Giving voice to a billion things
May 5, 2008
We started this journey over ten years ago at the MIT Media Lab, when a bunch of us started marrying microcontrollers with short-range radios and inventing networking algorithms that allowed them to talk to each other.
We built stuffed penguins that recognized where they were and would talk to you about it. We built meshed wireless sensor networks for measuring microclimatology on Hawaiian islands. We built colorful glowing orbs that communicated with their neighbors and all changed colors when any one was touched. We even built a digital whoopee cushion into the chair of the department head that caused his computer to do “interesting” things when he sat down.
These were all early examples of Device Networking — giving everyday, autonomous objects (toy penguins, weather stations, orbs, Steelcase chairs) a link to each other and a voice on the internet. And though some people thought we were a little crazy to talk about networking streetlamps and making wireless light switches, our reasoning was clear: microcontrollers would continue to become more powerful and cheaper, and the imperative to network these small islands of computation would become only stronger.
Today, our reasoning appears to have been exactly on target. There has been a proliferation of wireless protocols designed to link “things” rather than high-speed computers, and you can even purchase processors with on-board radio links that run these protocols from Digikey, the mecca of all things electronic.
We’re here to “give voice to a billion things”, to foment the ongoing development of Device Networking and to catalyze the growth of the Embedded Internet. Considering that the number of microcontrollers manufactured each year exceeds the world human population, it’s a good place to be.
Welcome.
Note: The author gratefully acknowledges Elizabeth Corcoran of Forbes Magazine for the title of this blog entry, appropriated without permission from http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2004/0906/144d.html.
copyright © 2008 nbt ventures, all rights reserved
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Entry Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: device networks, digikey, Embedded Internet, media lab, mesh, wireless, wireless mesh, Wireless Sensor Networks.
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1.
Desmond Pieri | May 13, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Rob, great subject and great two posts. Could you add an RSS feed link to your Blog so we’ll be able to get automatic updates Keep them coming. Des
2.
nbtventures | May 14, 2008 at 12:50 am
Desmond: Thanks much for the feedback. Theoretically, there is an RSS feed already in place. I can’t speak for your browser, but in Firefox, the RSS icon appears at the right of the location bar. Let me know if that’s not working for you. -Rob
3.
Rancel | February 11, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Hello Mr. Robert, I’m a peruvian telecommunication engineer student who have recently started to learned about wireless networks and read your MIT thesis (GRAd algorithm).I would like to ask you 3 things about GRAd and arbornet do to implement it. Can I? Where can I do it?
- Rancel Varrona
4.
Robert Poor | February 14, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Hola Rancel:
I think you are one of four people who read my thesis (and there were three people on my committee)
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You can PM me at my work address: robert [punto] poor [at] nbt-ventures [punto] com.
- rob