Your Internet-connected devices may be getting more cooperative, thanks to the recent launch of a nonprofit group called the Internet of Things Consortium.
The consortium’s goal is to facilitate the move towards a world where every device in the home, workplace and car are connected. A world where the lights automatically turn on when the car approaches the driveway, the coffee starts brewing when the morning alarm goes off and the front door automatically unlocks when approached by a member of the household, but stays locked when a stranger arrives on the front step.
This Internet of Things (IoT) world is built on a network of products that are connected to the Internet, thus they have their own IP address and can connect to each other regardless of what company manufactured the product or which companies have business relationships with each other.
Technologyguide.com reports that in order for this to happen, there needs to be a platform on which devices can connect directly. Some companies have built their own platforms to connect devices manufactured within a single company, creating closed solutions to solve specific problems, but those closed solutions have just added to the fragmentation of the already crowded industry. In order for all connected devices to communicate with one-another, they all must be connected on the same platform.
The hope is that a cloud platform called Xively, launched earlier this year, will serve this function. The Xively platform has been integrated into LogMeIn’s internal cloud platform called Gravity, which is in 10 data centers around the world and services 255 million users. Companies can then build their products on top of the Xively platform, which allows them to easily connect to any other device on the platform, regardless of which company manufactured it or if those companies have a business relationship. Xively supports almost every protocol and different standards and already there are objects in over 240 countries connected to the Internet via the Xively platform.
The true value of the Internet of Things does not lay in the lights turning on when the car reaches the driveway, but rather the data that the connected devices collect about its users. Imagine a hospital with connected devices. The data collected from those devices outputs information on the status of patients and runs analytics on the various monitoring machine, helping the hospital to run as optimally as possible.
The value derived from collected data can range from saving a few seconds turning on the lights to saving a baby’s life to a huge financial savings for a connected city. The Internet of Things will allow more information about the world to be gathered, thus allowing users to interact and react to the changing environment.
The collection of data from devices will allow consumers, businesses and even entire connected cities to run more efficiently. However, collecting large amounts of data presents challenges for both privacy and security.
Luis Galvez, director of the Internet of Things Consortium, compares the current state of the IoT to the birth of the computer, noting businesses and consumers are just learning that products can connect to the Internet and now it’s time to figure out what to do with the technology.
