IOT: Internet Of Things. What’s that?

Internet Of Things, mostly called by its acronym IoT, is a market worth, only in Italy, almost 3 billion euros, registering a 40% growth during the last year. IoT is a term coined back in 1999, by Kevin Ashton (aged 49), a tech pioneer and visionary, founder of the Auto-ID Center research consortium, at MIT. While working on RFID, the radio frequency identification, he conceived a sensor system capable of linking the physical world to the web, extracting data from objects and making them digitally usable. Within IoT we will always find three basic components: sensor-equipped instruments + an integration software + the internet connection to the outer world (and possibly also AI or soft cloud softwares, necessary for additional services). The “objects” become identifiable and acquire intelligence thanks to their capacity to communicate data about themselves and to remotely access information. From here, infinite processes and phenomena will proceed, from production and logistics to remote assistance. A typical example can be the medicine container that notifies you if you forgot to take your medication, or sends an alert to one of your relatives or to your doctor. In this area GreenVulcano has always been committed in researching and developing the best solutions, such as the healthcare integration software, which collects and processes all the data.
In a urban setting, instead, another IoT example can be a detector placed on a lamppost signaling the correct lamp functioning, along with air quality values.
The IoT aims to empower the connected world to trace a map of the real one, endowing things with an “electronic” identity.
IoT numbers in Italy over the past three years have registered a real boom. This sector market has been mostly driven by gas meters that can measure consumption, Smart Metering and connected company fleets, Smart Car.
Some of the major data are produced by a research promoted by the Osservatorio Internet of Things of Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management. This research has shown that cities are becoming more and more Smart Cities, as 60% of Italian Municipalities have already started projects for a connected mobility management and an intelligent lighting system.
Another relevant portion of the “smart” IoT solution market is characterized by the Smart Asset Management in utilities, which allow remote management, failure detection and much more.
We are already inside in a science fiction future and the present scenery is just the beginning of a revolution that in a short time will change our habits and industrial reality more and more. In a not too distant futuristic scenery, cars, buses and commercial vehicles will be driverless, completely electric and capable of recharging without even the need for a pit-stop; mailmen won’t exist anymore and they will be replaced by drones for parcel delivery, etc…