Samsung 2020 vision and the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a fascinating trend to watch and is one that is changing the world right now. A change that is as significant as the Industrial Revolution, the invasion of the Personal Computer and the Internet in every home. The Internet of Things (IoT) has given the “Internet” the ability to hear and see. This ability to hear and see has brought a new dimension to the Internet and we make decisions based on those millions of devices currently being deployed across the world and we don’t even realise it. Have you ever avoided a traffic jam as the GPS app routed you to a less congested road ? Have you ever took an umbrella to work as you received an alert saying it will rain ? This type of information comes from the deployed sensors.
But it doesn’t stop at weather and traffic.
IoT allows objects to communicate with each other and make autonomous decision without people getting in the way and slowing down the process. So when the garden sensors senses that the grass needs water, it instructs the irrigation device to be switched on. Upon receiving “word” that rain is heading its way, it switched off the irrigation so as not to overwater the garden and converse water – rather wait for the rain.
The IoT became possible due to three major developments:
1. IPv6 – any device connected to the Internet needs an IP address which is its unique identifier. After running out of IP addresses to allocate to devices, a new protocol was devised – IPv6. We now have virtually unlimited addresses so every single device on Earth could be allocated one and we would still have room to expand. Therefore, each sensors gets its own address making it contactable by the network.
2. Cost – As with everything produced on a large scale, the more we produce these, the cheaper they become.
3. Networking – In order for the devices to communicate they need to connect to the network. With technologies such as NFC,WiFi, Bluetooth and 4G this is possible from virtually anywhere.
Samsung and IoT
Samsung has a 2020 vision where chief executive Boo-Keun Yoon announced at this year’s CES that within 5 years every single one of Samsung’s products will be an Internet of Things device. Yoon announced that it is this kind of connected system that will change the world and therefore Samsung are investing $100 million into the “Internet of Things apps” to encourage the developer community to get behind the trends and build meaningful IoT applications.
At the recent Africa Forum 2015 held in Turkey, I met with Samsung Deputy Managing Director and head of Electronics and IT, Matthew Thackrah to chat about Samsung’s vision of IoT:
