Many people are familiar with the concept of the Internet of Things – smart homes, smart cars and the like – but did you know there is also an Internet of Living Things?
These living things are animals and they’re being connected to the Internet, according to anthropologist and senior Intel executive Dr Genevieve Bell.
Dr Bell will present a public seminar on the topic to a video-linked University of Queensland and Monash University audience from 9-10am Friday (5 August).
“A great deal has been made about the nascent Internet of Things with the projection that 50 billion things will be connected to the Internet by 2020,” Dr Bell said.
“The sheer scope and scale of a world in which many analogue objects become digital and many static objects are now dynamic generators of data is remarkable to consider.
She said most Internet of Things case studies were about things like smart homes, factories, cities and transportation systems, but there was an increasing number of animals being connected to the Internet.
“Animals have been tracked and monitored for a long time, and in recent years they are also being connected,” Dr Bell said.
“From domestic animals to farm animals and endangered species, an Internet of living beings is emerging, and it is worthy of study.
“It can reveal things about how data is collected, made sense of, utilised and how in turn that data can challenge or destabilise pre-existing ideas about how the world works.”
Dr Bell’s talk is part of an IT seminar series with an all-female lineup of speakers co-hosted by the University of Queensland’s Research Computing Centre (RCC) and Monash University’s Faculty of Information Technology.
The seminars are on each Friday morning until 4 November.
Most speakers are based overseas and will be connected via videoconferencing technology with audiences at Monash University and The University of Queensland.
The free seminars are open to university staff and students and the public, with no registration required.
Most will also be loaded on RCC's YouTube channel, but only those who attend in person will be part of Q&A sessions following each presentation.
The full seminar schedule and location details are here. https://rcc.uq.edu.au/rccmurpa-seminars
Media: Shannon Lindsay, UQ Research Computing Centre, s.lindsay@uq.edu.au, +61 420 524 392.
