The UK government will spend an extra £45m on developing so-called "internet of things" technology, David Cameron has announced.

The pledge more than doubles the funds available to UK technology firms working on everyday devices that can communicate over the internet.

The prime minister was speaking at the CeBIT technology trade fair in Germany.

Mr Cameron said the UK and Germany could find themselves on the forefront of a new "industrial revolution".

"I see the internet of things as a huge transformative development - a way of boosting productivity, of keeping us healthier, making transport more efficient, reducing energy needs, tackling climate change," he said.

"Take British ingenuity in software, services and design, add German excellence in engineering and industrial manufacturing and together we can lead in this new revolution."

The extra investment announced at the Hannover event, of which the UK is the official "partner country", will take the total being made available to £73m.

Sir Mark Walport, the government's chief scientific adviser, will now carry out a review into how these new technologies can be best exploited.

Analysts say the internet of things could transform daily life.

It allows devices from heart monitors to kitchen appliances to communicate through wireless internet connections.

US research firm Gartner predicts there will be nearly 26 billion devices connected to the internet of things by 2020.

I see the internet of things as a huge transformative development

Data theft will have a totally new angle because it'll be 'legal', or seen as not worth worrying about. Christ, straight-up theft via an easy router attack... But hey, call it 'metadata' - Joe Soap won't have a clue about why his insurance premiums are going up!

I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.

US research firm Gartner predicts there will be nearly 26 billion devices connected to the internet of things by 2020.

Am I the only person here who, when he sees the name Gartner, immediately thinks, "Well that'll never happen then"?

Perhaps they'd be better off researching the probability of us having IPv6 fully implemented by 2020, that might affect this prediction somewhat.

Normally, yes, but the whole industry has been talking about it for a year now.

And how is that going?

Last thing I heard, BT let their IPv6 security certificate expire and nobody noticed for 3 weeks. So not very well I'm guessing.