The Internet of Things and Humans

An anonymous reader writes "Speculating the future of human computer interaction, Tim O'Reilly contemplates how humans and things cooperate differently when things get smarter. He says, '[S]o many of the most interesting applications of the Internet of Things involve new ways of thinking about how humans and things cooperate differently when the things get smarter. It really ought to be called the Internet of Things and Humans ... is Uber an #IoT application? Most people would say it is not; it’s just a pair of smartphone apps connecting a passenger and driver. But imagine for a moment the consumer end of the Uber app as it is today, and on the other end, a self-driving car. You would immediately see that as #IoT. ... Long before we get to fully autonomous devices, there are many “halfway house” applications that are really Internet of Things applications in waiting, which use humans for one or more parts of the entire system. When you understand that the general pattern of #IoTH applications is not just sensor + network + actuator but various combinations of human + network + actuator or sensor + network, you will broaden the possibilities for interfaces and business models."

Comments

In Montreal

[50000BTU_barbecue]

I think it would be a good idea for every pothole to have its own IP address so we can track how big it's getting, for example.

Re:#lot?

[mpicker0]

Presumably #IoT = Internet of Things. But #I guess we're #supposed to invent #clever #hashtags for everything #now.

Dumbest trend ever

[Anonymous Coward]

The Internet of things is probably the worst thing that is being pushed right now, even worse than the cloud.

Re:Dumbest trend ever

[smutt]

They're basically mututally exclusive. How can the trend be both; big intelligence in the cloud AND have lots of little intelligence in your home. They're mutually exclusive marketing tropes, and we're somehow expected to buy into both at the same time.

Re:Dumbest trend ever

[datapharmer]

No, you don't understand. All the little internet connected things in your life like your thermostat with infrared sensor and tv with camera and xbox with 3d imager and phone with gps and toilet with butt activated hemorrhoid sensor all send their little bits of data back to the big intelligence in the cloud. This way the great data architects of Fort Meade know you need some anal cream, a diet, and some new pants. They might also recognize that you are a danger to yourself if you continue to play WoW. But if you stop playing you might be upset about your surroundings and be a danger to others, so you get a new online friend to help you play even more hours each day. I think the Internet of Things is quite Intelligently Designed. In fact, I think everyone else who supports it should all spread the word by using a hashtag for intelligently designed internet of things #IDIoT

Yep, IoT is the latest buzzword...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep, looks like IoT is what cloud stuff was about five-six years ago. We already are in firefighting mode with enough security issues. Do we need to add a larger attack surface?

With the track record of security, we should assume that every device can be seized and used by an attacker. That refrigerator? Shut off while on a trip. The stove? Turned on to start a residential fire with the "smart" fire alarms turned off.

Lets have some security advances first, then people can have their Internet connected blenders.

Internet of things

[LookIntoTheFuture]

There was a time in my life when I would have thought the "Internet of Things" was really cool. Now, things like this are a huge turnoff to me because of constant surveillance by governments and corporations. The fun is over.

Re:Internet of things

[rubycodez]

Even without the surveillance it is a turnoff because of the unnecessary liberal use of digital electronics in lieu of simple time-proven mechanisms rendering previously robust products more fragile and shorter-lived.

Re:Internet of things

[flyingfsck]

Yeah, I have wondered how many people bought a smart TV and never bothered to plug it into anything.

"Web 2.0" is a decade old now

[hsmith]

And websites can't even communicate with one another efficiently or at all.

Yet, IoT advocates imagine within a few short years this magical IoT will create a system of intercommunicating hardware that will somehow work perfectly.

Yeah ok.

Re:"Web 2.0" is a decade old now

[ctheme]

Really? Because from what Ghostery tells me, web services communicate with one another just fine.
The problem is that it's not in my best interest for them to do so.

Re:There will be an inevitable reaction against th

[alen]

yeah, but imagine your fridge linked to Fresh Direct or the Amazon grocery delivery service and automatically ordering food for you whether you want it to or not. Epicness

or you can put your bread into the toaster at night and then use your phone to toast it the next morning before you get out of the shower so you don't have to do it manually

Re:There will be an inevitable reaction against th

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't be surprised to see solenoid activated locks on my fridge requiring sitting through a 5 minute ad from Safeway in order to open the door... only to find that a hacker turned the temperature of the fridge up so everything is spoiled inside...

Or even worse, the fridge won't open until the chip on a new gallon of milk is scanned because it will "expire" anything and block access at an arbitrary date, similar to how ink in some inkjets expire.