1982’s Internet-Connected Coke Machine: The First IoT Device
How did a group of researchers at Carnegie Melon wind up creating the first IoT device almost 20 years before the phrase Internet of Things was even coined?
A combination of ingenuity and laziness.
In the early 1980s, the idea of connecting devices to the Internet was largely theoretical.
The Internet itself was in its infancy. Carnegie Melon was among the first universities to connect to the ARPANET, the DoD funded precursor to today's Internet.
In 1982, researchers and students in the computer science department had a serious problem.
They'd often find themselves walking to the building's Coca Cola vending machine only to find it was either empty or the drinks were too warm.
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