The edge and the interconnection of things
by
Charlie Bess
This article from the BBC talks about UN predictions about the use of RFID and other techniques for putting computing in things that will change the world. It looks at the issues from more of a global perspective. Discussing how multi-national business are forcing countries to adopt the new technology.
EDS' been talking about "the edge" for a number of years, but looking forward, when nearly everything has some level of embedded computing capability, the edge will disappear into the environment, providing a much more finely grained and contextually aware world.
There are already examples of self-organizing systems (in the wild) that can collect information about their surroundings. It is only a matter of time until we figure out what to do with the technology. When we get to the point that loads of bananas (or any other perishable item) can self direct themselves based on their condition to the most effective location for maximum profit for the enterprise, we'll be to the point of a contextually aware and efficiently running environment.
