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A Chilean teenager came up with an idea for an earthquake alarm system that sends out a “tweet” (Twitter message) when an earthquake hits (@AlarmaSismos) He bought a domestic earthquake detector for only $75. He then replaced the internal circuit with a hardware technology which interprets the signal. He proceeded to connect the device to his server. Job done: instead of ringing, the hacked detector was now tweeting earthquake warnings!

Wrap your head around this… in 2008, the number of devices connected to the internet exceeded the number of people on Earth. There are more devices tapping into the Internet than people on the planet to use them. How is this possible? A Dutch start-up Sparked is using wireless devices to keep track of cattle – when one is sick or pregnant it sends a message to the farmer. Corventis makes a wireless cardiac monitor that enables physicians to remotely check for changes in health status. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of these types of devices in use in 2011 and they interact with each other creating an “internet of things” (IOT) This “internet of things” is, in a way, developing it’s own intelligence.

Cisco.com provides several examples of how we might shortly be directly affected by this IOT. Imagine this scenario they posited:

- You receive an email while sleeping that a meeting you are supposed to be attending that morning has been pushed back 45 minutes…
- Your car knows it needs enough gas to make it to the train station in order to get to that meeting and that a fill up usually take 5 minutes…
- There is an accident on your driving route with a recommendation for a 15 minute detour…
- Your train is running 20 minutes behind schedule…
- All this is then communicated to your digital alarm clock which adjusts your wake-up alarm accordingly…
- A new signal is then sent to your car to start itself 5 minutes before your new departure time so it can melt the accumulated snow and ice off the windshield…
- Lastly, a signal is sent to your coffee maker to turn on 5 minutes before you wake so your coffee is ready at the newer, more appropriate time.

By the end of 2011, typical households will generate more internet traffic in this manner than was experienced by the entire internet in 2008.

Can you think of ways this internet of things might take shape within your practice? Is there anything you are already doing within the IOT? Let me know!

- Alan N. Glazier, OD, FAAO
Author: Searchial Marketing: How Social Media Drives Search Optimization in Web 3.0
Founder/CEO
Shady Grove Eye and Vision Care
Rockville, MD

Twitter Handle: @EyeInfo
Blog: http://www.youreyesite.net
Website: YourEyeSite.com

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