郭逸纯  供稿

Have you dreamed of having a smart home? Once you walk into your living room, the room identifies you and prepares everything from air conditioning to lightening for you according to a cloud-based profile of your preferences. Have a tiring day at work? The room knows it, and starts to play some soothing classical music to help you get relaxed. When you walk to the refrigerator, it not only tells you what are in it, but also tells you what's the perfect meal you can make with the stuff that you already have based on your mood and maybe even you weight loss plan.

你是否幻想过拥有一个智能之家呢？你刚踏进家门，客厅便感知到你的归来，从空调到灯光，它立马根据你的云端偏好记录为你奉上一切。工作了一天身心疲惫？你的房间懂你——舒缓的古典音乐开始缓缓播放，帮你放松身心。当你向冰箱走去，它不仅告诉你有哪些食材，还能根据你的心情，甚至是你的减肥计划，告诉你这些食材能做出一份怎样的美味大餐。

Maybe you have only read such things in science fictions, but they're now either already possible or on the brink of coming into being. Smart homes filled with connected products are loaded with possibilities to make our life easier, more convenient, and more comfortable. And all of these are based on what is called the Internet of Things.

这种种场景也许你仅在科幻小说里领略过，但如今，其中有些“幻想”已经成为现实，有些也即将如愿以偿。许多互联智能家居产品为我们带来无限可能，让我们的生活更加简单、便利又舒适。而这一切都是建立在物联网技术的基础之上。

The Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming an increasingly hot topic all around the world. It's a concept that has the potential to affect not only how we live but also how we work. But what exactly is IoT and what impact is it going to have on us?

物联网正成为全球日益热门的一大话题，这一概念不仅有望影响我们的生活方式，也将改变我们的工作模式。那么，物联网究竟是何物？它又将给我们带来怎样的影响呢？

Simply put, the IoT is a giant network of connected "things" (which also includes people). It's estimated that there will be 50 billion objects connected to the Internet by the year 2020. That means on average, each person will have six objects connected to the Internet. We are talking about a world blanketed with billions of sensors which can acquire real-time information from the physical objects in the real world and upload it to the Internet.

简单来说，物联网就是一个将万物互联的巨大网络（这里的“物”也包括人）。截至2020年，预计将有500亿终端连网，也就是说，平均每人就可能拥有六件联网设备。那将是一个被无数传感器覆盖的世界，这些传感器能够从真实世界获取各个设备的实时数据，并上传至互联网。

IoT can not only benefit our daily life, but also improve efficiency, productivity, and safety within the workplace. For example, if a machine in a factory goes down, connected sensors can immediately determine where the problem is occurring and trigger a repair request to an engineer. The IoT can also predict when a machine's life cycle is about to end, which takes a preventive maintenance approach to the next level by saving facility owners thousands of dollars on unwarranted repairs or replacements.

物联网不仅能改善我们的日常生活，还能提高工作中的效率、生产力和安全性。比如，一家工厂中的某台机器出现故障，连网传感器能够立即识别出问题所在，并向工程师发送维修请求。物联网还能预测机器的使用寿命，以便帮助设备主人避免花费大量金钱进行不必要的维修或零件更换，从而将预防性检修水平提高到新的高度。

On a broader scale, the IoT can also pave the way for a future of smart cities and affect almost everything in cities from lighting, parking, traffic and waste management to citizen engagement, safety and security. For example, sensors in city infrastructure can collect and exchange traffic data, and thus reduce road congestion and even avoid traffic accidents.

从更广的层面来说，物联网还可以助力实现智慧城市，从照明、停车、交通、垃圾管理到市民参与、安全与防护，影响城市的方方面面。譬如，城市基础设施中安装的传感器可以收集并实现交通数据的交互，从而缓解道路拥挤，甚至避免交通事故。

The IoT certainly opens the door to numerous opportunities but also to many challenges. Security is a big issue that is usually brought up. With billions of devices being connected together, what can people do to make sure that their information stays secure? Will someone be able to hack into your coffee maker and thereby get access to your entire network? Another issue that many companies are concerned about is how to deal with the massive amounts of data that all of these connected devices are going to produce. They have a long way to go to figure out a way to store, track, analyze and make good use of the vast amounts of data that will be generated.

毋庸置疑，物联网打开了无数机会之门，但也带来了诸多挑战。安全问题就是人们常常提及的一个大问题。当成千上万的设备互联互通，人们如何确保自己的信息安全？会不会有人通过侵入你的咖啡机，进而侵入你的整个网络？令许多企业担忧的另一个问题是，如何处理这些互联设备产生的海量数据?要想出办法储存、追踪、分析这些数据并予以妥善应用，依然任重而道远。

on the brink of 濒临；临近

blanket v. 覆盖

preventive maintenance 

预防性维修，定期检修

pave the way for 为……铺平道路

hack into 非法侵入（计算机系统）