Internet of Things(IoT) - The Future of Technology

When I say the future is not unthinkable, I do not imply, that when you roll back, close your eyes and see driverless cars, manned-missions to Mars or any figment of your imagination, you are wrong. Yes, we are getting there steadily and it is the two interconnected realms of Cloud Computing and IoT that are going to play an integral role in the transition.

Internet of Things

IoT is an attempt to give every object an embedded system, a.k.a, a brain. In formal terms, it is a network of physical objects embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity to exchange data, process and do real-time analysis of the data, to suit our needs. It is, as if, we are trying to integrate technology at every minuscule of our lives.

IoT brings together a host of technologies like Wireless Sensor Network(WSN), control systems for device-to-device(D2D) communications. The core idea is to gather huge amounts of data on cloud, which is mobile, instantaneous, process that data and hence make everything “smart” around us. Remember, how you had to use a QR code to get access to Whatsapp Web, well IoT at work there.

IoT promises to be vast and being dependent on Cloud platform, it’s scalability is easier. From Mimo monitor that can give a real-time monitoring of your child’s breathing, temperature e.t.c to pill sensors that gets powered by your stomach fluids and relays data for your doctor to analyse. Even Google Fit on your smartphones is an example of IoT. Sensors play a key role, so does radio frequency identification(RFID) because the devices need to identify each other. Home automation technologies like smartphone-controlled thermostats, key tracker, devices like Ninja Block which can detect for pipe leaks, not only guarantee security but it also saves energy and reduces your bills.

Everything is getting integrated with Internet

Smart cities proposes to integrate a city with IoT technology controllable by applications on the smart devices used by the citizens. Smart parking, self-automated factories, optimized distribution of water, electricity and other resources. Santander in Spain is one such experimental research platform for smart city. Vehicles can be fitted with sensors measuring CO₂, CO, NO₂, thus keeping pollution levels in check. Disaster management becomes more efficient. Imagine this, a network of sensors fitted under the ocean bed sends a signal of an incoming Tsunami and automatically the “smart” infrastructure in place, calculates the areas requiring immediate evacuation, how to coordinate the relief. IoT can help in agriculural and industry, again in the same way, monitoring product quality, keeping track, analysing the soil temperature, moisture conditions and proposing a way to maximize productivity. Forests can have sensors placed to detect illegal poaching and deforestation. Shopping malls, in future, will adapt the IoT technology to study shopping patterns of customers, improving their shopping experiences for the future.

Concept of smart city in Belgrade

Santander smart city

IoT is basically collecting, processing, storing and analysing real-time data and responsively setting up an infrastructure. Besides the initial expenditure, IoT is bound to improve economy by optimizing resources, saving time, proposing a solution in real-time, disaster management. Since cloud platform plays such a huge role in it, there is a considerable space and size consideration. Let us not forget our ever increasing population. IoT is a major technology shift because making things “intelligent” opens the doors for new products and new services.

But all of this raises a fundamental question and as excited should we be for living in the century which is bound to see a meteoric rise in IoT products, ‘Are we the creators of technology, or are we the servants of it?’.