1982
Students at Carnegie Mellon University connected the department vending machine to the main computer via the local network, enabling them to check if drinks were available and cold. Not everyone liked Coke, but they all loved this invention.

1990
John Romkey created the first IOT device – a toaster that could be turned on and off over the Internet. By 1991, he had automated the entire process by adding a crane system that inserted the bread as well.

1993
The world's first webcam prototype, the Trojan Room Coffee Pot, was installed at the University of Cambridge to monitor the amount of coffee remaining in the brewing machine.

1995
The first version of the long-running GPS satellite program run by the U.S. government is finally completed, a big step towards proving one of the most vital components for many IoT devices: location.

1998
IPv6(IP is a virtual address which allows devices on the network to locate each other while v6 means that it's the sixth version) becomes a draft standard, enabling more devices to connect to the internet than previously allowed by IPv4(IP version 4). While 32-bit IPv4 only provides enough unique identifiers for around 4.3 billion devices, 128-bit IPv6 has enough unique identifiers for up to 2^128, or 340 undecillion. (That’s 340 with 36 zeroes!)

This is a big year for IoT, since it’s when the phrase was probably first used. Kevin Ashton, the head of MIT’s Auto-ID labs, included it in a presentation to Proctor & Gamble executives as a way to illustrate the potential of RFID (radio-frequency identification) tracking technology.

2005
Originally released in June 2005, the Nabaztag – an early version of smart home devices like Alexa and Google Home – was an ambient electronic device shaped like a rabbit, able to alert its owner and speak to them about the weather, stock market changes, RSS feeds, etc.

2007
The first iPhone appears on the scene, offering a whole new way for the general public to interact with the world and Internet-connected devices.

According to Cisco IBSG (Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group), IoT was conceived between 2008 and 2009, when the number of connected machines surpassed the number of humans on the planet. Currently, there are about 21.5 billion connected devices in the world – almost three times the number of people on the planet.

In 2011, Gartner, the market research company that invented the famous “hype-cycle for emerging technologies” (a graph used to assess the maturity and potential of emerging technologies) , included “The Internet of Things” on their list.

Thermostats and home lighting started using sensors to accurately sense the surrounding environment. This allowed people to control home lighting, garage doors and thermostats all from their phone.

As a smart city “testbed”, Smart Docklands in Dublin provided a platform for innovators to test cutting-edge technology solutions to local challenges, such as smart bins, sensors monitoring flood levels and city sound monitoring sensors.

2018
Healthcare devices represent one of the fastest-growing sectors of the IoT market. The value of this sector – sometimes called the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) – is predicted to reach $176 billion by 2026. IoT technology allows healthcare professionals to access patient data and improve the quality of wearable medical devices. Medical IoT solutions include blood glucose and heart rate monitoring, pacemakers, fall detection, geofencing(boundary defined around a location) and location monitoring.

2020
In 2020, heat detection cameras started popping up in all sorts of public spaces to measure people’s temperature. Using infrared technology, thermal cameras detect radiating heat from a body. Although these devices were originally not designed to be used for medical purposes – they are often deployed by firefighters to track smouldering embers and police to search for out-of-sight suspects

The FIA (Fire Industry Associations ) IoT Forum provides a great opportunity for FIA members to work with other members under the banner of the FIA as the industry-leading voice to enable the fire industry and the customers we serve to benefit from IoT.