The Internet of Things (IoT) is a broad term to describe when objects in the physical world interact with or have online counterparts on the Internet. The reduction of the cost and power requirements of integrated circuits in mobile devices, along with an increase in Internet connectivity has allowed for a deeper integration between the physical world and the Internet. Over time, more and more devices will have Internet connectivity and more things will be tagged to their online counterparts. The Internet of Things can be segmented into two primary groups; tags and connected devices. Two primary components are required in an IoT deployment, tags and/or devices in the physical world and an online platform.
There are two major segments of IoT, tags and connected devices. While at a high level they are similar, in practice they are very different in the usage, technologies, process and value proposition.
Passive tags that represent things perform actions on devices when interacted with. The primary use case is to have objects in the physical world correlate to online counterparts and actions. The tags themselves tend to be low-cost and simplistic, with most of the intelligence put into the software/cloud applications. Humans play a more active role in the interaction.
Out of Home Marketing
Product Information and Marketing
Physical Presence Security
Event Ticketing and Engagement
Electronic devices (cars, cameras, sensors…) push data into cloud storage systems for subsequent use and analysis. The primary use case here is data collection and analysis. The devices tend to be more expensive and complex given they need additional sensors and power to collect data, and the software/cloud applications are focused on data collection, analysis and machine learning. Humans play less of an active role in the interaction.