Insurance and the Internet of Things - Insurance & Risk Professional

It was as far back as 1991 – when Nirvana's Nevermind was riding high in the album charts, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was the must-see film in cinemas; and escalating tensions led to the first Gulf War – that we had a sneak preview of how networked connectivity would eventually impact our lives. That year, researchers at the University of Cambridge Computer Labs invented the world's first webcam to solve their coffee problem. Frustrated by pointless trips down the hall to the coffee machine only to find the pot empty, they set up a video camera near the machine and networked it to a computer. Now they could see whether the coffee pot was full or empty in real time. Today billions of devices across the world are networked, sharing what they see, hear and otherwise sense with the internet.