Role of Games in the Internet of Things

Internet has not only become ubiquitous, but it has become unavoidable in everyday life. It is in gaming consoles, PCs, tablets, phones, set-top boxes and televisions – i.e. practically in every aspect of our lives. But this year, we are hearing a lot about “The Internet of Things” (IoT) – routine gadgets ready with sensors and connectivity, e.g. connected gaming, to understand what we are doing, work together and run automatically to make life easier. And yes, we’ll soon be able to monitor and configure it mostly with our smartphones and tablets, or by voice.

But apart from a well-defined concept which promises a higher state of connectivity, what is the meaning of Internet of Things? And when will it appear? How is it going to change our lives? And what will happen if it goes wrong?

At a very primary level, Internet of Things means gadgets that can sense factors of the real world, such as lighting, temperature, people and objects etc, and act on this real-world data. This means that instead of most of the internet data being used up by people, it will be produced and used up by machines, by communicating amongst themselves, and thus making our lives easier.

Example of this can be a smart refrigerator which can read RFID tags within the grocery items while they are put inside, then see those tags through the internet to know about milk, butter, eggs etc you just purchased. It tracks the consumption and then alerts users about they are running out of those items, or require more food as more people will be coming on weekend to play games.

Role of Gaming in the Internet of Things

Gaming has a huge role in the Internet of Things. Gaming may structure the first truly commercial forays in the Internet of Things. Games have long proven to be a platform for new technologies and novel interactions. The initial home computers were in fact game systems such as the Atari. Even PC owes a big debt to triumph of the Commodore 64, which was utilized in large part of games. Actually you can draw a direct connection from early game portables such the Game Boy to the mobile phones of today.

Sometimes technologies hatch in R&D, then company and then consumer, but it is not always so and may even not be generally. People are prepared to go through new interactions first as fun prior to being ready to replace the previous, familiar tools. Therefore new technology is usually deployed to the user.

Therefore there are high chances that games and play will have a big role in activating and linking the physical objects in our surrounding world, and creating the way for wider application throughout human experiences.