Эссе на тему: "INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) — ESSENCE, HISTORY OF ORIGIN, EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE, USAGE IN MANAGEMENT"

Introduction

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a revolutionary concept of a computing network of physical objects equipped with built-in technologies to interact with each other or with the external environment. IoT implies connecting a huge number of diverse devices and sensors integrated into everyday objects that we use into a unified system.

The purpose of combining such «things» into a computing network is to automatically collect real-time data about the state of objects and the environment, exchange this data, analyze it, and launch control processes without direct human involvement. Essentially, IoT is designed to make our world «smarter» and more informational.

This paper provides a definition of the Internet of Things, examines the prerequisites for its emergence and key milestones in the development of this concept. It also provides many examples of using IoT in different areas — from smart homes to industrial systems. We will focus in detail on the possibilities of using the Internet of Things to solve business problems: production automation, logistics, product quality monitoring, and so on. We will look at how IoT helps businesses improve efficiency, reduce costs, and ultimately increase profits.

Main part

The concept of connecting devices and objects to the Internet for remote monitoring and control originated in the 1970s. However, the term «Internet of Things» (IoT) did not appear until much later — only in 1999. It was proposed by British entrepreneur Kevin Ashton.

The first prototypes of «smart» devices that can be considered IoT predecessors began to be created in the 1970s. For example, in 1977, Stanford University students under the supervision of Professor John Varian organized a network of six Coca-Cola machines that could report their status on request — how many drinks are available, are there many buyers, etc. This was the world's first wireless self-organizing network of physical objects.

In the 1980s, ergonomics specialist at Xerox Mark Weiser came up with innovative ideas about connecting household devices to a common computer network. He envisioned household refrigerators that automatically order groceries, copiers that request maintenance themselves, and many other useful scenarios.

Figure 1 – The Internet of Things in schematic representation

An important step towards creating the IoT was made by Scientific American magazine when in 1993 it released all its articles with assigned unique digital identifiers. This gave impetus to the mass assignment of unique addresses to various objects for unambiguous identification.

The real breakthrough came in 1999 when Kevin Ashton introduced the term «Internet of Things.» He began using it in presentations and articles dealing with RFID tags, sensors and other devices that collect and exchange information with each other. Thus, Ashton was one of the first to bring together all the latest technologies and give them a common name.

The first 10 years of the 21st century were marked by the rapid growth of mobile internet, Wi-Fi, 3G and smartphones. All this laid the foundation for the IoT concept development. Devices belonging to the «networked physical objects» category became technically feasible and got a chance for commercialization.

2008 became a landmark year for the Internet of Things due to several events. Cisco published the «IoT Vision» report, which demonstrated the enormous potential of the concept for business using concrete examples. The same year saw the launch of the first Android OS smartphones, and the Arduino platform gained wide popularity among embedded device developers.

2009 can be called the actual start date of the Internet of Things, when technologies and business finally came together to implement many tempting scenarios. The International Telecommunication Union formed the first version of the «From M2M to the Internet of Things» concept. IBM announced a solution based on «smart» sensors, sensors and tags called Smarter Planet.