The Internet of Things

“Meet George Jetson!” “Jane, his wife!”

As the familiar tune of Hanna-Barbara’s classic space-age cartoon joyfully bounces in your ears, it is likely that you will remember the futuristic themes scattered throughout the show. An alarm clock that communicates with your daily planner – waking you up early for your 5am flight. A washer and dryer that reads your tags and gives you advice about stain removal. Or even the ability to turn your home lights on and off while you are sipping Pina Coladas 1,000 miles away. But If you thought these one-time seemingly outrageous and unimaginable concepts were only possible in cartoon land, think again.

In 1999, a Jetsons-like idea known as a the Internet of Things was introduced to the world. The idea states that one day our physical surroundings will be able to communicate with our digital life – and is becoming a feasible reality.

The beginning of the ultramodern theory suggests that all things in our daily life will eventually come equipped with small identifying devices powered by radio frequencies – the same idea as tagging animals in the wild. These identifiers would enable us to easily keep track of general things like keys, shoes, the remote control, and ideally assist businesses by identifying inventory and wasted goods across the globe.

Over a decade later, with over 1.7 billion people connected to the Internet and 2015 predictions in the 2.6 billion range, the Internet of Things is beginning to show signs of realism with a major corporation seeing potential in the idea.

IBM has publicly made its presence known to take charge of the Internet of Things theory by saying “data is essential.” In a recently submitted video to YouTube, IBM explains that the driving force that makes the Internet of Things possible is the ability to access user data.

IBM then maps out what they call an idealistic morning: Your alarm clock waking you up early for a meeting by syncing with your digital calendar. The alarm clock also checking ferry times and calculating these to determine your wake time. While driving to catch your ferry, your vehicle interacting with the ferry system and advising you whether your ferry is on-time or delayed.

Jumping from the idealistic to the realistic, many products are beginning to emerge that would make George Jetson feel right at home.

Ambient, a highly regarded gadget and device company, has designed a clock that pulls data directly from Google Calendar, and displays colorful notifications which inform you about your upcoming events.

SmartLabs technology company has come up with a way to illuminate your home and control your entertainment system though a web-enabled phone.

Touch Revolution built a Google Android powered washer/dryer, fully equipped with a stain guide, touch screen controls, and a tag decoder for those hard to read labels.

But will the Internet of Things catch on?

As our world becomes more connected to the Internet, so will our things. It is only a matter of time before our gadgets have a data plan attached to them, with rebates being offered for light switches and two year agreements for door knobs.

Over the next few years while you are watching TV on your toaster and looking up recipes on your microwave, pay attention to how dependent you are becoming on these devices.

I believe we should strive to remember that as our things become more connected to us, we should not become overly connected to our things.