The Internet of Things (IoT) is about embedding communications technology in all objects that can benefit from it, from cars to buildings, everyday objects and even materials.  It’s an ongoing revolution that has much potential and promise to revolutionize the electronics industry.  Advances in making smaller microelectronics devices, sensors and low-power radio communications, are making the IoT a commercial reality.  Google’s $3.2B acquisition of smart thermostat makerNest is a great example of that dynamic as per this article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2014/01/13/google-acquires-nest-for-3-2-billion/

On February 20th, Zach Shelby -Director of IoT technology at ARM Ltd, presented an interesting talk on the IoT at a Santa Clara University (SCU) EE Dept Colloquium. Zach was co-founder and head of research at Sensinode in Finland before that company was acquired last fall by ARM Ltd.  As a result of that acquisition, Zach now works at ARM’s San Jose, CA office as an IoT evangelist and technology director.   Here are the highlights of his SCU talk:

• IoT combines embedded electronic devices with the Internet mostly using low power wireless interfaces.
• Machine to Machine (M2M) applications when combined with the Internet (either directly or indirectly connected devices) comprise the IoTs.
• M2M apps include:  asset management, facility management, security monitoring, energy management, weather stations, etc
• IoT produces Little Data (in contrast to Big Data/analytics) via small streams of data.
• IoT breaks down silos or walled gardens of closed systems
• Gartner Group predicts that by 2018, 50% of IoT solutions will be from start-ups <3 years old.  
• IoT is a disruptive technology as it changes the way “things” (devices) are made.
• Some key markets for IoT include-Smart Home, Smart Cities, Fitness/exercise equipment, and Asset Management
• ARM Ltd is working on a lot of software to make the IoT a commercial reality. For example, a Development Platform for Devices is available at:https://mbed.org/
• ARM has developed wireless communications I/O drivers for LTE and WiFi endpoints that are not VLSI component specific.The company supports Java ME as well as JAVA script on its software development platformLocal Processing, Security, communications, discovery and end to end device management are included in ARM’s IoT architecture.

Reference:
http://www.ee.scu.edu/classes/2014winter/elen200/shelby.pdf

Samsung creates medical test bed to prove Internet of Things is worth the effort

The partnership between Samsung and the University of California, San Francisco sets out with a single goal: to develop a test bed for medical sensors in efforts to validate the worth of emerging Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technologies, otherwise known as the Internet of Things. 

The South Korean giant’s joint project with medical professionals will work to develop network-connected sensors for gadgets, signalling a divergence in the company’s strategy by focusing on health and the wider medical world.

http://www.zdnet.com/samsung-creates-medical-test-bed-to-prove-internet-…

Cisco CEO: 2014 will be a big year for the Internet of Things -will be worth $19Trillion over next 10 years!

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers says the Internet of Things could represent $19 trillion of economic value over the next 10 years, and will affect society more than the Internet itself. Chambers says this year could be a turning point as more devices become connected, and that he expects there to be 50 billion Internet-connected devices by 2020.

Speaking at the Mobile World Congress trade show, Chambers said that the Internet of things will potentially have five to ten times the impact on society over the Internet itself.

As an illustration of the growth of connected devices, Chambers noted that there were only 1,000 devices connected to the Internet when Cisco was created in 1984. There were more than 10 billion connected devices in 2010, and they outnumber the actual number of people now. By 2020, Chambers said he expects to see 50 billion devices connected to the Internet. 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57619548-94/how-much-is-the-internet-of-everything-worth-cisco-says-$19-trillion/