Re: resend: definition of a 'thing'

It seems to me that we could divorce the definition of a "location" from the sort of technology that supports it.
In the future, everything will be tracked by some means (I am already being tracked at a coarse level; credit card receipts, GPS, etc.).
Whether it is the device recognizing the item, partially recognizing the item and using a database to improve accuracy, or a direct signal indicating its location, it is still a "thing" that needs some sort of URI.
And since it is a part of the physical world, it can be the "location" for a POI.
This is why I would lean towards incorporating "thing" into "location" if possible.
Here is an example use-case:
My device sees a rock. I decide it is a POI and attach some data to it. The "world" or "cyberspace" may know nothing about it, yet.
Yes, it may conveniently be big and difficult to move. Therefore it's "location" description is quite simple.
However, if it is small enough to be moved, its "location" description gets more complex.
If a sensor has been affixed, then tracking its location becomes straightforward.
However, if only the information the URI includes is what my device saw then the "location" of this item is intermittent, perhaps "unknown", for periods of time.
There will certainly be services that use a combination of credit card receipts, last GPS location and face recognition to give a device my "location".
Seems we need to decide early on if we want to capture this in the POI standard.

On Nov 10, 2010, at 9:51 AM, Mike Liebhold wrote:

> Here's draft definition of 'thing'
> 
> A ' thing is a physical object with no fixed location that may have a POI digital information attached that cannot be automatically detected by geopositioning sensors. The POI,therefore will only be detectable by a default visual ( or acoustic?) search, invoked by a client.
> 
> ***
> Question: Does this require a default registry of visual or acoustic search services that can decode the visual ( or acoustic?) pattern to point the client to the appropriate URI that explains the POI format?
> 
> 

Alex Hill Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Augmented Environments Laboratory
Georgia Institute of Technology
http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/lab