Should we embrace Internet of Everything?

We accept that our smartphone, tablet, laptops and computers are connect to the internet. You think that *maybe* somewhere in the future Internet of Everything will exists ?

WRONG !

We’re already in it.

A lot of blogs are talking about the smart fridge. See what kind of food you got in your fridge. Order food online when you’re almost running out. Well. You can buy a LG or Samsung fridge with a wireless screen. All the food isn’t recognized yet and you will have to add it manually to an app. But the beginning is there. A smart plate is under development. It can recognize food, weight and calculate the calories and all those data will be sent to an app.

In healthcare there are million ways to have IoE working for you. Measure your blood from home instead of going to the hospital. Consults via phone if “the house” knows you’re a little bit ill. That can be the future if we like it or not.

So what devices are already connected to the network ? There are more devices in our homes then we expect! Televisions, wearables, smart meters, phones, stereo equipments, setupboxes etc.

I like my smart meter. Now I am able to see almost in realtime all the data regarding my usage of electricity. But is the meter only measuring my usage ? Isn’t there a sensor which can register some small vibrations ? This can be linked to opening my front door, so they know my daily routine when I’m leaving or entering home. I don’t know and I won’t know. I have to trust it’s only doing the thing the company says it’s doing.

There are devices that can track my car. Some insurance companies are interested in the data so that they know if I drive frequently a little bit to fast and then they can for example, raise my insurance.
Screen Shot 2015-05-13 at 08.42.57Source Cisco

Due to ip can everything be connected to the network. It’s no rocket science anymore. There are a lot of good examples why we would connect devices to the network so that we can monitor different things and participate with it.

IoE is not only fun for teccies, but it’s useful for everybody. Main question remains : Is IoE safe ? Well check out for yourself :  Commercial Apeldoorn 2015 auto-apeldoorn

We don’t know how safe everything is. You have to trust every vendor, software developer and loads of other parties. Personally it scares me. Yes I like IoE a lot due to the fact that I see a lot of opportunities to help people and on the other hand I am always scared of how other people can misuse the system.

Somewhere in 1992 I was able to connect remotely (via telephone) to an air conditioning/heating system of an office. Well… To make a short story very short : In the whole building it was 25 degrees Celsius  while normally the temperature was 19 degrees  Celsius inside of the building. Of course this example isn’t IoE, but it’s possible when everything is connected to the Internet.

Should we stop IoE ? NO. It’s not stoppable and it will make us life easy. I like the smart parking and I saw already some parkings where I could see where there was space available via a website. Makes my life easier and I was happy.

Do I have IoE devices in my house ? Yes. Every house got a firewall for all incoming traffic so that you’re network is protected. To control the IoE devices I also got a firewall for all traffic going to the internet and the IoE devices are monitored and logged, so that I know what kind of traffic they are uploading. If I don’t trust the devices, it won’t be able to connect the internet. 🙂

What about the devices that uses GPRS like the smart meter ? Well… You know where the antenna is so be creative : Faraday Cage

On every example there can be a downsite. Just relax and let the future take over. Just beware of all the things that could happen. Good and bad. And most of all : Embrace IoE and let it make your life easier.

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