A Ride to the Future with Internet of Things

IoT (Internet of Things) has been a hot topic to be discussed nowadays. Iot is not only a
concept that affects our lives, but also has become something that can help to ease human’s life. So,
what exactly Iot is? IoT is a concept where an object has the ability to transfer data over a network
without requiring human-to-human or human interaction to a computer. Like many other concept, IoT
has its history, application in real life, advantages and disadvantages.
IoT (Internet of Things) has been around for approximately 16 years, but the idea of making
devices to communicate with each other had been around longer since 70s. At first, IoT was often
called “embedded internet” or “pervasive computing” until someone called Kevin Ashton coined the
term “Internet of Things” in 1999 during his work at Procter & Gamble. Ashton who was working in
supply chain optimization, wanted to attract senior management’s attention to a new exciting
technology called RFID. Because the internet was a hot trend back then, somehow he called his
project presentation “Internet of Things”.
Internet of Things started to get attention and popularity in the summer of 2010. Information
leaked that Google’s StreetView service had not only made 360 degree pictures but also had stored
tons of people’s Wifi networks. It made people speculates that Google had a plan to not only index the
internet but also index the physical world. After this case, Internet of Things became a really popular
topic in the world, even Chinese government announced it would make IoT a strategic priority. So,
until now IoT has been more developed and more popular.
Iot nowadays has brought so much changes and potential to our technology. Automation in
Smart Houses to Industrial Machines have IoT concept being applied to them. So, do we really need
this concept in our lives? And why do we need it?
Human and technology are unable to be separated from each other. For one simple example,
smartphone use. Almost every human being in this life are using smartphone for almost every purpose
starting from wanting to have a chat with a friend or family, doing your works and assignment from
college or even just to watch Atta Halilintar saying “Ashiaapp” on Youtube. It is one of a hundred
reasons why we need IoT to be applied in our lives.
There are so many advantages and potential that can push our technology to its maximum
potential. Let’s say in Communication, IoT encourages a sub-concept known as Machine-to-Machine
(M2M) communication that will make physical devices capable to stay connected and hence the total
transparency is available with lesser inefficiencies but greater quality.
IoT brings us Automation and Control of every connected physical objects that are connected
and controlled digitally and centrally with wireless infrastructure. It allows machines to communicate
with each other leading to faster and timely output. And it makes us get more information faster and
more effective making us to make better decisions.
IoT allows us to monitor what we want to know. Knowing the exact quantity of foods in your
refrigerator at home or even check your motorbike’s gasoline with a single touch on your phone. This
will lead us to a lesser time and energy use to get the information.
There are so many more Advantages and benefits of IoT. As mentioned before, there are so
many reasons why we need to apply IoT concept and develop it to ease our lives and make use of full
potential of technology we can get these days. But one of the excess advantages of IoT. Many
companies or industries choose robots or machines rather than human beings to do company duty
because it is more efficient and effective, as a result, people finds it difficult to find a job so that the
level of health increases. IoT that should helps human work instead of replacing humans. Another
impact of the dependency to IoT is that humans become lazy to carry out simple activities and will
affect human health.

There’s no ‘perfect’ concept that has no weakness or disadvantage that comes with it and so
does Internet of Things. It comes with a lot of potential and advantages but it brings the negative sides
as well. But with further development and great support in track, IoT will be something that is really
worthy to make our lives better.