Sounds like a continuation of their first attempt: a Smalltalk based development platform for embedded systems „OOVM“.
http://esug.org/data/ESUG2003/lars@2bbak@2besug.pdf https://verdich.dk/kasper/thesis.html
http://esug.org/data/ESUG2003/lars@2bbak@2besug.pdf https://verdich.dk/kasper/thesis.html
Yeah, there certainly is overlap in some of the core ideas, but the scene has really changed with the development of general-purpose microcontrollers like the ESP32 that can run for years on standard batteries and still pack a punch (it's a dual core 240MHz CPU). Also, the global connectivity options like NB-IoT and LTE-M allow devices to connect directly to the internet, which enables us to make them fully serviceable through a cloud-hosted API.