Abstract
This chapter reviews the internet of things (IoT) as a key component of a smart city and how it is applied to consumers' daily lives and business. The IoT is a part of information and communication technology (ICT) and is considered a powerful means to improve consumers' quality of life. The “thing” could be any object which has internet capability, such as wearable devices and smart TVs/phones/speakers. Several studies have identified driving factors that have led consumers to adopting them, but also concerns of consumers' resistance to IoT devices. The three major fields of application of IoT technologies were selected to review the role of the IoT in consumers' daily lives and business.
TopIntroduction
A smart city has been defined in different ways by different researchers and specialists (Eremia et al., 2017). Even though there is no unified definition of a smart city, smart city concepts include a social system and technology. The only differences lie in some concepts focusing more on social inclusion and others focusing more on information and communications technology (Deakin, 2013; Kopackova & Libalova, 2017). Six areas—people, government, economy, mobility, environment, and living—have been identified as part of most smart city models (Anthopoulos et al., 2016; Zubizarreta et al., 2015).
Regardless of how a smart city is defined, it represents that information and communication technology is likely to coordinate a city’s social components (e.g., people, environment, government, etc.) to improve citizens’ quality of life as well as the efficiency of the city services (Anthopoulos et al., 2016; Vicini et al., 2012). Especially, it has been considered that the Internet of things (IoT) is one of the important infrastructures in a smart city because it interconnects the people and things at anytime, anyplace, with anything and anyone (Jin et al., 2014; Park et al., 2018; Piro et al., 2014).
Therefore, it is worthwhile to understand how the IoT has been applied to people’s everyday lives in the development of a smart city concept. More specifically, this chapter reviews the role of the IoT on consumers’ daily lives and business in three major areas—smart tourism, healthcare, and retailing—because it is one of the powerful means that contributes significant changes in smart cities.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Big Data: A large quantity of data engendered by interconnected Internet of things in real time.
Smart Healthcare: A healthcare system that enables patients and doctors to communicate with each other and remotely exchange information monitored, collected, and analyzed from patients’ daily activities via the IoT.
Internet of Things (IoT): Any object/device that is connected to other ones via the internet to communicate and exchange information.
Information and Communication Technology: Technology that interconnects all forms of communication, enabling users to access, process, and store information, as well as share it with other users.
Smart City: An urban area that uses information and communication technology to improve the quality of citizen’s life and efficiently manage public services.
Smart Tourism Destination: A place built on the principles of a smart city and satisfies the needs and tastes of tourists through information and communication technology.