The past two decades of evolution has been about the revolution in technology and if we compare the development and the transition to the middle age to the modern age, the modern age to the post-modern age; the latter has a greater acceleration. However, the profound innovations are just being done as the convergence of the physical world, and the virtual world is happening under the name of “Internet of Things”. You might have heard the term, say from a friend, a blog, an advertisement or a colleague. Do you know what it means or have you ever tried Googling it? According to the Standard Dictionary of Oxford, “Internet of Things is the development of the Internet in which all the objects of our lives are connected to networks that allow them to transfer the data among themselves”.
The examples of Internet of Things has extended far away from the smart homes to health care, wearables, energy sector and slowly IoT are becoming a major part of almost all the sectors of our lives. Not only is it increasing the comfort of the lives but also is now being designed to control and customize our lives by keeping a check on the lifestyle, work routine, and even the personal tasks. The recent hype has been forcing all the organizations to consider the Internet of Things to create a systematic network which is why the developers are now more focused on developing deploying applications that are compatible with all the industries. That being said, from retail to agriculture; IoT is everywhere in the market and here are four unimaginable sectors where IoT has penetrated.
Education Sector
The interaction between the students and the mentors, teachers, educators and the peers can be done on the global level by using the interactive boards and digital highlighters. Students can just sit in their home or the classroom and use their digital scanners by transferring the 2D text from the textbooks to their smartphones with enhanced graphics and audio-visuals. They can also use the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips in order to track the physical things or even flora and fauna (birds, animals, etc.) irrespective of the weather conditions. The automatic cloud-based applications like Jisc will help the students to learn data analysis right from the childhood to give them many insights about the subjects that they are learning and by keeping them updated on a daily basis. The digitalized wristbands and the identity cards can be used to track people in the school premises as the last seen locations are usually stored on the cloud server. This not only increases the security of the school but can also be used as wallets to avoid cash payments. The school buses are also provided with GPS tracking devices for more safety of the children’s journey from home to school and vice-versa. With the introduction of connected applications like TuTuApp, students can now keep their device secure and download paid application from their respected app store for free. This has become a very cost effective way to enjoy education applications at no cost.
Growing Plants and Gardening
Internet of Things has also been prominent in growing plants; some thermostats can keep the atmosphere in control say the temperature and humidity. If you’re looking forward to growing plants that can only survive in particular kind of climate, you can always set the conditions using your thermostat and maintain the surroundings. Some IoT devices like the Edyn Garden Sensors can also help in tracking other environmental conditions like sunlight, moisture level and they end up recommending the optimal situations and timing for planting, watering, etc. You can also know what kind of plants will thrive in such situations and this way they help in saving lots of water. Rain Machine, an IoT device that got synchronised with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sends the environmental information including temperature, solar radiation, humidity, precipitation, wind speed of a location to various data platforms and based on the response, it calculates the evaporation and transpiration losses of a plant in order to auto adjust the watering levels and durations needed by the plant. IoT has also become capable of growing plants artificially with the introduction of Zeus Lighting grow light. Now plants can be grown indoor without the need of sunlight, the device senses the required amount of nutrients, water, and sunlight needed for the plant to grow indoor.
Emergency Management
Whenever an emergency occurs, we entirely rely on the emergency management measures to save us and safeguard us in the public areas. The emergency management support contacts the communication team in order to acquire the up-to-date information about the disaster and its consequences of providing adequate and suitable measures to sustain the disaster. However, natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, and fires tend to destroy the two important assets; communication and robust information leading to the disconnection between the offline emergency responses and the affected area. Fortunately, IoT has the capability to mitigate any information lag and weaker communications even in the adverse situations. While we only have seen IoT acting as a network that holds inter-connected devices in a particular area; it can also function as an extended hoc communication network. This is the same way, a router works by converting the landline to a wireless connection across the home. When the traditional communication systems are failing, the IoT devices can be used for extension of connectivity to provide stronger communication and faster information transfer.
Industries
Industrial automation has been one of pristine IoT applications in the recent era where the combination of sensor networks, innovative machine-machine communication, quintessential hardware and wireless connectivity together is transforming the orthodox automation process into something big. The automation has been in existence and is linked with big names like Siemens, NEC, Emerson, etc. which is now being spread among the small industries. For example, if you take the construction industry; it is important to determine the quality and compressive strength of concrete. EDC, the embedded data collector of Smart Structure, is a system that works as we embed the sensors in the concrete during the curing process. The sensors along with the concrete will be the part of the structure, and you can keep a check on its quality and strength whenever you want.
With the technology threats like security, complexity, and compatibility, the IoT industry will still grow because of the potential to revolutionize every industry.
Wrapping up, understanding and being a part of Internet of Things is dazzling with many new devices, applications, and innovations happening every day. The developers are more focused on indulging IoT deep into every sector, and before you know, you might turn out to be one of those people who would transform a product and provide a new service to the whole industry, that you’re involved in.
