A computer scientist called out all internet enabled devices which are connected to the world wide web (www) and listened to their responses to map them from across the globe.
The piece of cartography which followed was nothing less than stunning.
The mapping of these devices (in picture below) shows the internet ‘hot-spots’ where web connectivity have flourished and darker regions where the technology is yet to arrive. Nevertheless, it is quite intriguing to realize that how man’s insatiable thirst for information and progress have made internet reach even the most remote corners of the world.
Image courtesy: Shodan
A Texas based computer scientist and internet cartographer John Matherly, used a software to ‘ping’ devices connected to internet so as to collect their responses. The devices were pinged in the order of their Internet Protocol identities. (In the process of ‘Pinging’ a signal is send from a particular server to the devices, whether or not to ascertain identity is a technical call).
In most cases the Matherly was able to ascertain the location of the routers to which the devices are connected to.
According to a report that appeared in the Daily Mail, it took him five hours to ping all the IPs across the globe and another 12 hours to create a map.
In the maps, red denotes the highest concentrations of internet connected devices while yellow shows a lower level.
Notably while most places in India has excellent internet connectivity (except for some parts in Chhattisgarh and neighboring regions), neighbor countries of China and Pakistan have only sparse connectivity to Internet.
On the other hand Pyongyang the capital of North Korea which is under a strict military dictatorship seems to have a good number of devices with internet access. Allegedly North Korean government has provided only restricted and screened access to internet to its people.
Density of internet devices in the US is low because of its sparse population. Meanwhile, Europe has a relatively high density of internet hot-spots
Explaining the process on Imgur, Mr Matherly – who goes by the Reddit profile ‘achillean’ – said :
“The tool I used is called a ‘stateless scanner’, which can basically do the equivalent of the ‘ping’ command but really fast and to many IPs.”
