The Internet of Things: What the heck is a thing?

There has been a recent spate of articles in various publications about the “Internet of Things” or IoT. At first blush, the non-techies’ eyes glaze over when new and emerging technologies are the topic of conversation. Techies, as we know, have been into the IoT for several years. But to either group, there is somewhat of a misunderstanding as what the IoT really is.

A “thing” in the IoT can be a person, animal or object with a unique identifier that has the ability to transfer data using technology such as an individual with a heart monitor, an animal with a transponder chip or even the sensors in a car that tell a driver when the tires are low on air. Initially, the IoT has been closely associated with machine-to-machine (M2M) communication used in the oil, gas and utility fields, as well as manufacturing. M2M communications are often referred to as “smart” because they transmit information without human interaction such as through bar codes and QR codes.