Below I have listed 5 things you need to know about the internet of things, including an understanding of what it is and some critical thinking as to why it may just transform the world. This blog is Part 1 of 18 of my blog series, “5 things you need to know about the Internet of Things (IoT)
1. Smart Everything
The Internet of Things is happening at a crazy speed and quite simply everything is getting smart. We are getting smart houses with smart flat screens, smart light bulbs and smart music. W drive around in smart cars, we use smart phones and we are buying smart watches. However, it does not stop there. We are wearing smart clothing that has been marketed to us using smart social media.
2. The Music Analogy
At the center of smart is software and software is amazing. When thinking of innovation, imagine the innovation around the piano versus the innovation in music. The analogy is that smart devices are like pianos and the music is the software that runs on them. The piano was first created by Bartolomea Cristofori[1] whose work was genius (check out Dongsok Shin playing Presto e fugato from Sonata in G minor on the earliest piano created http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/89.4.1219_)
Now Dongsok Shin does an amazing job and quite frankly so does the piano. My point is that physical things innovate slowly. Now consider innovation in music. It is fast moving, dynamic and incredibly personal. We have entire new genres of music develop in years and the personal taste ranges from pop to classical. Music also brings together different devices in a wonderful way.
Using the music analogy, we can see that physical devices are needed and we will slowly innovate and change them, but the software will bring about a transformation in how the smart devices work in the world.
3. Mobility
The IoT moves around with us, it changes how we interact with the world continuously. The smartphone is a critical part of how we interact with the IoT. From the simple example of changing the lighting to your preferences, to the complex of assisting us with social interactions, the IoT is mobile. What is more profound is that it is mobile in that we carry it and it is mobile in that it is everywhere. In the IoT, people are swimming in an ocean of smart devices that adjusts to nearly every piece of machinery we interact with.
4. Real-time
In the smart work of IoT-driven devices, everything is real-time. The interaction is real-time, the devices are real-time, the data streams are real-time and the social media is real-time. The consequence of this real-time world is that businesses that are real-time and produce the right interactions will win over the people acting on yesterday’s data. Consider the example of business intelligence tools. In the past, it was good enough to see the data yesterday play out the actions. Now, the business needs all the data in real-time in a form that is useful.
5. Internet of Systems (IoS)
Underneath the IoT is the internet of computer systems IoS. These are the computer systems that tie it all together. Look at the example of the home thermostat controller purchased by google for 3.2 billion dollars which requires a connection to the internet to install. The company talks about how it plans (and is) using the data streams. So as we think about the IoT, also think about the IoS and how the data streams from these systems make the music of the IoT truly beautiful.
Andrew Cardno
Chief Technology Officer
VizExplorer
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