The internet has changed the world, “made it a small village“; you can communicate with anyone anywhere in the world anytime . But why stop there? A village is too big, what about making the world a “small hut“?; you, and everything around you can communicate with anyone or any machine anywhere in the world anytime. Well, that’s the next big thing and its called Internet of Things (IoT).
Hey, slow down there, what is IoT? Well, according to the “internet” or at least one website’s definition:
–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
Now, where did it come from? IoT came from the convergence of wireless technologies, Micro-electromechanics (MEMS) and of course the Internet. The term “Internet of Things” was first used in 1999 although the concept originates from the 1980s.
And what does IoT consist of? IoT is made up of “things”; for instance, 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. Upto now, IoT has been mainly in the form of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications. But with the introduction of IPV6 (if you have read anything about IT, you’ll understand what I’m saying), the address space has increased tremendously, so much so that we could assign IPV6 addresses to every atom in 100 EARTHS! That means that assigning IPV6 addresses to all “things” on earth is very possible.
This is definitely an interesting topic to anyone who loves technology and, of course, the internet. But there’s one danger; THE RISE OF THE MACHINES could happen sooner that we had anticipated. However, if you are still interested, here’s a video of Dr. John Barrett explaining IoT at TEDxCIT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaTIt1C5R-M.
All Tech Guy 