The idea of connecting things other than dedicated computing devices to the Internet is by no means new. Various examples such as remotely controlled coffeemakers or refrigerators reporting their contents have circulated for several decades, but up until recently they have been little more than anecdotal in nature. However, recently there has been a clear and growing trend for ever-increasing connectivity, dubbed the Internet of Things (IoT). In essence, the idea is quite simple – connect objects and people to enable automatic communication of data without the need for human interaction. In practice of course, it requires many new technologies to implement it. Continue reading →