Definition

The Internet of things (IoT) refers to the network of physical devices (a.k.a. “things”) that exchange information over the internet.

The Basics

The internet of things is a catch-all term that refers to a wide variety of products that use the internet to send and receive data, not a specific technology.

In practice, the term IoT is usually applied to devices (things) that haven’t traditionally connected to the internet—think products like speakers, lights, thermostats, and even cars (as opposed to computers and smart phones).

Most broadly, the term internet of things is distinguished from the internet because the “things” referenced are sending and/or receiving data over the internet automatically, without a person there to interpret it.

The data can be a variety of things, but it’s usually information from sensors, cameras, and microphones; and the commands sent to control or change some feature about the device, usually based on the sensor.

Examples

  • When you use an app on your phone to turn the lights on at your house, you’re using the IoT to send a command to that IoT device installed in your house.
  • Home security cameras send their video feeds to the cloud and you can access them from your phone, this is an IoT application.
  • Telling a voice assistant, like Google Assistant or Alexa, to play music on a smart home speaker is using the IoT to process your voice request and stream music from servers.

What constitutes the IoT will continue to shift and expand as technologies evolve and manufacturers start to make more types of products connected over time—like vehicles, medical devices, and even aspects of our towns and cities like road sensors, people counters, streetlights, and more.

How does this impact me?

The IoT touts a lot of benefits for consumers: convenience, time savings, money savings, increased safety, and more. If you have any “smart home” products you’re seeing a glimpse of this already, but expect to see more IoT devices as manufacturers start adding internet connectivity to more types of devices.

If you’re thinking about IoT in a business setting, the benefits can be more tangible. The related term, the industrial internet of things (IIoT) promises greater efficiency and safety in manufacturing, farming, transportation, and more. This is primarily the type of IoT that we focus on here at Connected Proof—using sensor data from manufacturing operations to help reduce waste, energy use, production costs, downtime, and in turn increase efficiency and quality.

Takeaway

More types of devices than ever are connecting to the internet to collect and transmit data. This trend is only likely to increase in the near future as technology becomes cheaper and easier for manufacturers to implement.

What does this have to do with Connected Proof?

We make IoT devices, like IoT temperature sensors and IoT PID controllers. Our devices could be classified as industrial IoT devices since they’re positioned towards food and beverage producers and other businesses that need cold chain monitoring (but we think they’re easy enough to use that you could use them at home too). Check out the benefits on our IoT Cloud Dashboard page.