DOCSLIB.ORG

Designing for the End of Life of Iot Objects

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Designing for the End of Life of Iot Objects Edinburgh Research Explorer Designing for the End of Life of IoT Objects Citation for published version: Lechelt, S, Gorkovenko, K, Speed, C, Soares, L, Stead, M & Thorp, JK 2020, Designing for the End of Life of IoT Objects. in DIS' 20 Companion: Companion Publication of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. ACM, pp. 417-420, ACM Designing Interactive Systems 2020, Eindhoven, Netherlands, 6/07/20. https://doi.org/10.1145/3393914.3395918 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.1145/3393914.3395918 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Peer reviewed version Published In: DIS' 20 Companion: Companion Publication of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 31. Jul. 2020 Designing for the End of Life of IoT Objects Susan Lechelt James K. Thorp Abstract Katerina Gorkovenko Michael Stead The Internet of Things (IoT) and ubiquitous computing are Luis Lourenço Soares Lancaster University leading to an increase in objects with a short lifespan - ei- Chris Speed Lancaster, United Kingdom ther through breakage, “bricking” by the manufacturer, or University of Edinburgh [email protected] discontinued use by the owner. This leads to a surplus of Edinburgh, United Kingdom [email protected] material and e-waste that cannot or is not readily recycled, [email protected] [email protected] upcycled or otherwise reused, aggravating material scarcity. [email protected] In part, this is due to the use of unrecyclable materials and [email protected] custom-built hardware. However, it is also due to the limited value people place on these objects (e.g., sentimental and environmental). This one-day workshop will explore how the configuration of values designed into IoT objects influences the end-user practices of disposal, recycling and upcycling. Through this lens, we will collectively consider potential de- sign strategies that can be instilled during the process of design, to support the continuity of the material life of IoT objects after their “death”. Author Keywords Paste the appropriate copyright statement here. ACM now supports three different Internet of Things; sustainable HCI; design values; spimes; copyright statements: cradle to cradle design. • ACM copyright: ACM holds the copyright on the work. This is the historical approach. • License: The author(s) retain copyright, but ACM receives an exclusive CCS Concepts publication license. • Open Access: The author(s) wish to pay for the work to be open access. The •Human-centered computing ! Human computer inter- additional fee must be paid to ACM. action (HCI); Ubiquitous computing; Ubiquitous and mobile This text field is large enough to hold the appropriate release statement assuming it is single spaced in a sans-serif 7 point font. computing theory, concepts and paradigms; •Social and Every submission will be assigned their own unique DOI string to be included here. professional topics ! Sustainability; Themes and Goals Background and Motivation gether with the environmental and ethical implications of What types of value, beyond IoT objects, ranging from mass-produced products like their lifecycles, demonstrate the importance of considering the functional and performa- smart watches and home assistants, to small-scale de- their end of life from the beginning design stages. tive, encourage sustainable signerly objects like the Little Printer [8] and the Good- end-of-life practices for IoT night Lamp [5], are part of an ever-expanding family of Promoting Life After Death with Design Values objects? This workshop will connected devices, which can be seen to have a limited This workshop will address whether and how constellations seek to answer this question lifespan. IoT objects can suffer from breakage, loss of func- of values that are designed into an IoT object can medi- by addressing the following tional value (the ability of the object to fulfil a functional role ate its lifecycle - by compelling people to keep, reuse or themes: in its owner’s life) and loss of performative value (the ability recycle the object, or otherwise reimagine its use after its of the object to signify its owner’s status or belongingness functional or performative ‘death’. For example, when an 1. What values compel to a social group). For example, the performative value of object retains its monetary value but not functional value, people to keep, reuse a branded smartwatch may be depreciated when a new the owner may choose to sell it for parts. In turn, if it re- or reimagine IoT objects model is released, and its functional value may likewise be tains sentimental but not functional value, the owner may after they are no longer reduced when newer models are infused with new, com- choose to keep it hidden in a cupboard or displayed on a functional? pelling features. The lifespans of IoT objects are also me- shelf indefinitely. What constellations of values would com- 2. What strategies can we diated by their duality as data objects and material objects; pel owners to reimagine an IoT object’s use and function use to design these val- even while the material body of an IoT object remains func- after its death and how can these be designed for? We hy- ues into IoT objects, to tional, a company may shut down its servers at any time, pothesise that end-of-life upcycling, appropriation and reuse encourage end-of-life thereby depriving the object of its functionality and render- can be mediated by designing for emotional, sentimental, upcycling, appropriation ing it a “brick”. environmental, ethical and moral values - among others. and reuse? This raises the question: what happens when an IoT ob- Work from both academia and industry has begun to sug- ject has come to the end of its life? With typical objects, gest how imbuing a variety of values into IoT objects can the owner can choose to keep hold of the item indefinitely, support their owners in reflecting upon their materiality, as repurpose it, sell it for parts, recycle it or throw it to land- well as supporting their ‘life after death’. One focus has fill. However the use of glues, hidden seals, force fits and been on making the environmental value of IoT objects non-recyclable plastics in IoT objects make them difficult more explicit and tangible. With his concept of spimes, Ster- to recycle. Custom-built hardware together with closed- ling posited a future techno-culture where physical objects source software may also make them difficult to hack, reuse exist alongside their digital representations; in this spime- or reimagine [8]. The issue of IoT object ‘death’ has both based future, Internet connectivity would enable physical ethical and environmental dimensions. Metals and miner- objects to be tracked and traced throughout their entire life- als used to produce these devices, such as silicon, copper, cycle, from their initial design and production, to the recy- gold and lithium, are often mined using unethical practices cling and reuse of their material components at the end of in developing countries [6]. These materials eventually turn their life [12]. The spimes concept thus reframes IoT con- into e-waste that poses serious environmental and public nectivity as a tool for environmental change. By adopting health risks [13]. The limited lifespan of IoT objects, to- the spimes approach, Stead et al. contend that the lifecycle of future IoT objects could be designed to be transparent the social robot, Jibo [2], which announced its own ‘death’ and tangible - leading to greater accountability amongst when the company behind it shut down its servers, by say- users, as well as helping them make more sustainable de- ing, "maybe someday, when robots are way more advanced cisions about the connected products they purchase, how than today, and everyone has them in their homes, you can they use them and, ultimately, how they go about disposing tell yours that I said hello.” The owners’ emotional attach- of them [11]. ment to Jibo led many to deliberate what to do with Jibo’s material body, with some keeping it displayed on a shelf as Another method of making environmental value explicit is a way of remembering its ‘life’, and others even debating the “cradle to cradle” design philosophy - which ensures ob- whether to bury it as one would a pet [2,4]. jects are, from their inception, designed in such a way that their “waste” is reenvisioned as “food” for new material in- Another example is the Little Printer - an anthropomorphic stantiations [1]. A simple example is the Sprout pencil [10], IoT thermal printer [8]. After its founders “bricked” the Lit- a traditional pencil embedded with seeds to be planted in- tle Printer, many owners kept it on their shelves, despite its stead of thrown away, once the functional value of the pen- loss of functional value. Observing the owners’ attachment cil is depleted. This workshop will address how this design to their Little Printers, an independent design studio called philosophy might be envisioned to apply to IoT objects. Nord Projects resurrected them by building a new app for the Little Printer hardware, giving it a new lease on life [8].
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Spimes Not Things: Creating a Design Manifesto for a Sustainable Internet of Things
    Running with Scissors, 13th EAD Conference University of Dundee, 10-12 April 2019 Spimes Not Things: Creating A Design Manifesto for A SustainaBle Internet of Things Michael Steada*, Paul CoultonB, Joseph Lindleyc aHighWire CDT, Lancaster University BImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University cImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University *Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected] Abstract: The rhetoric that surrounds the Internet of Things (IoT) contends it will bring about utopian transformative change throughout society, particularly in regards to sustainaBility. Little discourse however, recognises the intrinsically unsustainable nature of IoT devices themselves. Under a façade of innovation, the IoT is a Breeding ground for superfluous, novelty ‘gizmo’ products whose design incorporates environmentally damaging modes of manufacture, consumption and disposal. To Bring attention to this growing unsustainaBle design culture, we have produced a manifesto entitled Spimes Not Things: A Design Manifesto for A Sustainable Internet of Things. It is the synthesis of a practice-led research project which explores Sterling’s spimes concept using Design Fiction methods, as part of a Research through Design approach. This paper outlines the manifesto’s creation, its theoretical foundations and its intentions. The manifesto is the first step towards the reframing of design practices that will contriBute to a more sustainaBle IoT product paradigm. Keywords: Spimes, SustainaBility, Internet of Things, Manifesto, Design Fiction 1. Introduction The rhetoric that surrounds the Internet of Things (IoT) across academia and industry is both persuasive and turgid. Many commentators posit that through its eXpanding array of networked artefacts, sensors and AI capaBilities, the IoT will Bring aBout utopian transformative change to all sectors of society, from healthcare and energy, to transport and finance (Government Office for Science, 2014; Fritsch, Shklovski, & Douglas-Jones, 2018).
    [Show full text]
  • Horizon Digital Economy Research Grant (EP/G065802/1)
    ORIZON H INTERGENERATIONAL INTERPRETATION OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS Michael Brown, Tim Coughlan, Glyn Lawson1, Richard Mortier, Rob Houghton and Murray Goulden March 2012 1 Corresponding author: [email protected]; 0115 9514003 v.12 – 27th March 2012 Overview This report investigates how different generations within a household interpret individual members’ data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT). Adopting a mixed methods approach, we are interested in interpretations of the IoT by teenagers, their parents and grandparents, and how they understand and interact with the kinds of data that might be generated by IoT devices. The first part of this document is a technical review that outlines the key existing and envisaged technologies that make up the IoT. It explores the definition and scope of the Internet of Things. Hardware, networking, intelligent objects and Human-Computer Interaction implications are all discussed in detail. The second section focuses on the human perspective, looking at psychological and sociological issues relating to the interpretation of information generated by the IoT. Areas such as privacy, data ambiguity, ageism, and confirmation bias are explored. The third section brings both aspects together, examining how technical and social aspects of the IoT interact in four specific application domains: energy monitoring, groceries and shopping, physical gaming, and sharing experiences. This section also presents three household scenarios developed to communicate and explore the complexities of integrating
    [Show full text]
  • Ubiquitous Computing, Virtual Worlds, and the Displacement of Property Rights
    Ubiquitous Computing, Virtual Worlds, and the Displacement of Property Rights M. ScoT BOONE* Abstract: Examining one emerging technology, virtual worlds, may provide us with insight about another emerging technology, ubiquitous computing. The rapid increase in both the popularity and economic value of virtual worlds has resulted in a conflict over whether players in these worlds have any property rights with respect to virtual world objects associated with their avatars. A close examination however reveals that even if such rights exist, they can be overridden through the combined use of contract and technology. This observation may in turn provide an insight about the future of real world property. The emerging technology of ubiquitous computing shares technological characteristics with virtual worlds such that ubiquitous computing would make a displacement of property rights in real world objects possible in the same way that virtual world technology makes such a displacement possible for potential property rights in virtual world objects. "Associate Professor of Law, Appalachian School of Law. I would like to thank Charlie Condon, Judie Barger, David Ritchie and James McGrath for their helpful comments on drafts of this article. I would also like to thank for their comments the participants of the Works-in-Progress Intellectual Property Colloquium, the participants of the Intellectual Property & Communications Law and Policy Scholars Roundtable sponsored by Michigan State University College of Law, and the participants of the annual meeting of Southeastern Association of Laws Schools. The research assistance of Russell Kloosterman and Justin Williams was also immensely helpful. I/S: A JOURNAL OF LAWAND POLICY [VOL.
    [Show full text]
  • Bruce Sterling
    Bruce Sterling: "The future is about people navigating urban Internets" Poptronics: What has Internet of things to do with spimes, a word you invented in your book "Shaping things" composed of space and time ? What’s the difference between these two concepts ? Bruce Sterling: An Internet of Things naturally focusses attention on the Internet, while a "spime" is a "Thing" within an Internet of Things. I used the invented word "spime" in order to approach the subject from the perspective of industrial design. It seemed to me to help a lot to focus on physical objects rather than networking issues -- on the Thing, not the Internet. But there could be many different kinds of "Internets of things." They wouldn't necessarily have the qualities of "spimes." Spimes are things within a comprehensive production system that is clearly focussed on sustainability. I see "spimes" as part of a general struggle with major environmental problems. After a few years of development of the Internet of things, what are the key step(s) in designing and handling spimes ? There are six of them: digital plans for objects, digital identities for objects, digital manufacturing or "fabrication", a tracking system, a searching and datamining system, and a recycling system. But even if these six key technologies all develop and converge at a brisk pace, they will still need interaction design and probably social media in order to work. In "Shaping things", you wrote that 2010 would be the society for gizmos or spimes. How do you feel about it today? In order for "spimes" to come into existence, six technologies would have to converge.
    [Show full text]
  • Ubiquitous Computing
    Ubiquitous Computing Gabriela Avram IxDM13 The Trends in Computing Technology 1970s 1990s Late 1990s Now and Tomorrow ? Pervasive Computing Era Computing Evolution Ubiquitous Computing Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC 1988 “Ubiquitous computing enhances computer use by making many computers available throughout the physical environment, but making them effectively invisible to the user.” Source: Weiser, 1993a Pervasive (Ubiquitous) Computing Vision “In the 21st century the technology revolution will move into the everyday, the small and the invisible…” “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabrics of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” Mark Weiser (1952 –1999), XEROX PARC Small, cheap, mobile processors and sensors " ! in almost all everyday objects " ! on your body (“wearable computing”) " ! embedded in environment (“ambient intelligence”) What is Ubiquitous Computing? ! Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) integrates computation into the environment, rather than having computers which are distinct objects. ! The idea of ubicomp enable people to interact with information-processing devices more naturally and casually, and in ways that suit whatever location or context they find themselves in. Other terms used to describe this paradigm ! many of them are associated with a particular institution or perspective ! pervasive computing ! ambient intelligence ! everyware ! physical computing ! the "Internet of things" ! haptic computing ! things that think ! "spime"= theoretical object
    [Show full text]
  • Internet of Things and the Metamorphosis of Objects-2.Pdf
    The metamorphosis of objects and human subjects in the Internet of Things Sophie Le Pallec, Rick Bouter, Gérald Santucci “All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.” Gautama Siddhartha Introduction Where in prior times technique was referring to: “a method of accomplishing a desired aim”, today we speak more of technology. Technology has long been presented as a set of techniques; today it has become more than a method to accomplish a desired aim. From now on, we live in ‘the age of makers’. In times when there are more people with mobile phone access than toothbrushes, everyone has the ability to start up a million euro business from behind the kitchen table. Technology does not only affect business any longer; it also affects culture, politics, society and every element we value in life. Maybe most important of all, it affects the human race as we know it today. For the reason technology will impact the way we have lived for ages, it is legitimate to ask whether there is an intersection where humans and objects will find a mutually beneficial coexistence, or whether one of these entities will rule over the other, or whether there will be an alliance between the human race and some sort of technology that represents a global connected world brain. Will technology be, like in prior times, a collection of methods to accomplishing a desired aim, or will the human race be enslaved by technology and ruled by the artificial intelligence embedded in it? 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Internet of Things: Smart Things
    International Journal of Future Computer and Communication, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2015 Internet of Things: Smart Things Somayya Madakam B. Things Abstract—Research study on the Internet of Things and Smart Things has been going on for more than a decade and Thing can be defined as an entity, an idea, a quality reaches back to Mark Weiser’s original dream of ubiquitous perceived, or thought to have its own existence in the world. computing. Bruce Sterling recently popularized the idea of Things are also often interchanged with the word “Objects”. Smart Objects and the IoT. Smart Things is another paradigm When we are talking about things, they could be both Living shift in IT world. Smart Things are the things that are having Things and Non-Living Things. Things, in this context, can be embedding smartness or intelligence, identification, automation, monitoring and controlling calibre. Smart Things are assisting people, animals, plants, birds, servers, applications, shampoo human life a lot, nowadays without their applications life is bottles, cars, steering wheels, coffee machines, electronic becoming cumbersome. This paper exhibits systematically on devices, park benches or just about any other random item Internet, Things, and then explores on Internet of Things and that comes to our mind, even which could be vicinity dust also. finally Smart Things from researchers’, and corporate’s Everyday objects include not only electronic devices we perspective. Moreover, this article focuses on the state of Smart Things and its applications. This in turn would help the new encounter but also use daily, and technologically advanced researchers, who want to do research in this IoT domain.
    [Show full text]
  • SHAPING THINGS by Bruce Sterling
    SHAPING THINGS by bruce sterling designer LORRAINE WILD editorial director PETER LUNENFELD mediawork The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England CONTENTS 1. TO WHOM IT OUGHT TO CONCERN 5 2. TOMORROW COMPOSTS TODAY 8 3. OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES 15 4. THE PERSONAL IS HISTORICAL 25 5. METAHISTORY 37 6. A SYNCHRONIC SOCIETY 45 7. THE RUBBISH MAKERS 55 8. THE STARK NECESSITY OF GLAMOR 61 9. AN END-USER DRINKS GIZMO WINE 70 10. MEET THE SPIME 76 11. ARPHIDS 85 12. AN INTERNET OF THINGS 92 13. THE MODEL IS THE MESSAGE 95 14. FABBING 102 15. SPIME ECONOMICS 107 16. THE DESIGNER’S QUESTIONS 112 17. TOMORROW’S TOMORROW 133 18. UBLOPIA OR OTIVION 138 entroduction 146 designer’s notes 148 author’s notes 150 1. TO WHOM IT OUGHT TO CONCERN This book is about created objects and the environment, which is to say, it’s a book about everything. Seen from sufficient distance, this is a small topic. The ideal readers for this book are those ambitious young souls (of any age) who want to constructively inter- vene in the process of technosocial transformation. That is to say, this book is for designers and thinkers, engi- neers and scientists, entrepreneurs and financiers, and anyone else who might care to understand why things were once as they were, why things are as they are, and what things seem to be becoming. The world of organized artifice is transforming in ways that are poorly understood and little explored. There are two reasons why this is happening.
    [Show full text]
  • The End of Cyberspace and Other Surprises
    Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies Copyright © 2006 Sage Publications London, Thousand Oaks & New Delhi Vol 12(4): 383–391 FEATURE REPORT DOI: 10.1177/1354856506068316 http://cvg.sagepub.com The End of Cyberspace and Other Surprises Sue Thomas De Montfort University, UK Abstract / This article reports on Web 2.0, the end of cyberspace, and the internet of things. It proposes that these concepts have synergies both with the current fashion for modifying physical objects with the features of virtual objects, as evidenced in O’Reilly’s MAKE magazine and similar projects, and with the potential technologies for collective intelligence described by Bruce Sterling, Adam Greenfield, Julian Bleecker and others. It considers Alex Pang’s research on the end of cyber- space and asks whether the ‘new’ of new media writing will have any meaning in a world that is updated by the microsecond every time there is fresh activity in the system. Key Words / blogjects / books / collective intelligence / end of cyberspace / everyware / internet of things / new media writing / spimes / Web 2.0 1 In 2005 O’Reilly Media launched MAKE, ‘the first magazine devoted entirely to DIY tech- nology projects’. Resonant of the much earlier Homebrew Computer Club,1 founded in 1975 and home of many early hobbyist technology inventions, the magazine ‘unites, inspires and informs a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements and garages’ (MAKE Magazine, n.d.). It is a print magazine, although of course it is supported by a website and blog and all the usual paraphernalia.
    [Show full text]
  • Iot DEFINITIONS
    IoT DEFINITIONS Term Definition General The concept to allow Internet-based communications to happen between physical objects, sensors, and controllers. The network of physical Internet of Things (IoT) objects—devices, vehicles, buildings, and other items that are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. Was initially a one-to-one connection, linking one machine to another. This has evolved to mean a much wider range of devices with Machine-to-Machine (M2M) data easily transmitted via a system of IP networks. Communicate and exchange information with another connected device, without the assistance of a human. Device being measured and connected. Also known as Internet “appliances,” smart devices, netcentric computing devices, network Thing computers, and ubiquitous or pervasive computing devices, or even information appliances. Internet of Everything (IoE) Broader term describing the highest level of IoT, including people, things, machines, and subsystems. Web of Things Solely focuses on software architecture (narrow focus). The intelligent product plays an active role within the production system. It communicates with machines, humans, and other system Smart Product components to control its own processing, as well as its processing time in an independent manner. Cyber physical systems are intelligent objects based on embedded systems, connected to an Internet of data and services (also IoT) as interacting elements with physical input and output. They are characterized through a combination of real (physical) objects and processes Cyber Physical System (CPS) with information processing (virtual) objects and processes by using open, partially global, and always connected information networks. Autonomous systems that merge the physical and the virtual world, connected to each other and to the Internet by wire or wireless.
    [Show full text]
  • The Internet of Things: a Survey
    Computer Networks 54 (2010) 2787–2805 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computer Networks journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comnet The Internet of Things: A survey Luigi Atzori a, Antonio Iera b, Giacomo Morabito c,* a DIEE, University of Cagliari, Italy b University ‘‘Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria, Italy c University of Catania, Italy article info abstract Article history: This paper addresses the Internet of Things. Main enabling factor of this promising para- Received 10 December 2009 digm is the integration of several technologies and communications solutions. Identifica- Received in revised form 27 April 2010 tion and tracking technologies, wired and wireless sensor and actuator networks, Accepted 14 May 2010 enhanced communication protocols (shared with the Next Generation Internet), and dis- Available online 1 June 2010 tributed intelligence for smart objects are just the most relevant. As one can easily imagine, Responsible Editor: E. Ekici any serious contribution to the advance of the Internet of Things must necessarily be the result of synergetic activities conducted in different fields of knowledge, such as telecom- Keywords: munications, informatics, electronics and social science. In such a complex scenario, this Internet of Things Pervasive computing survey is directed to those who want to approach this complex discipline and contribute RFID systems to its development. Different visions of this Internet of Things paradigm are reported and enabling technologies reviewed. What emerges is that still major issues shall be faced by the research community. The most relevant among them are addressed in details. Ó 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction cation scenarios in which the new paradigm will play a leading role in the near future.
    [Show full text]
  • Tracking the Evolution of the Internet of Things Concept Across Different Application Domains
    sensors Review Tracking the Evolution of the Internet of Things Concept Across Different Application Domains Jorge E. Ibarra-Esquer 1,*, Félix F. González-Navarro 2, Brenda L. Flores-Rios 2, Larysa Burtseva 2 and María A. Astorga-Vargas 1 1 Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. Blvd. Benito Juárez S/N, Col. Insurgentes Este. Mexicali 21270, Mexico; [email protected] 2 Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. Calle de la Normal S/N, Col. Insurgentes Este. Mexicali 21270, Mexico; [email protected] (F.F.G.-N.); brenda.fl[email protected] (B.L.F.-R.); [email protected] (L.B.) * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +52-686-566-4270 Academic Editors: Yunchuan Sun, Zhipeng Cai and Antonio Jara Received: 25 April 2017; Accepted: 7 June 2017; Published: 14 June 2017 Abstract: Both the idea and technology for connecting sensors and actuators to a network to remotely monitor and control physical systems have been known for many years and developed accordingly. However, a little more than a decade ago the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) was coined and used to integrate such approaches into a common framework. Technology has been constantly evolving and so has the concept of the Internet of Things, incorporating new terminology appropriate to technological advances and different application domains. This paper presents the changes that the IoT has undertaken since its conception and research on how technological advances have shaped it and fostered the arising of derived names suitable to specific domains. A two-step literature review through major publishers and indexing databases was conducted; first by searching for proposals on the Internet of Things concept and analyzing them to find similarities, differences, and technological features that allow us to create a timeline showing its development; in the second step the most mentioned names given to the IoT for specific domains, as well as closely related concepts were identified and briefly analyzed.
    [Show full text]