I am a huge fan of the ‘How Stuff Works’ podcasts and this week I listened to an excellent podcast that explained what the phrase ‘The Internet of Things’ means.
The phrase was first used way back in the 1990’s when we all wanted to own a Furby, we listened to the Spice Girls and wanted ‘The Rachel’ haircut. OK, so that might have just been me!
The phrase nowadays is used to explain a network of devices that interconnect and talk to each other in the aim of making our lives simpler. You may think this is another fad but if you own a smartphone or a tablet, you are probably already participating in ‘The Internet of Things’.
If you wear an activity tracker like a Fitbit or a Leaf (Dan take note this is what I want for Christmas) then the device tracks your activity and summarises it on a connected device for you, without you having to do a thing. This is also the same for Nest devices which allow you to turn on your central heating at home from anywhere in the world via your smartphone.
This network of devices is growing at a rapid rate and we believe it is only ever going to get bigger. Imagine a Fridge that can automatically detect that you are running low on milk and order it from Amazon without you having to do a thing! A cooker that makes sure dinner is steaming hot and ready for you when you walk through the door. A deodorant having a sensor in it so that again a replacement could be ordered before you run out! All possibilities with ‘The Internet of Things’.
It is predicted that by 2020 there will be 38.5 billion devices connected as part of ‘The Internet of Things’ and this is going to just keep on growing!
Is ‘The Internet of Things’ a good thing though? Some people are cautious of this free flow of data and have concerns about our privacy as well as the way this data can be used. Would car insurance companies be able to penalise us if we parked our car in an unsafe neighbourhood? Would we be even driving cars or would our devices which are linked to our calendars just drive us to where we need to be? What happens if these devices get hacked?
Whatever you think of this interconnected world that we live in we don’t seem to be able to escape it and it is only going to keep growing! So, is it best to just embrace the advancements of the digital age and resign ourselves to a world where we slowly hand over control to the machines……