Move over Internet of Things. Hello Internet of Humans?

We have entered a new paradigm of global inter-connectivity where the Internet of Things (IoT) reaches out for previously disconnected offline objects and devices. Now most things are coming online: cars and ships, manufacturing and farming equipment, home and medical devices, and even city municipal infrastructure and classrooms.

In December 2015, I started to get interested in connected products and wrote about "How smart connected products are are transforming competition". Three and a half years later, how is the connected world we live in progressing?

The forecasts vary widely but there is one constant throughout - the numbers are on the rise! Gartner analysts puts the Internet of Things at 26 billion connected devices in 2020 (up from just 900 million in 2009). And that dwarfs the number of other connected devices - smartphones, tablets and PCs - which will reach 7.3 billion by 2020.

These devices will range from sensors in everyday objects such as fridges, heating systems, traffic signals, vehicles and street lighting to remote healthcare and automating industrial and manufacturing processes that boost productivity.

As connected devices become the norm with wearable technologies such as wristbands and watches recording and monitoring things like fitness, heart rate and other health-related uses fuelling the current wave of wearable tech, is the human body itself about to become the next ‘connected device’?

In many ways it is a natural evolution of the computing interface - from the earliest punch card programming to the keyboard, to touchscreens and now gesture control. We are entering a hybrid age where the boundaries between man and machine will become increasingly blurred. IBM predicted that "when you factor in the human element there will be one trillion sensors embedded in humans and machines by 2020".

There are already some examples of how this might develop. Google has announced it is testing a smart contact lens for people with diabetes that would measure glucose levels in tears instead of the conventional finger prick blood testing.

The technology uses a tiny wireless chip and miniaturised glucose sensor embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material that can generate a reading every second and potentially warn in real-time if they go above or below safe levels. E

Elsewhere Ericsson has developed technology that enables the human body to transmit data, using the natural electrical properties of the body, while Microsoft has applied for a patent to transfer data from one device to another through touch. The application suggests future uses such as using your hand to authenticate payments instead of a credit or debit card, or share information with someone by shaking hands.

Powering these embedded sensors is an issue, of course, but with the body's ability to conduct electricity that could be solved in the future.

For some, it’s fascinating. For others, terrifying. Could the 'Internet of Humans' be the next evolution to get our head around?

Regulation in this space will be critical to sustaining public trust and lasting growth . This regulation will need to encourage rather than curtail competition to be successful. To ease fears, it needs to reinforce security standards for a diverse scope of stakeholders. All while being flexible to adapt to new industry developments!

No easy task at all, so let's see what the future holds...