It is a wise policy, if you are a highly paid speaker, to be as accurate as possible when predicting the next big things. Every once in a while, I will make a big deal out of a new concept that will be coming, and I miss-time it. For the next two years after that, every audience member I run into reminds me of how I said something was going to be hot – and it is not. For example, thank God I never said hover cars would rule the world. I did make a big deal about Second Life because I thought virtual worlds would grow faster than they have and people never let me forget this. With all that said, it is with extreme confidence that I talk about the concept of Pervasive Computing…

I have been noticing for the last couple of years that more appliance, consumer electronics, car, and device manufacturers have been building in the ability for the device to be controlled from an Internet connection. At the same time, we have an explosion of mobile devices going on. That means we have the handheld ability to use the Internet, and many devices that will be controlled over the Internet. In other words, we have two of the major pieces for pervasive computing. All we really lack is a worldwide standard device operating system that will bridge every device to a Internet controlling front end. There are starting to be early standards in that game like Z-Wave. While all of this is quietly going on in geekdom, regular people probably don’t really understand how close we are to having computerized (24/7) control over every device in our world.

Let’s look at some basic examples of what could be done today with just a little extra work:

• Pull your car into the garage and it automatically connects to your home wifi so that the computer in your engine can upload the current status of the entire car and alert you to any problems that need to be resolved.
• Allow you to turn on your sprinkler system at any moment from any where in the world. Or, turn it off if you hear that it is going to rain in your city while you are away
• Turn on the heater to your swimming pool from anywhere in the world, monitor the temperature, or be alerted if the pump is not operating in the right way and needs to be turned off so it does not burn up.
• Monitor the alarm system in your house so you know anytime a door is opened, or if a motion detector goes off in any room. All from anyplace you happen to be in the world.
• Have complete control over every light in your house so you can turn them all off with a press of a button, or turn on whichever ones you might need on while you are away from the house.

All of this from your mobile phone, or the computer at work. The examples are just about endless and the impact on our quality of life will be profound. To be honest, I am surprised it is taking manufacturers so long to get this capability into the hands of the public. The next generation coming up now will expect for capabilities like this to exist and will be annoyed when they don’t have instant control of a device, vehicle, or appliance from anywhere.

In fact, I feel a bit like I am living in the Stone Age now!

Scott Klososky
Scott@klososky.com