Welcome to the future
Imagine a world where everything around you is connected to the internet.
It might seem like science fiction, but it’s already starting to happen. Take phones, for example. Twenty years ago, most mobile phones were only able to make calls. Today, we use smartphones for all kinds of things, from watching videos and playing games, to finding the best recipe for pancakes.
For almost 50 years, computer chips (the components that store a computer’s memory and its processing power) have halved in both size and cost approximately every two years. This has made it practical and affordable to insert tiny computers into more and more objects. Many of these devices are able to share and receive information through the internet. Technology experts refer to this growing network of internet-connected devices as the internet of things.
As more and more devices are connected to the internet, the number of possible uses for the internet of things is growing fast. So, how could the internet of things change our lives?