You’ve probably heard about the refrigerator that tweets introduced by Samsung at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in the US.
I bet you’ve also heard about plans by car maker Ford to offer the capability for you to listen to your tweets read out to you via Ford’s Sync system which also gives personalized traffic reports, navigation information and even provides a “health report” on the state of the car.
Other car makers including BMW and Mercedes-Benz have similar plans as well.
These examples may seem the apogee of triviality but they are representative of a clear trend to enable an everyday need – in these examples, listen to or interact with things that interest you when you’re mobile in your car – to be met simply and safely.
They are also examples of a much bigger picture that shows how mobile and wireless connectivity can enable everyday things to be part of your information and communication needs.
Computer networking firm Cisco Systems highlights this with “The Internet of Things,” an excellent infographic that illustrates how everyday things are beginning to provide you with so many opportunities to get and share information that interests you. This infographic presents complex information – read the Wikipedia entry on The Internet Things to see what I mean – in a simple, visual way that helps you grasp it more quickly.
The infographic is big (over 3,000 pixels in height); as a JPG image, it should load in your browser relatively quickly although that might differ if you’re reading this on a mobile device. You can see it in its glory after the jump.
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