How the Internet of Things is going to change our lives

(In a two part blog series, I will explore how the Internet of Things is going to have a profound impact on our lives and what it means for Banking).

The term Internet of Things was coined in 1985 by Peter T. Lewis. He stated that the Internet of Things, or IoT, is the integration of people, processes and technology with connectable devices and sensors to enable remote monitoring, status, manipulation and evaluation of trends of such devices.

That’s a mouthful. Essentially, it has come to mean that the internet is coming out of our computers, phones, and other electronic devices, and entering objects around us. It is connecting anything to anything from a fridge to a tennis racket to a toothbrush to traffic lights and to people and animals.

How big is it?

IoT is a phenomenon which will connect anything which can be connected, eventually. The pace of growth is incredibly high and it is changing the way we live.

• Cisco estimated the size of the IoT market to be $19 trillion with enormous opportunities for both the private and the public sectors and 50 billion things will be connected by 2020.
• GE reported that the Internet of Everything has the potential to add $10-15 trillion over the next 20 years.
• McKinsey’s Global Institute estimated that Internet of Things will deliver $6.2 trillion by 2025.
• Gartner predicted that connected things will reach 25 billion by 2020.

The figure below shows how briskly we are moving from the age of devices towards an era where people, process, data and things will get connected to create an Internet of Everything bringing in new possibilities and opportunities for businesses and people.

Source: Cisco IBSG, 2012

How is the Internet of Things created?

John Barrett in an enlightening talk, explained it as follows:

First, we must give an object (or a person or an animal) a unique identity. There are addressing protocols in the internet which help us achieve this without any practical limits.

Second, we must give it the ability to communicate. This can be done through Bluetooth, WiFi, RFID, NFC, radio, satellite, etc.

Third, we must give it senses, by putting sensors on it. This will tell us something about the object or about the environment around the object.

Last, we should be able to reach out to the object remotely from anywhere in the world. This can be achieved by embedding a tiny chip in it (these things are getting smaller and cheaper every passing year).

This raises an important question. What practical things can I do with the smart object?

Connect

You are in a retail store and you are passing by the aisle stocked with milk. Your smartphone vibrates. You pick it up and it tells you that you need to buy 2 litres of milk now since you are out of milk for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Monitor

Your father has a pacemaker implanted in his chest to maintain a stable heart rate. It monitors his heart and sends periodic information to his doctor and his family. It gives early warnings and can predict failures two weeks before it happens so that preventive measures can be taken well within time.

Search

You child usually comes back home from school at 4 pm. Its 4.30 pm, but she has not yet reached. You try calling the caretaker in the bus, but her phone is switched off. Where is your child? Luckily, she has a GPS tracker attached to her belt and you track it to her school. You call up her school to find out that the bus has not yet left as it had an engine problem. Your child is with her teacher; she is safe. You heave a sigh of relief.

Manage

The traffic situation in your city is getting worse. You reminisce the good old days when you reached office in 15 mins, which now takes 45 mins on bad days. Fortunately, the city transport authority has recently started tracking all the vehicles as part of their Smart City initiative. Soon, they will start auto-directing the vehicles to different routes to manage peak hour congestion. Better still, if all the vehicles on the road could talk to each other and to the traffic lights, they could dynamically adjust based on the congestion and wait times.

Control

You are away from home on a holiday with your family. Your childhood friend is in your city, he’s just passing by. He checks with you if you are home so that he can come and spend the night at your place. You apologize, but remotely open the doors of your house to let your friend in.

There are hundreds of possible use cases, many of which have already been implemented. It’s not a moonshot idea anymore. Companies will be limited only by their imagination. The potential benefits of this phenomenon look amazing.

How safe is it?

As with all major technological strides at scale, IoT may be fraught with perils. 

Privacy

The English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham, in the late 18th century, designed The Panopticon – a type of institutional building that allows all (pan) inmates of an institution to be observed (opticon) by a single watchman, without the inmates being able to tell whether or not they are being watched. In the IoT world, where anything can potentially be connected with anything else, privacy begins to appear meaningless. Would we want a connected world where we can be watched by unknown individuals and entities round the clock? Connecting is easy, disconnecting is not. What will be our entitlement in a world like this? That’s a scary thought.

Security

Things are getting connected not because they need to, but because they can. Imagine a world, not too distant, when energy, security, transport, health systems are all part of one connected network. The possibility of terrorism and hacking becomes magnified beyond imagination. Hackers have already been successful in hacking pacemakers, energy grids, insulin pumps, car systems and smart meters. Besides, without security, how can we enforce privacy?

Interoperability

To get the full potential of the connected experience, the IoT ecosystem requires interoperability. The reality, however, is that IoT is fragmented. The fragmentation may be the result of things like different OEMs, different OSs, different connectivity frameworks, different communication protocols, etc. To get around this, standards must be created. This area is a work-in-progress and is some time away.

Despite the obvious drawbacks, we are hurtling towards this world for obvious benefits. It remains to be seen how much will the balance tilt in favour of the benefits. Till then, let’s connect.

Read part 2 of the blog series here.

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The views and opinions expressed or implied herein are my own and do not reflect those of my employer, who shall not be liable for any action that may result as a consequence of my views and opinions.