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