Nearables

Key takeaways

Nearables belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nearables to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nearables from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nearables (also nearable technology) is a term for a type of smart object, invented by Estimote Inc. The term is used to describe everyday items that have small, wireless computing devices attached to them. These devices can be equipped with a variety of sensors and work as transmitters to broadcast digital data through a variety of methods, but they usually use the Bluetooth Smart protocol. These objects provide mobile devices within their range with information about their location, state, and immediate surroundings. The word 'nearables' is a reference to wearable technology – electronic devices worn as part of clothing or jewelry. The term 'nearables' was first introduced by Estimote Inc. in 2014 as part of a marketing campaign associated with a product launch of the next generation of Bluetooth Smart beacons. Using the language of Estimote, 'nearables' were an implementation of the iBeacon standard that provided orientation, temperature, and motion information – enabling functionality for Internet of Things applications.

History Nearables are a further development of the Internet of Things (also referred to as Internet of Everything). This is a vision of a wide, global network of interconnected devices, using the existing Internet infrastructure to provide services beyond standard machine-to-machine communications. Although the term Internet of Things was coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999, the idea can be traced to the late 1980s, when Mark Weiser introduced the idea of ubiquitous computing. Location-based services emerged in the 1990s with widespread adoption of mobile phones and development of location- and proximity-based technologies, such as GPS and RFID. This, in turn, led to first attempts at wireless proximity marketing in 2000s with early versions of Bluetooth, NFC and Wi-Fi standards as predominant technologies. However, it was not until 2013, when Apple Inc. announced the iBeacon protocol for Bluetooth Smart-enabled devices, that the idea of creating smart objects by attaching wireless beacons to them started gaining traction. In August 2014 Estimote Inc. launched Estimote Stickers, a new generation of small Bluetooth Smart-based beacons. The term ‘nearables’ was inspired by the wearable computers gaining increasing popularity in 2013 and 2014. Two such computers were the Pebble smartwatch and Google Glass. Originally, nearables were described as smart, connected objects that broadcast data about their location, motion and temperature.

Technology

In its first interpretation, Nearables are not devices themselves. Any object (or a live being, like a human or animal) can become a nearable after a wireless, electronic sensor is attached to it and starts broadcasting data to nearby mobile devices. Due to the continued miniaturization of sensor technology, a single transmitter could be equipped with a whole set of these, for example: accelerometer, thermometer, ambient light sensor, humidity sensor or magnetometer. In the second interpretation the actual nearable devices can be part of an infinite array of smart interconnected objects, programmed to improve an individual's vicinity in every way, usually to be used in a smart home environment. Making today's homes smart by having nearable technologies creating these devices to act intuitively depending on the needs of individuals through self learning software. First examples of nearables were objects tagged with Bluetooth Smart beacons supporting accelerometer and temperature sensor and broadcasting their signal in the range of approximately 50 meters. They can communicate with mobile applications installed on devices with Bluetooth 4.0, compatible with Bluetooth Smart protocol on the software side. At the moment of their launch, it included mainly iOS 7 and high-end Android mobile devices.

Use cases To create a nearable, one must attach an electronic device, working as both a sensor and a transmitter, to an object. Since the only limitation is the size of the device, both items and living beings can act as nearables. The most often cited examples, however, include retail and home automation environments.

See also Internet of Things Machine to Machine Bluetooth

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nearables

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nearables claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nearables before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nearables ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nearables

In research: Nearables appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nearables in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nearables is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Internet of things, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nearables outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Nearables in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nearables means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nearables out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nearables in simple terms?

Nearables (also nearable technology) is a term for a type of smart object, invented by Estimote Inc. The term is used to describe everyday items that have small, wireless computing devices attached to them.

Why does Nearables matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nearables?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nearables.