The phrase “Internet of Things” (IoT) encompasses a large variety of research, development and market efforts related to the communication between smart objects. The definition may be fuzzy, but the market reality is very clear: the number of devices connected to the Internet will reach 50 billion by 2020. An important factor contributing to the growing adoption of IoT (Internet of Things) and IoE (Internet of Everything) is the emergence of wearable devices, a category with high growth market potential. Wearable devices are commonly understood to be devices that can be worn by, or embedded in, a person, and that have the capability to connect and communicate to the network either directly through embedded wireless connectivity or through another device (primarily a smartphone) using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or another technology.
In order to offer interoperability in such a dynamic market, several international consortia have emerged, like the Internet Industrial Consortium (IIC), the Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI), the Internet of Things Architecture (IoTA), the WSO2 reference architecture for the IoT, oneM2M and OIC, to mention but a few. As these consortia focus on specific challenges, following their own specific requirements, MPEG identified the need for ensuring the interoperability among IoT systems, where MPEG focuses on multimedia content processing to enable an “Internet of Media Things”.
MPEG’s specific aim is to standardize the interaction commands from the user to the “Media Thing”, the format of the aggregated and synchronized data sent from the Media Thing to external connected entities, as well as identify a focused list of Media Things that are “Wearables”, to be considered for integration in multimedia-centric systems.