The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) has recently gained much traction due to its potential for transforming business applications and everyday life. IoT can be defined as a network of computationally intelligent physical objects (any objects, such as cars, fridges, and industrial sensors) that are capable of connecting to the internet, sensing real-world events or environments, reacting to those events, collecting relevant data, and communicating this over the internet.

This simple definition has enormous implications and has led to exciting concepts, such as wearables (such as health trackers or watches), smart homes, smart grids, smart connected cars, and smart cities, which are all based on this basic concept of an IoT device. After dissecting the definition of IoT, four functions come to light as being performed by an IoT device: sensing, reacting, collecting, and communicating. All of these functions are performed by using various components on the IoT device...