IoT has garnered a lot of interests lately, and seems to be the next big thing, vowed to stimulate a fundamental shift of interaction between machine-to-machine, and machine-to-people. It is not only about how data would be gathered from network of sensors and devices at the cloud, but how those data would be acted on to create values that benefit us.
With the estimation of 50 billions objects connected to IoT network by 2020, there would be unimaginable number of applications churned out by then, making our life easy yet complicated. Easy in the sense of those sensors and devices would dictate our life, making decisions for us without any human intervention; for instance sending us from point A to point B via a smart car based on best calculated route, refill our fridge when inventory is low, call for emergency service and alert our loved ones based on our vital signs, auto cancellation of appointments when we reported sick, optimization of energy usage based on climate changes etc. Yet the complication would kick in before and after the rolling out of IoT applications and services - we have to replace most home appliances and even our cars, train the young and elderly on using those applications and services, program and re-program of applications as our needs changed etc.
However, just like any major shift in technological advancements in the past, the growing pain will slowly subside, replaced with excitement of unlimited possibilities that IoT would bring upon. Our time would be better used, health care would be more efficient, higher energy savings would be realized, and quality of life would be improved; the pros will surpass the cons in many levels.
I'll dwell into some areas of IoT in my coming posts, starting with home automation, the closest topic to us.
With the estimation of 50 billions objects connected to IoT network by 2020, there would be unimaginable number of applications churned out by then, making our life easy yet complicated. Easy in the sense of those sensors and devices would dictate our life, making decisions for us without any human intervention; for instance sending us from point A to point B via a smart car based on best calculated route, refill our fridge when inventory is low, call for emergency service and alert our loved ones based on our vital signs, auto cancellation of appointments when we reported sick, optimization of energy usage based on climate changes etc. Yet the complication would kick in before and after the rolling out of IoT applications and services - we have to replace most home appliances and even our cars, train the young and elderly on using those applications and services, program and re-program of applications as our needs changed etc.
However, just like any major shift in technological advancements in the past, the growing pain will slowly subside, replaced with excitement of unlimited possibilities that IoT would bring upon. Our time would be better used, health care would be more efficient, higher energy savings would be realized, and quality of life would be improved; the pros will surpass the cons in many levels.
I'll dwell into some areas of IoT in my coming posts, starting with home automation, the closest topic to us.