Presentation by Jan M. Rabaey in the Morning Plenary Session at iMinds The Conference 2014 www.iminds.be

1. THE HUMAN INTRANET
Jan M. Rabaey
University of California at Berkeley
IMINDS THE CONFERENCE, OCT 23 2014

2. The Swarm (IoT) Vision*
 Integrated components approaching
molecular limits and/or may cover
complete walls
 Every object will have wireless
connection, hence leading to trillions of
connected devices
 Opportunistically collaborating to
present unique experiences or to fulfill
common goals
[J. Rabaey, ASPDAC 2008]
[J. Bryzek, Tsensors summit 2013]
Innumerable applications in
mobility, energy, environment,
education, wellness, health, …

3. 21st Century Question: “How to interact with
information in a world where enriched senses and
augmented interfaces are omnipresent?”
The unPad* - Mobiles to disappear or unravel!
*[BWRC 2010]
Enabled by collaboration between environment and wearables

4. The Wearable Era has Come
[Wired Magazine, January 2014]
[Time Magazine, September 2014]

5. Wearable:
An Extended Definition
Any object or tool that moves
in concert with human
(includes bicycle, car, drill,
Empowered humans medical kit, or exoskeleton …)
in an augmented world

6. Wearables today –
A stovepiped model!
 Devices only compatible with devices of
same company
 Single or restricted function
 Limited engagement with environment
[Google lens]
[Apple watch]
Leads to short-term,
incompatible and non-scalable gadgets
[Google
glass]
[Fitbit]

7. An alternative :
THE HUMAN INTRANET*
“An open scalable platform that seamlessly integrates ever-increasing
number of sensor, actuation, computation,
storage, communication and energy nodes located
around, on, or in human body acting in symbiosis
with functions provided by the body itself,
fundamentally altering the ways humans operate, and interact
with physical world around them and cyberworld beyond.”
(embracing original Internet vision)
*[J. Rabaey, 2014]
Building on concepts such as IMEC’s Human++

8. The Human Intranet in a nutshell
Key properties: Distributed, formfitting and comfortable, extended
operational periods, broad range of devices ranging from energy-rich to
energy-starved, diverse interconnect strategies, adaptive and self-learning.

9. Brain-machine interfaces
as an example

10. Some Crucial Challenges

11. Challenge: Energy sparsity
Intertwining of energy and
information distribution
• Organically formed mesh network
routes energy and data from sources
to sinks
• Dynamically configured based on
needs and availability
• Heterogeneous physical links
(wired/wireless, electromagnetic,
inductive, resistive, acoustic, …)
Symbiotic to natural nervous
and capillary system

12. Challenge: Dynamically changing conditions
Adaptive and
evolutionary systems
• Combining local information extraction
and decision making with centralized
global learning and optimization
• Supporting long-range and global
functions such as feature extraction,
sensor fusion, machine learning
• Integrating empowered hub nodes with
energy-frugal local processing
B
B
A
A
B
A: Hubs
B: Sensor clusters

13. Challenge: Retain basic or partial
functionality under all circumstances
Inherently fail-safe
• Implicit baselining and fall-back
modes
• Redundancy in network and
compute resources
• Adaptivity and
Homeostatis is a
balancing act that can be
thrown out of whack by
environmental challenges
If the system cannot restore balance, it can lead
to death! [Credit: tollecausom.com]
reconfiguration

14. Challenge: Secure and private
Human firewall
• Every link to be encrypted
• Keys to be generated from local
observations (channel properties,
biomarkers)
• Creation of virtual cloak using
deliberate self-interference
• Adaptivity to avoid spamming

15. High-order bits
 Wearables extend far beyond current
industrial/commercial offering
 Need open and scalable, yet safe and
reliable platform to unleash creativity
 Stretches technology to the limits
[OCtattoos]
 Potential impact hard to overestimate
 Needs broader societal discussion NOW
[Flexible skin electrodes,
J. Rogers, UIUC]
Required Reading: Peter Hamilton, Pandora’s Star