Wednesday 6 March 2019

The Internet of Things - The Inevitable Future?

In recent decades, there's been an explosion of technological creativity and innovation, with bold endeavors being undertaken in all corners of the Earth: by wireless electricity, 3D printing, gamification, autonomous vehicles, and Automatic Content Recognition, into mobile robots and - the topic of this post - The Internet of Things, or, as some call it, The Web of Everything.

Sounds grand? Well, it's probably because it's. The promise of the enterprise is nothing short of game-changing, with the ultimate aim of bringing all inanimate objects to life, in a truly Frankenstein-esque fashion.

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What's the Web of Things?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a scenario in which everything - apparatus, individual, network etc. - includes a unique identifier and the ability to convey over the Internet. The idea is to produce a scenario where we don't have to control each piece of equipment separately, but instead have a top notch control on a complex series of events that are integrated, over an'army' of connected devices which can communicate with each other and with us.

Internet of Everything unites several trends, including cloud computing, the increase of connected devices, Big Data, the increasing use of video, and the increasing importance of mobile programs when compared with classic computing applications. The Internet of Things is the evolutionary results of the tendency towards ubiquitous computing, a tendency that supposed the demand for embedding processors in everyday items.

Kevin Ashton, co-founder and also executive manager of the Auto-ID Center at MIT explains the possibility of the Internet of Things:

"Today computers-and, hence, the Internet-are almost wholly dependent on human beings for information. Nearly all the roughly 50 petabytes (a petabyte is 1,024 terabytes) of information available on the Internet were captured and generated by individual beings-by Reading, pressing a record button, taking a digital image or scanning a bar code...

"The challenge is, people have limited time, focus and accuracy-all of so that they are not very good at catching data about matters in the real world... If we'd computers that knew what there was to learn about things-using information they gathered without any help from us-we would be able to monitor and count everything, and significantly decrease waste, loss, and price. We would understand when items needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and if they were fresh or past their best."

'Run your entire world onto a smartphone'

Even though it still sounds like a futuristic dream, the IoT is currently occurring, with many technologies in very advanced stages of development. The possibility of the technology has motivated developers to produce solutions geared both towards the consumer and the B2B industry.

The struggle for hearts and minds of customers is based around home automation, with companies like SmartThings, Nest Labs and Ninja Blocks leading the way. Another significant consumer-facing area is measured self, which is playing a great role in developing consumers' awareness of the possibility of their IoT.

Beyond customer, B2B vertical uses of the IoT hold considerable promise in many of areas such as transport, manufacturing, health care, and retailstores.

Projects in development

SmartThings started as a Kickstarter project, and it has evolved into a slick company offering a range of nifty products, including physical gadgets for home automation as well as apps to restrain them. It's developed on a cloud-based software platform which allows users to install apps into their lives which make the world more reactive and more enjoyable. More excitingly, SmartThings is constructing an open system and is explicitly embracing the developer communities, paving the way to a broader and diverse environment, ideal for unrestricted creativity.

It hails itself the 'world's earliest Public Cloud for the Internet of Things' and aspires to offer a common ground through that any apparatus on the Internet might actually communicate with almost any other device.

Much like Cosm before it, Xively will offer a way for different devices to connect with each other, though today with commercial terms of support for commercial customers and publicly accessible solutions for projects in development. The existence of platforms such as Xively appears to be critical to building a legitimate Internet of Things instead of what we really have today.

Internet or Intranet?

What's required now with this technology to really take off is a frequent platform on which unrelated devices could join, ideally an open source one to maximize the capacity for future inventions and developer engagement. Devices on offer today are also still quite pricey and their range for inter-device communication is still quite restricted.

In the future, the development of the IoT marketplace will necessarily bring more compatible and affordable consumer products which will be accessible to more individuals. However, for all that talk about the benefits of this IoT, there seems no one lifting any real concerns, such as: what if the machines, able to communicate and relate to one another, will no longer want us and run off, or else, unite and turn against us? There has to be a sci-fi film relating to this scenario somewhere. Either way, epic times lie ahead.

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