What’s the Internet of Things

The days when only computers could link to the Internet or to each other are almost over. In the modern world, every day objects such as televisions, cars, refrigerators, trains and pacemakers are now gaining the ability to link to the Net, and communicate with each other. All this is primarily due to the embedding of sensors on them. These sensors are linked through wired and wireless networks, often using the same Internet Protocol (IP) that connects the Internet.

The information networks that will be an outcome of this development holds promise of creating new business models, not to mention of a completely new lifestyle for human beings. The Wikipedia says the term, ‘Internet of Things’ was proposed by Kevin Ashton in 1999. Kevin is a British technology pioneer who cofounded the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which created a global standard system for RFID and other sensors. He invented the term ‘The Internet of Things’ to describe a system where the Internet is connected to the physical world via ubiquitous sensors.

According to the New York, USA based research firm, ABI Research, over 30 billion devices will be wirelessly connected to the Internet of Things, or as CISCO has decided to call it, the Internet of Everything by 2020. And that’s not to say it’s all in the future. Already, millions of devices are part of the Internet of Things. It’s happening, now!

For the benefit of our readers, we are publishing below a short video clip made by IBM’s Smarter Planet team that explains quite succinctly what this business is all about.

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