Study predicts the 'Internet of things'
Published: Feb. 13, 2008 at 11:42 AM
The University of Washington researchers note that today if you need information, the Internet offers many resources. But if you want to locate a person or a thing, a computer is not much help. That might soon change.
Beginning next month, volunteer students, engineers and staff will wear electronic tags on their clothing and belongings that will sense their location every five seconds. The information will be transmitted to a database, published to Web pages and used in various custom tools.
The researchers said their project is designed to explore the use of radio-frequency identification, or RFID, tags in a social environment.
"Our goal is to ask what benefits can we get out of this technology and how can we protect people's privacy at the same time," said Assistant Professor Magda Balazinska said. "We want to get a handle on the issues that would crop up if these systems become a reality."
The project is funded by the National Science Foundation, Microsoft Research and the university's college of engineering.
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