It’s hard to ignore the buzz around the Internet of Things, with countless news and opinion pieces proclaiming that the world we live in is about to become a whole lot ‘smarter’. But before we run out to the streets to jump on this technological bandwagon, let’s stop for a moment to look at the concepts clinging onto it now, and what might be climbing aboard further down the road.

WEARABLES

Effectively a mainstream technology already, due in large part to the Apple Watch, Android Wear and activity trackers such as Fitbit – wearable devices have capitalised on our quest for fitness by gamifying the process. This also includes the subcategory, ‘shockables’, with the added ‘feature’ of being able to shock you if you’re not active enough!

NEARABLES

Like the war cry of property hunters everywhere, this category is all about location, location, location! Generally low-power devices, nearables are used to trigger alerts or actions on other devices that come into close proximity. A real-world example of this technology is in use at the Sun Life Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, where dawdling fans’ phones are pinged from beacons, reminding them to get to their seats for the start of the game.

INGESTIBLES

Not quite as advanced as the brain surgery carried out by the miniaturised crew in Fantastic Voyage; but these technologies are also designed to enter the human body. As sci-fi as it sounds, we are already starting to see healthcare applications for diagnostic imaging and monitoring – although the thought of putting tiny cameras and microchips inside your body might sound bizarre, there’s no doubting the potential medical advances that could be made here.

EMBEDDABLES

Fancy an upgrade? More akin to Robocop than Fantastic Voyage, embeddables mark the next predicted step for the wearables market and will essentially allow us to install hardware beneath the skin. Imagine going from your wearable device recording and reporting a fitness session, to an embeddable device also being able to show you how you achieved those results – and how to improve them. We’re only beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible on this front, so expect interesting developments in the coming years.

HEARABLES

The term ‘hearable’ – introduced by Apple after its acquisition of Beats Electronics in 2014 – relates to any device that primarily uses the ear as both its location, and method of interaction with the user. And it’s not just about listening to your favourite tracks at insane volumes (not a good idea) – the ear is a much better place to record heart rate and core body temperature than the wrist, meaning hearables have the potential to become the activity tracker of choice in the next few years.

RIDEABLES

After a lot of bad press recently – including a holiday season full of exploding hoverboard stories – the rideables market has taken a bit of a tumble, much like many early adopters of the tech! However, there are sure to be new and innovative ideas coming to the fore. It’s not all hoverboards and Segways either – technologies designed to be attached to a mode of transport can also be referred to as rideables.

AWAREABLES

Technology that can interpret its surroundings to perform tasks is the basic premise for awareables. Imagine an item of clothing with sensors that can detect faces, perform 3D scanning and sense motion – devices like this could feasibly be used by the visually impaired to better navigate their surroundings and improve overall quality of life.

THERE-ABLES

Likely to be the most sustainable of all these concepts, there-ables are focused on connected technology that we don’t take about with us – after all, you wouldn’t really want a coffee machine built into your sweater, would you? Thermostats, lighting, security systems and the aforementioned drinks dispenser all drop into this final category.

 
Whether you’re ready to take a ride and embrace these new, innovative technologies or not, a lot of them will be here to stay in one form or another. We’re not so sure about the hoverboard, but there’s no doubt we will need improved connectivity to take advantage of IoT-ready devices wherever we go.

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