tracking research costs for websites under the $50 per test subject barrier. And because websites as big as Google get accurate results using only a half dozen test subjects, eye tracking analytics is now affordable for most businesses. Here's a sample of a GazeHawk eye tracking heat map:

Helping the Disabled

Tony Quan is a legendary Los Angeles graffiti writer, publisher and activist. His tag name is Tempt One. Quan was diagnosed with ALS in 2003 and other than the movement of his eyes, he's completely paralyzed. Free Art and Technology (FAT), OpenFrameworks and the Graffiti Research Lab got in touch with the Not Impossible Foundation to bring together a group of open-source hackers to create Eye Writer. Now Quan has virtually returned to the streets to again tag walls, this time with a hi-power video projector. Thought his artist days are over, eye tracking has freed Tempt One to express again. With it he says, "Art is a tool of empowerment and social change, and I consider myself blessed to be able to create and use my work to promote health reform, bring awareness about ALS and help others."

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

If you know of other innovations in eye-tracking software and hardware that have not yet been mentioned please add your links and comments below.

First photo from Paul Sapiano.
Second photo from WikiCommons.

6 Brain Sensors You'll Be Using Soon

Deane Rimerman — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:00:00 -0700

Brain Computer Interface (BCI) - a technology that creates a direct connection from our brains to our computers - is beginning to reach the market via toys and game controllers. In the process, these thought-controlled sensors are inspiring innovations that, for instance, allow you to call someone on your phone by simply thinking about them.

From the first-ever thought-generated tweet, to the U.S. military funding the development of advanced prosthetic limbs, to implantable brain sensors, advancements in BCI are not only transforming the lives of people who are locked in because of total paralysis, but are ushering in an era where we will be able to build the Internet as fast as we can think.

Here's a snapshot of the stages of development that these technologies are currently in. Also see Marshall Kirkpatrick's post The Internet Brain Implant: Why We Should Say No. And if you have an opinion or a favorite BMI-based innovation not mentioned please post it in the comments below.

First Person to Think a Tweet

On April 1, 2009 University of Wisconsin doctoral student Adam Wilson became the first person to think a tweet: "USING EEG TO SEND TWEET." Wilson was wearing a cap that was connected to a standard electroencephalograph while staring at a screen of flashing letters. He wrote the software that connected his brain to Twitter in only a few days. According to the press release, "Wilson is among a growing group of researchers worldwide who aim to perfect a communication system for users whose bodies do not work, but whose brains function normally." Time magazine recognized his work as the ninth best invention of 2009.

Ever Thought About Hacking a Thought-Sensing Toy?

Mattel's MindFlex is a toy where you use your thoughts to move objects on a gameboard. The device is a headband with sensors on each side, as well as wires that that clip to your ear lobes. Thought signals read by the sensors control the speed of a fan that levitates a styrofoam ball. Once you learn to keep the ball aloft you can turn a knob that will guide the ball around an obstacle course. While this toy doesn't yet connect to your computer it's one of the first inexpensive mass-produced devices, along with Force Trainer to use a thought controlled chip. Beginning last fall, hackers began looking for a way to alter the MindFlex, and by March of this year the device was hacked to give users a severe electrical shock if they didn't stay relaxed.

NeuroSky

NeuroSky's first commercial product is a brainwave interface headset with medical-grade data acquisition capabilities. The device has a non-gel sensor and supports a Bluetooth headset with MP3 and VoIP capabilities. The first function of the headset was to help users pay attention and focus; subsequent upgrades now allow it to help users relax and meditate. If you're inclined to design your own programs based on this device you can download the SDK, as well as learn more, here.

EPOC's Neuroheadset

We featured the Emotive EPOC neuroheadset in our Smart Clothes You'll Be Wearing Soon post. The device features 14 saline-based sensors and a gyroscope. Primarily marketed to gamers, the device also helps people with disabilities regain control of their lives. Included with the device is the EmoKey, which is a lightweight application running in your computer's background. It allows you to map out thought-controlled keystrokes. This headset is the preferred device of the Dartmouth Mobile Sensing Group, which created a brain-to-mobile interface that allows you to call your friends by thinking about them.

Injectable Brain Implants

In the future, instead of wearing headsets we'll have the option of getting implants. One of the devices being developed is a 1.3mm "multi-contact brain probe" that is injected into you. Dr. Jon Spratley from the University of Birmingham says the device consists of four coiled antennas that are 1mm across. Once implanted, they unfurl on the surface of the motor cortex portion of the brain. Signals from the sensor are sent to a 16mm receiver that is placed in the hole left behind by the needle. Spratley says that this will allow "patients with conditions that lead to severe communications difficulties or muscle control problems to be able to control communications devices and other computer controlled aids."

Electrode Arrays, Prosthetics and Military Investment

Tiny electrodes physically plugged into a person's brain was an idea made possible by the 100-electrode Utah Electrode Array at the University of Utah. This device literally plugs into the brains of people who are paralyzed so they can map out new ways to communicate. According to this month's Neurosurgical Focus, the university's latest research suggests that sensor advancements now make it possible for the instrument to sit on the surface of the brain rather than penetrating it. This new, less-invasive technique considerably extends the current 10-year life span of the previous 100-electrode array. This research is funded in part by the Pentagon's $55 million investment in thought-controlled prosthetic limbs. Some of the military's most advance thought-controlled software technologies might find their way to the public sector via this research program.

First photo by Dierk Schafer. Last photo University of Utah Neurosurgery

Every Machine Can Be Used To Watch You. Interested in Privacy?

Deane Rimerman — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:30:31 -0700

What if your activities were watched and recorded so we could not only catch you for any crime but could maximize how much money we make selling you stuff? An editorial by Toby Considine over at Automated Buildings suggests that this is fast becoming the future we're moving into.

Considine gives one example of a British murder conviction that was based on evidence obtained via Electrical Network Frequency Analysis (ENF). While detectives have long been rendering this kind of data by deciphering faint signals from the machines we use, what's new is the huge increase in devices that can be monitored. The cost to capture and store data continues to drop, too. Enter the talented salesperson who knows the more they know about you, the more money they make. Enter a new era of a trillion Web-connected devices known as the Internet of Things. Got privacy?

Considine's editorial has a remarkable title and a lengthy byline: Smart Energy and the End of Privacy - There is now no reason ever to throw out information. Operational data will be the new battleground for privacy.

Google Street View

As routinely covered in This Week in Online Tyranny the Google cars are in trouble for trolling neighborhoods for web traffic data. Or how about today's coverage of Google vs. World, which is a map that highlights Google legal woes, many of which are related to privacy. Considine refers to the basis upon which these legal concerns are being raised when he says:

"Without privacy, the social contract is changed. Zero tolerance combined with no privacy removes every civil right we have. The CEO of Google has stated "Privacy is dead, get used to it." On the other hand, the German high court recently mandated early deletion of all cell tower data, web traffic, IM tracking, and other "personal acts." The battle for privacy is already publicly engaged. The more people know, the more people are going to care."

They'll Want To Run You the Way They Run Casinos

Considine also explains how an early adopter of building unique data profiles for each individual customer are casinos in Las Vegas. The super secret Wal-Mart data centers in Missouri and Arkansas have also long been suspected of similar surveillance technologies. In short, your behavior is being charted to maximize your profitability. What's more, once users start wiring their homes to a smart grid in order to be more green your unauthorized sales representative may be able to discern your purchasing patterns based on the types of devices you plug into your walls. Or what if you didn't know that you were pinging TV advertisers every time you took food out of your internet-connected refrigerator?

What's more, Las Vegas casino surveillance data is derived by each casino in a highly competitive atmosphere where great effort is made to ensure one casino's data does not end up in the hands of a competing casino. So what if casino vs. casino surveillance expands to an entire grocery store of product, each product with their own sales representative wanting more information about you?

Location-Based Malware May Soon Track You in the Real World

On the Web when you move your mouse, or click, or type it can be tracked using malware and other tools. Yet simple measures can be taken to protect yourself from this kind of tracking. So now that location-based software is making it easier to track where you are in the real world we now have the need to protect ourselves from the advent of location-based malware.

Last winter our Ads With Eyes post explained the Center for Democracy & Technology's report about how digital signage with face recognition and RFID sensing are going to identify you and communicate with you in ways that are profitable for advertisers. But what about your right to opt out? Will these ads be able to sell your facial recognition and purchasing data to other advertisers?

Public Oversight

Learning how to maintain our privacy amid so many newly introduced Web-connected machines is not going to be easy. Yet European leadership and even US congressional hearings are beginning to take note. As Internet of Things continues to develop more privacy issues are going to arise. That's in part why ReadWriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick's recorded a new podcast called: Thoughts on Privacy and the Internet of Things

If you have any additional insight that may benefit our readers regarding this issue please post them in the comments below.

photos from (in order) Wiki Commons, John Delorey and A. Strakey.

10 ReadWriteWeb Readers Explain What Our Internet is Turning Into

Deane Rimerman — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:30:00 -0700

How do we explain the Web and what it means? With so many innovations changing our lives, that's a complex explanation. Now what if you had to do it in only a few words?

Marshall Kirkpatrick recently asked some of our readers that very question. We then picked 10 responses most worth sharing. Congratulations to those who made the list. And if you'd like to add more ideas to this ongoing discussion, please do so in the comments section below.

Filtering is The Future

"I feel the next great advancements in the Web will not be centered around publishing, but filtering all the information so you can find more relevant content and people." - Eric Wortman

A Way to Have a Voice That Matters

"For non-techies like myself, the Internet is empowering. I can have a voice and it matters to some. I can consume, create, share, participate, lurk, connect with others, etc. It's up to me, and I love that." - Robin Ashford

Democracy

"The Internet's most profound effect on democracy has been the creation of user expectation of inclusion in mass media. The Internet is now building itself out as a bridge between the People and the Power, a bridge that necessarily begins in your home or office, and ends in the TV studios where pundits and politicians road-test policy. As people further organize themselves to wield this new power, consumers become participants, participants become digital citizens, and an expansion of democracy will be inevitable." - Evelyn Messinger

Replacing Pages With Real-Time Streams

"The early Internet contained links, which represented pages, which contained information. The new Internet is replacing pages with real-time streams, which represent people, who contain social knowledge. Early Internet = the Information Age. New Internet = the Age of Human Engagement." - nozzlsteve

Ultimate Chronicler of Our World's Existence

"The Web is fast evolving as the ultimate chronicler of our world's existence. It has and will continue to serve as the environment for all available data to be logged, mined, aggregated, visualized, extrapolated, etc., and force the hand of humanity to constantly question, re-evaluate and transform (a) traditional schools of thought, (b) established mores, and (c) longstanding theories and models as well as consensually pre-conceived and accepted modes of behavior." - autom8

Will Our Best Ideas Really Work Out as Planned?

"While machines are being made to directly serve the Internet and replace current computing norms, there are still some fundamental questions whose answers will show how far this can go: Will the semantic Web take hold, will everything move into the cloud, and/or will viral go HD? In the meantime, no net neutrality is established, the biggest driver of innovation is a completely closed loop, and the federal government is debating a "kill switch"... growing old sucks!" - ChrisKos

Breaking The Stranglehold on Knowledge

"The Internet is more like an extension to the revolution created by the Gutenberg press, carrying INFORMATION that can be used and abused in a myriad ways. Just as Gutenberg broke the stranglehold on knowledge that had favored the church and the elite, so Tim Berners-Lee has unlocked raw information from the bias and distortions of politicians (and their puppets in news media)." - NuGoth

Meaningful Connections

"When we meet somebody, we don't just want to sit across from them and exchange ideas or theories or what we did in the day. We may start like that, but ultimately we want to get deeper and closer; we want to open up, we want to be more intimate in where we are, what we believe, what we feel, what drives us, what our passions are. We want to make connection. And I think that's where the Internet is going. It's allowing us to make connection one-to-one or one-to-many, or many-to-many - that heart-to-heart connection where we feel compassion, empathy, understanding and that's what nourishes us." - Peter Russell

The Internet is:

"A massive increase in the frequency and diversity of communication, which is giving rise to an unprecedented time of creativity, collaboration and conflict. As cultures become increasingly entangled, a new social order will emerge, which has the potential to be the first massively scaled culture to value consent over exploitation - an event unlike anything seen in human history." - Justin Kistner

Round Without a Center

"The edge points of society have found a connective umbrella within the social Web. We are all edge points as individuals. We have found we no longer need the center spoke to move forward. Centralized control systems have been revealed as vestigial hindrances. As a result we are critically examining historical value systems." - Mark Essel

Photo courtesy of Mark Bellucci

Agents of Digital: New Cartoon Series About Webworkers

Deane Rimerman — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:30:00 -0700

A new cartoon series called Agents of Digital is a compilation of stories that are all too familiar to those who work in Web development and Web marketing.

ReadWriteWeb reader Fred Roed, co-founder of World Wide Creative, is behind this new series. He says it's "a cartoon strip about a fictional digital marketing agency called Schitzen & Plumstead. The agency is run by two veterans of the internet." Our five favorite cartoons poke fun at the all-too-familiar delusions of entrepreneurs, programmers, social networking enthusiasts and misguided clients. You can grab the comic's feed here.

For a feed of ReadWriteWeb's very own cartoonist, Rob Cottingham, go here. And if you know of other aspiring Web tech cartoonist please let us know by posting links to them below.

Client Misunderstandings

Five Types of Programmers

Entrepreneurs

Social Networking Enthusiasts

A Great Consultant

Kuniavsky's Orange Cone: Designing Read-Write Web-Created Things

Deane Rimerman — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:05:00 -0700

A group of popular Web device designers briefly meet and draw up a sketch of their newest gadget. Once they all agree, they hit save and they're done. By the end of the day, hundreds of truckloads of their latest Internet of Things device is not only in the hands of customers on every continent, but each device has already been uniquely modified for each user's specific needs.

This fast approaching era of desktop manufacturing via advanced MakerBots and other 3D printers is in part why ThingM co-founder Mike Kuniavsky runs an annual conference called Sketching in Hardware. The event aims to "bring together a small group of people from technology, education, art and design worlds to talk about how to make creating electronics as easy as drawing with a pencil."

Thanks to ReadWriteWeb reader Droom Zacht, who recognizes Kuniavsky's Orange Cone blog feed as "a milestone of the Internet of Things," we decided to more fully investigate Kuniavsky's work.

Background

In the mid 1990s, Mike Kuniavsky was senior researcher at Wired Digital. He then moved on to co-found Adaptive Path and more recently ThingM, which works in the fields of hardware and software user experience, Web technology development and consumer robotics. Kuniavsky's first book was Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research. He has since published the Human Computer Interaction Handbook, and you can now pre-order his upcoming book Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design via Amazon.

Orange Cone Blog

OrangeCone is a public notebook where Kuniavsky shares his research and expertise as an Internet of Things usability expert. His blogging style is great for understanding the big-picture overview of what's going on. He told us that, "For me, superficial differences (say: Flash vs. HTML5 vs. Cocoa) are not actually as important as the impact of deep infrastructural technologies, and I only see a couple of those. That's why my focus these days is on how to create interfaces on multiple devices that still all read as the same service." With some exceptions, Orange Cone is a collection of posts that you can read through as though it were an educational textbook.

One of the most memorable posts is an excerpt from his upcoming book, Smart Things. In it he shares numerous screenshots of a 1994 mobile device called Magic Cap. This device predated Palm by several years and is far more sophisticated than what this writer thought was possible back then.

A View of The Future

The future according to Kuniavsky is best explained in a presentation he made at the 2009 Lift Conference in France titled "When Bits Meet Atoms: Making Things in a Read-Write World." His presentation outlines the death of read-only material culture and the birth of Lessig's read-write culture, which will fundamentally change our relationship with not just objects, but copyright law as well.

In it he explains that "the end of Read-Only material culture, as I mark it, began in 1985, with the release of the Apple LaserWriter, which was the first mass market device that merged the flexibility of bits with the tangibility of atoms."

Mike Kuniavsky "Changing Things" (Lift09 France EN) from Lift Conference on Vimeo.

Priorities

When we asked him about the most essential element of his work, he told us:

"Dialogue about how to integrate information processing into our daily lives so that the result is greater productivity and satisfaction through technology, as opposed to increased use of technology for technology's sake. Another way to say it: ubiquitous computing, interaction design, mobile UX design and Web sites are all part of the same thing to me. They're all products of the interaction of several fundamental technologies (cheap chips and wireless networking being the most important) which is rapidly driving the increasing integration of information processing into everyday life."

Back when we wrote about the top Internet of Things blogs to follow we left the Orange Cone blog off the list. At the time we hadn't looked into his postings enough. But thanks to a ReadWriteWeb reader we realized that Orange Cone deserved a post of its own.

Who's next? Do you know of an Internet of Things innovator we need to write about? If so, please post your suggestion in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Mike Kuniavsky, ThingM and Orange Cone.

World Cup Becomes Most Popular Web Event Ever

Deane Rimerman — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 05:37:14 -0700

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is now the most popular event in Web history. Record usage began last Friday before the wins and losses. Not since Obama's election day victory has the Web swayed under a greater burden of Internet-connected hope.

The official FIFA World Cup website is currently receiving as many page views as Facebook. For all of us creators of the Web it's a great time to learn more about real-time visualizations as well as how to better handle soaring usage numbers. So here's a roundup of how Twitter, Facebook, Univison, ESPN/ABC and app makers are handling all the excitement.

Univision Promises 900 Hours of Coverage

Univision.com is an official internet broadcaster of the World Cup and is offering live streaming of all 64 matches. On average a quarter of a million people in the U.S. and Puerto Rico are watching live streams of each match. These streams have helped drive 16 million page views to Univision's interactive media platform, including mobile and mobile apps. Its Soccer App also recently became the second most popular free app in the iPhone store.

World Cup on Twitter

The official FIFA World Cup website is currently receiving as many page views as Facebook.

Radio and TV once gave the world real-time soccer coverage. But today you can forgo both and simply watch Twitter's World Cup tweets as fans of each team go head to head as each game is being played. With peaks up to 3,000 tweets per second this marvel of millions of soccer tweets is inspiring, except that Twitter can't really handle it. In a recent blog post Twitter suggests users brace themselves for weeks of Fail Whales.

Facebook Coverage

As always Facebook is in the thick of it with its campaign to get you to like everything. Facebook's sports page has a passion rank, which currently puts Chile's victory over Honduras in the number one spot. Almost a half a million people have liked Chile's World Cup profile. And in related soccer-passion news, Chile's capitol city of Santiago used tear gas and water cannons to disperse celebrants and arrest 81. This year is the first time in 48 years that Chile has won a World Cup match!

World Cup on ESPN/ABC

The match between England vs. the U.S. drew 16 million viewers, and became the fifth most popular World Cup match ever covered by U.S. television. Complimenting this coverage was 1.7 million visitors to the ESPN website during the first four days. Of additional interest is analysis that indicates multi-platform users who switch between TV, radio, mobile and the Web are engaged for five times longer than those who only watch on TV.

Flood of Soccer Apps

Of course this roundup would not be complete if we didn't mention the huge flood of Phone and iPad apps that are begin offered. The number of people trying to get us to promote their World Cup apps has skyrocketed. And while there are plenty of top World Cup app posts out there, I would only recommend one: the Vuvuzela iPhone app. It's currently the number one free soccer app at the iTunes store. Even though this app is only capable of emitting 90 decibels (a real Vuvuzela horn hits 130), in the hands of a small child this app could be almost as annoying as all the Vuvuzela haters combined.

6 Geeky Devices Connecting the Internet to Your Things

Deane Rimerman — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:30:00 -0700

It's time for a roundup of the latest read/write devices that Internet of Things geeks are using to program our future. We're doing this in part because today IBM announced the free open-sourced Mote Runner Software Developer Kit. This super-simple software runs sensor-communications devices like the Crossbow Iris.

Arrayent, Arduino, Pachube, Logiboxx and Nabaztag are also examples of devices that do what Iris can do. From tracking objects, to objects communicating on our behalf, to objects that gather information about their surroundings for us, our awareness and activity-tracking technologies will soon create a Web with over a trillion nodes.

Crossbow

The 2.4ghz Iris is meant to connect the world around us to product and information management tools. As of today, the software development kit that can run the Iris is available for download for free. What's unique about the IBM platform is that it runs on a small footprint. So it takes very little energy, memory and processing power to operate these devices even though they can be linked to more complex energy-intensive languages like Java.

Arrayent

Arrayent offers embedded system designers the tools they need to connect their products to Web apps and Web browsers in only one day. Arrayent has been previously featured here as the company that wants to become the Cisco of the Internet of Things. Companies that make smoke alarms, thermostats and children's toys are currently working with Arrayent. Given the potential of the Internet of Things to revolutionize consumer products, we're picking Arrayent as one to watch.

Arduino

As we said at the start of 2009 "Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform made up of open-source hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments." An Arduinos is programmed with wiring language, which is based on C++ with a few simplifications. We recently mentioned Arduino's blog as one to keep an eye on.

Pachube

Last week we covered Pachube's announcement that they were partnering with Current Cost, a producer of real-time energy monitors. Pachube's mission statement is: "To deliver the world's leading open, interoperable platform for the internet of things that is." One of the great things it's done is the dashboard on its landing page, which features a map of all the Pachube-based sensor data sources in the world in real-time. This geo-location-based interpretation of sensor data is our pick for the most ideal standard for an Internet of Things control panel.

Logiboxx

Logiboxx offers organizations continuous visibility of all its stuff in real-time. Its box is an RFID card reader that works with GPS enabled RFID tags. Some of its tags monitor delivery vehicles, while other tags can act as non-mechanical seals on shipping containers. Key to the devices and software that Logiboxx offers is the ability to customize specific devices to small and large businesses' existing software and inventory systems. Logiboxx communicates via GPRS and uses Global Asset Tracking Identification System (GATIS) as its Web-based application. This allows operation centers to view all critical data about their stuff in real time, all of the time.

Nabaztag

With all these devices and software platforms still in their earliest stages of development it's not clear how we'll be using them in our everyday lives yet. But thanks to Nabaztag, an internet connected rabbit-shaped robot, it's easier to understand. Much like how our phones work, this device allows you to stay in touch with friends. But unlike a phone it can also communicate with you by moving its rabbit ears, or by reading RFID tags. What's even better is that Nabaztag is already a consumer product that you can buy and use even if your skills with computer programming are limited.

What's great about doing roundup posts like these is that it inspires our readers to post comments about other devices that we don't yet know about yet. So if you know of any we left out, please post info about them in the comments below. Check back with this post later in the week to see the comments that have been added.

6 Smell Sensors That Are Changing the Internet of Things

Deane Rimerman — Wed, 19 May 2010 08:00:00 -0700

Sensors that smell help save lives everyday. From cars that won't start because court-ordered breathalyzers smell alcohol in the operator's blood stream, to bomb-sniffing machines at the airport, to complex medical tests that analyze your breath - we are designing machines that smell to make the world a safer place.

Smell sensors are essential to the future of the Internet of Things. From RFID stickers capable of smelling food through the package and updating the food's status to the Web, to our next phone being a "smell phone", engineers are finding innovative ways to help protect our families from being exposed to toxic hazards.

Breathalyzers

Sensors that measure blood alcohol content by smelling your breath have been around since 1938 when a professor named Rolla Harger invented the Drunkometer. His success in marketing the device was due in part to his work with the National Safety Council to legislate alcohol limits - as well as legitimize his sensor data as evidence in a court of law. Today, the innovation that's occurring with these sensors is the dramatic decline in cost. So next time you want to know if you're legal to drive after you drink, you can just blow into a Mini-Key chain Breathalyser, a device that will set you back less than $10.

Smell Sensors In Medicine

In Israel, Russell Berrie of the Nanotechnology Institute at Technion developed a sensor that can verify lung cancer by smelling a patient's breath. The sensor searches 42 different lung cancer biomarkers, and is built out of nine cross-reactive chemiresistors. These resistors are built out of gold nanoparticles, each with different organic functionalities. A similar sensor from the same institute can be used to detect kidney disease sooner than traditional urine tests can. The research for that particular sensor system is titled Sniffing Chronic Renal Failure in Rat Model by an Array of Random Networks of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes.

Smell Phones

Michael Sailor, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at U.C. San Diego is working with startup Rhevision to develop a smelling device that will attach to your cell phone. The system is based on a camera that takes a picture of porous silicon. Each of these microscopic pores are individually shaped, or tuned, to change color when a specific chemical is encountered. Thanks to the current megapixel resolution of today's phone cameras you can take a single picture of these pores, or sensors, and load it to the Web where it can be analyzed in real time. One application would be that these smell phones could rapidly map out chemical spills and other exposure threats.

RFID That Smells

General Electric is currently testing RFID-configured smell sensors. These small stickers can not only detect the presence of hazardous waste, they can also detect and report food spoilage. One example is a milk carton with an RFID sticker attached to the outside. The sticker periodically smells the milk through the packaging, and as soon as the milk goes bad the RFID sends a wireless alert.

Bomb Smelling Sensors

Ion Mobility Spectrometry machines are currently the most common bomb-smelling sensors in U.S. airports. Austrian manufacturer Ionicon Analytik was recently featured in Scientific America because of its new Ionicon Analytik's Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS) machine. This machine is about the size of a refrigerator and is so sensitive that it can distinguish between molecules that are nearly identical. The device works by creating "protonated" water vapor, which is essentially water vapor with extra protons. Many organic compounds, including explosives, have an affinity to grab those extra protons and in turn become positive themselves.The positive ions produced can be extracted and analyzed to reveal their chemical composition.

Non-Destructive Carbon Dating

Traditional carbon dating methods required that a small piece of the object must be destroyed through burning. The carbon is then measured for age based on degeneration of the radioactive isotope Carbon 14. Yet with many artifacts the destruction of even small portions of it is sometimes prohibitive. A new non-destructive method allows the object to be placed a container that is filled with an electrically charged plasma gas similar to the plasma found in a high-definition TV. The plasma gently oxidizes the artifact, which will release trace amounts of carbon dioxide that can then be used for Carbon14-decay analysis.

These six ways are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's currently being developed. For example, perspective search service GlobalSpec lists thousands of companies designing gas and chemical sensors. How many of these sensors will one day generate data for the Web? If you have a sense of scenarios that will make this happen, please post your comments below.

Image by Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator

10 Internet of Things Blogs To Keep An Eye On

Deane Rimerman — Mon, 10 May 2010 13:45:00 -0700

Everyday objects with their own IP addresses may soon be the norm. This communication of objects with the Web is the latest version of a still-idyllic new vision of technology that claims it will improve our lives. Yet we're at such an early stage of development of the Internet of Things that finding the best blogs to follow is a moving target.

Many of the 10 offerings below have only come into being in recent months. Not making our list is a ReadWriteWeb favorite - Pachube - which has been remiss in updating their blog. So stay tuned for updates in future posts. For now, here are what we believe to be the 10 most active blog feeds available on the Internet of Things.

Internet of Things Council

The Internet of Things Council is a European think tank of the best minds in the burgeoning Internet of Things sector. From forecasting to developing prototypes, the council members' commonality is the "range of emotions and conceptual breakdown that comes with grasping the territory, the full logistical, business, social and philosophical implications of the Internet of Things." You can access their blog feed here.

Smarter Planet

IBM has put its long-term innovation emphasis on the global development of the Internet of Things. Its Smarter Planet brand is backed by a social network of 8 million IT professionals, as well as 400,000 employees. The Smarter Planet blog is a place for readers to talk about what they see, read and hear. The blog is "not going to deliver final answers to the issues raised, but we hope it acts as a starting point for conversations about how we can make our planet smarter." You can access the feed here.

I-O-T : INTERNET Of THINGS

This group blog is sometimes in French but mostly in English. The project originated as a LinkedIn discussion group, which readers are still invited to join. Interested developers are also encouraged to request "writer status" for the blog. "The concept of the Internet Of Things is federating more and more people every day. This Blog is a sharing space for those interested in participating in this major breakthrough." You can access its feed here.

Dash7

Dash7 focuses on the development of low-power, long-range wireless sensor networking. In early April of this year we explained how DASH7 may soon be on your mobile phone. This technology "plays at the intersection of location-based services, Internet of Things, social networking, and other mobile services." You can access the blog feed here.

Zach Shelby On The Internet of Things

Zach Shelby is co-founder and head of research at Sensinode in Finland. His vision is that the physcial Internet - the Internet of Things - is the next big frontier in telecommunications. Shelby's focus is on "driving 6LoWPAN related standardization, research and commercialization." He's also written a book called 6LoWPAN: The Wireless Embedded Internet, which "is aimed at experts in the field, engineering students and lecturers." The book is accompanied by a website of course material, including Contiki coding exercises. You can access his blog feed here.

David Orban and WideTag

David Orban's personal blog is balanced with the WideTag blog, which is a company he is a co-founder of. A video and PowerPoint presentation by Orban was featured on ReadWriteWeb in early April. Orban's dream is that thousands of years of human subservience to machines will end because we will teach our machines how to not only take care of themselves, but how to take care of us as well. You can access his feeds here and here.

David Wood

David Wood worked with PDA manufacturer Psion for a decade, and then spent the last 10 years with smartphone operating system specialist Symbian. We recently posted David Orban's interview of David Wood. "Eclectic thoughts on technologies, markets, innovation, openness, collaboration, disruption, risks, and solutions" is how Wood describes his blog. You can access his feed here.

Mobile Internet of Things Blog

This blog is by Dr. Florian Michahelles, a project manager and associate director of the Auto-ID Labs at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He works on RFID standardization as it relates to new business applications. He's also interested in anti-counterfeiting technologies, as well as Internet of Things infrastructure for consumers. You can access his blog feed here.

Touch

Touch is an interdisciplinary team that studies Near Field Communication between mobile devices and things. With an emphasis on RFID, the blog focuses on "social and cultural inquiry, interaction/industrial design, rapid prototyping, software, testing and exhibitions." Touch has extensive reference material; it's a good repository of NFC-oriented information. You can access the blog feed here.

Arduino

ReadWriteWeb featured Arduino as one of five companies building the Internet of Things. Arduino is akin to the transistor radio kit your grandparents used to buy when they were kids. These more-modern versions are open-source electronic protoyping platforms, and they are the preferred gadgets of Internet of Things tinkerers. Last summer we told you about how devices like Arduino and Pachube can be combined with the Web to control the lighting in your home.
You can access the blog feed here.

There are a half-dozen other prominent Internet of Things blogs that didn't make this list. If you know of one that has been left out please make sure to post a link to their feed in the comments below.

Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com .

3 Ways Internet Of Things Works On Your Phone

Deane Rimerman — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:30:00 -0700

When we write about Internet of Things we explain the latest in futuristic "sense and share" devices for your clothes, homes and cars. Yet when it comes to modern mobile, we don't need to focus so much on what can be done in the future as much as what can be done right now. Our phones' ability to "sense and share" is well established. Explaining what your phone can currently do is an ideal way to explain what everyday objects will be able to do once they become Internet of Things objects.

At a recent Google summit on wireless sensors, Deborah Estin, director of the Center for Embedded Network Sensing at UCLA spoke of three simple ways our phones already work the way the future Internet of Things will work. Estin's presentation, Participatory Sensing: An Emerging Driver For The Multidimensional Internet, explains what we'll one day be able to do for not only our own health but for the health of the world we live in.

IoT Waste Management

The first project Estin explained is about how UCLA investigated garbage on campus by getting students to use their phones to take pictures of garbage cans, then geo-tagging and loading images to Flickr. With this system the school learned where it needed more trash and recycling bins, as well as how the flow of garbage changed over the academic year.

IoT for Personal Health

Using a phone to track what you eat is not exciting or futuristic. Yet what if that data was working for you online and it suggested nearby locations for healthy food it knew you liked? This project currently only exists as a way for your phone to regularly ask what you eat and then store the information online in a secure way. But in time your phone will read RFID tags so you can be alerted to stores that feature foods tailored to your dietary needs.

IoT for Environmental Hazards

The third project gathers your daily location data and cross references it with air pollution reports. As air pollution monitoring in the Los Angeles Basin becomes more sophisticated, so too does your awareness of your own health. This system of data gathering is what Estin calls a Personal Environmental Impact Report. This leads to more accurate data to review with your doctor if you're in need of diagnosis or treatment.

These sensors systems that are currently in your phone will soon be everywhere. Now more than ever the need for open-source standards is a necessity. If we're ever to feel comfortable about more and more machines monitoring us, we have to be sure that the machines don't violate our rights. We need as much transparency as possible as to how we share control of all these machines.

Photo from Wikicommons

Deane Rimerman - ReadWrite

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