TINK - sketching product experiences of connected objects

26 - TINK
1.3 The Internet of Things
In the last 10 years microcontrollers
have become smaller in size, more energy
efficient, and cheaper. Consequently, it
has become possible to embed them into
everyday objects. 10 As a result of this
technological development, large and small
companies have started to connect everyday
objects (from dishwashers to umbrellas) to
the Internet. This has created a ubiquitous
connection between the physical and the
digital world: a new social web in which
both people and objects communicate.
This web of interconnected and responsive
objects is commonly referred to as the
Internet of Things 2 .
The IoT is a hard to define precisely. In
fact, many different groups have already
tried to define the term, although its
initial use has been attributed to Kevin
Ashton, an expert on digital innovation.
Each definition shares the idea that the
first version of the Internet was about data
created by people, while the next version
is about data created by things. In 2009,
Ashton said it best in this quote from an
article in the RFID Journal 2 :
“If we had computers that knew
everything there was to know about
things - using data they gathered
without any help from us - we
would be able to track and count
everything, and greatly reduce waste,
loss and cost. We would know when
things needed replacing, repairing
or recalling, and whether they were
fresh or past their best”.
Other authors have tried to come up with
other names and definitions to highlight
particular aspects of IoT objects. For
example, Bruce Sterling talks about
“Spimes” highlighting the way those object
can be tracked:
“Things that are searchable, track
their location, usage histories and
discourse with the other things
around them”. 12
Julian Bleecker instead, embracing Latour’s
actor network theory, refers to those kinds
of objects as “Blogjects,” emphasizing
the capabilities for this object to produce
contents:
Blogjects became first class citizens
with which we will interact and
communicate, they won’t just be
things connected to the internet
but things participating within the
internet. 11
Kuniavsky on the other hand underline the
pervasive computing aspect that those
object embed and highlights their ability
in processing information. He refers to
them as “smart things” and defines it as:
“Things that do information
processing and networking, but are