THE INTERNET OF THINGS :CHANGING THE WAY YOU LIVE

BACKGROUND
The term Internet of Things is coined by Kevin Ashton, a British technology pioneer who cofounded the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) & is presently executive director. Below is an excerpt from an article presented by him.
Nearly all of the data available on the Internet were first captured and created by humans—by typing, taking a digital picture or scanning a bar code. Conventional diagrams of the Internet include servers and routers, but they overlook the most numerous and important routers of all: people. The issue is, people have limited time, attention and accuracy—which means they are not very good at capturing data about things in the real world.
Our economy, society and survival aren 't based on ideas or information—they 're based on things. Ideas and information are important, but things matter more. Yet today 's information technology is so dependent on data originated by people that our computers know more about ideas than things. If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things—using the data they gathered without any help from humans—we would be able to track and count everything, which would greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. It will become easy to know when things needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their best.
We need to empower computers with their own means of gathering information, so they can see, hear and smell the world for themselves, in all its random glory.

WHAT IS IOT?
Today the Internet has got everyone connected to many things like media, photos, information, etc. With multitude objects becoming embedded with sensors and gaining the ability to communicate, will it be possible to connect us to physical objects? Can we launch appli¬ca¬tions on our com¬puter by just touch¬ing a phys¬i¬cal object? Can one phys¬i¬cal object talk to another through an Inter¬net con¬nection and com¬mand it to do a phys¬i¬cal act or feed it data? The answer is a yes and this phenomenon is called “The Inter¬net of Things”.
Let us run you by an example. Imagine it is 5 am on Monday morning, a regular day when you have to get to work for an important meeting, and your car has getting you to work at the top of its agenda today. Your car knows from your driving activity that you 're asleep and it doesn 't want to wake you, but it is concerned about the low level of fuel, which might be a setback, as you will have to make a pit stop at the gas station if you plan to get all the way across town to work. Before causing any unnecessary fuss, your car decides to have a little chat with the digital planner on your smartphone to see if you have something else planned for Monday. The answer is no, communicated by your smartphone to your car. After checking your route to work for any unwanted delays which might affect the time line, your car relays a message to your alarm clock to wake you up 10 minutes early in order to compensate for the stop. Your alarm clock agrees, and informs your bathroom shower faucet, toothbrush, coffee machine and toaster of the change in plan. All of this happens about 3 times faster than you can blink your eye.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a scenario in which everything has a unique identifier and the ability to communicate over the Internet or a similar wide-area network (WAN). The resulting information networks promise to create new business models, improve business processes, and reduce costs and risks. Thus, IoT is a concept that describes how the internet will expand as consumer devices and physical assets are connected to the internet. Key elements of the IoT which are being embedded in a variety of mobile devices include embedded sensors, image recognition technologies and NFC payment
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Radio-frequency identification (RFID), barcodes or 2D-codes are a prerequisite for the IoT. When this code or tag is read either by a RFID reader or scanned by an application run¬ning on a com¬puter or mobile device it would prompt your device to open up a page of infor¬ma¬tion or send a com¬mand for an action to hap¬pen, like open¬ing up an email client and send¬ing a mes¬sage or it would call a cer¬tain per¬son in your address book. You can also just attach data (like text or images) to the phys¬i¬cal object to describe it or have that object feed data into another pro¬gram.
Equipping all objects in the world with minuscule identifying devices could be transformative of daily life. For instance, business may no longer run out of stock or generate waste products, as involved parties would know which products are required and consumed. One 's ability to interact with objects could be altered remotely based on immediate or present needs, in accordance with existing end-user agreements.
IOT AT WORK
Below are some of the applications; however the applications of IoT are exhaustive.
1: WEB USER INTELLIGENCE
Third-party Web data aggregators use IoT automation to help you better understand your customers by monitoring their activities on your Web site and in social media channels like Facebook. By monitoring individual customers’ online activities across the Web, e-tailers are now getting a better sense of which their top customers are, what goods they prefer, and whether they influence others to buy.
2: REMOTE IT FIXES
Secure IoT tunneling over Internet to remote devices allows IT to remotely fix many PC and mobile device problems for end users, thereby saving the time and expense of travel to remote sites.
3: SURVEILLANCE
M2M hookups over Internet enable security alarm and camera integration with central IT systems. They can immediately notify IT or facilities management whenever there is a potential security breach or a machine failure problem.
4: ROBOTICS
IoT now enables high-speed, high-quality Internet to connect experts with distant situations in the field. The technology is being used in medicine, where a surgeon in Toronto can perform a procedure on an individual in the Arctic by directing a robot at the remote location (via Internet) to perform the operation.

5: CARBON MAPPING
Researchers in Arizona are using street-level sensors connected over the Internet to map carbon emissions in cities — a capability that could identify the greatest sources of carbon emissions and help combat global warming. The technology could be used by government agencies to monitor for carbon emissions compliance or by enterprises themselves in their environmental sustainability initiatives.
6: TRANSPORTATION EFFECTIVENESS
The transportation industry is wiring delivery trucks with sensors that monitor driving distances and times, track truck locations, and even assess driving habits. Activity is reported over the Internet and then collected into reports that are used to evaluate driver performance and the effectiveness of routes. The same technology is used to redirect trucks to new delivery routes if there is a coverage problem.
7: NETWORK TRAFFIC ROUTING
Network router failures can be auto-detected for failover to keep the network up and running. Network traffic can also be load-leveled and auto-routed to the best Internet channel to facilitate traffic flow.
8: GPSES (GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEMS) AND LOST MOBILE DEVICES
Thirty million cell phones were lost or stolen in 2011 alone. Being able to auto-detect a missing device and to totally shut it down protects information assets and gives IT security managers welcome headache relief.

CHALLENGES
The Internet of Things has great promise, yet business, policy, and technical challenges must be tackled before these systems are widely embraced. Early adopters will need to prove that the new sensor driven business models create superior value. Industry groups and government regulators should study rules on data privacy and data security, particularly for uses that touch on sensitive consumer information.
Legal liability frameworks for the bad decisions of automated systems will have to be established by governments, companies, and risk analysts, in consort with insurers. On the technology side, the cost of sensors and actuators must fall to levels that will spark widespread use. Networking technologies and the standards that support them must evolve to the point where data can flow freely among sensors, computers, and actuators.
CONCLUSION
No one knows exactly how the Internet of Things will ultimately look. The only certainty is that few people would believe it if you told them, because points of reference simply don 't exist yet.
IoT is at a stage where disparate networks and a multitude of sensors must come together and interoperate under a common set of standards. This effort will require businesses, governments, standards organizations, and academia to work together toward a common goal. For IoT to gain acceptance among the general populace, service providers and others must deliver applications that bring tangible value to peoples’ lives. IoT must not represent the advancement of technology for technology’s sake; the industry needs to demonstrate value in human terms.

In conclusion, IoT represents the next evolution of the Internet. Given that humans advance and evolve by turning data into information, knowledge, and wisdom, IoT has the potential to change the world as we know it today—for the better. How quickly we get there is up to us.

REFERENCES
1. Spencer, Kyle (2012), “How the Internet of Things Will Change Your World”. Available from The Motley Fool, Website: http://beta.fool.com/fatalx/2012/10/12/how-silicon-valley-plans-re-invent-internet/14118/ [Accessed: June 27, 2013]

2. Ashton, Kevin (2009), “That ‘Internet of Things’ Thing”. Available from RFID Journal, Website: http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/4986 [Accessed: June 27, 2013]

3. Michael Chui, Markus Löffler, and Roger Roberts (2010), “The Internet of Things.” Available from McKinsey Quarterly 2010 Number 2, Website: http://cryptome.org/internet-spy-all.pdf [Accessed: June 27, 2013]

4. Brady Angel (2012), “The Internet of Things and Education.” Available from Princeton University-Education Technology Center, Website: http://blogs.princeton.edu/etc/2012/02/24/the-internet-of-things/[Accessed: June 27, 2013]

5. ShacklettMary(2013), “10 ways to make the Internet of Things pay off”. Available from TechRepublic, Website:http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-ways-to-make-the-internet-of-things-pay-off/3561[Accessed: June 27, 2013]

References: 1. Spencer, Kyle (2012), “How the Internet of Things Will Change Your World”. Available from The Motley Fool, Website: http://beta.fool.com/fatalx/2012/10/12/how-silicon-valley-plans-re-invent-internet/14118/ [Accessed: June 27, 2013] 2. Ashton, Kevin (2009), “That ‘Internet of Things’ Thing”. Available from RFID Journal, Website: http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/4986 [Accessed: June 27, 2013] 3. Michael Chui, Markus Löffler, and Roger Roberts (2010), “The Internet of Things.” Available from McKinsey Quarterly 2010 Number 2, Website: http://cryptome.org/internet-spy-all.pdf [Accessed: June 27, 2013] 4. Brady Angel (2012), “The Internet of Things and Education.” Available from Princeton University-Education Technology Center, Website: http://blogs.princeton.edu/etc/2012/02/24/the-internet-of-things/[Accessed: June 27, 2013] 5. ShacklettMary(2013), “10 ways to make the Internet of Things pay off”. Available from TechRepublic, Website:http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-ways-to-make-the-internet-of-things-pay-off/3561[Accessed: June 27, 2013]