What is IoT How Does It Work

It may sound like it needs a tech expert to get a grasp on the Internet of Things. Many times, I have found that explaining what IoT is just confuses the person that I am speaking to more than it actually helps them understand.

I am writing this article to very thoroughly go through the easiest possible way to make IoT understandable. So let’s get started.

What is IoT?

First off, I would like to talk about the connectability of things. Today, almost all devices are somewhat connected to the internet. To function online, a computer is connected to the internet. Many devices are made solely to be connected to the internet.

However, you may ask yourself, where does this end? To what limit does it go? A computer is a device that made to be connected to the internet, however, can you say the same about a refrigerator?

Normally, the answer is no? However, to make the refrigerator able to understand human commands and to technologically help you with navigating a multitude of features that would make it “Smart”, the refrigerator should be connected to the internet.

Does that mean that a refrigerator is a computer? No, it just means that in today’s age, almost everything with an “On” switch can be connected to the internet.

So what is the Internet of things (IoT)? The Internet of Things is a concept by which we can incorporate technology into any and all kinds of devices to share, interpret, collect, and transform data across the internet.

Starting from the industrial complexes needing automated devices that compute mass manufacturing all the way to your very own home. IoT works with everything.

How Does IoT Work?

Humanity’s technological advancement has made it possible to develop and manufacture very tiny chips with computing power. Those chips and sensors have made it possible to incorporate software into many different types of hardware, if not all.

The phrase hardware in this context is very vague as it could also include “Things” such as watches, microwaves, cars, or even industrial machines.

Our ability to understand and work with Machine Learning technology as well as Artificial Intelligence has made it possible to make our machines “smarter” and to allow them to learn the things that we intend for them to learn. 

All of this, and more, makes it possible to instill technologies into all kinds of devices feeding them a massive amount of data and applying software capabilities to them and thus connecting them to the internet.

Conclusion

To clarify, the Internet of Things is a concept and not a technology. Once we understand the concept, which is the capability of connecting devices (things) of all sorts to the internet, we would be able to pursue the technologies we need to understand to achieve that (AI, Machine Learning, Chips & Sensors).

Internet of things is one of the most important things in today’s tech world and it is expected to reach up to 22 billion devices by 2025.