Among other transformation, the Internet of Things will, in effect, create a lot more of what I view as digital eyes. Various types of sensors and tracking devices already are being deployed so that distant viewing of people or their activities can be remotely captured. Numerous examples of this have made some headlines recently.

Pokemon Go introduced augmented reality to the masses some time ago and now, for anyone who missed that altogether, there's an easy way to see AR in action, courtesy of the federal government. The White House just introduced '1600', an augmented reality app that provides an interactive, three-dimensional tour of the White House. Anyone with a smartphone and a dollar bill can check it out.

Beacons are heading into mainstream advertising. Not as in shoppers receiving annoying beacon-triggered messages blasted to their phones as they shop, but rather by adding beacon-triggered information to create fewer but much better and relevant advertising delivered later. In a major beacon move, Gimbal, the well-known Qualcomm spinoff, was just acquired by The Mobile Majority, a Los Angeles-based mobile advertising firm.

There may be trouble in wearables land. Based on a number of recent reports, the appetite for smart or connected things that are worn may be softening a bit, at least at the moment. The latest is the widely reported rumor of a $40 million sale of smartwatch startup Pebble to Fitbit.

An airline may think it has an answer to jet lag. The catch: the traveler would have to swallow a 'digital pill.' British Airways has applied for a patent for 'controlling a travel environment' by obtaining passenger data, most notably from sensors, some of which would be ingested by the passenger. The idea is that airline personnel on board would know when the passenger is awake, asleep, hungry, hot or cold and could, at least conceptually, attend to those needs at the most appropriate time.

Forget about a future of connected and driverless cars where messaging and other services are made available on in-case screens to people who sit in cars they used to drive. It's actually the driverless truck that is moving along at full speed, with a just successfully completed 35-mile highway test of a truck that drove itself in Ohio.

Anyone overly concerned about dealing with self-driving cars while they are out and about may have plenty of time before having to worry. That doesn't mean that connected cars aren't disrupting the automotive ecosystem, allowing the car and its occupants to be directly connected to the Internet, enabling automated links to other connected devices, like smartphones, tracking devices, other vehicles and even home appliances, based on a new study.

Any consumers who haven't heard about smart homes and smart devices are getting a crash education through marketing to holiday shoppers. In the latest example, the entire front cover of the Bed Bath & Beyond mailer features smart home gifts, with photos of Philips smart light bulbs and starter kit, a Nest thermostat and Nest smoke detector.

For smart home devices being bought this holiday season, the hottest tickets seem to be in connected things that deal with security in one form or another. Smart doorbell cameras, surveillance cameras, security systems and smart detectors will lead the way, based on a new report. The top connected thing will be the video doorbell, according to the Argus Insights forecast in CEPro.

Well before advertising enters the solo driverless car, it will spread to screens facing drivers in the back seats of cars. And those cars are more likely to be ride-sharing vehicles, like Uber and Lyft. When consumers are asked what comes to mind when they hear the term 'shared mobility service,' almost all (96%) select Uber, according to a new survey.