It turned out… not only Weibo (microblog) is hot in China right now. Internet of Things (IOT) caught no less attentions than social media. From concept to planning, to technology standards to applications, there are quite a few breakthroughs. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China Academy of Science & Technology, and Jiangsu provincial government have put together a strategic plan for the development of Wuxi center of IOT. Government entities are actively developing IOT standards. Many provinces, as a result, started building the IOT industry zones, technology centers, etc. Enterprises and entrepreneurs are taking innovations and new application developments to the next level.
I see several real-world applications that worth to scale. A company in Suzhou has developed a smart card solution with embedded security chip for healthcare industry. The technology becomes more and more mature and actually has been adopted by a few hospitals. Wuxi center of IOT has started to plan smart grid and environmental protection solutions based on IOT. Another example I came across is an environmental protection system that utilizes IOT technology. Wireless sensors are placed in the beautiful Lake Tai, one of the five largest freshwater lakes located at the border of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in Eastern China. Data collected from the sensors are analyzed and studied in real-time for pollution monitoring and prevention. We've seen water and air pollution in China being a major issue. What if we have an Internet of Things that are telling us what happen around us in the matter of second?
If 2011 is not the year of the IOT, in the next five years we shall see large scale deployment of smart solutions and applications in all industry sectors as well as smart homes. Science fiction's technological predictions will continue to come true. New business opportunities and value added services will be developed. According to a market research, by 2020, the world M2M communication services to human communication services ratio will be 30:1, and the potential of the IOT market will likely reach trillion dollars.
