• https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27633-gadgets-powered-wirelessly-at-home-with-a-simple-wi-fi-router/   (New Scientist, 1 June 2015)  : Throw away those power cords and chargers. Signals from a Wi-Fi router providing wireless electricity could soon be used to power gadgets and charge phones.

• https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22730342-100-the-office-where-the-lights-talk-to-your-smartphone/   (New Scientist, 12 August 2015)  : A building in Amsterdam is the first with lights that communicate with workers’ smartphones, giving them control over the heating and lighting in their area.

• https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22730402-800-web-in-a-box-delivers-a-bit-of-the-internet-anywhere-you-want/   (New Scientist, 23 September 2015)  : How do you get digital content in places without a decent internet infrastructure? The solar-powered LibraryBox lets you parcel up the web and take it anywhere.

• https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22730392-600-unhackable-kernel-could-keep-all-computers-safe-from-cyberattack-2/  (New Scientist, 16 September 2015)  : From helicopters to medical devices and power stations, mathematical proof that software at the heart of an operating system is secure could keep hackers out.

• https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28201-is-the-digital-learning-revolution-a-waste-of-money/   (New Scientist, 21 September 2015)  : A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development highlights that education systems investing most in IT saw “no appreciable improvement” in results for international exams.

• https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22730392-700-face-analysis-can-tell-what-youll-buy-after-watching-ads-2/   New Scientist, 16 September 2015  : Affectiva’s software (an automated emotion analysis system) lets advertisers know whether a (TV) ad was successful.

• https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22830423-100-speech-recognition-ai-identifies-you-by-voice-wherever-you-are  (New Scientist, 7 October 2015)  : The latest smartphones can recognise you by your voice. What happens when technology can pick us out from the crowd just by listening?

(= les objets connectés / l’internet des objets) – certains disent même : the internet of everything. Sujet brûlant d’actualité !

« The internet of things refers to efforts to turn formerly dumb devices such as fridges, thermostats and the like into smarter gadgets that can report on their status or be controlled remotely. » (http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30692154)

– une infographie Cisco qui fait un bon point de départ

– A primer on the IoT and RFID
voir en particulier liste des updates : pistes pour des recherches ultérieures, par exemple :

• Google’s OS for the IoT : Brillo – Huawei’s OS for the IoT : LiteOS (tous les deux sortis en 2015)
• les RFID et la technique NFC (cf Oyster card) : par ex cette vidéo Explania retirée de leur site, mais encore disponible  (mauvaise qualité du son), sans être créditée,  sur YouTube (transcription ci-dessous)

– une bonne vidéo d’introduction (sur ForwardThinking, excroissance du site bien connu How Stuff Works) : http://www.fwthinking.com/videos/fwthinking-ep1-internet-of-things-video.htm

– une sélection d’articles proposée par la MIT Technology Review : http://www.technologyreview.com/collection/exploring-the-internet-of-just-about-everything/  celui-ci étant particulièrement intéressant (technique, mais pas trop) : http://www.technologyreview.com/news/529576/mobile-gadgets-that-connect-to-wi-fi-without-a-battery/

– http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31584546  A « starter kit » designed to spur on the invention of internet-connected gadgets :  Feb 2015, très concret.

– le nouveau jouet de la BBC, le micro:bit (prévu pour l’IoT) : http://blog.bluetooth.com/bbc-microbit-a-groundbreaking-project-putting-bluetooth-technology-in-the-hands-of-next-generation-of-iot-developers/  (July 2015)

– Risques de hacking : Spam in the fridge (The Economist, 25 Jan 2014) + Home, hacked home , the perils of connected devices (The Economist, 12 July 2014)

– Dans le registre Big Brother (privacy concerns)

• CES 2014 : Connected tech raises privacy fears (BBC News, 8 Jan 2014)
• Vidéo (+CC) Smart home (donne une idée du contenu d’un article protégé du Wall Street Journal) June 2014 et les articles sur le thermostat intelligent NEST
• toujours NEST : Reinventing the home – the internet of things (video The Economist, March 2013) et Google’s home invasion (New Scientist, 15 Jan 2014)
• pour se donner vraiment froid dans le dos,  un aperçu d’un rapport (29 Aug 2014) sur les compteurs électriques intelligents (invasion of privacy), que le gouvernement UK veut rendre obligatoires
• et un autre, ahurissant, sur ce que les mêmes compteurs intelligents peuvent révéler de vos habitudes télévisuelles  : http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-10/your-outlet-knows-how-smart-meters-can-reveal-behavior-at-home-what-we-watch-on-tv.html

– Et enfin, une « expérience » dont la presse a beaucoup parlé : « Several weeks ago wired.com reported a Jeep Cherokee had been hacked and taken over by hackers with the driver inside. A security flaw in a cellular-connected computer served as the entry point that they could wirelessly hack into the Jeep over the internet to hijack its steering, brakes and transmission. »

__________________________

RFID EXPLAINED (explania.com)
No longer available on Explania website
(uncredited YouTube version, with irritating background music)

Transcript

These days, every product has a barcode
that contains basic information about the product.
Thanks to barcodes store owners can keep track of their inventory.
And shoppers can check out much faster than before.
0:17 However, despite their many avantages,
barcodes must be read one at a time,
and the information they contain is fixed.
What if those barcodes were replaced by chips
that could not only be read more quickly ,
but could have their information updated as well
And what if those chips could communicate with other devices ?
0:44 These chips already exist,
and the technology they use is called RFID,
short for Radio Frequency Identification.
Well, RFID tags contain a small microchip and a transmitter
that can only be activated by an RFID reader
to which the tag returns its signal.
That’s why RFID is called a passive technology.
1:12 Imagine that you buy a carton of milk in a supermarket ,
the carton’s RFID tag has stored the price and the milk’s expiry date.
When you pick up the carton,
the shelf can immediately display the carton’s expiry date .
When you’re finished with your shopping,
a reader near the exit could read the tags of all your products as you pass buy,
and immediately generate a bill for your approval.
No more standing in line !
1:43 Back home, a smart refrigerator equipped with an RFID reader
could keep track of the expiry date of all your groceries,
and if you also have a smart rubbish bin,
the bin and the refrigerator could even make a new shopping list for you.
2:00 This may sound futuristic
but RFID tags are already used in exactly this way in transport and logistics.
RFID tags are already being built into motorway toll pass cards and subway passes.
RFID tags facilitate the handling and tracking of luggage and freight.
Retailers are also integrating RFID tags and readers into their stores.
2:30 With the price of RFID chips and readers dropping steadily,
other sectors are discovering their uses.
In fact, several European research projects are working together
with large companies from other sectors
to find clever ways of cutting costs.
and boosting efficiency with RFIDs.
2:54 Ironically, one of the oldest uses of this technology is in agriculture,
where RFID tags are used to keep track of livestock .
Now that these tags can be reduced to the size of a rice pellet,
they are already being implanted into pets,
to help track and recover them.
3:14 Other possible new applications of RFID are in medicine.
For example, an RFID tag built into an armband
could contain a unique identifier for a patient.
Doctors can read the tag and immediately access the patient’s medical history,
and link it to databases of diseases and medications’ side effects.
This could greatly speed up diagnosis and treatment.
3:45 RFIDs can be integrated into almost any everyday object,
from fridges to bus passes.
The fact that these devices can be read, updated and tracked
has raised privacy concerns.
The European Union is therefore developing a legislation
to ensure that the use of RFID never compromises basic human rights
and the individual’s right to privacy.
More and more devices and applications are becoming interconnected
and among them RFID is rapidly becoming a key technology.
4:23