In response to YogaFan

The most important features of IoT include artificial intelligence, connectivity, sensors, active engagement, and small device use.

IoT essentially makes virtually anything “smart”, meaning it enhances every aspect of life with the power of data collection, artificial intelligence algorithms, and networks. This can mean something as simple as enhancing your refrigerator and cabinets to detect when milk and your favorite cereal run low, and to then place an order with your preferred grocer.
IoT functions in a similar and deeper way to current technology, analytics, and big data. Existing technology collects specific data to produce related metrics and patterns over time, however, that data often lacks depth and accuracy. IoT improves this by observing more behaviors and analyzing them differently.

The most important features of IoT include artificial intelligence, connectivity, sensors, active engagement, and small device use.

In response to Alex Tetradze

IoT systems have applications across industries through their unique flexibility and ability to be suitable in any environment. They enhance data collection, automation, operations, and much more through smart devices and powerful enabling technology.

IoT systems allow users to achieve deeper automation, analysis, and integration within a system. They improve the reach of these areas and their accuracy. IoT utilizes existing and emerging technology for sensing, networking, and robotics.

IoT systems have applications across industries through their unique flexibility and ability to be suitable in any environment. They enhance data collection, automation, operations, and much more through smart devices and powerful enabling technology.

In response to Shila Vasuda Gupta

IoT is an advanced automation and analytics system which exploits networking, sensing, big data, and artificial intelligence technology to deliver complete systems for a product or service. These systems allow greater transparency, control, and performance when applied to any industry or system

IoT exploits recent advances in software, falling hardware prices, and modern attitudes towards technology. Its new and advanced elements bring major changes in the delivery of products, goods, and services; and the social, economic, and political impact of those changes.

IoT is an advanced automation and analytics system which exploits networking, sensing, big data, and artificial intelligence technology to deliver complete systems for a product or service. These systems allow greater transparency, control, and performance when applied to any industry or system

Many "entry-level" IoT products fit smoothly into the patterns of daily life by simplifying routine tasks. Finding your keys, unlocking your door, turning lights on and off — these and other habits can be automated with sensors and intelligent software. A truly smart home is full of products that know your preferences, anticipate your needs and respond dynamically to your behavior, so you can spend less time micromanaging your house and more time living in it.

The IoT is growing at a significant pace as consumers, businesses, and governments are recognizing the benefits of connecting inert devices to the internet.Research firm IDC’s report confirms that the worldwide IoT market is poised to grow to $1.7 trillion by 2020 with a CAGR of 16.9%. A recent report titled ‘The Internet of Things Ecosystem Research’ from Business Insider (BI) states that the number of devices connected to the internet will increase from 10 billion in 2015 to 34 billion by 2020. BI’s report foresees that global market will witness an investment of nearly $6 trillion in IoT solutions over the next five years and investments made in the next five years are projected to generate $13 trillion in revenue by 2025.

IoT enabled Big Data. The Internet of Things (IoT) consists of all the web-enabled devices  that collect, send and act on data they acquire from their surrounding environments using embedded sensors, processors and communication hardware. These "connected" or "smart" devices, can sometimes talk to other related devices and act on the information they get from one another.

Thanks to cheap processors and wireless networks, it's possible to turn anything, from a pill to an aeroplane, into part of the IoT. This adds a level of digital intelligence to devices that would be otherwise dumb, enabling them to communicate without a human being involved, and merging the digital and physical worlds.

In response to Denny Daskalov

To illustrate the benefits of blockchain and Internet of Things convergence, IBM gives the example of complex trade lanes and logistics whereby smart contracts can follow (and via blockchain technology register), everything that has happened to individual items and packages. The benefits: audit trails, accountability, new forms of contracts and speed, to name a few.

Technology, whereby mainly security comes in the picture. In an Internet of Things context where security is already a challenge, it’s clear that security needs to be even more looked at. It is important to note though that blockchain is also seen as a way to secure the Internet of Things and, as mentioned, security overall but that is another discussions with several opinions and aspects to cover.

To illustrate the benefits of blockchain and Internet of Things convergence, IBM gives the example of complex trade lanes and logistics whereby smart contracts can follow (and via blockchain technology register), everything that has happened to individual items and packages. The benefits: audit trails, accountability, new forms of contracts and speed, to name a few.

Fog computing, a form of edge computing and also propagated by Cisco shifts analysis of IoT data to the point of origination, thus speeding up things and freeing up bandwidth and other resources in non-distributed analytics (at the edge, in the network and in some form of cloud integration).

While the Internet of Things today mainly is approached from the perspective of connected devices, their sensing capabilities, communication possibilities and, in the end, the device-generated data which are analyzed and leveraged to steer processes and power numerous potential IoT use cases, the Internet of Everything concept wants to offer a broader view.

What is the Internet of Things? According to TechTarget’s WhatIs.com, the Internet of Things is “a scenario in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.” And the “things” part of this is basically anything that can be given an IP address and the ability top transfer data over a network.

Although we're beginning to see more and more connected devices, remember that on the whole, IoT is still very immature. This can create disruptive opportunities for early adopters. But it's also causing many companies to wait to see what happens before they jump into IoT.

Considered a subset of the Internet of Things (IoT), WoT focuses on software standards and frameworks such as REST, HTTP and URIs to create applications and services that combine and interact with a variety of network devices.

Like pervasive computing, IoT-connected devices communicate and provide notifications about usage. The vision of pervasive computing is computing power widely dispersed throughout daily life in everyday objects. The internet of things is on its way to providing this vision and turning common objects into connected devices, yet, as of now, requires a great deal of configuration and human interaction.

An example of pervasive computing is an Apple Watch informing a user of a phone call and allowing him to complete the call through the watch. Or, when a registered user for Amazon's streaming music service asks her Echo device to play a song, and the song is played without any other user intervention.

In response to Neelam Szczepański

Ubiquitous computing is a concept in software engineering and computer science where computing is made to appear anytime and everywhere. In contrast to desktop computing, ubiquitous computing can occur using any device, in any location, and in any format. A user interacts with the computer, which can exist in many different forms, including laptop computers, tablets and terminals in everyday objects such as a refrigerator or a pair of glasses.

Neelam,

Privacy is easily the most often-cited criticism of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp), and may be the greatest barrier to its long-term success.

Ubiquitous computing is a concept in software engineering and computer science where computing is made to appear anytime and everywhere. In contrast to desktop computing, ubiquitous computing can occur using any device, in any location, and in any format. A user interacts with the computer, which can exist in many different forms, including laptop computers, tablets and terminals in everyday objects such as a refrigerator or a pair of glasses.

Video is widely considered the eye of IoT. It is a game changer. Vision technology is helping companies use video and images to better understand their business in transportation, public services, retail, industrial manufacturing, healthcare and more.

In a nutshell, the Internet of Things refers to devices other than computers that are connected to the Internet and can send and receive data. The term has been around for more than 15 years, though it only began gaining wide currency more recently.

The concept of the IoT ecosystem, however, didn't really come into its own until the middle of 2010 when, in part, the government of China said it would make IoT a strategic priority in its five-year plan.

In response to Kolab Pasternak

A thing in the internet of things can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when tire pressure is low or any other natural or man-made object that can be assigned an IP address and is able to transfer data over a network.

IoT evolved from machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, i.e., machines connecting to each other via a network without human interaction. M2M refers to connecting a device to the cloud, managing it and collecting data.  Taking M2M to the next level, IoT is a sensor network of billions of smart devices that connect people, systems and other applications to collect and share data. As its foundation, M2M offers the connectivity that enables IoT.

IoT is bringing everything digital together, if IoT knows everything about every object on the planet, it is logical that it will know everything about any person on the planet. With the help of products of IoT such as blockchain, do you see the world being divided into countries in the next century?

A thing in the internet of things can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when tire pressure is low or any other natural or man-made object that can be assigned an IP address and is able to transfer data over a network.

In response to Arabinda Scott

I read somewhere that the IoT is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. 

What are those UID's?

Arabinda,

A unique identifier (UID) is a numeric or alphanumeric string that is associated with a single entity within a given system. UIDs make it possible to address that entity, so that it can be accessed and interacted with. 

I read somewhere that the IoT is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. 

What are those UID's?

I found an amasing presentation: The Evolution of the Internet. Tell me what you think about it.

In response to Terez Fabian

The IOT will affect many areas of day to day life. Some of the main sectors are:

• Home
• Health medical
• Fitness and wellness
• factory and industry
• Agriculture
• Cars and roads
• Cities

The Internet of Things is used in a variety of business sectors, from agriculture to healthcare to manufacturing. Developments like automated checkout, connected, self-driving vehicles, and asset management are helping to increase efficiency and productivity, and lower costs across several industries. The consumer is seeing the benefits too, with advancements in healthcare products and monitoring, and personal health and fitness products.

The IOT will affect many areas of day to day life. Some of the main sectors are:

• Home
• Health medical
• Fitness and wellness
• factory and industry
• Agriculture
• Cars and roads
• Cities

In the Internet of Things each endpoint/device has a unique IP address. IoT endpoints are the ‘things’ at the edge of an IoT network, which have an IP address. This includes consumer devices such as smart fitness trackers and intelligent pieces of hardware with software that are embedded in or attached to things in order to add them to the Internet of Things or make them ‘IoT-enabled’. The endpoint is addressable in IoT.

In response to Baldur Helgason

Most of us do not appreciate how significant the growth of IoT really is.  The wave of connectivity is going beyond laptops and smartphones, it’s going towards connected cars, smart homes, connected wearables, smart cities and connected healthcare. Basically a connected life. According to Gartner report, by 2020 connected devices across all technologies will reach to 20.6 billion.  Here is how, according to a survey made by HP, the number of connected devices changed over the years:

1990 - 300 thousand

1999 - 90 million

2010 - 5 billion

2013 - 9 billion

2025 - 1 trillion

Baldur,

I believe I saw somewhere that 2008 was the year when the number of "things" connected to the Internet of Things exceeded the number of human beings on the planet.

Most of us do not appreciate how significant the growth of IoT really is.  The wave of connectivity is going beyond laptops and smartphones, it’s going towards connected cars, smart homes, connected wearables, smart cities and connected healthcare. Basically a connected life. According to Gartner report, by 2020 connected devices across all technologies will reach to 20.6 billion.  Here is how, according to a survey made by HP, the number of connected devices changed over the years:

1990 - 300 thousand

1999 - 90 million

2010 - 5 billion

2013 - 9 billion

2025 - 1 trillion

Wow, I hope that is not true.  I am an avid game collector and if disc-based games get replaced with some kind of streaming service I will be very disappointed :(

Ugo, here is an interesting fact that is related to your point.  Video gaming is the biggest entertainment industry at the moment.  The prediction is that the big console companies (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo) will soon move to a streaming platform, meaning that gamers will need a fast Internet connection and games will only be streamed to their consoles via the Internet for a monthly fee (disc-based games will disappear)..

To me internet is like  to electricity: in the beginning it was use only for pubblic illumination. Now it is used everywhere, we cannot live without it and it had becomed invisible to many of us.

Internet will do the same. Some years ago we had to physically connect a device to the internet cable to use it, now you hop between wifi hotspot almost without noticing it.

In the future all the devices/appliances that we use everyday will be connected and interacting to each other.