Reading:    Technology Roadmap of the IoT

Intelligence

Ambient intelligence and Autonomous control are not part of the original concept of the Internet of Things. Ambient intelligence and Autonomous control do not necessarily require Internet structures, either. However, there is a shift in research to integrate the concepts of the Internet of Things and Autonomous control. In the future the Internet of Things may be a non-deterministic and open network in which auto-organized or intelligent entities (Web services, SOA components), virtual objects (avatars) will be interoperable and able to act independently (pursuing their own objectives or shared ones) depending on the context, circumstances or environments.

Embedded intelligence presents an “AI-oriented” perspective of IoT, which can be more clearly defined as: leveraging the capacity to collect and analyze the digital traces left by people when interacting with widely deployed smart things to discover the knowledge about human life, environment interaction, as well as social connection/behavior [1].

Architecture

The system will likely be an example of event-driven architecture, bottom-up made (based on the context of processes and operations, in real-time) and will consider any subsidiary level. Therefore, model driven and functional approaches will coexist with new ones able to treat exceptions and unusual evolution of processes (Multi-agent systems, B-ADSc, etc.).

In an Internet of Things, the meaning of an event will not necessarily be based on a deterministic or syntactic model but would instead be based on the context of the event itself: this will also be a semantic web. Consequently, it will not necessarily need common standards that would not be able to address every context or use: some actors (services, components, avatars) will accordingly be self-referenced and, if ever needed, adaptive to existing common standards (predicting everything would be no more than defining a "global finality" for everything that is just not possible with any of the current top-down approaches and standardizations) 

Complex system

In semi-open or closed loops (i.e. value chains, whenever a global finality can be settled) it will therefore be considered and studied as a Complex system due to the huge number of different links and interactions between autonomous actors, and its capacity to integrate new actors. At the overall stage (full open loop) it will likely be seen as a chaotic environment (since systems have always finality).

Size considerations

The Internet of objects would encode 50 to 100 trillion objects, and be able to follow the movement of those objects. Human beings in surveyed urban environments are each surrounded by 1000 to 5000 trackable objects.

Time considerations

In this Internet of Things, made of billions of parallel and simultaneous events, time will no more be used as a common and linear dimension but will depend on each entity (object, process, information system, etc.). This Internet of Things will be accordingly based on massive parallel IT systems (Parallel computing).

Space considerations

In an Internet of Things, the precise geographic location of a thing—and also the precise geographic dimensions of a thing—will be critical. Currently, the Internet has been primarily used to manage information processed by people. Therefore, facts about a thing, such as its location in time and space, has been less critical to track because the person processing the information can decide whether or not that information was important to the action being taken, and if so, add the missing information (or decide to not take the action) [2]. (Note that some things in the internet of things will be sensors, and sensor location is usually important.) The GeoWeb and Digital Earth are promising applications that become possible when things can become organized and connected by location. However, challenges that remain include the constraints of variable spatial scales, the need to handle massive amounts of data, and an indexing for fast search and neighbour operations. If in the Internet of Things, things are able to take actions on their own initiative, this human-centric mediation role is eliminated, and the time-space context that we as humans take for granted must be given a central role in this information ecosystem. Just as standards play a key role in the Internet and the Web, geospatial standards will play a key role in the Internet of Things.

2. Sub systems

Not all elements in an Internet of Things will necessarily run in a global space. Think, for instance, of domotics running inside a Smart House. While the same technologies are used as elsewhere, the system might only be running on and available via a local network.

3. Frameworks

Internet of Things frameworks might help support the interaction between "things" and allow for more complex structures like Distributed computing and the development of Distributed applications. Currently, Internet of Things frameworks seem to focus on real time data logging solutions like Pachube: offering some basis to work with many "things" and have them interact. Future developments might lead to specific Software development environments to create the software to work with the hardware used in the Internet of Things.

4. Applications

Alcatel-Lucent touchatag[3] service and Violet's Mirror gadget provide a pragmatic consumer oriented approach to the Internet of Things by which a developer can link real world items to the online world using RFID tags and QR Codes. The Connected Home offering of AlertMe is based on ultra-low-power ZigBee-enabled[4] devices scattered around the home, which are turned into internet devices via the proxy of a home gateway. Arrayent, Inc. is a B2B company, internet-connecting consumer products (i.e. thermostats, security systems, toys, healthcare products) to smart-phones, tablets, and web browsers. Pachube, built by Connected Environments Ltd, provides data management infrastructure for sensors, devices and environments, and describes itself as "a convenient, secure & scalable platform that helps you connect to & build the 'internet of things'". Nimbits, is an open source data historian server built on cloud computing architecture that provides connectivity between devices using data points.

WORDS AND PHRASES

leveraging              杠杆作用，杠杆效率

event-driven                事件驱动

subsidiary          附属机构，子公司

syntactic                    语法的，依据造句法的

self-referenced            自我引用，自我参照

loop                    循环，封闭的环形

GeoWeb                   地理网络

mediation                调解，仲裁，调停

time-space             时空

ecosystem               生态系统

domotics                   多媒体娱乐和休闲

non-deterministic           非确定性

Multi-agent systems         多主体系统

value chains           价值链

linear dimension          线性标注

Digital Earth           数字地球

QR Codes              快速反应码(Quick Response Code)

ultra-low-power              超低功耗

software development environments  软件开发环境

Autonomous control        自主控制

Ambient intelligence   环境感知智能

embedded intelligence     嵌入式智能

SOA(Service-Oriented Architecture)  面向服务的体系结构

Parallel computing     并行计算

Distributed computing 分布式计算

NOTES

[1] Embedded intelligence presents an “AI-oriented” perspective of IoT, which can be more clearly defined as: leveraging the capacity to collect and analyze the digital traces left by people when interacting with widely deployed smart things to discover the knowledge about human life, environment interaction, as well as social connection/behavior.

嵌入式智能提出了一个物联网“人工智能导向”的观点，这一观点可被更清楚的定义为：促使收集和分析由人类与广大的智能事物之间相互作用而留下的数字痕迹的能力的改变，来发现人类生活、环境作用以及社会联系或者行为的相关知识。

[2] Therefore, facts about a thing, such as its location in time and space, has been less critical to track because the person processing the information can decide whether or not that information was important to the action being taken, and if so, add the missing information (or decide to not take the action).

因此，关于一件事物的事实（比如其在时间域和空间域中的位置）对于追踪已经不是关键性的了，这是因为人们处理信息可以决策出信息对于要采取的行动是否重要，并且如果重要，可添加丢失的信息（或者决定不采取行动）。

[3] Alcatel-Lucent touchatag：Touchatag(以前TikiTag[1]) 对于消费者来说是一个由Alcatel-Lucent公司发明的RFID服务。

[4] ZigBee：是专为低速率传感器和控制网络设计的无线网络协议。