Will it Still be MODBUS?

Technology, to stay in sync, may have to move slowly. Perhaps it will move most slowly in the geographically distributed infrastructure.

I just saw this posting in Energy Business:

Evaluating Pipeline Projects - Dominion Resources is about to make a major investment in its pipeline infrastructure. Its Ohio subsidiary has filed an application with Ohio regulators to replace nearly 20 percent of its 21,000-mile pipeline system over 25 years at a current cost of $2.6 billion. Once approved, modernization will begin next year.

Here is a 25 year plan to a major technology upgrade. What do you bet the the electronics/Controls are based on the 'de jure' Modbus protocol, now perhaps 35 years old? Protocols between things- especially things made by different companies- tend to change very slowly.

Can you name a protocol, still in use today, from the end of the century before last?

Lawrence Ricci

http://www.embeddedinsider.com/

Trust and Web 2.0

Nicole Ferraro at Internet Evolution ran a quick survey about where people will leave trusted information. Worst- social networks. Next worst- Google.

This survey is serious news.

We live in the world of ‘2’. Peer ‘2’ Peer. Business ‘2’ Business. Friend ‘2’ Friend.

Jeff Jarvis at Buzz Machine tells us: “Distribution is not king, Content is not king. Conversation is the kingdom and the King is Trust."

Trust is all about the relations between 2 entities, and if Web 2.0 can not master ‘2’ then it will be limited.

Lawrence Ricci
http://www.embeddedinsider.com/

Is the Web bigger than Pizza?

It seems almost every pitch of every value proposition of every website is based on locating pizza shops. OK, I guess the iPhone took this up a notch to Calamari. But pause to think: is the total value of Web 2.0 limited to the advertising budgets for Pizza? Are we in some form of “Irrational Exuberance”

If I want to buy Pizza I look at the magnet on my refrigerator, or stop at the shop on the way to the party. Web has nothing to do with my Pizza buying.

I think the value will be found in deeper values then commerce. The value will be Social affiliation, linked to the objects we use to show or place in social groups. Flashing Bluetooth ear sets may evolve to jewelry. Our new ego-mobile may link us to other ego-mobile owners directly, bypassing, or more like augmenting, the owners group website. Our home may be wired into our homeowners association. Our sports team poster may evolve to a ‘digital picture frame’ with shared content from the players and fans we know.

We need to go past the internet we see through a 17 inch diagonal monitor. It will be the internet that follows us to work, to play. We need the internet that knows where we are and what we are doing- and most important –what we will need


Lawrence Ricci
www.EmbeddedInsider.com

Wearable Computers

Here is an interesting embedded application- smart shoes for ladies of the evening, developed by the Aphrodite project.

Based on GPS and wireless alarm technology, these shoes are represented as safety devices. While they may have some utility in this function, they are just as likely to be used by pimps to track their stable and count shoes-off tricks to determine money due. But if a women in that line of work wanted to really benefit from tech shoes like these, she would like some nice, colorful messaging on that screen, perhaps on the theme ‘hi sailor, new in town’.

Silly shoes aside, wearable computers are here. Zypad is one of the best. Zypad is for a practical user, the company that hires a mobile, hands-on worker, who still has information entry and information access as a primary task (not like the above mentioned mobile professionals) . We are left to wonder about the future of consumer wearable devices, sold to the person who uses them, not his employer.

As device become mobile and personal, we need to understand they become less like tools to do a job and more totems to show social affiliation. So many tech companies seem to get this wrong. Microsoft developed the SPOT watch so users could check stock prices in elevators. So what? The reason I wear my SPOT Watch is because it identifies me as an alpha geek. (although I must admit the combo of watch plus Outlook Schedule and Alarm is useful, plus movie times and weather) . But bottom line, a SPOT watch is an alpha-geek totem. Fashion companies understand 'totems', so they know how to differentiate a $10 Timex from a $10,000 Rolex- and they know it's not just $200 of gold and diamonds.

What consumers really need are totems that activate and display based our social affiliation. A cell phone, or an ornamental brooch or ring that reacts when near a Facebook friend could be cool. Bluetooth and a Smartphone, and downloads with the Facebook API, make this possible today. More than affiliation, these devices could show our state of mind, or receptiveness. Remember the mood ring? Why not a real mood indicator with respiration and perspiration detectors?

Could be interesting

Lawrence Ricci

http://www.embeddedinsider.com/

Low cost computing for the poor

Much has been made of the $100 wind up computer for the 3rd world. http://www.news.com/2100-1044-5884683.html . It has always seemed to me that this was a solution in search of a problem. Certainly, I do not think the targeted markets (the poor of Brazil, China, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa) would list high cost of Dell PC’s as one of their top ten needs.

I came across another approach that is needs focused: health care for poor.

The platform suggested is existing cell phones, probably the recycled type, that are far below the $100 price point, and are backed by in-place networks with government controlled and subsidized pricing. Microsoft is kicking in a million dollars of seed money to study this application http://research.microsoft.com/ur/us/fundingopps/RFPs/CellPhoneAsPlatformForHealthcare_RFP.aspx
It is interesting to see that the need to culturally integrate the platform by inclusion of social networking, etc. is part of the RFP

Certainly, the field of ‘telemedicine’ is being pursued in first world economies with vigor. Much can be done with special purpose devices. http://www.applieddata.net/Devices/Industry_Health_Fitness.asp

I wonder how this will develop?

Lawrence Ricci
http://www.embeddedinsider.com/

Photosynth Technology and Embedded

Photosynth Technology

Microsoft research continues to working on applications for its imaging technology Photosynth. http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

This technology can pull together multiple images, from multiple points of view, to create a whole. The “World Telescope” takes this to an extreme.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/224

There is another element of this technology that means we will be seeing it in the mobile and embedded’ world. Photosynth not only synthesizes a greater whole, Photosynth summarizes any portion of the data to the degree required by the display device. Photosynth only burdens the ‘viewport’ with as much detail as it needs. Therefore, it is fast, really really fast, and compute efficient. So, for a personal navigation screen, a PDA or cell phone, can zoom in forever if it wants, to the limit of the data resolution on the server.

Lawrence Ricci
www.EmbeddedInsider.com

From This Year's MIT Top Ten

There is a potential new technology for better MIPS per MW. It is called Probabilistic CMOS or PCMOS. The idea is to allow a few ‘mistakes’ in exchange for much lower power.

http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=emerging08&id=20246

This could make a lot of sense in a asymmetric multi-processor system- ASMP. One, small CPU could tend mission-critical interrupts, etc. Another CPU could do the heavy lifting of decompression, streaming, etc. This is just theory now. Figure if this works we will see this in two more turns of Moore’s Law.

Lawrence Ricci
The Embedded Insider
www.applieddata.net