The Internet of Things Today

The Internet of Things (IoT) has reached many different players and gained further recognition. Out of the potential Internet of Things application areas, Smart Cities (and regions), Smart Car and mobility, Smart Home and assisted living, Smart Industries, Public safety, Energy & environmental protection, Agriculture and Tourism as part of a future IoT Ecosystem have acquired high attention. In line with this development, the majority of the governments in Europe, in Asia, and in the Americas consider now the Internet of Things as an area of innovation and growth.

Although larger players in some application areas still do not recognise the potential, many of them pay high attention or even accelerate the pace by coining new terms for the IoT and adding additional components to it. Moreover, end-users in the private and business domain have nowadays acquired a significant competence in dealing with smart devices and networked applications. As the Internet of Things continues to develop, further potential is estimated by a combination with related technology approaches and concepts such as Cloud computing, Future Internet, Big Data, robotics and Semantic technologies. The idea is of course not new as such but becomes now evident as those related concepts have started to reveal synergies by combining them. However, the Internet of Things is still maturing, in particular due to a number of factors, which limit the full exploitation of the IoT. Among those factors the following appear to be most relevant:

• No clear approach for the utilisation of unique identifiers and numbering spaces for various kinds of persistent and volatile objects at a global scale.
•  No accelerated use and further development of IoT reference architectures like for example the Architecture Reference Model (ARM) of the project IoT-A
• . Less rapid advance in semantic interoperability for exchanging sensor information in heterogeneous environments.
•  Difficulties in developing a clear approach for enabling innovation, trust and ownership of data in the IoT while at the same time respecting security and privacy in a complex environment.
•  Difficulties in developing business which embraces the full potential of the Internet of Things. 
• Missing large-scale testing and learning environments, which both facilitate the experimentation with complex sensor networks and stimulate innovation through reflection and experience.
• Only partly deployed rich interfaces in light of a growing amount of data and the need for context-integrated presentation.
• Practical aspects like substantial roaming-charges for geographically large-range sensor applications and missing technical availability of instant and reliable network connectivity.

Overcoming those hurdles would result in a better exploitation of the Internet of Things potential by a stronger cross-domain interactivity, increased real-world awareness and utilisation of an infinite problem-solving space. Here the subsequent chapters of this book will present further approaches and solutions to those questions. In addition eight new projects from the recent call on SMARTCITIES in the scope of the European Research Program FP7, including a support and coordination action on technology road-mapping, will reinforce this year the research and innovation on a safe/reliable and smart Internet of Things, and complete the direct IoT related funding of 70M in FP7. Furthermore, a project resulting from a joint call with Japan will explore the potential of combining IoT and Cloud technologies