Ubiquitous computing

Nat Torkington has a thoughtful post up on the O’Reilly Radar where he writes about ubiquitous computing (or ubicomp as he calls it).

I want to cast that problem a little differently. Let us assume we have a scalable cloud that we can tap into, perhaps with databases that easily scale to support streaming data. Let us imagine a lab, with instruments streaming out data, with devices consuming those data, and systems that can make decisions based on the data they are receiving. Such an interconnected work, a world with pervasive, ubiquitous computing might sound like science fiction, but over the past few years, we have slowly but surely built up the beginnings of an infrastructure that will make this scenario possible, perhaps a lot faster than we thought. The iPhone, the Chumby, the Bug, these are just early examples, as are streaming video services and communication platforms like Twitter and XMPP.

Of course, before we get there, we really need to develop systems that are smart about making decisions and filtering information, otherwise, we’re just going to get buried in a deluge of data that will make our heads spin, individually and collectively.

Update: On a semi-related note, here’s an Ignite talk from Where 2.0 that is an example of where we are headed (via O’Reilly Radar)

Ignite: Health In the Real World – Steven Hammond
By opening a geospatial window on patient-entered medical information, PatientsLikeMe is changing the way patients and researchers look at diseases and treatments in long-term illnesses like ALS, MS, and HIV.

Further reading
Research Streaming

Image via Wikipedia

Technorati Tags: Ubiquitous Information, Streaming Data