From the internet of things to embedded intelligence

The Internet of Things (IoT) represents the future technology trend of sensing, computing, and communication. Under the Wisdom Web of Things (W2T) vision, the next-generation Internet will promote harmonious interaction among humans, computers, and things. Current research on IoT is primarily conducted from the perspective of identifying, connecting, and managing objects. In this paper, however, we attempt to enhance the IoT with intelligence and awareness under the W2T vision. By exploring the various interactions between humans and the IoT, we extract the "embedded" intelligence about individual, environment, and society, which can augment existing IoT systems with user, ambient, and social awareness. The characteristics, major applications, research issues, the reference architecture, as well as our ongoing efforts to embedded intelligence are also presented and discussed.