The Internet of Things - The next level of technology

LeWeb is Europe's biggest technology conference and it takes place twice a year in Paris and London. This December, at the event in Paris, LeWeb is focusing on hyperconnectivity and 'The Internet of Things'. The idea is, it's not just us who are connected to the internet, but the objects around us too. The “Internet of Things” (IoT) will likely be one of the most important technological advances of this century. It is said that by 2020, an estimated 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet. This hyperconnected world is driving the formation of an IoT that will bring devices, infrastructure and people closer. It’s about blending of the physical world and the virtual world.

We have been talking about connected objects for years now, but with smartphones, systems, networks and software platforms enabling them to communicate, it is finally becoming a reality. Any physical object can connect to the internet and can communicate with other objects to transfer information to people. In the future, many everyday objects will be connected to the internet and many tasks that we do with our hands can be automated through the information exchanged between these objects. 

The appliances and devices will work through radio frequency identification technology (RFID). RFID chips are small and inexpensive. These chips use radio waves to send data to the RFID readers that are connected to the internet. The IoT will use smartphones and devices containing embedded chips and sensors that allow them to connect and talk to each other.

In the house of future, appliances will communicate with each other to make our routine tasks easier and simpler. The shower will be on before a person wakes up. The breakfast will be ready by the kitchen appliances as soon as one comes out of the shower. The car will start as soon as you plan to leave for office.  Appliances like refrigerator would be able to place online orders as soon as the level of the stock goes low and you can pick them up from the stores on your way back home. All this would be possible through a task scheduling application running on a smartphone and is connected to all the appliances. 

The self-driving cars would become a norm in the days to come. These cars would take us to any desired location as scheduled or simply through a command if not preset. The data they transmit would adjust the tasks scheduled at the office according to the calculated arrival time suggested by the satellite traffic monitoring feature of the navigation system.

China seems to lead the IoT race. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao identified IoT as an "emerging strategic industry" in an interview on state media, Beijing has focused on developing technology by which devices can communicate via infrared sensor, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and other Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technology. The government has established state-owned enterprise zones such as the Chengdu Internet of Things Technology Institute in Sichuan province, which is developing a health care system in which rural villagers can step into a telephone booth-sized "health capsule" to get a diagnosis and prescription from a doctor in a distant hospital.

The Internet of Things (IoT) will make our lives easy and organized, but on the other hand we would be completely relying on technology even for our simple daily routine tasks. The design standards of appliances and devices will dramatically change in the days to come so as our lifestyles. The next version of internet will impact a broad range of industries that are involved in making products and services for the humans.