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Did you know? The first IoT device was a soda machine—here’s how it led to ATMs
When you think of the Internet of Things (IoT), you probably picture smart homes, wearables, or connected vehicles.
This coke-vending machine became the first IoT device in the world. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
The Birth of IoT: Carnegie Mellon’s Soda Machine
When you think of the Internet of Things (IoT), you probably picture smart homes, wearables, or connected vehicles. However, the origins of IoT date back to the early 1980s, when computer science students at Carnegie Mellon University had a simple but brilliant idea: connecting their department’s soda machine to the internet.
Frustrated by walking to the machine only to find it empty or that the sodas weren’t cold, the students rigged the machine with sensors that could report the availability and temperature of the sodas via the university’s internal network. This was one of the earliest examples of a machine autonomously sharing data—an early glimpse into the future of IoT.
Connecting the Dots: From Soda Machines to ATMs
The idea of a connected device providing real-time data quickly evolved. By the 1990s, the first widely-used IoT devices became a staple in everyday life: Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). ATMs were among the first machines connected to global networks, allowing people to perform banking transactions from virtually anywhere.
What made ATMs revolutionary as IoT devices was their ability to communicate across networks, providing real-time account data and secure financial transactions. This technology laid the foundation for the IoT ecosystem we know today, where devices share information and perform tasks autonomously.
How IoT Shaped Modern Connectivity
The soda machine experiment at Carnegie Mellon may have seemed like a quirky innovation at the time, but it sparked a new era of interconnected devices. ATMs became the first large-scale IoT devices used worldwide, transforming the banking industry and how people access their money. These early IoT examples paved the way for the billions of connected devices we have today, from smart thermostats to health-monitoring wearables.
As technology advances, the potential for IoT continues to grow, impacting industries like healthcare, agriculture, and transportation. All of this innovation can be traced back to a soda machine at a university in Pittsburgh—an unassuming start to a revolution that changed how the world communicates and operates.
The Future of IoT
Looking back, it’s incredible to see how far IoT has come from its humble beginnings. Today, with billions of connected devices, IoT is shaping industries and improving efficiency and convenience in ways previously unimaginable. And as the network of smart devices continues to grow, who knows what everyday object might be the next to change the world?
