In my previous blog Invade of internet & machines: Internet of Things (IoT), we saw how IoT came in everyone's daily life in some form. But the present depth of IoT is between 5-10% of what is predicted for future by 2020. The global Internet of Things market will grow more than $1.7 trillion by 2020 from $655.8 billion in 2014. All these figure attracts, enthusiast all across the world.

To better understand what is Internet of Things, sometimes also called Internet of Everything, we need to look back at the past progresses and the technological advancements.

Internet of things is not a new concept. IoT is old wine in new bottle. Rise of IoT can be tracked back to telegram and telephone phase when two or more devices were sending and receiving analog signal. With growth in technology, we slowly moved from analog to digital signals, wired to wireless system and telephone to computer devices and then was created a World Wide Network (www) which we call Internet. The growth of hardware devices and network were tightly coupled from very beginning.

Coming of computer and internet marked a new industrial and technological phase. Many new industries/sector came into existence with a lot of new employment opportunities all across the world. Both hardware and software advancement helped in reducing the size of devices and increasing the capability of software, and came the era of smart phones.

Start of Smart Phones Era

Smart phones slowly replaced desktop/laptop from daily use. Smart phones are now able to do most of the daily work from taking note, socializing, checking emails, chatting to recharging mobile, booking movie and cab, ordering food and daily grocery etc. The use of smart phones slowly reduced the use computers and then Bill Gates dream of A computer in every home, seemed unnecessary. Google with its Android OS took the stage. The phase is seeing a lot of exciting inventions coming from every industry. Every industry got revolutionized with coming of smart phones.

In parallel, there were some bunch of innovators busy making robots and automation tools. Researchers at renowned universities are busy trying to make robots from automating tools to swarm robots and humanoid. With Honda continuously working on Asimo humanoid, is proving the capabilities and use of robots in daily life. From making coffee to dancing for you is an easy task for Asimo now. These advancements makes people to see the realization as depicted in movies like Terminator, Surrogates and Eagle eye. Humanoid depicts a vision of a single robot doing most of the necessary work else done by humans.



Whereas there is another group which shows another vision of robots collaborating together to accomplish some task, else impossible when done by a single robot alone. These types of robot are called Swarm Robots. These are group of many small robots, which work together to accomplish one task.



For decades, researchers have been trying to make robots which can do a lot of work for the people and should accommodate and live along with humans. But unknowingly with advancement in technology and wisdom of people, came the era of Internet of Things, where almost everything, one can think of, will be connected to internet and can talk with each other. The intelligence of the machine now sits somewhere in cloud and it learns from not one but from every connected device of same/different types in the whole world.

Slowly, the leaders of the industry are seen changing their focus from mobile to devices. Google acquisition of Boston Dynamics, Nest and DeepMind is a clear indicator of Google's strategy. Microsoft's push of Azure, Windows 10 for IoT, indicates the interest of microsoft in IoT after failing to put Windows mobile OS with only 3% market share. Amazon in Web services and drone delivery system also indicates interest in IoT for transforming delivery system. Samsung's picking up SmartThings, Facebook buying Oculus, a VR technology company, and Intel acquiring Basis Science, a smartwatch startup shows their interest in IoT. None wants to lag behind in IoT war.

No doubt in IoT world, where everything is connected, Each machine can do their work better than one machine doing different work alone. A coffee maker will make better coffee than Asimo(humanoid). And a connected switch can turn the bulb ON/OFF in more effective way than Asimo can. Similarly a refrigerator can tell more accurate temperature inside than Asimo reading the temp. from screen on refrigerator. And a self driving car will be better than Asimo driving the car for us.

Clearly, the vision of humanoids doing work for us now seems unnecessary. And in near future everyone will be able to make their own robot while sitting in their room as they make Apps for smart phones today. The robots will be everywhere doing their specific task and communicating with each other, helping each other and thus Every IoT connected machines will behave like Swarm robots but much better than the one visualized earlier.

Definitely IoT is going to change the world in a completely new way, where almost everything but living things, will be connected to each other and will work for us. Things will know what we are going to do or need, before even we know because of Artificial Intelligence and a lot of analytic available from across the globe. They will be able to accomplish tasks together beyond the capability they can do alone.

Everywhere there will be Smart Things beyond just Smart Phones. With IoT coming in near future, hardly within another 5 years, Smart phones will be obsolete or they may have to transform. Companies around the world have already started their journey of transformation. Stay tuned for my next article in this series on "Beyond Smart Phones : A world of Smart Things"