Internet of Things or IOT Explained: You probably think of your toaster, refrigerator, washing machine, and lamp as mere dumb devices with an on off switch. But imagine if these devices had a brain. What if they were as smart as a dog, or even as smart as a human toddler…and what if they could talk to you? This idea is called IOT, or the internet of things, and it is coming. What will it mean for us, and how will it improve our lives? The internet of things, or IoT for short is the idea of connecting pretty much any electronic device or physical object with a processor to the internet, and to each other, and to us. They would be connected through wireless technology to the internet. And their data would be stored on a server in the cloud, and shared through a private network. It is estimated that 100 billion devices will be connected within the next 10 years. Some of these technologies are here already. For example, there are dishwashing machines that can detect the amount of dirt on your dishes and change the intensity of the wash accordingly. There are refrigerators that can detect when you have run out of milk, and remind you to get more. But these technologies have only scratched the surface. Imagine these future scenarios: - Your computer printer knows from your printing history that you will be running out of ink in a week, and orders the ink from your favorite online store. - Your washing machine knows that based on your laundry history, you are probably running out of fresh clothes, and you should be doing a load of laundry. It sets a reminder automatically on your phone calendar, and sends you a text. - Your security system detects that there is no one home, so it sends a message to your thermostat to turn the temperature down to save money. - You get in your car, put in your destination on your nav system, which alerts your thermostat that you will be home in 20 minutes, so that it can get the house up to a comfortable temp