Industry heavy weights join hands to standardize the Internet of Things

Internet of Things refers to a scenario or a situation where in animals, objects and humans are equipped with unique identifying devices which can automatically transfer or share data or information via network without using any human to computer or human to human interaction. The evolution of internet of things has taken place after a union of internet, micro – electromechanical systems and wireless technologies. Though the concept was developed in 1999, yet it was not named till then. It was first seen and introduced by Kevin Ashton who is the ED of Auto ID centre in MIT. He included this concept in his first presentation which he had developed for Procter and Gamble. The industrial giants namely Intel, IBM, Cisco, GE and AT&T have decided to come together and standardize inter – operation throughout smart machines and channelize the adoption of Internet of Things. For this, a group namely “Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)” has been developed last week. The IIC is a nonprofit open group for membership. This body or group will develop frameworks that will help in the development of physical world and inter-connected digitalized systems. IIC is completely managed by Object Management Group. The IIC has yet not finalized the outline of its immediate plans. The group is still in the initial phase which is working on frameworks and further development plans. Still the group has a strong backing by the White House and Federal Government of USA which has decided to invest a sum of 100 US dollars per year for research. The US Secretary of Commerce namely Penny Pritzker said, “By linking physical objects to the full power of cyberspace, the Industrial Internet promises to dramatically reshape how people interact with technology. He also added, “The Administration looks forward to working with public – private collaborations like the new IIC to turn innovative Industrial Internet products and systems into new jobs in smart manufacturing, health care, transportation and other areas.” Similar to this concept, last December saw an alliance of 23 members which included giants like LG Electronics, Haier, Qualcomm and Panasonic for standardizing Internet of things which they termed as “The Internet of Everything”. The alliance group is providing its engineering and software resources to AllJoyn which is an open source project. It will develop an altogether new breed of services and inter-operating devices. Dr. Richard Soley is one of the key persons in this project. He is the Executive Director of Industrial Internet Consortium. Along with this he is also handling the position of CEO and Chairman of Object Management Group. He said, “The Industrial Internet is ushering in a new era of explosive industry growth and innovation, unlike anything we’ve seen in decades.” With utmost positivity towards this project he added, “OMG has spearheaded technological developments that have – and will continue to – enable the Industrial Internet. We are applying our 25 years of experience to the IIC to set the groundwork for the technological revolution to come.”