MIS 2502: The Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the connection of tangible and virtual devices through sensor technology and network connectivity. This technology is important because the inter-networking of devices makes it possible to collect data and make the world around us “smart”. IoT is all around us. It is estimated that by 2020, there will be over 50 billion IoT devices around the world.
Though IoT is an amazing concept, it is still under development. A concern with IoT is that large pools of data are collected from each object and it is difficult to clean the data and transform it into useful information. Furthermore, another concern is safety. Because many household objects are becoming “smart”, experts feel that cyber-attacks can turn into something more than identity theft. Because IoT objects are essentially monitoring the user’s everyday life, it is possible that breaches that start off as strictly cyber can escalate to a physical encounter because the attacker can trace the movement and discover the exact location of the user.
MIS 2502 is all about data. An aspect of the course that relates to IoT is the Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) process. As mentioned earlier, IoT devices are all around us and are constantly collecting data. However, before this data can be used for analysis, it has to be transformed for the best results.
IoT is used everywhere, from household appliances to virtual power plants. Some IoT objects that that are familiar with include:
- Nest Smart Thermostat
- August Smart Lock
- CobraTag (helps find car keys)
- WeMo (smart outlets)
Some IoT objects we may not know/ do not think about:
- Ingestible pill sensors
- Invisible Tracck (sensor placed in trees to combat illegal deforestations)
- Electronic toll collection systems (E-ZPass)
References:
Research, D. B. (2015, August 06). The Internet of Things Is Far Bigger Than Anyone Realizes. Retrieved April 15, 2017, from https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/the-internet-of-things-bigger/
An Internet of Things. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2017, from https://www.postscapes.com/internet-of-things-examples/
Schultz, J. (2016, May 01). The Internet of Things We Don’t Own? Retrieved April 15, 2017, from https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2016/5/201606-the-internet-of-things-we-dont-own/fulltext