Civil Liberties, Health Care, Food Policies

Connecting Your Car, Socks and Body to the Internet

March 1, 2010

New York Times - Several years ago, I watched Vint Cerf, who helped draft the architecture of the Internet and is now chief Internet evangelist at Google, give a talk about the future of the Internet.

During his presentation, he discussed the early days of the Internet, when he was developing the protocol called TCP/IP with the United States Department of Defense. He talked about some of the strange early networking experiments his team did, but he also talked about his socks. He explained that one day everything would be connected to the Internet, including his socks, and if one should fall behind the washing machine while he was doing laundry, it would be able to notify the other sock of its whereabouts.

The basis for this concept is called “the Internet of things.”

The day when we have communicative socks might not be too far off, according to a report released Monday by McKinsey & Company. The paper highlights some of the major changes that will result from the growing ubiquity from sensors and objects connected to the Internet, including “sensor-driven decision analytics” and “complex autonomous systems.”

The report points out that in some instances, these systems are already a reality. Pill-shaped microcameras are currently used to explore the human digestive tract and send information and pictures back to doctors to help pinpoint sources of illness. Farming equipment can collect data from remote satellites and sensors in the ground and change fertilizer while anticipating new weather patterns. And billboards in Asia can change to display the preferences of passers-by.

But this is all just the beginning. The report asserts that as more sensors enter our devices and clothing, we will have the ability to monitor the behavior of people, places and things through space and time, enabling such business applications as presence-based advertising.

The question remains if consumers will want to experience this kind of intrusive advertising. Yet if it’s done correctly, it could offer great benefits for customers and businesses.

One particular area that makes sense for this kind of sensor-based monitoring is health care, as I wrote about last week in my interview with Esther Dyson. The McKinsey report notes:

“In health care, sensors and data links offer possibilities for monitoring a patient’s behavior and symptoms in real time and at relatively low cost, allowing physicians to better diagnose disease and prescribe tailored treatment regimens.”

We will also see a big push towards autonomy, giving computers and sensors the ability to act on the real-time information and conditions they receive, and in some instances, respond instantaneously. The report states that “this kind of machine decision-making mimics human reactions, though at vastly enhanced performance levels.”

For example, car manufacturers are trying to integrate autonomous decision making into the future cars that could “detect imminent collisions and take evasive action” at speeds vastly quicker than a human. Some car companies are also experimenting with automotive autopilots in cars that are networked together and can avoid phantom traffic jams or take over from the driver at a moment’s notice.

And finally, we might finally see robot swarms that help clean up toxic waste or assist soldiers on the battlefield.

The report notes that there are many privacy concerns that will appear as a result of the Internet of things. McKinsey suggests that industry groups and government will need to research and explore how data privacy is safeguarded in a world of unlimited information and monitoring.

There are also questions about liability if these systems go wrong and how individuals can opt out of an always-on monitoring system.