As technological disruption continues throughout the globe, the evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to progress in three phases – connect, smart and autonomous – at least according to the vision mapped out by information and communication technology giant Intel.
Speaking this month at an MTN Business IoT conference, in Sandton, Intel South Africa country leader Videsha Proothveerajh said that, despite the rapid growth of IoT and an unprecedented interconnection of devices within the digital revolution, some 85% of IoT devices were unconnected.
This inflection point meant that a lot of work still needed to be done and there was a huge opportunity for industry to connect all the unconnected devices in a world where it was already expected some 50-billion devices will be connected by 2020.
“At Intel, our vision for the evolution of the IoT happens in three stages, but first, we must connect the unconnected,” she told delegates, explaining that unconnected devices should be equipped with sensors and technology that allow the transfer of data to the cloud for analysis.
The second stage was developing connected devices into ‘connected and smart’ things to enable businesses to collect, process and analyse the data, followed by the final stage of creating an autonomous world in which IoT had reached its full potential.
“IoT reaches its full potential with the creation of a software-defined autonomous world,” Intel had previously noted, with the company working on developing devices smart enough to self-function, undertake real-time decisions and, true to artificial intelligence expectations, learn from the environment to improve performance.