Don’t tell me you have never been a little bit scared about the idea of robots and machines taking over the planet. This is not some dystopian thriller, this is happening baby.
What is IoT (The Internet of Things)?
Some are calling it the fourth stage of computing and they may be right.
Click here if interested in the first 3 stages.
IoT & smart technology has been brewing underground for a number of years. Recently, it is starting to become a lot more visible and taking over our lives.
“Machines telling other machines what action to take. “
IoT is in essence the idea of one sensor or device talking to another device. Not only exchanging data but requesting a particular action to be taken. All without the need for any human engagement.
Previously machines responded when a human asked it to do something, now devices are beginning to respond and act based solely on messages that their sensors are telling them.
Some crazy ideas that are apparently now possible.
1. Plants that can tweet when they are thirsty for water.
http://global.parrot.com/au/products/flower-power/
(Ok so the example above is not an actual tweet but it is exactly what I imagine a rose bush might say)
2. A beer consumption database while at Oktoberfest:
Sensors that can actually remember and send to a database precise quantities of how much you drank. It will fill in a nice excel sheet, it will probably even chart a trajectory of how your evening went.
Unfortunately I can’t share a link for that one with you as I don’t really approve.
3. Self-driving cars:
We have all heard plenty about these, sure even Enda himself has tried one of those googley veeh-heh-cals. But think about it for a minute, with GPS, traffic lights, your meat-loaf playlist and then the cars themselves. How many digital messages will be pinging around the roads at any given second? That is a helluva lot of inter-connectivity going on right there.
4. The intelligent refrigerator:
The fridge keeps track of what has been consumed and what is going out of date. It automatically fills in your online tesco delivery form with your required yum yums. It even hooks into your iphone calendar to know when it is best for you to receive the consignment. All that you have to do is answer the doorbell.
A slight problem with this one, why would I want to be answering the doorbell. I’ll happily let the drones fly the prosecco and strawberries straight into my cooler.
5. Sprinkler systems connected to the weather forecast:
They do all of their funky stuff by just taking data streams from accuweather for your local area. Yeah I preferred the concept of the tweeting plants too.
The elephant in the room.
The big problem with a lot of these weird and wonderful new inventions coming online is the management of big data, where it is stored and who can access it. But big data my friend, is another story for another day.
One Final Thing
Do you have a Christmas party coming up and stuck for ideas in the office secret santa? Well, isn’t it lucky I’ve got you covered.
Secret Santa Gift for Your Boss
Keep it digital,
Mark
