Internet of Things
Carnegie Mellon To Lead Internet of Things Expedition
Google has selected Carnegie Mellon
University to lead a multi-university project to create new technology for
the Internet of Things (IoT).
The Internet of Things involves adding sensors and network connectivity to
everyday objects so people and other devices can interact with them. Google
funded the Open
Web of Things expedition "to encourage universities to explore various
aspects of system design that could help enable the Internet of Things," said
Maggie Johnson, director of university relations for Google, in a prepared
statement. Google will provide Carnegie Mellon with $500,000 to launch the
expedition.
As part of the project, researchers from Carnegie Mellon will collaborate
with colleagues at Cornell, Stanford, University of Illinois, and Google to
create GIoTTO, a new platform to support IoT applications. According to a
statement from Carnegie Mellon, "initial plans for GIoTTO include sensors that
are inexpensive and easy to deploy, new middleware to facilitate app
development and manage privacy and security, and new tools that enable end
users to develop their own IoT experiences."
Google chose Carnegie Mellon to lead the project because of its plan to turn
the Carnegie Mellon campus into a living laboratory through the large scale
deployment of IoT technology. One of the first milestone's in CMU's Open Web of
Things expedition will include the development of an app store, "where any
campus member and the larger research community will be able to develop and
share an IoT script, action, multiple-sensor feed or application easily and
widely," said Anind K. Dey, lead investigator of the expedition and
director of CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, in a prepared
statement. "Because many novel IoT applications require a critical mass
of sensors, CMU will use inexpensive sensors to add IoT capability to 'dumb' appliances and environments across the campus."
To help ensure the privacy of users, a second team of CMU researchers is
creating personalized privacy assistants "that help users configure the many
privacy settings necessary to ensure that they retain adequate control over
their data," said Norman Sadeh, a professor of computer science at CMU, in a
prepared statement.
CMU researchers have already created new IoT technology, including Snap2It,
which lets users connect to a printer or projector by taking a photo of it with
their smartphone, and Impromptu, which accesses apps as needed, such as a
public transit app when the user is at a bus stop.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at leilameyer@gmail.com.