Physical Markup Language (PML)
by
Mateen Greenway
As RFID and Biometric technologies become more prevalent, there is an increasing need for a taxonomy to support the recording and manipulation of information about the physical world within IT systems.
I was therefore interested when I came across this Web site belonging to the MIT Auto-Id Center describing the concept of a Physical Markup Language that is attempting to address this integration between the physical and computing worlds.
The Physical Markup Language (PML) is described as a modular toolset providing the building blocks needed to construct complex descriptions of physical objects, as well as commercial and industrial processes.
Intersection of this physical description with geographical data would provide a good way of modeling the real world. But it raises the question, if an object is not where the computer says it is, is it the computer or reality that is at fault?
