Internet of Things

8Connected Objects: Transparency Back in Play

8.1. Introduction

The Internet of Things (IoT) is characterized by the spread of objects capable of automatically capturing and exchanging data in our environment. Rather than causing the appearance of new objects in our daily lives, the IoT represents the transformation of familiar objects with the goal of simplifying their operation and increasing the number of their functions. Extended to objects, the Internet modifies the way in which it is possible to contemplate our environment and perceive the elements that make it up. Promoters of the IoT consider each object a potential producer and consumer of data, and as an information appliance to accomplish a predefined and limited number of tasks. This extension of the Internet to objects belongs to the third age of computing history: ubiquitous computing is superseding the era of personal computers and that of mainframe computers.

The IoT modifies the status of the objects surrounding us by letting them adapt to different contexts and user profiles. As the father of ubiquitous computing, Mark Weiser, wrote: “If a computer merely knows what room it is in, it can adapt its behavior in significant ways without requiring even a hint of artificial intelligence” [WEI 99]. The IoT endows objects with the capacity to alter their own functioning. It expands the functions of everyday objects and gives them additional roles. Equipped with sensors, connected objects can control the deeds and ...