Pervasive tagging, sensors and data collection: A Science and Technology Review for the Foresight Project on Intelligent Infrastructure Systems
Alan Tully · IEE Proceedings - Intelligent Transport Systems · 2006
In the coming years, we will see the deployment of pervasive computing where environments are saturated with computing and wireless communications capability, yet gracefully integrated with human users. Individual devices will be embedded in everyday objects, and connected to each other and to the Internet over wireless networks, harvesting energy from their environment. This Intelligent Infrastructure System (IIS) will not be developed per se; it will evolve from where we are now. This paper examines a range of technologies which are key to the success of the IIS and for each, postulates its likely trajectory. Advances in supply chain automation will deliver affordable radio frequency identification (RFID) while the competitive telecommunications environment will deliver systems beyond 3G using mobile ad-hoc networks at their periphery. New fabrication techniques will enable the production of smartdust devices incorporating novel sensors with the ability to process their data in the field. Finally, new software techniques will allow this data to be accessed wherever required without overloading the wireless communications network.