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In computing, the Internet of Things refers to a network of objects, such as household appliances. It is often a self-configuring wireless network. The concept of the internet of things is attributed to the original Auto-ID Center, founded in 1999 and based at the time in MIT[1].
The idea is as simple as its application is difficult. If all cans, books, shoes or parts of cars are equipped with minuscule identifying devices, daily life on our planet will undergo a transformation. Things like running out of stock or wasted products will no longer exist as we will know exactly what is being consumed on the other side of the globe. Theft will be a thing of the past as we will know where a product is at all times. The same applies to parcels lost in the post.
If all objects of daily life, from yoghurt to an airplane, are equipped with radio tags, they can be identified and managed by computers in the same way humans can.[2][3] The next generation of Internet applications (IPv6 protocol) would be able to identify more objects than IPv4, which is currently in use. This system would therefore be able to instantaneously identify any kind of object.[4]
The Internet of objects should encode 50 to 100 trillion objects and follow the movement of those objects. Every human being is surrounded by 1,000 to 5,000 objects.[5]
Alcatel-Lucent touchatag[6] service and Violet's Mirror gadget provide a pragmatic consumer oriented approach to the Internet of Things by which anyone can easily link real world items to the online world using RFID tags (and QR Codes in case of touchatag).
Universal addressability of dumb things

An alternative view, from the world of the Semantic Web [7] focuses instead on making all "things" (not just those electronic, smart, or RFID-enabled) addressable by the existing naming protocols, such as URI. The objects themselves do not converse, but they may now be referred to by other agents, such as powerful centralised servers acting for their human owners.
Trends, Characteristics

Intelligence
The Internet of Things will likely be a "non deterministic" and open network (cyberspace?) in which auto-organized or intelligent entities (Web services, SOA components), virtual objects (avatars) will be interoperable and able to act independently (pursuing their own objectives or shared ones) depending on the context, circumstances or environments. It will host Ambient intelligence (built upon Ubiquitous computing).
"Real life" VS Model-driven architecture
It will also likely be event driven[8], bottom-up made (based on the context of processes and operations, in real-time) and will consider any subsidiary level (see also: Event-driven architecture). Therefore, model driven and functional approaches will coexist with new ones able to treat exceptions and unusual evolution of processes (Multi-agent systems, B-ADSc, etc.).
Actually, in this internet, the meaning of an event will not necessary be based on, either a deterministic or syntactic model but will be based on the context of the event itself: this will also be a Semantic Web[9]. Consequently, it will not necessarily need common standards that would not be able to address every context or use: some actors (services, components, avatars) will accordingly be self-referenced and, if ever needed, adaptive to existing common standards (predicting everything would be no more than defining a "global finality" for everything that is just not possible with any of the current top-down approaches and standardizations).
Chaotic or complex system ?
In semi-open or closed loops (i.e. value chains, whenever a global finality can be settled) it will therefore be considered and studied as a Complex system due to the huge amount of different and various links, interactions, between various, autonomous and different actors and due to its capacity to integrate new actors. At the overall stage (full open loop) it will likely be seen as a chaotic environment (since systems have always finality).
Time considerations
In this Internet of Things, made of billions of parallel and simultaneous events, time will no more be used as a common and linear dimension[10] but will depend on each entity (object, process, information system, etc.). This Internet of Things will be accordingly based on massive parallel IT systems (Parallel computing).