It was as early as 1982 when the idea to establish a network of smart devices was first discussed. Only to compliment that, Carnegie Mellon University’s Coke Vending Machine became the first appliance connected to internet. The function of the network established was to inform the inventory if the drinks inside were cold or hot. Continuing with the glory of innovation, academic platforms like PerCom and UbiComp were outlined with the vision of IoT as early as 1994.But earlier in 1991, the Ubiquitous Computing paper by Mark Weiser carried similar ideas and was named “Computer of the 21^st Century. IEEE Spectrum was the ideological construct that was proposed by Reza Raji in the year of 1994. Essential but little packets of data will be received by comparatively larger set of nodes which will in turn automate as well as integrate each and every thing starting from appliances used at home to establishment of internet connectivity in bigger factories and organisations.

Kevin Ashton of MIT’s Auto-ID Center and earlier from Procter & Gamble was the person who coined the term “Internet of Things”. In order to provide an example, an integral and large part of home automation is based on the technology of IoT. The verticals of home automation include security systems and media, air conditioning and heating and lighting systems. It is as if the assurance of the electrical appliances getting switched off at the right times is completely. This in turn helps in calculated consumption of electricity. Not a bit more. Not a bit less.

Relevant Technologies and Applications of those technologies

There are certain topologies in networking that are implemented in relevance to the technology of Internet of Things (IoT). It is because that the network topology must always be pre calculated while ideating the design of any IoT network. Star and Mesh are the two types of networks that substantially getting used to build IoT networks.

Machine learning is another area of innovation that is being combined with IoT in order to create better structure of things. Here scientific processes perform supervision of patterns and coming to an order which can predict and make decisions with instructions being given explicitly. Machine learning (ML) is also looked into as a sub set of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Based on the data provided by samples, ML generates a mathematical model which is termed as the Training Data which will perform a task without explicit instructions. This kind of network is combined with the methods of IoT in order to integrate a machine’s response to input or its capability in the process of automation.   

IoT getting amalgamated with the revolutionary technology of artificial intelligence or machine intelligence has been another scientific milestone for the human kind. This technology involves the response of a machine in a humane way to the natural intelligence that gets displayed by animals as well as humans. The application of AI has been extensive in the world. Large scale production units have started using it for better quantity purposes; medical science has made use of AI to perform complicated surgeries and procedures and many more.

IoT Challenges

Security: A particularly significant challenge for Iot as it is also one of the most essential pillars in the cyberspace and the one that is perceived by ISOC is equally essential. All the security vulnerabilities can be subject to exploitation if the number of connected devices gets increased from time to time. Most of the IoT deployments are always liable to consist along with nearly identical or identical devices. This automatically increases the networks getting oriented with each other thus making the entire network vulnerable to security issues.

Privacy: The challenges in maintaining privacy in IoT networks are most of the times unique by nature and exceptionally go much beyond the data privacy issues that currently exist in the world. It might happen because we are always unconsciously in close vicinity of integrating devices that can establish internet connectivity with the smart phones in our pockets. This has become very commonplace in case smart televisions, cars and phones and tracking devices as well. Additionally, the data collection and device deployment activities that are done for IoT networks have the opportunity to gain global visibility.

Standards: In case of IoT devices the documented best practices and lack of proper standards have a much greater impact than just limiting the potential of IoT based devices. Without much regards about what the possible impact could be, sometimes products are designed by developers that tend to operate in disruptive ways. This is why proper manufacturing standards must always be maintained.