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The Internet of Things - What is a Spime?
CoolVibe writes "From the abstract in the talk: "World-renowned Science Fiction writer and futurist Bruce Sterling will outline his ideas for SPIMES, a form of ubiquitous computing that gives smarts and 'searchabiliity' to even the most mundane of physical products. Imagine losing your car keys and being able to search for them with Google Earth." It's a very interesting lecture given by Bruce Sterling about something we might see in the near future. The lecture can be viewed here on Google Video."
By the time any of this technology could ship we'd probably have thought controlled car locks. No need for keys then.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
"Imagine losing your car keys and being able to search for them with Google Earth."
Imagine a thief doing the same?
But if I can imagine finding my lost car keys on Google Earth, I sure can imagine trying to find someone else's car keys on Google Earth.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
But, all I could think about the whole time is about those darn car keys. I kept hearing in my head my parents calling me: "Son, I need you to come look at the computer. Google keeps telling me my car keys are in the house, but I've looked all over for them. I think Google is broken again."
It's called RFID chips. Of course it doesn't have the long range abilities the summary seems to suggest, but it's still pretty close. And they are cheap.
Imagine losing your car keys and having someone else find them with Google Earth. Imagine someone without a warrant keeping track of your car keys.
I don't usually wear a tin-foil hat, but this idea has exploit written all over it.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
imagine losing your car keys and being able to search for them with Google Earth."
That's as useless as mammary glands on a bull.
google earth has this flashing Dot on my house. with a arrow, "your keys are here".
DUH!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Spi Me. If you can find your carkeys on Google, then so can Google. And if Google can, the government you're under can find your carkeys too. Normally you're near where your carkeys are, or maybe your cellphone, or maybe the governmental id card.
God spoke to me.
"Imagine the government being able to find your exact location using Google. Err, I mean your car keys."
Any self-respecting drunk will make sure he always lives within staggering distance of a liquor store.
There is nothing about being able to use Google Earth to find your keys which implies by its very nature the ability for Google itself to find your keys, any more than the ability for Google Desktop to find your pr0n implies by its very nature the ability for Google itself to find your pr0n.
I want my home computer to be able to have disconnected local extensions enabling me to perform searches on things which Google itself doesn't consider relevant.
If I really wanted to, I could (right now!) go out to radioshack and get everything required to set up a Home Positioning System- like a GPS, but with less G. I could then interface the data from that with Google Earth using its existing extension mechanisms and- without Google knowing a thing about it get Google Earth to tell me where my keys are.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Yah, practical for our future overlords. Run.