What is IoT (Internet of Things)

The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the billions of physical devices around the world that are now attached to the internet, all assembling and sharing data. The approach of super-cheap computer chips and the pervasion of wireless networks, it’s possible to turn anything, from something as small as a pill to something as big as an airplane, into a part of the IoT.

Connecting up all these various objects and combining sensors to them adds a level of digital intelligence to devices that would be unless dumb, enabling them to communicate real-time data without involving a human being. The Internet of Things is making the fabric of the world around us smarter and more active, joining the digital and physical universes.

A little Example of IoT

A lightbulb that can be turned on using a smartphone app is an IoT device, as is a movement sensor or a smart thermostat in your office or a combined streetlight.

An IoT device could be as fluffy as a child’s doll or as serious as a driverless truck. Some more important things may themselves be loaded with many smaller IoT components, such as a jet engine that’s now charged with thousands of sensors gathering and transmitting data back to make sure it is operating efficiently. At an even bigger scale, smart cities projects are filling entire regions with sensors to help us understand and control the environment.

The term IoT is used for devices that wouldn’t usually be expected to have an internet connection, and that can communicate with the network separately of human action. For this reason, a PC isn’t commonly considered an IoT device, and neither is a smartphone even though the end is crammed with sensors. A smartwatch or a fitness band or other wearable device might be counted as an IoT device, however.

History of Internet Of Things (IoT)

Kevin Ashton invented the phrase ‘Internet of Things’ in 1999, although it got at least another decade for the technology to grab up with the vision.

The idea of attaching sensors and intelligence to necessary objects was considered throughout the 1980s and 1990s (and there are arguably some much earlier ancestors). Still, it apart from some initial projects, including internet-connected vending machine process was slow simply because the technology wasn’t ready. Chips were too big and large, and there was no way for objects to communicate effectively.

Processors that were cheap and power-frugal sufficient to be all but disposable were needed before it finally became cost-effective to connect up billions of devices. The adoption of RFID tags low-power chips that can transmit wirelessly, solved some of this subject, along with the increasing availability of broadband internet and cellular and wireless networking.

The adoption of IPv6, which, among new things, should give enough IP addresses for every device the world (or indeed this galaxy) is ever likely to need was also a significant step for the IoT to scale.

The IoT combines the interconnectedness of human culture our things with the interconnectedness of our digital information system the internet. That’s Kevin Ashton,” said.