Internet of Things - forming a Digital Revolution in every aspect of our lives

We are at the point of time, in humanity’s history, where Computers are evolving from simple calculating machines to ubiquitous systems with their existence trying to be transferred from our individual devices to every single object in our surrounding environments (1). And by “surrounding environments”, we mean every possible aspect of our every-day life comprising machines, products, devices, wearables, means of transport and people that need to interact and communicate with each other. Hence, we are heading to a new age where our societies and our everyday lives are strongly related and based on information and computerization (2) (1).

With the technological evolution and development we are able to enhance all our environments and our activities with intelligence and embed in everything the characteristic of smartness. Enabled by the concept of Internet of Things, the environments in which we exist are becoming smarter and that is due to the newly created abilities of every single object that consists an environment to connect and interact in a network of objects, exchange data, create knowledge from that data and actuate accordingly in an autonomous manner (2). Therefore, the Information Age in which we are living in is formed and a Digital Revolution in every aspect of our lives is now a fact.

This transfer and evolution of the computing systems into ubiquitous systems predisposes the ability of smart internet-enabled devices, often referred to as things/objects blended in any environment, to interact and cooperate with each other in order to reach common goals. And this is basically the main idea and definition of the disruptive concept of Internet of Things (IoT) (1) or Internet of Everything as some prefer to call it (3). In very simple words, an ability is created to take any object, connect it in a network of objects, enabling them to exchange data and create knowledge from that data (1). That equals to the creation of a new type of intelligence that offers features of automization in environments as well as features of “decision” making from the connected objects themselves.

Therefore, every asset can have its own, as Gartner calls it, “digital voice” (4) that enables the exchange of information through a network of distributed intelligence — a network consisted by smart objects or devices that sense and exchange data. So, by applying “digital voices” to devices and objects, a lot of data can be gathered and analyzed creating a seamless generation of valuable information and knowledge (2).

1. The Internet of Things: A survey. Atzori, Luigi, Iera, Antonio and Morabito, Giacomo. 2010, Computer Networks.
2. Internet of Things (IoT): A vision, architectural elements, and future directions. Gubbi, Jayavardhana , et al. 2013.
3. CISCO. How does Cisco define the Internet of Everything, and how is it different from the “Internet of Things”? The Internet of Everything Global Public Sector Economic Analysis. [Online] 2013. http://internetofeverything.cisco.com/sites/default/files/docs/en/ioe_value_at_stake_public_sector%20_analysis_faq_121913final.pdf.
4. Gartner. Gartner says 4.9 Billion Connected “Things” Will Be in Use in 2015. Gartner, 11 November 2014. www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2905717.
5. A Complex View of Industry 4.0. Vasja Roblek, Maja Meško, and Alojz Krapež. s.l. : SAGE, 2016.