Buttons, buttons and more
buttons.
This is what at least one part of the Internet of Things is coming to.
It started with the Amazon Dash button.
The idea was that any consumer could use the button to
easily order – as in one tap – replenishment things, like laundry detergent or another household item that’s about to run out.
Now we have the ‘AWS IoT,’ which
stands for Amazon Web Service Internet of Things button.
This new button is programmable to be able to trigger different things, even those unrelated to Amazon.
For example, in true
IoT fashion, the button could turn lights on or off or even call a taxi.
At the moment, the IoT button is targeted to developers, who will figure out innovative things to do with it before
rolling out to consumers at scale.
The interesting twist here is that the way things look like they are at introduction is not necessarily the way they ultimately will be.
For example,
many people may have thought the introduction of Amazon's Echo and Alexa was just to sell more things from Amazon.
It could do that, of course, but in reality it was conceived to do so much
more.
‘Play music’ or ‘look this up for me’ involve no actual sales, but are more designed to provide services to consumers.
And this is where the Dash button
is heading.
Amazon isn’t the only button provider.
For example, Knocki makes any surface interactive by connecting with devices via Bluetooth.
With the little device on a
surface, a knock could turn lights on or off. some may recall that clapping could do that sort of thing some time ago.
But more buttons are coming.
Eventually, the functions the
buttons provide will be embedded inside things.
But for now, get used to pressing a button.