2014 will be the year of the Internet of Things (IoT). This concept was extensively demonstrated at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). A quick search of the phrase will bring up numerous articles on the subject, dating back several years1,that predict the future of the Internet and evolution of our lives. Most people haven’t heard of it, or, if they have, they may not know what it is.
As we unfold the meaning of the IoT, you will have a better understanding of what it means to you (personally and professionally) and where it is headed (as far as anyone can surmise at this point).
The IoT refers to the next phase of our online world. For many years we’ve gotten used to going online, surfing web sites, using apps, etc. All of this has been based on a network dating back to the 60s and was never built to handle an IP address for so many digital things, let alone analog ones.
As the number of web sites escalated, it was revealed that the pool of available IP addresses was soon to be exhausted. A new standard, IPv6, was created that will take us into the future by opening up a massive pool of new IP addresses. How many new ones?
By some estimates, we could assign IP addresses to every atom on the planet, and still have plenty to assign 100x that many!2 The implementation of IPv6 also laid the groundwork for a massive expansion of connectivity. Now physical things in our every day world can be connected to the Internet as well.
As initial advancements in technology have allowed for refrigerators to store your typical grocery list and re-order items when they are low, this progression is just the beginning of what is planned for the future. The phrase IoT refers to the idea of connecting “things” to the Internet to allow for massive data sharing, interactions and, of course, profiling/marketing.
This week, as the tech world was still basking in the afterglow of CES and talks of the IoT and “smart homes” were buzzing, Google dove into the deep end of the IoT pool. Google bought well-known smart home business, Nest, that makes interactive thermostats and smoke detectors, for $3.2 billion.3
Why did they do that? The key item is the smart home technology, in particular in their upcoming smoke detector system. It is planned to work in tandem with the thermostat, analyzing how you move around your home and adjusting the temperature to match your lifestyle/traffic patterns.
Looking abroad, there’s a project in Europe to build a robot Internet (dubbed “RoboEarth”).4 This is an attempt to solve the problem of having to program every robot from scratch. The idea is to have the robot power up, log into an online network and download a shared knowledge base of what it needs to know.
So what other IoT scenarios are coming? Imagine medication bottles for senior citizens that trigger an alert when they aren’t opened each day (indicating they forgot to take their pills).
How quickly is this brave new world coming? Gartner foresees 30 billion connected devices by the year 2020, up from 2.5b in 2009. They are estimating the economic value of the IoT by that time at $1.9 trillion, as connected sensors/devices appear within large verticals like healthcare and manufacturing.5
The future of the Internet of Things is so bright I need to wear Google Glass to take it all in. And tell me what’s going on right now over there… and over there… and ordering dinner… and…
References:
1 – The Internet Gets Physical
2 – What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?
3 – What Google Really Gets Out of Buying Nest for $3.2 Billion
4 – ‘Wikipedia for Robots': Because Bots need an Internet too
5 – 7 Hot Technology Trends in 2014
