The ‘Internet of Things’ has been enthused over for many, many years. Perhaps too many years. In fact it was in 1926 that Nicholas Tesla first said,
“”When wireless* is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole………and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.“
That was nearly ninety years ago. While I have a mobile device in my pocket right now, has the whole earth been converted into a huge brain? Eh, not really. I am typing this message on my old laptop – not on a glass pane of a window. I’m yet to receive a text saying my clothes noticed my blood pressure was high and alerted a doctor. I do not know anyone personally with a smart fridge. Or a smart home. In fact, the concept of a smart home is still revolutionary to us.
Why hasn’t the vision for the Internet of Things been brought to life yet? Where is the world portrayed in this video? It certainly isn’t the one we live in now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfEbMV295Kk
We still get excited over slow cars which drive themselves. And we are still wrestling with big data; it is yet to become fully automated.
“Despite predictions of rapid growth for smart products in the near future, the Internet of Things has yet to secure a foothold in the mainstream consumer market,” notes a new exploratory case study by Affinnova to Adweek, which asked consumers to evaluate more than 4 million product concept variations and identify the most desired products and functions.
A major barrier to the Internet of Things is consumers thinking they want the Internet of Things, without really knowing what they want from it. 92% of respondents told Affinnova it’s difficult to pinpoint what they want from smart objects, but they think they’ll know when they see it.
Here’s an infographic by Carlos Monterio which sums up desires and dangers of the Internet of Things:
