Everytime when i read about the "Internet of Things" it is suggested that devices are smart but when it comes to an implementation of an IoT ecosystem, it is not so clear to me anymore. So i need some help for explanation of the term "Internet of things" and "Smart devices"
For me, there are two cases
Devices are very smart. Example: The classical smart fridge which orders milk if its empty. The fridge is able to perform a order by itself and does not need any help from intermediate logic between the device (fridge) and the webshop.
Devices are dumb as much as possible. The fridge does not know if the milk is empty. It just know that sensor A ("milk detector") is status "empty" or "not empty". Or just have a sensor B which counts the pieces of milkbags in the fridge and push this to a queue or a REST Service. This Service is an intermediate layer between other systems like webshops or other devices.
Does "smart device" even mean that itself is able to evaluate its own data and therefore is able to perform actions without any external help?
I can't imagine that a simple light bulb should be able to go to my webshop and order itself automatically ... or is this exactly that for what "Internet of things" is standing for?
For 1. i can see the main drawback is that you have to reprogram the fridge if it should have a different behaviour (order new milk if count of milk < 2 instead of < 1). The upside is, that you don't need any additional layer between webshop and device.
For 2. the main drawback is the additional logic layer between webshop and device. But it is easy to modify the smart behaviour in a central way on a common platform where all "smart devices" are registered.