Telefonica's recent Thinking Things product offer has just made it possible for anyone to create an M2M/IoT connected 'thing' which 'reads' the environment and transmits the information to the cloud. Temperature, humidity and lighting are some of the information the Thinking Things can record and transmit. Using the Thinking Things, users can simply plug in the solution to any other product or use it as a standalone tool to collect information based on the defined parameters and program automated tasks.
According to Telefonica, the Thinking Things plug-and-play solution is based on the stackable Lego®-type modules with 2G connectivity. Telefonica's first Thinking Things pack, the Environment Pack starts at just €90 and users can remotely control and manage the temperate, lighting and humidity in any location. Monitoring of other parameters is enabled by adding other modules such as presence, pressure, humidity and temperature sensors, impact meters, audio and LED notification modules, and timers.
Telefonica said in its statement that the launch of the Thinking Things product is the first step towards the Thinking Things Open, an open ecosystem which manufacturers can leverage to bring connection to their products. With all the data transmitted to the cloud, app developers can use the system's APIs to build end-user applications that consumers can download on their mobile devices and use for controlling various 'things' in the house, office and factories, remotely and in real-time.
According to Telefonica which has a customer base of more than 316 million around the world, the Thinking Things is an important part of its strategic investment in the IoT and M2M, a sector that is expected to see global investment (within the industrial vertical) growing by 2400% to reach $500 billion by 2020, as cited by Accenture, a leading advisory and outsourcing company in a report released last month.
Francisco Jariego, Telefónica I+D’s Director of Industrial Internet of Things
This is a major step in Telefónica’s journey into the Internet of Things. Our aim is for Thinking Things Open to become an open ecosystem in which any object or device can be connected to the internet.