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July 25, 2005
Ants, BMWs and digital pheromone trails
Reading an article in the latest Intelligence magazine about Germany’s big tech trends, one part stood out for me:
“...In more advanced systems vehicles could use wireless communications to inform each other about oil puddles, traffic jams, or accidents. BMW is working on wireless networks for cars that will automatically set up connections among vehicles in order to exchange critical sensor information; a car that detects a slippery stretch of pavement, for instance, could relay that information to other cars on the same road. The goal is to create networks of inter-communicating cars that could someday form a sort of automotive Internet.”
This reminded me of Steven Johnson's fascinating, but deeply complex, book, Emergence. One of the areas he writes about relates to how harvestor ants search for food by leaving pheromone trails that fade over time. This allows other ants in the area to know that another ant has foraged in that area and there's no point in going there for a while, until at least the trail fades. These so-called semio-chemicals are powerful communication mechanisms within a self-organised network.
This also highlights a very powerful tool for making creative leaps: borrowing concepts and lenses from other worlds. I wonder what insights the world of ants and an entomologist could give the engineers at BMW, or any participant of the road transport eco-system, in leaving digital pheromone trails along highways?
Posted by sdehaast at July 25, 2005 11:34 PM Posted to food for thought
Comments
This concept is rather old and already incorporated in the ISO standards through TC204 workgroup on dedicated short range communications and telematics. However! apart from the little (very little) spots of genius here and there BMW and Mercedes networks are primitive so say the least. Even engine management techniques are primitive by our measure.
This is all because of one reason: Unlike the computer science and electronic engineering industry sharing information at the speed of light, these motor manufacturers protect their protocols and information like their business depend on it. It has much more value in the open market. Yahoo group hack-the-ibus, presents many MP3 players that for example can be controlled through the I/K bus or the radio/steering wheel buttons. Why so secretive, that we have to spend days and weeks hacking their new systems, just to find out its not that great anyway, BUT we can improve on it - on behalf of BMW.
Posted by: Gerhard at November 2, 2005 2:05 PM