Can you answer questions about how the Internet of Things (IoT) Works?

It seems counterintuitive, a children's book that encourages all of us to put down our devices and experience life uses the help of NFC tags and your smart phone to explain how the Internet of Things (IoT) works. My latest self-published book, "The Internet of Mysterious Things", just launched on Kickstarter and embeds NFC tags on each page. When tapped, your device will launch additional information about the story. I wanted to find a creative way to bring technology into a natural environment and get kids excited to learn about how things work. The NFC tags were the perfect solution. The technologies in the story are changing each day, but, by using NFC tags, as the technologies change, the content can too.

A perfect example is the new Google Home. When I started drafting the story a year ago, it didn't exist. Part of my story talks about asking a question to "Watson, Alexa, or Siri" and never mentions Google Home. But that's okay, because the linked website that explains how "personal agents" work talks about all the various brands and underlying technologies, like natural language processing.

I came up with the concept for the book while attending a tech conference for work. A big session had just let out and everyone was flooding out of the event center. Almost everyone I looked at was looking down on their devices. To the point where people were running into each other. I giggled to myself about how easy it is for us to get consumed with our digital lives and miss out on life around us. As a parent it hit home even harder. When your toddler has to repeat themselves or ask you to put down your phone... that's when you know you're in trouble. It is hard to separate ourselves when we have our devices within arms reach 24/7.

"It [Technology] interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we're too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone."
- STEVEN SPIELBERG

The book is a play on words. I wanted to make it fun by using mysterious creatures to explain, the often hard to explain "whys" of how the Internet of Things works. But when the book encourages us to look up from our devices or we'll miss out on the incredible creatures, right in front of our eyes, it could be referring to the mysterious creatures that operate our IoT devices, or it could be referring to our friends, family, children and spouses who are desperate for our attention.

Please support my Kickstarter by becoming a backer and bringing "The Internet of Mysterious Things" into your home. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lisadeluca/internet-of-mysterious-things-iomt