The Internet of Things could well be more about people than about things and technology. This was one of the lessons of the Lift+Fing conference (Marseilles, June 2009) and of the New Industrial World Forum (Paris, November 2009).
February 2010 Issue
This month, Jean-Pierre Legrand, Strategic Analyst at BNP Paribas’ Retail Development Department, explains the principle of Internet of Things.
The technology exists. The “markers” are passive or active, read-only or read and write contactless RFID Radio-frequency identification chips. At present, readers are devices that are specific to each application, but there is no doubt that mobile phones are quickly becoming “universal readers”. As for networks, the adoption of IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6, a vital component of the Internet of Things, will make it possible to attribute a permanent address to each individual on the planet and to all the objects we would like to make communicative, and there will still be plenty of addresses left over for extra-terrestrials.