Facts about the “Internet Of Things” - Good or evil?
Not long ago the Internet of Things (IoT) was a term mostly in circulation around the offices of tech people in the internet business. The Internet of Things—or its interchangeable substitute term, Internet of Everything (IoE) — refers to all the interconnected devices or objects, which use the Internet as their main information carrier.
In the category of smart devices fall many a gadget, like a smartwatch, health monitoring watches, a smart TV set, and so on. As it turns out, AI is smarter, but over time it can get smarter. What we mean is that over time, we expect your refrigerator to not just get better, but also get smarter.
All fabricated things get a little bit smarter and evolve, even your toaster. All devices are getting better at collecting circulating information, transfer it via the internet, and make a substantial contribution to the Big Data World.
The growth of the Big Data market has the explosiveness of the Big Bang and is expected to double in size in the next 30 years. With the evolving data management capabilities of IoT, smart devices will become more capable of managing the velocity and variety of the ever-accumulating sea of data.
Can IoT devices helps us manage our world better?
Smart devices started transforming our lives long before they grew, and our business too. For the “new bees,” I hand-picked some of the facts that make the IoT stand out as a force to be reckoned with, why IoT is not a short-term technological anomaly but is here to stay for good.
IoT is here longer than you think
Even though we consider Kevin Ashton to be the father of the term, coined back in 1999, IoT devices have been around us even before that. In the early 1980s, students hooked a vending machine to a network, with the sole purpose to notify them remotely when the machine has run out of stock.
And if we think about the first time when data exchange between two machines took place, we go back two hundred years ago when the newly invented electromagnetic telegraph made the first electrical impulse communication. Despite the historical evidence that led to the emergence of smart devices, we think of IoT after the internet became an inseparable part of our lives. Hence the ‘Internet’ in the ‘Internet of Things.’
There are already more IoT devices than non-IoT
Imagine how many smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers there are in the world right now. Everyone has a smartphone, and portable devices are very widespread. However, the collective number of all IoT devices is now more than that of portable devices, and this tendency is only going to soar higher in the coming years.
Investment opportunities for IoT
Big enterprise channel substantial efforts in predicting the market future. Companies like Apple and Amazon have a deep interest in developing IoT devices. Considering the nature of the potential, not only industry giants are involved - SMEs and even governments already dive into this newly formed revenue stream.
IoT only gets better
I mentioned that the earliest example of smart devices can be linked to early electric telegraphs. We have come a long way technologically since 1837, things have changed dramatically. Despite all the changes, the Internet of Things is still very infant both conceptually and in practice. New exciting IoT developments are yet to occur.
Today, I can turn on my home lights via a smartphone app, and my garage door light goes on as soon as I go near it. IoT devices are everywhere and extremely diverse – from baby toys to self-driving monster trucks. And with this strong connection across all devices, IoT becomes more like an independent ecosystem we are yet to learn how to improve and control.
Self-Driving Machines
Driverless vehicles are now driving on our road, floating on water, even soaring the airspace. Although the unpredictability involved in self-driving AI still lingers around test-drive tracks, we learn to accept them more. Hundreds of millions of vehicles use the power of a flawless navigational system possible thanks to the combined effect of the internet and the thousands of drones circling silently in our Earth’s orbit.
Upon hearing the term ‘self-driving vehicles,’ most people imagine the driverless cars they will eventually dodge while driving on the road to work. Few people recognize that the technology behind self-driving vehicles is a much better use case for the construction industry. A self-driving car traveling on a public road with you sleeping in clearly carries some tint of liability. However, since construction robots are not part of public transportation, they are less hazardous and have incredible potential in various construction projects. Additionally, by using machines, the total cost of insurance is less for investors. Automated bulldozers and excavators are ‘low maintenance’ compared to their human counterparts.
The military has taken the development of self-driving vehicles very seriously. Future chroniclers may be describing our present times as “robots hunting for other robots.” Smart underwater vessels are lurking on the shores and flying drones are only getting better.
Wearable Devices
Wearable devices enter a new era since they began using linking humans and machines around the globe. The concept gained popularity at events like Intel’s Make It Wearable challenge. The idea was not so much to design a grandiose new product but to inspire creators and provoke them to delve into previously unexplored areas in technology.
IoT wearables find incredible potential in the health industry. Thanks to the rich data coming through sensor input, doctors have the unique opportunity to get a minute-by-minute timeline of important variables related to their patient’s health.
Wearable biosensors are a reliable source for rich medical data and telemetry monitoring. Some design decisions about health care wearables include the presence or absence of a display and/or an interface. Some devices have neither and only transmit the data to an app where the full information is available for review.
Although the health industry designs the features of their wearables to address a specific medical issue, a product like the Apple Watch has, among other things, a typical feature from the health care industry: the blood oxygen app. Some smartwatches maintain a hybrid function: they are both a phone and a source for clinically relevant data.
Smart Clothing
Although wearable devices usually represent various wrist and armbands, watches, or eyewear, smart clothes are part of the family too. Wearable pants and shirts enter the scene as a quirky sidetrack of the fashion industry, but soon they might become an inseparable part of our wardrobe. Haptic feedback in your yoga pants alarms you when you need to straighten up your posture.
There are quite a several solutions wearable clothes can address. For example, your shirt may alert you that you forgot your phone the minute you leave without it. Your portable speaker will automatically pause the music if it senses you (and your shirt) have walked away too far from it. Levi’s Trucker Jacket is an example of how your denim jacket becomes an extension of your smartphone.
Re-model your kitchen with IoT
Smart devices are everywhere, and those found in our kitchen deserve an honorable mention. Regular kitchenware like fridges and ovens is already part of every home. However, they only became smarter and, consequently, better at keeping the comfort levels high or, for example, contribute to solving a worldwide problem like food quality and safety management.
Standard kitchen IoTs use alarms and sensors to do various things like bringing the room’s humidity and temperature to an equilibrium. A straightforward approach to home improvement projects, compared to the innovative silverware that helps you lose weight, a bold product released by a company called HAPI. That is correct. If you seek to adjust your eating habits, some forks and knives use sensors to remind you to slow down if you are eating too fast, or notify you when it is a time to leave the table.
The future of IoT
We could become overwhelmed by the Internet of Things one day, but until that day comes, chances are, our lives will become enhanced by it. Doctors can monitor patients remotely receive real-time warnings about potential health issues. We use IoT to monitor our wellbeing, for exercise, monitoring sleep patterns.
Since its inception, the interconnectivity of IoT remains one of its true potentials. The ‘connection’ factor makes data easier for examination and evaluation, and one of the things IoT is good for is generating data.
With the increasing touchpoints between IoT and Big Data, we at CodeCoda believe the Internet of Things can be a great asset for humanity. If we continue to handle data responsibly, we will remain in the role of true IoT ambassadors and will keep exploring this development trend as it unfolds.
