Classifying Smart Objects using capabilities

The Internet Of Things has emerged, providing an umbrella for the increasing number of heterogeneous Smart Objects that are becoming part of our daily activities. In this scenario, classification approaches are useful to understand differences and identify opportunities of generalization and common solutions, especially when different disciplines are coming together and bringing their individual terms and concepts. We propose a novel model for classifying Smart Objects using capabilities. This five-level model, inspired in the Capability Maturity Models, aims to be simple and inclusive, separating objects with basic capabilities from those with complex ones. In addition, examples of objects for each level are provided as validation of the proposal. The model is useful to identify requirements that Smart Objects have to cover externally as they cannot themselves support them and thus it allows for clear understanding of the external support system (or Middleware) into which the smart object is embedded.