A fascinating overview of where ubiquitous computing is headed in the Economist:
In their book Messrs Bell and Gemmell predict that people with chronic ailments will one day have sensors embedded directly in their bodies that can transmit data about their vital signs wirelessly to other devices such as their phones. This forecast, which would give a new spin to the slogan “Intel Inside”, may seem far-fetched, yet some cardiac devices are already equipped with wireless connectivity that allows them to send data to doctors. And gadgets such as a bathroom scale made by Withings, a French company, can transmit a person’s weight to a digital health-log on a computer or smartphone.
Rather than have sensors lodged inside their bodies, many people may prefer to have them woven into their clothing, or placed next to rather than under their skin. Some venture capitalists such as Mr Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz believe that “wearable computing” will be the next big thing in personal technology, though the companies that have set their sights on this area face a difficult task. History is littered with examples, such as the Seiko Ruputer wristwatch computer, that sounded great in theory but turned out to be lemons in practice.
How all this translates into applications that the BoP can use in our part of the world is for us to puzzle over.
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