If the television is the most recent fireplace where families got together to relax in the evening and we get more and more devices or products with screens. What will the fireplace of the future be?

Yesterday I wrote about Big Data - What is it all about in Laymen's terms . Today I want to continue with the series with the Internet of Things or IOT as it is better known as.

So what is the "Internet of things" or IOT?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifier and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.
Source : http://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-of-Things-IoT

So, a "thing" in the internet of things, can be a car connected to the vehicle tracking or fleet management system, a farm animal with a transponder or a person with a heart monitor implant. At the end of the day anything that has a unique identifier, or IP address and has the ability to transport data over any sort of network.

Imagine that

Imagine you live somewhere in a small town in the country side and all the stores in the area already know what you like and possibly will want to buy. This is one way to see the internet of things. You go to buy the your news paper , (oh no wait, the newspaper is on your electronic device.) , you go to buy some meat for Sunday afternoon lunch, then the store owner sends a signal to the local grocery store where you will get your vegetables, but you also get a message to say that the "apple jelly" is on special at the local merchant, because 'they' know what you like. The IOT will have a massive influence on our daily life.

We don't know at this point how big this influence will be, as just technology have the ability to surprise all of us. Even us, which has been in the ICT industry for many years are surprised on a daily basis.

Smart Cities

In my opinion smart cities will be one of the first things that will have an impact on our lives through IOT. Smart cities are basically a fully connected environment, where all the cities assets are managed in a secure way. So all your schools, transportation systems, energy providers, water suppliers, garbage removal , hospitals and health systems are connected. This is only to mention a few. Many other providers of services will be connected. Let's say you are riding your bike to work and have an accident. Your wrist watch which monitor you health and vital level's can send an immediate message to the police to report the accident and also notify the hospital so send an ambulance. At the same time the transport system, will direct the traffic differently. And at this point, nobody has made a phone call to alert anybody. It can save lives.

Image Credit

Smart Mirror

What about a smart mirror, which knows you intimately. Your height, Length, Weight, but more importantly what you types of clothing you love to buy. The mirror is connected to the stores catalogs, and you can experiment and profile in real time on the mirror to see if you would like to buy the specific clothing piece. The mirror will suggest options depending on your budget and fashion profile. The best of all is that you do not even have to be in the store, as the IOT Mirror can action any retail store catalog and you can action this at anytime and anywhere. The mirror continuously gathers data which can be used to create new fashion categories. Your 'WANTS' are recorded, grouped and positioned for future fashion trends that can be sent to the Designers who are part of the Retail Value Network.

There are many more examples of how the internet of things will influence our daily lives, and I bet we can all thing of a way to apply this technology to enhance our lives.

So how does all of this work and fit together?

It sounds much more complicate than it actually is. Most of the required technologies are already available and used on a daily basis. Everything just needs to be pulled together, and I sincerely hope that the blockchain will be the underlying technology platform to drive all of this. Obviously we need a standard IOT communication protocol, w

So if we look at the various required pieces to build a value chain:

Smart Modules

Smart Modules can be anything from SIM cards in mobile devices, dedicated IOT sensors, Transponders or any device that can send and receive signals.

Smart Objects

Similar to Smart Modules we also have smart objects or devices which can include a multitude of things, Vending Machines, Appliances, Car's, Cameras, Computers, even the heart implant devices or smart watches which we used in the example above.

Network Operators

High quality networks, connectivity, highly availability. There are many of these.

Service Enablers

Service enablers are the guys building out platforms and enabling capabilities though applications. Typically the developers of concepts behind IOT mirrors

System Integrator

These organisations or communities will provide the capability to integrate the various layers, created by the system enablers. Back-End hardware etc.

Service Providers

Although the blockchain technology can be used in many way's to assist in building out the internet of things, I believe that something like CryptoCurrency can play a massive role in this area. Packaging and bundling of services as well as services provisioning will happen in this layer. Everything required here can be provided by the blockchain and cryptocurrency . We are talking about , Customer relationship management, Billing and all of those type of things.

Customers and Communities

Ultimately, communities and customers need to consume these services. This links back to my post from yesterday Shifting our energy to send the STEEM engine into perpetual motion

I hope this gives the non-technical audience some comfort and a better understanding of the term Internet of Things or IOT.

Final Thought

I read a very good conclusion in one of the articles when I did research on the subject. The television became the most recent fireplace where families got together to relax in the evening. At present we are getting more and more devices or products with screens on them. Cellphones, Tablets, Computers. **Question: What will be the fireplace of the future! **

Please ask any questions in the comments section and I will try my best to answer where I can.

Happy Steeming!

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