Intelligent behavior of individual things will be achieved through an interaction between the thing itself and the capabilities of the ambient web ' behind the wall! A simple rule of thumb is that if today a thing relies on power to operate, in the future it is likely to rely on the intelligence of the ambient web.
Another major change will be the way that, as individuals, we interface with the online world. We are just seeing computing moving off the desktop and into the smart phones, music players and other small devices that we carry around with us. The cost of computing means that today There is now a forced bundling of all sorts of capabilities into these devices, with phone manufacturers competing to see how many different functions they can get into a small package. This is a passing phase that should give way to what we might call the 'personal digital environment'. This will entail fully connected wearable technology that can be embedded into smart fabrics and whatever form is most convenient in our personal environment - credit cards, jewellery , glasses, coins, wristwatches and so on.
This is a very active research and commercial area in which the fashion and design colleges are involved - for instance,