In the early 1980s, programmers at Carnegie Mellon University connected a Coke machine to the World Wide Web. Users could check the status of the machine and availability of products over the Internet before walking to the machine.
It’s generally considered the first example of an Internet appliance, and the beginning of the “Internet of things.”
By 2008, the number of things connected to the Internet exceeded the number of people on Earth, with the number of connected things expected to reach 25 billion by 2015. “Things” include phones, tablets, thermostats, door locks, cameras, sensors, cows and polar bears.
The term Internet of things has been used to describe this phenomenon and the ability of machines to gather and process information, largely without human intervention, and make data available over the Internet.
While full home automation and refrigerators that sense when your milk is too old and order more get a lot of attention, it’s simple uses for individuals and industries that are where the action is now.
