Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Web Secret #319: The Internet of Things

Pay attention class.

There is an important concept that will impact all of us, (if it hasn't already,) than in the very near future. (Unless you are living off the grid and under a rock.)

It is called "The Internet of Things," abbreviated as IoT.

A British technology pioneer, Kevin Ashton, coined the term in 1999. As he explained:
"Today computers—and, therefore, the Internet—are almost wholly dependent on human beings for information. Nearly all of the ... data available on the Internet [was] first captured and created by human beings—by typing, pressing a record button, taking a digital picture, or scanning a bar code. ... The problem is, people ... are not very good at capturing data about things ... If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things—using data they gathered without any help from us—we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. We would know when things needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their best. The Internet of Things has the potential to change the world, just as the Internet did. Maybe even more so."
Still not sure what the IoT really means? A thing can be:
  • a diabetic with a chip implanted in his body that sends an alarm when his blood sugar is low
  • a refrigerator that tells you when you are out of milk and sends a message to your smartphone reminding you to buy milk.
  • an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when tire pressure is low
  • any other natural or man-made object that can be assigned an IP address and provided with the ability to transfer data over a network.
While the IoT is currently in its infancy, it is estimated that there will be nearly 26 billion devices on the Internet of Things by 2020.

Infancy to adulthood in 6 years.

Are you ready?

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