Internet of Things
Imagine being notified when your generator is low on fuel and instantly ordering for more with the click of a button or managing the intensity of your light bulb or having all your household appliances being controlled from a single app on your phone?
IoT or more commonly known as the Internet of Things is a term coined by by Kevin Ashton in a presentation to Proctor & Gamble in 1999.
“It is the extension of Internet connectivity into physical devices and everyday objects.” — Wikipedia
This was and is still being done to give humans a greater control over their surroundings and particularly their physical devices through the use of simple interfaces.
“Examples of objects that can fall into the scope of Internet of Things include connected security systems, thermostats, cars, electronic appliances, lights in household and commercial environments, alarm clocks, speaker systems, vending machines and more.” — Webopedia
How IoT works
An IoT ecosystem consists of web-enabled smart devices that use embedded processors, sensors and communication hardware to collect, send and act on data they acquire from their environments. IoT devices share the sensor data they collect by connecting to an IoT gateway or other edge device where data is either sent to the cloud to be analysed locally. At times these devices may communicate and act on information received from other devices. Most of the work done is without human intervention, although there is room for people to interact with the devices, that is to set them or up or give instructuions or to access the data.
Applications of IoT
Smart buildings can, for instance, reduce energy costs using sensors that detect how many occupants are in a room. The temperature can adjust automatically — for example, turning the air conditioner on if sensors detect a conference room is full or turning the heat down if everyone in the office has gone home.
In agriculture, IoT-based smart farming systems can help monitor, for instance, light, temperature, humidity and soil moisture of crop fields using connected sensors. IoT is also instrumental in automating irrigation systems.
In a smart city, IoT sensors and deployments, such as smart streetlights and smart meters, can help alleviate traffic, conserve energy, monitor and address environmental concerns, and improve sanitation
It just blows the mind!! and there are more of these to be found and the various advantages and uses of these technology are for us to discover in our effort to solve our daily challenges
According to Jacob Morgan, apart from its numerous benefits there are also a few challenges facing the world of IoT:
The reality is that the IoT allows for virtually endless opportunities and connections to take place, many of which we can’t even think of or fully understand the impact of today. It’s not hard to see how and why the IoT is such a hot topic today; it certainly opens the door to a lot of opportunities but also to many challenges.
Security is a big issue that is oftentimes brought up. With billions of devices being connected together, what can people do to make sure that their information stays secure? Will someone be able to hack into your toaster and thereby get access to your entire network? The IoT also opens up companies all over the world to more security threats.
Then we have the issue of privacy and data sharing. This is a hot-button topic even today, so one can only imagine how the conversation and concerns will escalate when we are talking about many billions of devices being connected. Another issue that many companies specifically are going to be faced with is around the massive amounts of data that all of these devices are going to produce.
Companies need to figure out a way to store, track, analyze and make sense of the vast amounts of data that will be generated.
That about wraps it up for now guys, till later!!! 😄😄😄
