The first Internet item is considered to be a toaster, which was connected to the Internet by John Romkey, one of the creators of the TCP/IP protocol, in 1990.
The toaster could be switched on and off remotely. The term “Internet of Things” itself was coined by British engineer Kevin Ashton in 1999. Ashton was part of a team that succeeded in inventing a way to connect objects to the Internet with the help of RFID technology. An RFID tag is an identification tag that allows objects to be identified by radio signals; certain information can be written on it and later be read as a device.
The year 2012 saw significant changes in sensors, leading to accelerated market readiness of the IoT, and for many companies, this meant that the digital transformation was gaining momentum. Technological advancements made possible the emergence of MEMs – microelectromechanical systems (a miniaturised device made by micromachining both mechanical and electrical components). This made sensors smaller, able operate at lower power and added more features that it was possible to attach them to clothes, for example.
Over time, more and more “things” began to acquire such functions, and today it is impossible without Internet “things”.
Generating infrared light isn’t difficult. But generating it on a chip — reliably, efficiently, and compactly — is a different story. Traditional IR sources rely on heating elements. They radiate across a wide range of wavelengths, consume significant power, and require filters to isolate the signals. Manageable in labs, unworkable in wearables.
Innovation tends to follow a familiar path: first, we invent something powerful. Then we shrink it. Only then does it become an everyday part of the infrastructure. But one layer is still missing in today’s technology: sensing beyond the visible.
The journey from concept to market looks very different in traditional tech compared to deep tech. While traditional tech benefits from streamlined processes and quicker iteration, deep tech ventures face longer, more complex cycles due to the groundbreaking nature of their innovations.