Internet of Things Applications

For consumers, the advent of "smart" TVs, home automation gear and other web-enabled products offers a wealth of new capabilities. But the "Internet of Things," as this emerging technological ecosystem is known, also poses serious security risks. In a new report, the Federal Trade Commission lays out just how vulnerable that makes us, urging consumers and businesses to make safe use and design of the gadgets a priority. See more at: cbsnews.com

The Internet of Things is set to infiltrate every area of our lives, but with so much investment required to deliver the devices, infrastructure and standards, who is going to pay? asks Sophie Curtis. Cupboards that order groceries for you when you're running low, cars that automatically drive to the nearest available parking space, and central heating systems that warm up the house and have a hot bath waiting for you when you get home from work – this is the vision of the Internet of Things (IoT). The term has been bandied around for years, but now the hype is reaching fever pitch. According to some forecasts, there will be 50 billion everyday objects connected to the internet by 2020, and the UK Department for Business, Innovation & Skills claims the global market for smart city technology solutions and services could reach over £250 billion by the end of the decade. See more at: telegraph.co.uk

The Internet of Things (IoT) is increasingly taking over from Machine-to-Machine communications (M2M) as the trendy new buzzword. However, these terms are often used interchangeably, and neither of these two popular terms is well defined or standardised, with many organisations and companies operating with their own internal definitions. So, what’s the difference between IoT and M2M? In a basic sense, the definition of Machine-to-Machine communications (M2M) is that it’s communication between one remote machine and another. M2M is basically about communicating with a remote machine in the field in order to manage that machine or collect machine and sensor data. See more at: lxgroupteam.wordpress.com

2015 is shaping up to be the year of the Internet of Things (IoT). According to a study conducted by Gartner, there will be approximately 4.9 billion connected devices in use in 2015. This number has climbed 30 percent since 2014, and is forecasted to reach 25 billion by 2020. However, this trend also has security experts and consumers highlighting privacy issues that come along with the convenience of Internet connected devices. See more at: forbes.com

Fifteen to twenty years ago we were in the middle of another frothy, technology-hyped revolution — the Dot-Com era. Mass adoption of the Internet promised radical changes in business and our everyday life and a new social and economic Utopia. In those halcyon days, stock prices were on a tear, venture capital money flowed like water, and countless start-ups greedily chased the pot of gold. Could the most recent technology revolution, the Internet of Things, be another Dot-Com experience? See more at: blogs.cisco.com

You think you know the Internet pretty well, right? You go online every day, maybe watch some videos on your phone, upload some pictures to Instagram, and message your friends and family. That's a good start, but it's a just a fraction of the Internet's influence over your life. Over the next few years, and even now, the Internet is connecting parts of our lives in ways we never could have imagined just a few years ago. It's called the Internet of Things (weird name, I know), and it's going to transform the next 10 years of our technological lives. See more at: fool.com

Is there anything that can’t be connected to the Internet? For example, where I once wore a $10 pedometer clipped to the waistband of yoga pants, I now wear a $130 fitness tracker on my wrist. In the past, I just took a look at the numbers on the pedometer to see how many steps I’d taken; now I need to log onto an app on my smartphone to see how far I’ve walked and how many calories I’ve burned and even how well I’ve slept. Or, if I wanted to, I could turn on any light in the house from the comfort of my couch rather than get up and do so manually. And that’s just a small scratch on the surface of the phenomena that is known as the Internet of Things (IoT) See more at: forbes.com

The world of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is becoming more complex. Solutions are moving from single-purpose devices that transmit data to an application in the network and receive commands from a network application to the Internet of Things (IoT). However, solutions permitting multi-purpose devices and collaborative applications can become chaotic. See more at: The Internet of Things — Time for standardization

Power companies read meters through tele-metering systems instead of visiting houses; doctors remotely monitor the conditions of their patients 24/7 by having the patients use devices at home instead of requiring the patients to stay at hospital; vehicle-mounted terminals automatically display the nearest parking space; sensors in smart homes turn off utilities, close windows, monitor security, and report to homeowners in real time. These are scenarios that only existed in science fiction previously. With the coming of age of the Internet of Things, however, they are becoming a reality. See more at: Internet of Things and its future