Mastering Internet of Things

Defining the Internet of Things

The successful study of any subject begins with using good definitions. Without clear definitions, the boundaries become fuzzy and immediate consequences and implications become unclear. The term Internet of Things started as a visionary statement, a buzz word, rather than a definition. While the term has enjoyed exceptional media coverage, the visionary statement has been interpreted differently by different people.

The term is normally considered to be coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999 when he described a future where things such as barcode readers would be directly connected to the internet, without the interference of humans. Humans were likened to bad, slow, and error prone routers. While “things” had already ...