Competing terminology

As different companies and organizations strive to get attention, it’s not surprising to find a myriad of similar buzz words being used, each one highlighting different aspects of the same underlying problem, or to boast of one’s supposedly exceptional understanding of the subject. Web of Things (WoT), for instance, concerns itself with web-based technologies for the Internet of Things, such as the HTTP and Web Services. It forms a clear subset of the Internet of Things (IoT). A Connected Device is often used as a selling point. It normally refers to the internet connectivity of the device, and then falls under IoT or WoT. As an extension, the Connected Home, Connected Car, and so on, are specializations of this trend. Perhaps as an attempt to boast, Internet of Everything (IoE) was coined. But how do you connect something that is not a thing? Can you connect an emotion or a smell, without a thing in between doing the sensing? How do you connect space or water? How about abstract things, such as happiness, how do you connect that? Clearly, IoE comprises the same items and technologies as Internet of Things, but with a more bombastic title. The same can be said about Internet of People and Things. This term tries to include human interaction into the equation. But humans and their processes are already implicitly included in the original term “Internet”; it needs no further introduction. But there exists terminology that have clear differences in meaning, that are worth mentioning. Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication relates to communication between machines, including devices and things. It doesn’t presuppose the use of the IP protocol, and the internet. Many different types of protocols and technologies can be used in M2M solutions, including the IP protocol. But solutions are typically sealed or closed. The internet, if used, is used as a carrier of signals and not a platform for interoperability. Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) is like M2M in the sense that it doesn’t presuppose the use of the IP-protocol. In CPS, however, it’s the interaction between algorithms running on machines with the physical environment that is of interest.