IoT
What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the process of connecting everyday physical objects to the internet — from common household objects like lightbulbs; to healthcare assets like medical devices; to wearables, smart devices, and even smart cities.
How does IoT work?
IoT devices connect with a process called M2M (machine to machine) in which any two devices or machines communicate with each other using any type of connectivity (which can be cable, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.) , doing its job without the need for a human to intervene. This is necessarily done with specific sensors and chips that are arranged in the devices (for example, a smartphone usually has an ambient light sensor, gyroscope, etc.).
For instance, a smart thermostat (smart usually means IoT) can receive location data from your smart car while you are commuting. These connected devices can adjust your home’s temperature before you arrive. This is achieved without your intervention, and produces a more desirable result than if you manually adjusted the thermostat.
A typical IoT system — like the smart home described above — works by continuously sending, receiving, and analyzing data in a feedback loop. Depending on the kind of IoT technology, analysis can be conducted either by humans or artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in near real-time or over a longer period.
For something like this to happen, there is a set of three factors that need to be combined for an application to work within the concept of the Internet of Things. These are: devices, the network and a control system.
- The Devices: They are all those that we already know, such as: refrigerators, cars, lamps, clocks, coffee makers, television and others. In these devices it is important that they are equipped with the correct items to provide communication with the other items. Those limits can be chips, internet connection, sensors, antennas, among others.
- The Network: It is the means of communication and we are already used to it. Well, they are technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile data (3G and 4G).
- The control system: it is necessary for all the data captured from the devices through the network to be processed, then they are sent to a system that controls each aspect and makes new connections.
How does the IoT influence and why is it called that?
In our daily lives we can see a huge number of connected objects that are part of the Internet of things, and according to the Worldwide Global DataSphere IoT Devices and Data Forecast, by 2025 we will have around 41.6 billion connected devices. Next we are going to put some examples so that you can understand the impact of this:
- Autonomous vehicles : there is more and more talk about cars that drive alone without the user having to do anything other than tell them where they want to go. What is clear is that vehicles are increasingly intelligent, with a touch screen and a huge number of sensors that make life easier for the user.
- Vacuum robots : they have a large number of sensors that allow cleaning the floor of the house without colliding with anything and avoiding obstacles independently.
- Smart home : “smart” devices for homes range from presence sensors that automatically turn on lights to temperature or humidity sensors that activate other appliances. Even assistants like Alexa are IoT devices.
There are so many “things” and applications of this term that for this reason the “Internet of things” has been determined, because as we have said before it is a kind of abstract entity that is difficult to define exactly.
Examples of enterprise IoT
Industrial IoT (IIoT)
Imagine the lifecycle of heavy machinery used on a construction site. Different professionals may stress equipment differently over time, and break downs for any number of reasons are an expected part of operations. Specialized sensors can be added to parts of the machinery that are most prone to breaking or overuse. These sensors can be used for predictive maintenance, to improve human proficiency (an example of real-time data collection and analysis), and inform the engineers who designed the machinery on how to improve new models (an example of longer-term data analysis). Industrial IoT (IIoT) encompasses use cases like these across manufacturing, energy, and other industrial practices.
Logistics and transportation IoT
One of the first implementations of IoT in the logistics and transportation industry involved labelling shipping containers with radio-frequency identification (RFID) devices. These labels store data that can be captured by radio waves — allowing logistics companies to track container movements at certain RFID-enabled checkpoints (like a warehouse or shipping yard). Advancements in IoT have now led to battery-powered tracking devices that continuously transmit data to IoT applications without the need for on-site readers; allowing companies to analyze real-time data for a shipment across the supply chain.
Farming IoT
IoT has revolutionized farming in a number of ways, like through the use of moisture sensors. By installing these sensors across fields, farmers are now able to receive more accurate data to schedule irrigation periods. Moisture sensors can also be connected to IoT applications controlling the irrigation machinery itself, automatically triggering irrigation based on sensor data.