• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, September 16, 2015

Just because someone doesn’t see any evidence of the Internet of Things around them doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

This is hardly a new phenomenon, being consistent with other introductions of almost any new major technological innovation.

For example, so-called chip & pin credit cards, also referred to as EMV cards, will be required to be used by all U.S. merchants starting Oct. 1. Otherwise, the merchant assumes liability for credit card fraud.

Despite this being years in the coming, the majority (56%) of consumer don’t even know what an EMV card is, according to a new survey of 18,000 U.S. consumers. The study, conducted by Shift Communications for Harbortouch, found that only 22% of consumers currently use EMV cards, a common standard in other countries for many years.

This is not a knock on consumers, since they have no necessary reason to be aware of new technologies, such as payments, until it impacts them personally.

In the case of credit cards, when consumers receive a new, chip-enabled card in the mail and later are asked to insert it into a reader at checkout, it will hit home. Until then, it’s somewhat irrelevant.

The Internet of Things is in pretty much the same situation.

While millions of individual components and sensors are being deployed in countless locations, most go totally unnoticed by consumers.

This is what I call the awareness factor and it strikes me as one of the intriguing aspects of the Internet of Things.

For credit card transactions, only a slight change in consumer behavior is required, by inserting a credit card a little differently at checkout.

But IoT is different. The consumer behavioral changes will be significant.

For example, while most shoppers have no idea that beacons are installed in stores where they shop, they magically receive highly targeted and personalized messaging. That the message was triggered by a nearby beacon doesn’t necessarily matter to the consumer.

Sensors in products, home appliances and cars will matter less than what content or service is provided because of those sensors.

Once IoT messaging starts to hit home, consumers will determine the boundaries.

With the Internet of Things, it’s the messaging that counts, not the mechanism.