Rodolphe el-Khoury: visionary architect of the “internet of things” to speak at North York Central Library.
Imagine a future in which your blanket conspires with your curtains while you sleep. All night “blanky” has been monitoring and recording your every breath and movement, standing guard against the grim reaper, ready to call an ambulance if you suddenly fall dangerously ill. Your curtains check your schedule, noting that you have an early appointment. They check the weather report online, and see that it's going to rain. On such a gloomy day, you may need a little extra help waking up on time, your curtains decide. They are laced with a memory alloy, which allows them to come alive, gradually loosening to let light in, so that you wake gently. Yawning, you step out onto your balcony for a moment to see how the grapes are coming along. You are 50 floors up, and your balcony is framed by lovely vine leaves that span the entire building, a vertical vineyard. The grapes are almost ripe. The automated vineyard will send out a tweet when the grapes are ready. It won’t be long before you and the other residents are sampling the wine.
It’s time to leave for your appointment. As you walk toward the door, your umbrella glows blue to let you know about the coming rain. It has checked the weather report, or perhaps it has been "talking" with your curtains. Before you return in the evening, the swarm of robotic wall partitions in your small apartment will have checked your schedule and noted that you are expecting guests for dinner. In response, they will reconfigure themselves to create a space suitable for entertaining.
Every object in your apartment is part of a community of objects which are embedded with technology, can communicate with each other wirelessly, and are responsive to your needs. This "internet of things" extends beyond your apartment. It is all around you in the built environment. The very walls of the buildings in the city communicate, reporting on their own health.
This vision of "the internet of things" is based in Rodolphe el-Khoury's TEDx talk in Toronto in 2013. Rodolphe el-Khoury will be sharing his vision of the future at North York Central Library at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday April 22. Please call 416 395 5639 to register for this FREE program. To get an idea of his speaking style, watch his presentation at TEDx Toronto (see the link at the bottom of this post.) You'll see he's very passionate about a future in which even your clothes and skin may be connected to the internet of things. To anyone who watches Star Trek, this sounds like the first step towards humanity becoming Borg, creepy cybernetically enhanced hive-minded humanoids. But hey, maybe the best way to survive the robot apocalypse is by becoming a human-machine hybrid.
Sensors, which give this blanket "primitive cognitive capacities" according to its designers, are embedded into it, in the shape of flowers.
This is a brief biographical movie about Rodolphe el-Khoury.
Click on the link below to watch Rodolphe el-Khoury's fascinating presentation at TEDx in Toronto, at the The Royal Conservatory of Music.
Designing for the Internet of Things: Rodolphe el-Khoury at TEDxToronto
2 thoughts on “Rodolphe el-Khoury: visionary architect of the “internet of things” to speak at North York Central Library.”
Strange stuff opens up a whole new world. Great blog!
Very strange…especially the merging of machine and human. Some may find that prospect disturbing. Thanks for your comment.