Whenever the subject of “sensors everywhere” comes up, people usually have one of two responses:

A. George Orwell’s “1984” and omnipresent monitoring

B. Efficiency, knowledge and omnipresent monitoring

The advances we have seen recently have been pretty remarkable, and as those inventions make their way into business and consumer markets we’ll be able to do some really neat things that haven’t been possible or economical.

Like most innovations, the ability to place and monitor sensors in almost anything is really a combination of multiple innovations and changes. Specifically:

• Capable low powered devices

• Low powered networks

• IPv6

The first two are pretty obvious. Miniaturization of devices, as well as the ability to work at very low power means that we can put them almost anywhere. Also, low powered networks means that you can easily and wirelessly connect to them which makes installation and maintenance very affordable.

As a part of the networking capability, IPv6 makes it much easier to connect these devices to the internet. We explained IPv6 and its business implications in a previous post, which may be worth checking out if you have any questions about IPv6. As for its implications for sensors, IPv6 basically could give a unique web address to every atom in the galaxy. By comparison, the current system (IPv4) does not even have enough addresses for every person on the planet.

The ability to place sensors everywhere means that you can monitor and control things with more precision, and it has home, business and government implications. Using data collection software and data management applications, users can use the data to make informed and effective changes to improve performance or reduce the cost of whatever they are monitoring.

For home uses, you could easily and remotely monitor power usage, reducing your monthly utility bill. You could monitor when doors and windows are left open, the water table around your house (for basement flooding), weather and rainfall, or pretty much anything else you would want to monitor. Of course, there are hundreds of practical medical uses, including the ability to wear or implant sensors that could tell if you fall or lose consciousness and automatically call for help.

For businesses, the uses are pretty much limitless, but the short description is it gives the ability to monitor key indicators that might otherwise be more challenging to monitor. Sensors help to improve efficiency as well as improve safety and performance. We see these in manufacturing and production already, but most other industries are less capable of accurately monitoring workflows and outcomes.

For governments it will help ensure the safety and maintenance of infrastructure, including roads and bridges. It also means that traffic patterns could be more accurately determined and planned for, rather than relying on static timers and quantized car groupings.

There are some security and privacy concerns related to this which will be discussed later. However the biggest potential concern is that people will set up their own sensor networks at home and fail to secure them properly.