With the rise in smart home devices growing faster every single day, people are starting to adapt to their surroundings. Smart lights are filling homes, smart locks are protecting families, and smart cooking devices are providing meals to people who are busy. But just because smart devices are more popular than ever doesn’t mean everyone fully understands all of the lingo. For example, people are still asking, what is the Internet of Things or IoT? That question is still a valid question, especially if you’re just getting started with smart home devices.
Knowing what is the Internet of Things can help you not only feel smarter but fully comprehend what it is to own a smart home or smart devices in your home.
What is the Internet of Things? | iOT Things to Know | What is The Internet of Things?
We’re all familiar with WiFi and how that works, it’s a broadband signal that allows devices and people to connect to the internet. Keeping that in mind, devices are needed to connect to that internet signal. When a device with an on or off switch connects to that signal to communicate with other devices, it becomes part of the Internet of Things. On a basic level, the Internet of Things are simply things that connect and use the internet. Some examples of things that make up the Internet of Things include any device with the word “Smart” in front of it, smart coffee makers, smartphones, smart tv’s, smart lights, smart home assistants and more and more devices are added every year. While it seems like there are already a lot of things that connect to the internet and make up the Internet of Things, there will be more. Some analysts suggest that by the year 2020, we could have over 26 billion connected devices on the market. But one important thing to remember is that the IoT is a communication model.
What is the Internet of Things? | How IoT Communication Works
When a device is part of the Internet of Things it usually uses the internet for one sole purpose, to communicate. These devices communicate with each other, and with you. For example, when you tell your Amazon Echo to turn on the lights, it uses the internet to communicate with your lights to tell them to turn on. The communications almost instant and you won’t even notice that two devices just connected to the internet and communicated. These devices can also communicate with you. When a device communicates with you it’s usually because you asked it a question or set a reminder like when you ask your Google Home to give you the morning news.
What is The Internet of Things | Why Use IoT?
The Internet of Things is meant to make your life easier and as time goes on, things will get even easier. Imagine a morning where your alarm wakes you up, turns on the lights in your room and the bathroom, then starts the coffee maker so everything is ready for you to just get moving. Then, you leave your house for the day and the front door locks behind you and security cameras automatically turn on and all of the lights in your home turn off. This is all possible today and more things will be added like your car will start and warm up when you’re about to leave or it will even know where you’re going and take you there because your schedule has been uploaded. It all seems like things that don’t really matter, you can certainly take the second to turn on the lights or to start the coffee, you may even be able to remember to lock the door when you leave, every single time. However, when those seconds add up, they give you more time throughout the day to do things you want to do. When people think about the future of automated lives, they’re thinking of the Internet of Things.