The Networked Physical World System

We describe the Networked Physical World system, a ubiquitous computing system that integrates the physical world with the virtual world. The instrumentation of non-electronic devices, such as cans of soda and boxes of detergent, with inexpensive, low functionality computing devices enables the virtual world to sense and identify physical objects. The ability to accurately and definitively identify physical objects without human intervention is paramount to many applications including home automation and supply chain management. However, a system that networks all physical objects requires a careful, deliberate system design to support the huge scale of a quadrillion node network. We have implemented a prototype of the Networked Physical World system and are evaluating its performance and capabilities within a large-scale real-world supply chain application, the Field Trial. We describe the building b lock system components of the Networked Physical World system and present some preliminary results from the Field Trial.