When you hear about the Internet of Things (IoT) you often hear about the hopeful consumer side of thing, like with Nest thermostat, and the next wave of Internet-connected devices that will change our personal worlds forever. Personally, when I think about the concept of Internet-connected devices actually seeing adoption, and getting traction, I think of it being applied in an industrial setting.
The RESTful programmable automation controllers (PACs) APIs out of Opto 22 resemble this vision of IoT which I have in my head. APIs making everyday objects used in a variety of industrial processes, programmable, and accessible over wired or wireless networks. Making everything from manufacturing to water and energy facilities more automated and efficient, while potentially generated data that can be used to monitor, and optimize these industrial workflows--this is IoT.
The dream of home automation just doesn't do it for me. I just don't buy the Jetsons vision of the home, but I can buy into the potential for IoT making the industrial processes which we depend on to make our world operate more efficient. Consumer IoT seems like a bandwagon to me, but proven industrial equipment manufacturers like Opto 22 realizing the potential of web API infrastructure, and baking it into the devices they manufacture, seems like real world IoT business to me.
