Introduction to Internet of Things - Part 2

In the previous article Introduction of Internet of Things – Part 1, we explained what Internet of Things is and how it can change our life.
In this article, we will learn more about it.

What exactly is the “Things” in “Internet of Things”?

Any device that can be embedded with electronics, software, sensors to communicate with other device is “Things”.


A Thing, in the Internet of Things, can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when tire pressure is low -- or 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.

These devices collect useful data with the help of various existing technologies and then autonomously flow the data between other devices.
Current market examples include smart thermostat systems and washer/dryers that utilize Wi-Fi for remote monitoring.

The Internet of Things is not just about connecting devices to the Internet, but also making sense of the ‘things’ that are connected.

Take an example of a car.  If your car can connect to the Internet, that by itself isn’t really anything special. After all, it’s just a car that can be hooked up to the Internet. 

But what if your car could do use its Internet connection to help make your life better without human intervention?  That’s where IoT comes to play.  Imagine that the car automatically reads the data from other devices and tells you real-time traffic data. The car communicates with the other “Things” and finds information like “Which roads are congested”, “Nearby parking places”, “Warning of accidents” etc.


Even further, imagine that the Car automatically senses the collision and apply emergency breaks.
This is one example of how IoT can benefit people’s lives.

Internet of Things – It’s already here, but still a long way to go:

The Internet of Things is already making its presence felt. Most of us own smartphones these days, quite a few of us have Smart TVs, and most of us probably know someone who owns a smart car. Soon, we’ll have other connected devices in our lives – smart watches that can tell us how many calories we burn off, cutlery that can tell us when to stop eating, ovens that we can turn on remotely, whilst wrist bands, streetlights washing machines, pills and even bridges will all become connected.

Internet of Things is growing fast:

Internet of Things is very quickly becoming a reality. We can see the proof of it around us. Our devices are getting smarter each day from smartphones to smart TV to smart car to Smart kitchen. Everything is now getting connected to Internet.

Each year, we’ll see a greater number of everyday devices that suddenly become “smart”. In fact, it won’t be long until there are more connected devices than there are people.  Analysts predict that there will be 30 billion connected “things” by 2020, while the population of the Earth will climb to a mere 7.6 billion by 2018, according to the UN.

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