The project's vision is that everyday objects can be enabled as
interconnected information artefacts. Object become artefacts by
attaching very small computing devices, Smart-Its, to
them.
Smart-Its will be as cheap, as unobtrusive and as
generic as state-of-the-art smart labels (aka radio tags, active
tags), which are about to succeed the omnipresent barcode. Unlike
smart labels, Smart-Its will not just have a memory but
also provide perception of their environment (sensors),
communication with peers (short range ad-hoc network), and
customisable behavior (application execution environment).
For example, a coffee cup would be empowered with a
Smart-It customised to derive events such as
just_refilled, carried_around, and
drunken_from from the integrated
sensors. Smart-Its-labeled produce will compute the
sell-by-date dynamically from tracking the environment
(e.g. temperature and exposure to light).
Moreover, in our vision everyday objects will not just be
empowered on a one-by-one basis. Smart-Its can
interconnect large families of everyday objects and empower
collective awareness and behavior.
The example here is a collection of Smart-Its-enabled
children's toys. A toy will not only understand its own context
but also that of other toys nearby: imagine your daughter's doll
beaming with joy when its buddies are about and looking scared
alone in the dark!
Smart-Its-enabled objects have a collective ability to
make sense of the situations in which they are contextually
embedded.
Other examples of Smart-Its-labelled objects may be
scattered personal belongings, goods in a store, or parts in a
processing chain.
