Are you ready for a world where everything will be connected to everything? As strange as it may sound, this is exactly where the world is already headed. All of a sudden, everything around us has become smart – smart phones, smart cars, smart TVs, and smart kids getting ready to live in smart homes. Hilarious, you will say. Wouldn’t you?
My good friend just designed and completed a house in Lagos, Nigeria, that is literally controlled through a mobile phone. Every single part of the house has sensors that trigger the mobile app based on different configurations such as noise, threat, etc.
If, for example, there is a knock on the door, irrespective of where the owner is, as long as he has Internet connection, he will be able to see the person knocking on the door. I could go on and on about the features of this house, but I believe you sort of get the picture already. It is simply an IoT-based house and nothing more.
So the big question is, “are you ready for the Internet of things?”
First, what exactly is the Internet of Things? Simply put, it is believed that everything around us is now being designed and built to be connected to the Internet in one way or the other; from home appliances, to furniture, cars, schools, public places, etc.
Here is a more technical definition, courtesy of techtarget.com: “The Internet of Things is a scenario in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to automatically transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. IoT has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems and the Internet.”
For Cisco Inc. “The IoT links smart objects to the Internet. It can enable an exchange of data never available before, and bring users information in a more secure way. Cisco estimates that the IoT will consist of 50 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020.”
Going by what Cisco predicted, the number of devices will outpace humans by a ratio of about 5:1. This, in itself, presents both opportunities and challenges. Would we get to a point where humans would have to wage war against robots? By the way, this fear is already being expressed in some quarters.
The Internet of Things became more of a reality when hackers, back in 2014, configured a refrigerator to send spam messages. Here is an excerpt of Proofpoint’s report: ‘In January 2014, — Finish Reading on the Punch Website
