This is from a UK publication, so I assume they are referring to Cambridge, England. (And that perhaps explains the wordy organization name.)
Innovators converge this week for First Cambridge Internet of Things Practitioners' Night Demos http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/internet-of-things/2012/12/bottom-uop/index.htm I experienced some of the vitality, sophistication and breadth of activity in open hardware and associated software and comms this week at the first Cambridge Internet of Things Practitioners Night meetup. That demonstrated how a rapid expansion of IoT enabling infrastructure is welling from the bottom-up, and that it's just a not-too-long matter of time before high-impact applications start to appear. Among the things that struck me talking to people at the meetup this week were: [...] -Crowd-funding is beginning to kick in as a successful alternative to looking for angel investment or venture capital funding for open hardware innovation -The cost of robust IoT application enablers is plummeting - with high powered Internet connectable boards and components- the nuts and bolts of IoT - costing a fraction of what the industry has become accustomed to. -The recession is forcing young technologists to do things in new ways and come up with novel capabilities The article goes on to describe from of the IoT (Internet of Things) companies that demoed their products. This one sounds cool: Novalia: highlighted the newspaper that has electronics (capacitive touch tool and a low powered Bluetooth connection) printed into newspaper so that simply touching an item in the printed paper can generate sounds and video related to the printed story. Dr Kate Stone, Managing Director of Novalia, said these electronics can be printed in bulk on large presses, such as off-set litho. While I've heard of the term the Internet of Things, I didn't think it was being used as a label for a class of hardware that's so distinctly different from general hardware startups as to warrant a dedicated user group. Is it really that meaningful to add the "Internet" adjective these days, when pretty much everything will have some direct or indirect net connectivity. -Tom _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking
