The World in 2030

The World in 2030 69
but put them to many other uses too. If the nodes
were programmed to serve as online smoke detectors,
they could signal a fire as well as show its location.
They could also act as a security system or provide
internet connectivity to other things in the building.
In ‘The Hydrogen Economy’ Jeremy Rifkin tells us:
In the very near future, sensors attached to every appliance
or machine powered by electricity – refrigerators,
air conditioners, washing machines, security
alarms – will provide up-to-the-minute information
on energy prices, as well as on temperature, light and
other environmental conditions, so that factories, offices,
homes, neighborhoods and whole communities
can continuously and automatically adjust their
energy requirements to one another’s needs and to
the energy load flowing through the system. 132
The Dutch electronics manufacturer Philips plans to introduce
wirelessly controlled lighting systems for commercial
buildings by 2012. And the company’s researchers are working
on making networked light fittings capable of monitoring
the objects throughout a building, tracking equipment in
hospitals or preventing theft in offices.
In the UK the building services firm Rentokil 133 has added
a small plastic sensor and a wireless module to its mousetraps
so that they notify the building staff when a rodent is caught.
This is a big improvement on traps that need to be inspected
regularly. A large building might contain hundreds of them,
and a few are bound to be forgotten.