13. Internet of Things

The connection of physical things to the Internet makes it possible to access remote sensor data and to control the physical world from a distance. The mash-up of captured data with data retrieved from other sources, e.g., with data that is contained in the Web, gives rise to new synergistic services that go beyond the services that can be provided by an isolated embedded system. The Internet of Things is based on this vision. A smart object, which is the building block of the Internet of Things, is just another name for an embedded system that is connected to the Internet. There is another technology that points in the same direction—the RFID technology. The RFID technology, an extension of the ubiquitous optical bar codes that are found on many everyday products, requires the attachment of a smart low-cost electronic ID-tag to a product such that the identity of a product can be decoded from a distance. By putting more intelligence into the ID tag, the tagged thing becomes a smart object. The novelty of the Internet of Things (IoT) is not in any new disruptive technology, but in the pervasive deployment of smart objects.