Imagine a world in which your coffee maker starts up the moment your alarm clock goes off; a world where putting on your workout gear will alert you to nearby running trails; where if you’re running late, the nearest transportation hub indicates to you which mode of transport will get you to work fastest.
The thing is, this isn’t some futuristic world. This world is the world of the Internet of Things (IoT), and it has arrived.
Though perhaps not mainstream yet, IoT’s offerings can be felt and interacted with in our present day. The idea behind the Internet of Things is that all objects will be able to communicate with one another, and as a result, will be able to interact with one another, much like the alarm clock and coffee maker example above. What’s more, is that everything is controlled by the universal remote we call our mobile device. Today, sensors deployed in products and the world around us can connect with our phones to bring us product information, location details, nearby activities, weather conditions — anything: our imagination is the limit.
While end-users benefit from everyday interactions, firms, companies and brands also have a lot at stake in implementing IoT. Through user engagement, companies can glean insightful analytics to help them create better products, and more efficient production cycles. For example, product engagement location data can be used to adjust future sales distribution to correlate with high-activity zones and thereby maximize sales. Brand marketing efforts can be improved by understanding the types of content users spend most time with. Interaction times can provide insight into when people are most and least engaged with a product, helping to form best practices on product launch schedules and boost response rates.
The Internet of Things allows us to create products and spaces that are smarter, better, and responsive. Adding a digital layer to the physical world transforms things and locations into dynamic items that are able to communicate with users, thereby elevating their value. In turn, this means building a more reactive world — a place that humans can navigate more easily, and from which they can glean stores of information to aid them throughout their daily activities.
Coffee waiting when you walk into the kitchen? That’s only the beginning.
