When I get up in the morning, I push the button of the wristband and draw back the curtains automatically. While I go to the bathroom, I push the button again and activate the rice cooker and heat up the soup. After breakfast, I don’t need to go to a company to work because I work from home. While I work, I get an alarm from my wristband that the washing machine needs detergent, so I press the button and order detergent. It seems like a story from a movie. However, this will be our reality in the near future. IoT will make these possible. -Ed.
 


What is IoT?
  IoT, which is the abbreviation of ‘Internet of Things’, is already a hot keyword in the IT industry. Kavin Ashton, who is a professor of MIT in USA, first used this word in 1999. IoT is also called ‘M2M: Machine to Machine’ because it means machines, which are connected on a network, managing works by exchanging collected information using their own sensors without human intervention. IoT is not an unfamiliar concept. We can find IoT easily around us. For representative examples, there is High-pass, which pays a toll while a car passes by, and electronic ankle bracelets, which send sex offender’s real-time locations to a management agency. Also, turning on the light by smart phone and a washing machine ordering detergent by itself automatically when the detergent is all used will happen soon by using IoT.
  It seems like IoT is similar with an ubiquitous system. Both of them connect through the Internet. However, there is a difference in collecting data between them. Ubiquitous systems focus on helping people use services by connecting devices, such as smart phones, to the Internet. On the other hand, Internet service for users is not a goal of IoT. Accumulating a large amount of data, which changes every time, and sending it is a goal of IoT.
 
More about IoT
  Drivers don’t need to drive by their own because smart cars can drive automatically. People can check the weather on the electronic mirror while they are brushing their teeth. IoT, which will actualize people’s imaginations about the future, will provide convenience for us. Other than the convenience, what are the advantages of IoT?
  IoT has an enormous economic value. Therefore, it is a subject that the whole world is focusing on as a promising business industry and researching constantly. John Chambers, a chairman of Cisco, which is an enterprise of global communications, said on February 25th in ‘Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014’, which was held in Spain Barcelona, “For the next 10 years, companies can create about 14 trillion dollars, and 4 trillion dollars can be created in public sectors by using IoT. In conclusion, a total of 19 trillion dollars of economic value can be made.” IoT will induce companies to increase production and reduce expenses by making it possible to remotely control, operate and administrate automatically. Additionally, it will make more profit by collecting and analyzing customers’ purchasing times and patterns. Thus, in the public area, IoT can provide the solutions for many urban city problems. Managing water supply, waste, and gas can be consolidated into one area and can be administrated at the same time instead of being managed individually. Through this, a city can manage public facilities easily even if the manpower is insufficient.
  The big strengths of IoT are creating economic value and convenience. However, IoT can be utilized in various fields and can make diverse advantages. In education, IoT lets students study anywhere without worrying about the place to study. In the medical world, interns can observe and study easily while professors are operating with smart glass. As many fields exist where IoT can be utilized, there are diverse advantages that IoT can bring.
  Nevertheless, IoT has some weaknesses. The biggest weakness of IoT is the possibility of hacking. Because everything is connected on the Internet, when somebody hacks into the network, privacy could be invaded and personal information could be leaked. If home appliances, such as a refrigerator or washing machine, are hacked, we might be illegally monitored at home by a criminal. In addition, cyber terror against a country’s important facilities, such as nuclear facilities, electronic power plants or trains, can occur anytime. Furthermore, patients can get in big trouble if medical devices are hacked, and drivers’ lives can be in danger if a smart car, which drives automatically, is hacked by someone. About the hacking possibility of IoT, Lee Yoon-duck, who is a professor of Sungkyunkwan University and director of operations in IoT Forum, said, “The leak of personal information is really a big problem, so we need to develop diverse technology to prevent the problem. Of course, serious leaks already happened, but this was not caused by the appearance of new technology or services. It was because of the sociocultural environment in which people don’t take responsibility about the method of earning money. Also, about the security measures of hacking, Prof. Kim Tae-joon of CBNU said, “To reinforce the protection of information in IoT, service structural design, which is mainly about security, should be made and, to support it, there should be a standardized platform. However, the most important thing is security consciousness of administrations and priority investment about reinforcement of preventing information leaks.”
  There are more weaknesses in IoT. It reduces the time for people to think, so it can reduce people’s concentration. It does not apply to everyone, but people don’t have their own time to think because they always look at and use smart phones in their free time. Just one device, the smart phone, caused this phenomenon. When the world moves into the IoT era, which is being developed from smart phone technology, the phenomenon will be more severe. Some people think because IoT can make everything work automatically, jobs will be reduced soon. If this is real, this would be the worst problem of IoT because employment rates are so low these days. However, Prof. Kim said, “Occupations can decrease because of utilization of IoT, but these are mostly about collecting information, a simple administrative process. Rather, more information would appear because of communication between the objects. Therefore, jobs concerning manufacturing and interpreting the information will be created. In conclusion, it is hard to say that IoT will cause the decrease of occupations.”
  There are both advantages and disadvantages in IoT. Even though there are big disadvantages in IoT, governments and companies are all trying hard to utilize IoT. About this phenomenon, Prof. Lee said, “Because the positive parts of IoT are more important and we can reduce or eliminate the negative parts with our efforts, IoT gives much more important advantages, such as creating economic value.”
 
IoT in Korea
  Some say Korea’s IoT technology is a year behind other developed countries. They assert that the government’s system and policy are not following the innovations in technology. However, according to Prof. Lee, this is a groundless argument and the present IoTs are all on a similar level. We can witness Korea’s importance in this area when the IEEE(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the organization which developed the standard Wi-Fi technology, opened IoT first in Korea. Thus, in global activities, most editors and directors of IoT organizations are Koreans.
  The Korean government is supporting many fields in developing technology and experiments. Especially this year, the Ministry of Science, ICT(Information & Communication Technology) and Future Planning submitted ‘2014 National Information Enforcement Plan’ and announced that there will be more support for IoT fields.
  As PCs and smart phones have changed our lives a lot, IoT will change our lives again as well. IoT, which is in the beginning steps, will develop consistently. To develop it, we need continuous effort of the government and companies. The government should invest consistently with the confidence that IoT is the heart of the future information-communication field, and companies should work hard to develop new services for the people.
 

By Seo Yeo-ryung
yr34@cbnu.ac.kr