Internet of things is the term we use for the new usage of technology around us. For example, nowadays iPhone users can activy Siri and ask it to do things for them like call someone, tell the weather, send a message and all of this things (as well as Android users that have the google service for this too).
All these devices are connected (by cables or by wireless) so everything can talk to each other. And these huge technology is gathering a lot of data that can be used to create things in the future.
Imagine in the future you are coming back to your house after your entire day of work and your house knows that you are coming, so it prepares a hot shower to you and all you have to do when you arrive at your house is to go to your bathroom and take your shower after your tiring day. And after your house knows that you like to watch your favourite tv show, so it turns your tv on and all you have to do is to sit on your sofa in front of the television. And so you like to read before going to bed, so your bedroom turns the light on for you to read and it knows when you finish reading and then itself turns the lights off for you. In the following morning your house knows what time you wake up, so it already boiled water for your coffee and prepared your toasts. It also knows the time you leave your house to work, so in the same moment you leave, your house turns off all the electricity in order to save your money and be safer.
That is what we call Internet of Things. Devices learning our actions, what we like and what we don’t, our routines, and talking to themselves and so they will be able to do things for us without having to be told to.
One example that already exists is the Nest Learning Thermostat that was developed by Tony Fadell and a friend of him while he was building himself an ecological house. The Nest Thermostat has an artificial intelligence that allows it to learn your routine, the days you use it the most, the temperature you use the most and the time you sleep, so the thermostat knows when to turn it on and which temperature to use. If you leave your house to work, for example, and forget to turn it off, it turns off itself because it knows that you left to work. And if one day you leave for a trip and forget to turn it off and the thermostat does not know that you leave for a trip, so it cannot turn off by itself, you can access it using your device (like your iPhone, iPad or MacBook).
Nest iPhone App
Nest Learning Thermostat
Sources:
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-of-Things
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/05/internet-of-things/
http://www.smartthings.com/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbrennan/2013/10/10/house-of-the-future-how-automation-tech-is-transforming-the-home/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nest_Labs
https://nest.com/
Giulia Reato 