Internet of Things (IOT) – I What the buzzing all about?

The most talked about stuff after Cloud and Big Data is probably (IOT) Internet of Things and I am sure almost everyone reading this blog have heard and have a little sense on what it is. Those having heard it for the first time would ask this question – What is IOT and why would we need IOT? So rather than beating around the bush – let me straight jump in to the details of IOT

To answer above questions – let break the Term Internet of Things in two parts – INTERNET and THINGS and try to seek the answer.

So what is Internet – I don’t have to answer this – we all are aware of internet and it’s now part and parcel of our life. Most of us– in fact all of us start our day on the internet and end our day using internet.

We use internet for browsing, sending/reading emails, watching videos, posting a message on Facebook or a tweet on twitter, writing a blog – read blogs / news, some use it for learning, some for teaching – some for gaining knowledge – the important point here is WE – the PEOPLE. Here PEOPLE interact with other POPLE using the internet –

They share – they learn – they see – they hear – they express. – using the Internet.

So – Internet is all about people – sharing information

Now let’s talk about the second part Things –

All the physical stuff we see around us, anything – be it is a table, chair, bed, living room, window, fridge, car, washing machine, shoe , door, gate, garage, road, bridge – are all things. We know things cannot communicate (how wonderful it would be if things communicate). Also just imagine the amount of information each of these things might be holding and how useful it can be to other things or people if somehow things start to communicate.

Example the condition of the car, the speed of the car, the moisture in the soil, the condition of the road, the room – the size of the room – how big or small it is – the temp inside the room – hot / cold, the amount light in the room,

Another example is the shoe – the make, the model and price of the shoe – the year it was purchased and condition of the shoe if it needs to be replacement.

Just think if these things were able to communicate and able to tell this information- how useful this information would be for other things.

One simple example – with all the info about the room – whether to make it hot or cold you get in advance before you enter the room. To get info if someone entered the room. To turn off the lights if no one is in the room. To play your favorite music of your choice as soon you enter the room.

Getting the info about the shoe and the wear and tear – might help the manufactures – and to what shoe is best suitable for you / people like you and they can make changes in the new shoes.

The fridge can tell if something is so many days old lying in the fridge and if your favorite ice cream is about to get over and it gets added to you shopping list. Think if you were able to get info about the items in the fridge, the total calories and the healthy food in your fridge. If the fridge could provide you the list of items that are about to finish and the fridge needs to be filled with.

The Chair recognize you – based on your weight and starts the TV with your favorite channel based on the time ( news) – or music system plays music based on your mood..

All this information could be useful to other things or to people to do other things. In other words it would be super useful if things can share information (talk to you) and you can take decision based on the information provided.

This Exactly the idea behind IOT – Internet of Things

Being able to connect all these things, so that they are able to talk to each other and to you as well.

SO the basic idea behind IOT is things can communicate with each other (things could be homes, roads, shoe, fridge, cars etc.) and they could communicate – what they feel, know, what they are doing with other things and people..

This information can be useful if gathered and analyzed by other things or people to do some useful work or pass on instructions to the things.

So IOT is – Things able to share information on the internet (i.e. communicate on the internet).

In the next article we will discuss – How to make things communicate.

Happy Makers 🙂