The Internet of Things

Since last year, the term “IoT” pops up increasingly frequently in newspapers and on news sites. The big IT companies are announcing new IoT-related services, and several new organizations have been launched to develop IoT-related standards. For non-professionals it may seem confusing. “What’s the difference from IT?” they may think, or believe it’s just another fancy acronym.

According to the American research firm Gartner’s “2015 Hype Cycle*1 for Emerging Technologies,” IoT, along with autonomous vehicles, were at their peak in 2015. That is to say, IoT is one of the buzzwords of the moment, and 2015 might be called “IoT Year Zero.”

But what is IoT? It is an acronym of the “Internet of Things,” and in a nutshell, it is a system for connecting various things around us to the Internet and controlling their exchange of information.

Take our current cars, for example. They are full of computers, and parts that used to be controlled mechanically are now controlled by computers. If we can connect all those computers to the Internet, we will be able to gather vehicle information in real time while driving. Then, by analyzing that information, we should be able to create more precise traffic jam information services, for instance. It also becomes possible to let our household appliances at home talk to each other – the air conditioner and the circulator, say – or different machines on a factory assembly line, which might lead to a revolution in manufacturing. Many other services and business opportunities can be imagined thanks to IoT.

“But isn’t that what they used to call ubiquitous computing?” some may object. Sure, IoT is basically the same idea as Ubiquitous Computing or Pervasive Computing or M2M (Machine to Machine) that were buzzwords a decade or so ago.

The term “Internet of Things” was coined by the British entrepreneur Kevin Ashton back in 1999, when he was working as an assistant brand manager for Procter & Gamble. While thinking of a mechanism to manage the logistics of goods and locations in the warehouse, he had the idea to use RFID tags (wireless identification tags) rather than bar codes to manage P&G’s supply chain, and invented the term for his image of connecting things over the Internet.

＊1─A method devised by Gartner, Inc. of analyzing and positioning new technologies in the phases “Technology trigger,” “Peak of inflated expectations,” “Through of disillusionment,” “Slope of enlightenment” and “Plateau of productivity.”

Image of a Highly Functionally Distributed System (HFDS) in the TRON specifications.

The Internet and Cloud Technologies behind IoT

Ubiquitous computing used to be a huge topic, like IoT is today, but then fell into the “Through of Disillusionment” in the hype cycle. Expectations ran high during the most fashionable phase, but the technology itself was still in its infancy and no concrete products or services were about to be released any time soon. It was a typical case of people getting disillusioned with a new technology before it had had the chance to spread in society. So will IoT also share the same fate? I don’t think so, precisely because IoT is the same as ubiquitous computing. That is an important point. If you think about it, it already has a long history, and in the meantime, the infrastructure of the Internet environment has been put in place and applied technologies have been developed. IoT is ubiquitous computing that has come round full circle and been restarted.

For example, we now have web search engines with the technology to handle the traffic and provide service even if millions of people access them simultaneously from all over the world. Communications companies have invested large sums in high-speed lines to improve the net environment. The semiconductor technologies that underlie the computers to be built into things have also evolved, and small, high-performance microprocessors have been developed. These changes have occurred gradually over the past ten years.

Therefore we know that if we now connect not just our smartphones and computers to the Internet, but also our automobiles, household appliances, industrial and medical equipment, and lots of other things as well, it is almost certainly going to work just fine. And that is why a future based on IoT is becoming a reality.

Nobody can deny the convenience of the Internet any more. The way of doing business has changed completely in the age of the Internet, and previously unimaginable services have seen the light of day. What is expected to happen in the age of IoT, when things start communicating with each other?

One area with high expectations is the utilization of Big Data. An enormous amount of data will be gathered on the cloud servers when the things around us are connected to the Internet. The things will take care of it by themselves, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Then, when that tremendous amount of accumulated information, or Big Data, is analyzed, various new discoveries are waiting to be made, researchers say.

Another area is automatic control. Situations that until now needed human judgments and operations, can be handled automatically in an optimal way when things are connected and exchange information. Just like the Internet transformed the whole way of manufacturing, IoT will surely make our daily lives more convenient, but it will also change them dramatically.

IoT-Engine is a platform for embedded systems to be built into consumer electronics products and connected to a cloud server.

A “battery-less flexible beacon” developed by Fujitsu. Made in a highly flexible material, it can be attached to clothes and shoes to provide location-based services.

The West Aims to Take the IoT Initiative

Consequently, it becomes very important to create rules for IoT. The fact that people all over the world can send mail to each other over the Internet is because there are firmly established mail system standards and protocols. For example, if you connect thermometers and hygrometers to the net, and plot the collected data on a map, you can create extremely local weather forecasts for each region. But first you must define the data format: “a temperature value looks like this,” “a humidity value looks like this.” If everybody uses different standards, you can’t collect any Big Data.

In the case of automatic control, security is also important. Being able to remote control your household appliances is nice, but you definitely don’t want complete strangers to take control over the air conditioner in your home. In public facilities, it is necessary to determine in which areas users have free control, and where control is limited. (This is called “access control.”)

Currently, each country is aggressively promoting its own rules for the IoT age. Germany has the state-led “Industry 4.0”*2, while the American “Industrial Internet”*3 is promoted by a consortium of companies. Everyone is clamoring to take the initiative.

In cases like this, the Western nations straightaway raise their hands and say “Let us make the rules!” while Japan has a sorry tendency to say “You guys go ahead and make the rules, and we will follow.” I have always found that one of the more regrettable aspects of Japan. Just think about it: if you are allowed to define rules that everyone else must follow, you usually create them in your own favor. This is true of both Europe and the U.S., and they are highly unwilling to follow rules made by anybody else. That is why Japan has to quit its traditional wait-and-see attitude and aggressively try to claim the initiative. Making your own rules doesn’t mean isolating yourself, by any means. On the contrary, when the time comes to adjust and balance the various sets of rules, if you don’t bring your own set of rules to the table, you won’t even be allowed a seat.

That it what it means to take the initiative.

＊2─The fourth industrial revolution. A project by the German government to promote innovative policies in the manufacturing industry. Based on a concept of “smart factories,” the factory production management system utilizes a network in order to optimize the manufacturing process.

＊3─A project to create an open, global network by connecting industrial equipment, Big Data and humans. It is led by a consortium established by General Electric, Intel, Cisco, IBM and AT&T and aims to bring about a new industrial revolution through the fusion of hardware and software.

TRON Cyber Home in Nishi-Azabu, Tokyo. Built in 1989, it was partially open to the general public, and a large number of visitors were able to experience “a home of the future.”