Saturday, May 05, 2007

Posted by Joe Polastre on May 1, 2007 at 8:12 PM
Filed under: Moteiv

Economist CoverThis week's Economist (April 28th edition) has a cover story: "When Everything Connects". On the cover are pictures of sensors communicating wireless to people, including sensors on keys, soil moisture sensors, gas and contamination sensors, vehicle sensors, and refrigerator sensors. The article predicts that in the coming years, wireless will vanish entirely from view, as communication chips are embedded into a host of everyday objects.

The author shares Moteiv's vision--there's a section where the "computing revolution" is described as the ability to access information. Introduced is the "wireless-computing revolution", where information can be accessed anywhere at low cost. We, at Moteiv, take this one step further--not only can the information can be accessed anywhere, but can also provide information about anything, especially real world items, processes, and trends. Objects will talk to other objects, and people will interact as necessary.

On page 11 of the special supplement, the authors talk about the work that Moteiv founders pioneered at UC Berkeley--the applications created for the DARPA NEST program. The article also includes a mention of Moteiv on the same page.

Page 14 continues information about Moteiv, discussing the UCB system that leverages Moteiv technology to track firefighters. One of the concluding observations is a concern over what we will do with all of this sensor data; an astute observation and one that requires careful consideration.

Other friends of ours are mentioned in the article, including Kris Pister and Matt Welsh. Fellow Berkeley startups Dust Networks and Arch Rock also get a shout-out.

If you don't subscribe to the Economist, I recommend picking up a copy (although, most of the stores around my house in San Francisco actually did not carry the magazine). It provides a good overview of the promise of wireless for the outside audience that has not yet been introduced to the world of mesh networks and wireless sensors.

Read the full article at The Economist (su

No comments: