• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, March 22, 2016

The Internet of Things is about Internet-connected or smart things knowing things before you do.

And then the things they know should be conveyed to you so your life is just a bit easier, or at least more efficient.

A rudimentary example of this is searching Google for directions to somewhere and then seeing the popular times that people travel to the same place, so you can plan your travel on the best day and time.

Taking this to the next stage, navigation app Waze recently introduced a feature to make it easier for anyone to get to an appointment on time. You tell the app when you want to arrive somewhere and the app notifies you when it’s time to get on your way.

In the case of Google, recent historical data is quickly analyzed, and Waze is real-time calculating traffic conditions and history.

These types of processes are being refined and ultimately that’s where connected objects will fit in.

• A smart lock can notify you when someone’s at the door, even if you’re not home. You can see a live video feed of who it is and communicate with the person.
• Smart shoes can track usage, such as distance and time, and tell you when the shoe is nearing its end.
• Printers can monitor their own ink supply and let you know when it’s time to reorder.

There are many more examples, such as appliances large and small communicating with each other and then ultimately to you.

The smart objects know things you don’t know – yet.

And that’s the key.

It’s not like you couldn’t ultimately find out what the smart objects are telling you. They simply are taking the leg work out of it.

You can ultimately tell when your running shoes are worn out and when your printer is out of ink. But that’s not always on your desired timeframe, most notably too late.

The messaging from the connected objects in The Internet of Things will become the basis for a new form of communication. Short but extremely useful and insightful.

Just as machines will anticipate when something is going to occur, anticipatory marketing will be required to identify in advance what the smart object-assisted consumer will most likely be needing.  

Before they realize it.