LIFE WITH & WITHOUT IOT
Picture Yourself: In a halfway travel, you had change of plans to go back home, A small boy near to the car went unnoticed on reversing
Wait, Wait, don’t panic! You would get alerted by your car’s reverse sensor (through a beep).
You have reached home, went to the kitchen decided to taste a cup of coffee, rotate the burner upwards (to boil milk), engaged into a deep thinking (little carelessness here :) The Gas Alert System notifies
“High Gas Levels” then u realize and turn it off
Are u there with Me?
You made a decision to change the mood by calling Alexa to play your favorite song (“Alexa, play Arabic Kuthu”) and then, you start grooving to it.
End of Scene-1
Well, what are we just talking about? Yes, you’re right! Cheers to You, It’s all about some of the Real-life Applications of Internet of Things (IOT).
What is IOT?
“The collective network of connected devices and technology that facilitates communication between devices and cloud”
Perfect! Two marks to you.
This Blog focuses IOT on a bigger picture on “How it creates an impact in our day-to-day life”.
How IOT Works?
An IoT system connects sensors/devices to the cloud through a gateway, where data is processed, and actions are automatically triggered. If user input is needed, a user interface allows interaction, sending commands from the interface to the cloud and back to the devices for adjustments.
Flashback: A World of Manual Effort and Limited Connectivity
Let’s all now time travel to the past...
Before the advent of the IOT, the convenience we now take for granted were absent, and the technological advancement was far less connected. This period was characterized by manual tasks, limited automation, and a lack of real-time data, which affected everything from home management to healthcare, industry, and city infrastructure.
Home Life: If you want to change the temperature in your home, you had to walk over all way to the thermostat and adjust it manually. There was no remote control, no way to change settings from your smartphone while you were away. If you want to secure your home, you had to lock the doors and windows yourself without fail, similarly flipping the switch will only turn the lights on/off (btw, it was a game then).
Your refrigerator couldn’t track when you were running low on milk, and your washing machine couldn’t notify you when your laundry was done. You had to manage these tasks yourself, leading to a more time-consuming daily routine.
Healthcare: Patient monitoring was largely confined to the hospital setting or periodic check-ups at the doctor’s office leading to large queue. If you were a patient with a chronic condition, you relied on scheduled appointments to assess your health status, there was no real-time data being sent to your healthcare provider, which meant that any changes in your condition between visits went unnoticed.
Devices used for monitoring patients lacked the ability to send data directly to healthcare professionals in real-time. This meant that staff had to be manually checking and recording data, which not only increased the workload but also the potential for human error.
Urban Life: Traffic management, for instance, relied on fixed-timed traffic lights that operated on pre-set schedules. These systems didn’t take into account real-time traffic conditions, leading to frequent congestion during peak hours. Public services like waste management operated on fixed routes and schedules, street lighting in cities was also less adaptive, were often left on during the day due to fixed timers or manual operation and not turned on when needed (place gets darker).
How IoT Transformed Our Lives: A Glimpse into the Revolution
The entry of IOT created a huge impact on our lives…
Home Life:
IoT-enabled thermostats, adjust the temperature automatically, saving energy and making sure your home is always just the right temperature when you walk in.
With IoT, your lights can be controlled via your smartphone or set to turn on and off based on your presence. Forget to turn off the lights when you left the house? No worries, just do it from your phone.
Smart locks, cameras, and alarm systems can be monitored and controlled remotely. If someone rings your doorbell while you’re out, you can see who’s there and even talk to them through your phone. In short, IoT turned our homes into intelligent spaces that adjust to our needs, making life a lot easier and more efficient.
Healthcare Life:
Devices like Fitbit or Apple Watch track your heart rate, activity levels, and even sleep patterns in real-time, for those with chronic conditions, these wearables can send data directly to healthcare providers, allowing for quick intervention if something goes wrong.
A diabetic patient’s glucose levels can be tracked continuously, with alerts sent to both the patient and the doctor if levels get too high or low. This proactive approach helps prevent emergencies before they happen.
Urban Life:
IoT sensors in garbage bins signal when they’re full, so collection routes are optimized. This reduces unnecessary trips and ensures bins don’t overflow, keeping the city cleaner and more efficient.
Streetlights now adjust their brightness based on the time of day and the presence of pedestrians or vehicles. This reduces energy consumption and ensures streets are well-lit when needed, improving safety.
Thus, IOT acted as a bridge in connecting various devices and provided real time data’s, revolutionized the world.
The entry was mind-blowing! Right?
Life Without IoT: Chaos of a Disconnected World
Imagine waking up one day
To find that all the smart devices in your life have suddenly stopped working. The thermostat that usually keeps your home warm without a second thought is stuck on whatever temperature it was last set to. Your lights won’t turn off automatically when you leave the room — you’ll have to flip the switch yourself. It’s waiting for you to press the button.
As you head out the door, ready to tackle your day, you notice the traffic seems unusually bad. It’s almost as if the traffic lights are conspiring against you, turning red just as you approach (everything against your plan). That’s because the smart traffic systems that once adjusted in real-time to ease congestion have gone dark.
Without IOT, that real-time monitoring is gone. Now, it’s back to periodic check-ups and crossing your fingers to ensure nothing goes wrong in between. The proactive care that gave you peace of mind has been replaced by uncertainty, and every symptom feels a little more worrying.
The streetlights, once perfectly timed to dim or brighten based on need, are now either blazing away all night or leaving entire blocks in the dark. The city now feels unsafe and vulnerable to residents.
In this world without IoT, we’re thrown back into a time of inefficiency and manual labor. The smooth, automated processes that made life easier are gone, replaced by a slower reality. The revolution that IoT brought — turning homes into smart spaces, making healthcare more proactive, streamlining industrial operations, and transforming cities into intelligent, responsive environments — feels like a distant dream.
The future of IoT is promising and will become our part and parcel of our life contributing to every aspect of our life.
“Stay tuned for further insights. Till then, cheers!”
