IEEE Communications Magazine From “Smart Objects” to “Social Objects”: The Next Evolutionary Step of the Internet of Things IEEE Communications Magazine Luigi Atzori, University of Cagliari Antonio Iera, University of Reggio Calabria Giacomo Morabito, University of Catania

1.Introduction 1.1 IOT, will provide a very important set of opportunities to users,manufacturers, and service providers with a wide applicability in many productive sectors.

1.Introduction 1.2 At the present stage of the IoT evolution, the questions are: i)Are there new potentials that smart objects are still expected to manifest? ii)Can these potentials bring new (more effective) models of IoT systems and contribute toward the achievement of a fully networked human society? 1.3 A new generation of social objects that: i) are able to interact with other objects in an autonomous way with respect to the owners; ii) can easily crawl the IoT made of billions of objects to discover services and information in a trust-oriented way; iii) are able to advertise their presence to provide services to the rest of the network

2.FROM SMART THINGS TO THINGS THAT SOCIALIZE Figure 1. Main features of the identified three categories IoT objects. Smart object • Increased collaberation with external systems • Capability to communicate in human social networks • Awareness of the environment • Interactivity with the surrounding environment • virtual social behavior with neighbors Acting object Social object • Capability of building their own social network • Proficiency in building added-value complex services through collaboration in the object social network

2.FROM SMART THINGS TO THINGS THAT SOCIALIZE 2.1 THE STATUS QUO: SMART OBJECT IN THE IOT • Objects visible in more social networks in parallel ⇒ Further amplifying object visibility • Web platforms for objects ⇒ Combining data from several objects Intranet of things WoT Interoperable objects Interoperable objects Social WoT Multi-social WoT • Web languages and APIs ⇒ Integrating IoT into the Internet of services • Objects “visible” in social networks ⇒ Leveraging on existing social channels ⇒ Amplifying object visibility • Objects “visible” in social networks ⇒ Leveraging on existing social channels ⇒ Amplifying object visibility

2.FROM SMART THINGS TO THINGS THAT SOCIALIZE 2.2 THE ONGOING EVOLUTIONARY STEP: ACTING OBJECTS IN THE IOT i) Smart-Its Friends procedure: smart wireless devices, which in general integrate sensing, processing, and communication functions ii) Blog-jects: (objects that blog), objects of everyday life augmented in their capabilities to interact in modes

2.FROM SMART THINGS TO THINGS THAT SOCIALIZE 2.3 THE FUTURE EVOLUTIONARY STEP: RES SOCIALIS IN THE IOT Why objects should have their own social network？

3.THE FUTURE EVOLUTIONARY STEP: Social objects IN THE IOT

4. EXPLOITING FEATURES OF SOCIAL OBJECTS AT THE APPLICATION LAYER

4. EXPLOITING FEATURES OF SOCIAL OBJECTS AT THE APPLICATION LAYER THE HEALTHCARE MANAGER Other Object

4. EXPLOITING FEATURES OF SOCIAL OBJECTS AT THE APPLICATION LAYER LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

4. EXPLOITING FEATURES OF SOCIAL OBJECTS AT THE APPLICATION LAYER URBAN TRAFFIC

OPEN RESEARCH ISSUES 1.DEFINITION OF INTER-OBJECT RELATIONSHIPS • Digital representations • New types of social relationships • Effectively and efficiently discover ,interact with objects • Solutions to autonomously sense objects, interact & change informtation 2.ANALYSIS OF THE GRAPH OF RELATIONSHIP STRUCTURE

OPEN RESEARCH ISSUES 3.APPLICABLE ARCHITECTURAL MODELS • Allow for the establishment and exploitation of social relationships • Crawl the IoT, and discover services and resources • Platform with suitable components that cope with smart objects. 4.SECURITY AND PRIVACY ISSUES