The Internet of Things

A Blog by Anirban Basu

The world is going through a sea change and the driving force behind this change? Of course the World Wide Web or simply “The Internet”- as we know it. But the internet has been there for some time now. In fact it began way back in 1969 in California. It began connecting to networks on other continents by 1988 and was often referred to as the network of networks.

As per definition the Internet is a Globally Distributed Network comprising of many interconnected autonomous networks. The internet is often referred to as free since it operates without a central governing body and even though there may be expenses involved in connecting to it, the cost is attributed to the ISPs or Internet Service providers that let you connect to it using their Infrastructure.

As of 2014 it is estimated that almost 60% of the world population (7.2 Billion) are regular internet users. With the advent of new technology and faster access speeds and lowering cost this no. is obviously expected to grow.

The terms World Wide Web and Internet are used interchangeably quite often however they are not the same to be precise. The World Wide Web is the primary application that billions of internet users use however the internet provides many other services like Email, Internet telephony, File sharing and more.

Traditionally until a few years back the only method to get on the internet was through a personal computer. However with technical advancement in mobility devices most users now access the internet using portable electronic devices like Smartphones or tablets. In a recent report published by InMobi it is confirmed that mobile media time exceeds the PC Internet especially in the less affluent markets.

Internet data usage by device

The report also finds that on a global basis (including US and UK data), people are going online primarily via mobile or splitting their internet time roughly equally between mobile and the PC. Those who go online “mostly via desktop” are now a tiny minority:

• Mostly via Desktop — 11 percent
• Evenly split between both mobile and PC — 28 percent
• Mostly via mobile — 37 percent
• Only via mobile — 23 percent

That brings us face to face with the fact that the internet is not just used through traditional Personal Computer Systems but also through other portable devices which may be limited in terms of their capability when compared to a PC but provide a much better end user browsing experience when compared to the traditional PC platform. With this development comes the IOT or Internet of Things- basically a network of physical objects embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity which enables these objects to collect and exchange data.

It was British entrepreneur Kevin Ashton who first coined the term “Internet of Things” in 1999 while working at the Auto-ID Labs. However the concept of a network of smart devices was discussed as early as 1982 when a modified Coke Vending Machine at the Carnegie Mellon University became the first internet-connected appliance, able to report its inventory and whether newly loaded drinks were cold.

Carnegie Mellon University coke and M&M machine

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) was seen by Kevin Ashton as a prerequisite for the Internet of Things at that point. The concept was if all objects and people in daily life were equipped with identifiers, computers could manage and inventory them. However in today’s world, besides using RFID, the tagging of things may be achieved through such technologies as near field communication, barcodes, QR codes and digital watermarking.

If we go by the original concept, one of the first impacts of implementing the Internet of Things by equipping all objects in the world with minuscule ID or machine-readable identifiers would be to transform our daily life. But the ability to network embedded devices with limited CPU, memory and power resources means that IoT finds applications in nearly every field. As of 2014, the vision of the Internet of Things has evolved due to a convergence of multiple technologies, ranging from wireless communication to the Internet and from embedded systems to micro-electromechanical systems.

In June 2000, LG launched the world’s first internet refrigerator, the Internet Digital DIOS. Since then smart refrigerators have been launched by many other brands. By definition a smart refrigerator is one that is equipped to sense what products are being put into it, and may even be able to determine when a product needs to be replenished. The smart refrigerator keeps track of what is in stock through a couple of different methods. The method chosen often depends on the technology available on the food package. Given the fact that the smart refrigerator is still largely in the experimental stages, the technology is still evolving.

Samsung Smart Refrigerator

Imagine a world in which your Samsung refrigerator doesn’t just know that you’re almost out of milk or that your current carton is about to expire; it’s smart enough to remind you to buy more or even better place an order online to your local grocery store to replenish the stock.

Google Nest Learning Thermostat

Another popular device that comes to mind is Google Nest. The Nest Learning Thermostat is an electronic, programmable, and self-learning Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat that optimizes heating and cooling of homes and businesses to conserve energy. As the thermostat is connected to the Internet, the company can push updates to fix bugs, improve performance and add additional features.

Calculator Watch

Wearable technology is related to both ubiquitous computing and the history and development of wearable computers. Wearables make technology pervasive by interweaving it into daily life.

One early piece of widely-adopted wearable technology was the calculator watch, introduced in the 1980s. In 2008, Ilya Fridman incorporated a hidden Bluetooth microphone into a pair of earrings. Around the same time, the Spy Tie appeared, a "stylish neck tie with a hidden color camera.

There are many more work in progress in this sphere and it will take time for these kind of products to come off age. You can find more such projects here.

Google Glass

On April 16, 2013, Google invited "Glass Explorers" who had pre-ordered its wearable glasses at the 2012 Google I/O conference to pick up their devices. This day marked the official launch of Google Glass, a device intended to deliver rich text and notifications via a heads-up display worn as eyeglasses. The device also had a 5 MP camera and recorded video at 720p. Its various functions were activated via voice command, such as "OK Glass".

Crowdfunding-backed start-up Pebble reinvented the smartwatch in 2013, with a campaign running on Kickstarter that raised more than $10m in funding, and at the end of 2014, Pebble announced it had sold a million devices. In early 2015, Pebble went back to its crowdfunding roots to raise a further $20m for its next-generation smartwatch, Pebble Time, which started shipping in May 2015.

In March 2014, Motorola unveiled the Moto 360 smartwatch powered by Android Wear, a modified version of the mobile operating system Android designed specifically for smartwatches and other wearables. And finally, following more than a year of speculation, Apple announced its own smartwatch, the Apple Watch, in September 2014.

A study carried out in the UK in early 2015 among 1000 people reported that almost half (56%) said that wearable tech was "just a fad".  However irrespective of such public opinion Wearable Technology is on the rise in personal and business use. In the consumer space, sales of smart wristbands (aka activity trackers such as the Jawbone UP and Fitbit Flex) started accelerating in 2013.

In professional sports, wearable technology has applications in monitoring and real-time feedback for athletes. The decreasing cost of processing power and other components is encouraging widespread adoption and availability.

It is quite evident from all these developments mentioned above that IOT is here to stay- whatever the public perception is. Just like cloud computing, IOT will eventually touch our lives. For some these changes have already begun. For others, the sooner you acknowledge these changes the sooner you can reap the benefits.

Let me end this post with a quote from none other than Eric Schmidt, Google chairman- A man at the very center of such developments- 

"[T]he Internet will disappear. There will be so many IP addresses, so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with, that you won't even sense it. It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room."