When major change occurs, likely to improve our lives in meaningful ways, a new phrase is born to capture its innovation and transformation.
But if the change doesn’t become reality or keep pace with expectations, the phrase turns into a buzzword meaning many different things and never being clear.
A phrase that could be in this category is the Internet of Things. Have you heard it? Do you know what it means?
Some experts are about to explain its meaning. They will tell you the Internet of Things (IoT) is about connectedness that will make our lives significantly better; that it is one of the most active areas of innovation and, in fact, is already here.
But you will also learn the Internet of Things is a phrase well over 10 years old and, if it ever really occurs, is going to put huge amounts of secure information into the hands of those where it doesn’t belong.
Is the Internet of Things the next level of technology or a terrible thing? Is it already here or never going to arrive? Here are 12 experts to explain what the Internet of Things really means.
- The Internet of Things (IoT) is a computing concept that describes a future where everyday physical objects will be connected to the Internet and be able to identify themselves to other devices. The term is closely identified with RFID as the method of communication, although it also may include other sensor technologies, wireless technologies or QR codes. – Techopedia
- Simply put this is the concept of basically connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet (and/or to each other). This includes everything from cell phones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of. – Jacob Morgan, Forbes
- At its core, the Internet of things means just an environment that gathers information from multiple devices (computers, vehicles, smartphones, traffic lights, and almost anything with a sensor) and applications (anything from a social media app like Twitter to an e-commerce platform, from a manufacturing system to a traffic control system). – Galen Gruman, Infoworld
- The Internet of Things (IoT) is a scenario in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. – Shashi Kiran, SAP
- Instead of most data on the Internet being produced and consumed by people (text, audio, video), more and more information would be produced and consumed by machines, communicating between themselves to (hopefully) improve the quality of our lives. – Geoff Duncan
- I could be wrong, but I’m fairly sure the phrase ‘Internet of Things’ started life as the title of a presentation I made at Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1999. Linking the new idea of RFID in P&G’s supply chain to the then-red-hot topic of the Internet was more than just a good way to get executive attention. It summed up an important insight—one that 10 years later, after the Internet of Things has become the title of everything from an article in Scientific American to the name of a European Union conference, is still often misunderstood. – Kevin Ashton, RFID Jounal
- There is no agreed-upon definition, but there is a test for determining whether something is part of the IoT: Does one vendor’s product work with another’s? Does a door lock by one vendor communicate with a light switch by another vendor, and do you want the thermostat to be part of the conversation? – Patrick Thibodeu
- There is also a dark side to the Internet of Things. Security is a huge issue, and when that security is compromised the consequences can be absolutely horrifying. The Internet allows us to reach into the outside world from inside our homes, but it also allows the reverse to take place as well. Do we really want to make ourselves that vulnerable? – Tyler Durden
- Much of the innovation in the Internet of Things is being fueled by young, dynamic companies, and the “maker generation.” Gartner research reveals the Internet of Things (IoT) as one of the most active areas for innovation — some 71 Cool Vendors in Gartner’s 2015 research are focused on IoT technologies. These recent startups are competing with traditional giants to bring IoT products to business and consumers. – Gartner
- As Internet of Things projects go from concepts to reality, one of the biggest challenges is how the data created by devices will flow through the system. How many devices will be creating information? How will they send that information back? Will you be capturing that data in real time, or in batches? What role will analytics play in future? – Patrick McFadden
- Marketers would then have access to vast amounts of consumer data the likes of which Google’s data crawling team could only dream of. All these items would have the potential to host screens from which they could deliver us adverts like a scene from an intrusive sci-fi movie. These already exist in a simpler form and include a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder and a car with built-in tyre pressure sensors. – Profoundry
- IoT is already here. According to technology research company Gartner, 4.9 billion connected “things” will be in use in 2015 which makes it up 30 percent from 2014. By 2020, a projected 25 billion devices will be part of the Internet of Things. – Business.com
Below is an infographic to explain the Internet of Things
Does this help you understand the Internet of Things? Do you think Internet of Things is going improve the way we live or create more problems than it solves?
