Internet of Things under a semantic perspective with user profiles

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) is a network made up of different types of devices integrated into the Internet. For the use of IoT in cities to assist humans beings in their daily activities, it is necessary to extract and process as much information as possible and therefore, semantic web technologies are a key point. This new environment is known as the Semantic Web of Things (SWoT). The application of semantic techniques to IoT can improve interoperability, effective access to data, discovery of integration resources, reasoning and processing of knowledge extraction from data, opening up opportunities for new applications. We show an overview of the most relevant semantic technologies, focusing on SWoT and well-accepted ontologies for IoT and we stress that considering users’ preferences, interests and needs are of vital importance, as a complement to the semantic information extracted. This new scenario enables the development of advanced applications and services to meet user requirements and needs, in particular for smart city applications.