Kids who grew up in the 1990s, like myself, will have noticed a lot of changes to our everyday lives over the last 30 years because of the internet and its omnipresence. Having a wireless connection wherever we go, checking emails and Facebook on our smartphones: all of this didn't exist in the 1990s. Smartphones? We had mobile phones, yes, but with a monochrome display and an antenna, and they didn't have an internet connection. The multimedia highlight was playing the game Snake, a simple 2D game with a game logic that can be programmed in a day. There was no mobile internet and no wireless LAN. When we were visiting another city and got lost, we had to go inside a store and ask for help—no Google Maps.
Nowadays, the internet is ubiquitous and people are dependent on it for their day-to-day life. Everyone has a phone in their pocket, which they can use to find any information they want in seconds. According to a study by Business Insider, on average, there will be four internet-connected devices per human by 2020.
Smart devices come in various forms and shapes and are causing disruptions in every industry, just like the internet did in the early 2000s. Companies such as Google and Samsung have been developing wearable devices, such as smartwatches and health trackers, automated robots for industrial applications, self-driving cars, smart buildings, and smart home devices, as well as early-warning systems for tsunamis or earthquakes.
In this chapter, we will explore some of the devices and technologies that are driving the internet-connected device revolution. We will have a closer look at the following topics:
- Exploring smart homes
- Exploring smart cars
- Exploring industry 4.0 / the Industrial Internet of Things
- Prototyping for the greater good
- What is a prototype?
- Voice control
- Why should you invest in the IoT?