As Information and Communications Technology, ICT, continues to revolutionarise human activity around the world, the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, has put together a workshop on Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) to bring a spotlight on what is now referred to as Internet of Things.
The Internet of Things enables ubiquitous network connectivity, anytime and anywhere. With the use of key technologies such as radio tags and wireless sensor networks, real-time communications and the free exchange of information between users and the intelligent objects around them firmly leave the domain of science fiction.
These new advances in technology are coming at a time when the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is supporting ICT companies in the country to bring the benefits of ICT closer to the people.
Early evidence of the growing ubiquity of networks can be found in the widespread use of mobile phones: The number of mobile phones worldwide surpassed 2 billion in mid-2005 and is now taken for granted by most users in their daily life. The internet, too, has grown at a phenomenal pace. From its origins as an academic network for a small elite, the worldwide network now boasts almost a billion users. And this is only the beginning. We are on the cutting edge of a new communications era that will radically transform the internet as we know it, and with it, our corporate, community, and personal spheres said Lara Srivastava, lead author of The Internet of Things, a report recently released by ITU1. As an unparalleled tool for communication between people, the internet is now set to enable connectivity between people and all kinds of objects, as well as between objects and other things, she said.
With new advances in technology, the ITU believes that innovations like RFID tags herald the dawn of a high-tech future in which users of networks will be counted in the billions and where humans may become the minority as generators and receivers of this traffic. Instead, most of the traffic will flow between inanimate objects, thereby creating a much wider and more complex Internet of Things. By embedding short-range mobile transceivers into gadgets and everyday items, the Internet of Things stimulates entirely new forms of communication.
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