Recently, I picked up Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Near, which depicts an inevitable merge of man and machine. Within 20 years, he predicts that computing power and algorithmic capability will exceed that of a human brain. Well before the end of the century, Kurzweil claims that humans will be able to download their consciousness into a machine and exist as a cyber entity. I have my doubts if these predictions will come true as quickly as Kurzweil claims, but one of his predictions for the short term future caught my eye.
In the book, Kurzweil says that soon computers will be everywhere, even in the walls. Within the sensor network community, I’ve heard similar arguments dozens of times. The real question is: why do we need computers in the walls? What is the underlying motivation for having computing intelligence in your clothes, in your desk, or in your dishwasher? What can sensor networks do to improve your life? Right now, it’s really hard to say.
Another researcher in the sensor network community likened sensor network research ideas as “hammers looking for nails.” That is, solutions are invented before the problems are defined. With emerging technologies, its hard to say immediately what their benefits are. An interesting quote from a guy in the augmented reality community depicts how a new technology can sound cool but has little practical value:
“The first movies that ran could show anything, like an elephant in the zoo,” Meier said. “100 years ago it wasn’t about the elephant, it was ‘that thing is moving!’ Eventually it became more about the content…”
I would say that the current state of sensor networks is much like the above movie analogy. Computing in the walls sounds cool, but what can small, networked devices in your walls do that really matters? Few research papers offer any practical applications, since most sensor network papers focus on small fundamental problems: radio interference and MAC protocols, routing issues, and primitive event detection with sensors. The few applications that exist in research papers aren’t exciting: activity recognition with body sensor networks (e.g. sitting, standing, walking), vehicle detection and tracking, and human health monitoring.
A few of these sensor network applications have made it into the mainstream media. Lightweight health monitoring sensors may sound boring, but could provide motivation to stay in shape when your daily living habits are compared online with your peers. Another project aims to put health monitoring sensors in soldiers’ underwear, with the aim that the underwear can release drugs and treat wounds. One idea from IBM promises to have a computer at road intersections notify cars to turn off their engines and save fuel at lights. Lastly, the smart home concept promises to network household appliances together to notify users of energy usage and to reduce energy consumption during peak time periods.
Whether the above ideas are really exciting or constitute the limits of sensor network capability is another matter. I’m hoping that some really cool stuff will emerge in the future. My bet is on participatory sensing and peer to peer collaboration with mobile phone-based systems, but like most people, I don’t have any specifics.
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