EWSN 2016

We embed ever smaller processors in physical objects, network them with other smart things, analyze their sensed data somewhere in a cloud, and optimize real-world processes based on the knowledge gained. The application areas and business scenarios that benefit from Internet of Things technologies are abundant: Wind farms increase their yield, logistic chains are improved, and traffic patterns in whole cities become transparent – to mention only three somewhat arbitrary examples. Many of those classical scenarios are characterized by the fact that they work almost fully automatic - humans are out of the loop. So far, so good.

But with further technical progress and cost reduction, also more and more consumer products and everyday items in our direct personal environments will become smart ("hello Barbie, can you hear me?") and connected to the Internet and its ecosystem. People will communicate - first with their devices, and later also with many of their more mundane belongings. But when people are in the loop, things get interesting and often complicated. Already the problem how and by what technical means we can communicate with our friendly personal objects is an issue - but when these objects do become really smart, communication is only a means to a higher purpose: cooperation. This gives rise to a number of interesting questions: How, in fact, do we cooperate with smart objects? Do they understand what we want? Do we always understand them? Even scenarios with such seemingly simple smart things as learning thermostats or robot vacuum cleaners are non-trivial in that respect. 

There will certainly be much to explore in a future world where people are not out of the loop, but in the loop of communicating smart objects. And that future may be closer than we think.