We’ve all been buffeted with news about the “Internet of Things” – that imminent (or perhaps ongoing) mass influx of embedded devices onto the great big Internet.

But honestly, apart from power-users and early-adopters, consumer enthusiasm for networked gadgetry seems tepid. And most engineering professionals I know greet the concept with rolled eyes and a response that ranges from skepticism to outright mockery.

Meanwhile, chip makers are excitedly rolling out WiFi SOCs. Industry consortia are forming. Protocol market share is being eagerly staked out by players like Apple, Google, Samsung and more.

I’m sure it’s clear (at least to those of us who know the difference between ARM and MIPS) that the IoT concept has vast potential. But I don’t believe it’s been tapped yet. Most of the “things” inhabiting today’s IoT existed long before the Internet, and worked just fine without a WiFi connection. Like it or not, we simply don’t need networked toasters, GPS-enabled dog collars, or refrigerators that tweet to us when our milk has turned sour.

Venturing Beyond the Nest

A few weeks ago, I installed a Nest “Learning Thermostat” at our house. This, I think, is an example of an IoT device done right. Very right. The Nest uses its Internet connection to provide a rich user interface, remote control, trouble notifications and to get access to weather data.

Still, the smart people at Nest have only scratched the surface of what an embedded device can do when you give it an Internet connection. The basic function of the the Nest is the same as the bi-metal coil thermostat in the dining room of the house where I grew up: If it’s too cool, turn on the heat. If it’s too warm, turn on the A/C.

The Nest, in all its extremely-well-done wireless glory, remains a dramatic optimization of a two-century-old device. The true potential of the “Internet of Things” lies not in optimization (though this may be a key intermediate step to acceptance and adoption) but in enabling what was impossible without it.

Crawling Before We Walk

I think Silicon Labs’ CEO Tyson Tuttle was right when he said the Internet of Things is still in its infancy. Today makers and engineers, startups and corporates, and everyone in-between are reaching for the low-hanging fruit. We’re tacking WiFi and Bluetooth onto things that already exist. In some cases, connectivity enhances those things. In many others, it’s a novelty at best.

The real Internet of Things opportunity lies beyond the low-hanging fruit, in using our shiny new embedded Internet connections to create entirely-new, previously-impossible devices and products.

Thankfully, we’ve got an excellent example of just what can happen when developers get this right: Smartphones. Internet connectivity started seeping into mobile phones in the late ’90s. Palm Treo and Windows CE devices began infiltrating the C-suite in the early 2000s, followed by the large-scale roll-out of “faster-than-dialup” mobile Internet service in the middle of the decade. But it wasn’t until Apple and Google began enabling entirely new capabilities in 2008 that smartphones achieved critical mass.

Go Forth and Innovate

Now it’s up to us. The embedded craftsmen of the IoT age. We’ve been given all the tools we need to create the entirely-new, never-before-possible things that will truly define the IoT. We’re armed with single-chip WiFi MCUs, unfathomably-cheap cloud computing resources, pervasive connectivity and a marketplace that’s ready to throw money at something amazing that’s never been possible until now.

Twitter Map Image: Eric Fischer / Fast Company (link)
Honeywell/Nest Image: IYAAN (remixed – link)
Treo Image: VNExpress (link)

Opinion: How the Internet of Things Can Keep Its Promise originally appeared on UpEndian.com