The Internet of Things

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the place to be if you are into electronics. Although I have been to Las Vegas, I could never really catch the CES. But with access to the Internet 24/7, it is almost like I am there. Yes, the Internet has dramatically and drastically changed our world. We can travel around the world without ever leaving our chairs thanks to the Internet.

Most of us still access the web on a PC, tablet or smartphone. These devices are more or less meant to connect us to the Internet, or more precisely the World Wide Web. However, the focus now is on other devices which can be connected to the Internet. This concept is called the Internet of Things, which really means things that are connected to the Internet. And CES 2015 was mostly about the Internet Of Things (IOT).

Every major tech company touted the Internet of Things (IoT) at Vegas. From refrigerators which can order milk packs to air conditioners which really know about the weather outside, it is a gold mine that naturally stirs the tech hype machine because it means tech companies can sell us all sorts of gadgets in the future. In fact, almost every product will become smart and connected to the Internet and to each other, giving the tech companies an inroad for taking over other industries.

Devices

The range of devices is vast. Among the products on show at CES were connected light bulbs, smart pet feeders, teddy bears with health sensors, self-watering flowerpots, smart toothbrushes, drones and robots.

Samsung, one of the companies at the forefront of IOT, says that 100 percent of its products from TVs to microwaves) would be connected to the Internet within five years. Samsung said it would invest $100 million in creating standards for the Internet of Things.

Intel also had a new chip for the Internet of Things, dubbed Curie, that will be the foundation of even more Internet of Things devices to come. These devices will connect to the Internet and have their own IP addresses. They will get smart enough to capture data from sensors and process it in a way that can be delivered in an understandable way to our smartphones or the web. The devices should be able to “talk” to each other eventually, although there is no single standard yet.

Appliances

Smart homes, cars, and appliances are coming. There is even an interactive mirror made by Panasonic which takes an ordinary mirror and turns it in to a smart display, enabling you to know what you would look like with sparkles on your eyelashes or a moustache. Then you can send that image off to the Internet. A wristband for your smartphone, for example, might take your vital statistics, which would be transmitted to your doctor in nearly real-time.

But IOT devices will not take off if they cannot work together. The Internet of Things could become the biggest network of devices of all time by the year 2020, with 50 billion connected devices, according to Intel. But that won’t happen if the companies involved do not make interoperable standards. It is thus vital to define standards right now since there are about three competing standards. Qualcomm has AllSeen and AllJoyn standards for smart home devices and smart lighting, respectively. These standards will compete with the Open Interconnect Consortium devices being promoted by the likes of Intel and Samsung.

Challenge

One challenge facing the makers of IOT equipment is that prices should come down to the point where they are almost equal to the price levels of their “dumb” counterparts. This will take at least 5-6 years when economies of scale kick in and proper standards are in place. For example, a normal bulb costs Rs.100, but a smart one costs Rs.10,000 now. Manufacturer KeeLight showed off its Wi-Fi enabled multicolour smart light bulbs at CES.

You can control them with an app remotely, and turn on sections of your home to create the right atmosphere within seconds. But will anyone want to buy a bulb at Rs.10,000? That is why it is essential to bring the prices down. Google has already achieved that with its Nest thermostat which ships around 50,000 units a month. However in the future, almost all appliances will be ‘smart’, obviating the need to manufacture dumb appliances.

With smartwatches increasingly coming to the scene including Apple’s highly anticipated iWatch, it will be possible to control most appliances remotely from your watch. If you want your over to bake that cake you had put in the oven tray in the morning, just send the instructions through your smartwatch. There will even be 3D printers that can do the job if you give it all the ingredients. When your fridge tells you that it is running low on vegetables, you can relay instructions to it to place an order for vegetables. This kind of interactivity will be vital to ensure the success of IOT devices.

Appeal

There are, of course, security concerns with the IOT. If all of our appliances are connected to the Internet 24/7, a number of outside parties will be able to know details of our lifestyles, spending patterns and delivery times. If the Internet of Things is to achieve widespread appeal, it will need to alleviate these concerns and the key method is likely to be transparency. Some users may be more than willing to share their personal information with companies, but they will surely want to be informed of why and how that data is being used.

The IOT is just taking off. Just five years ago, we never anticipated the rise of the smartphone. The IOT is likely to take off in a similar manner.

Our homes already have a lot of ‘smart’ devices from TVs to iPads, but they cannot yet talk to each other. Five years on, a lot more of them will be even smarter and connected to each other and to the Internet, making our lives easier.