- The internet of things, IoT,
refers to a system of objects, as well as even people
and animals, who carry unique identifiers
and can transfer data over the internet
without any human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.
We can think of the IoT as an internet-based network,
where the connected things are nodes of the network.
A sensor embedded in an aircraft engine is an IoT node.
So is an internet-connected doorbell, or a camera,
a smartphone, or a driverless car.
Even a bird, a cow, or a whale,
when tethered with an internet-connected sensor,
becomes a node in the IoT network.
This would be true also of any person
who gets a pacemaker or a chip implanted in his or her body,
which can then transfer data over the internet.
IoT sensors are spreading like wildfire,
and have already been put to use
in a wide range of applications,
from homes to hospitals, to factories,
to farm machinery, and even entire cities.
According to some estimates, by the end of 2020,
there would be over 10 billion IoT devices worldwide.