Introduction and Overview of IoT Features 8 Introduction and Overview of IoT Features 9 Introduction and Overview of IoT Features 10

The Internet of Things: Introduction and Overview of Features

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IoT easily transforms common things into smart ones. Do you know, that everyday objects can be connected to the Internet as well as smartphones or laptops? According to IDC research, the IoT market cost $ 665.8 million in 2014 and will reach $ 1.7 trillion by 2020. Let’s investigate together what the Internet of things is, and how IoT development will be useful for you.

What Is the Internet of Things?

Internet of Things = IoT = smart plant = smart house = smart homestead = smart city = anything can be smart from the cat feeder up to whole farm.

Internet of Things (IoT) is a complex of interconnected devices, updated with unique features, that can exchange data via the Internet without human intervention.

Put simply, IoT represents smart things, equipped with sensors, capable for collecting and sending information via the Internet, programmed for different actions, and controlled remotely.

The most popular terms in this sphere are the IoT device and the IoT ecosystem.

iot device iot ecosystem

What is an IoT device?

What is an IoT ecosystem?

IoT device or simply Internet thing can be any standalone device connected to the Internet with a remote control function. Iot device can be even a person with a cardio implant, an animal with a biochip, a car or any other physical or artificial object that can be assigned an IP address and given access to transfer data to the network. IoT ecosystem, so-called an ecosystem of Internet things is a collection of components that provide the connection to the IoT devices.

What Is IoT Capable Of?

Speaking about the IoT things potential, you can be neither precise nor accurate. While reading this sentence, everything can change and outgrow. There are no specific frameworks. Nowadays, IoT can manage the whole city autonomously, what can be said about the opportunities in everyday life or business. If you have the most innovative and challenging ideas, don’t be afraid to realize them with the help of IoT. It’s highly probable that you can implement all your ideas, the issues are time, money and professionals.

Worldwide Application of IoT

fields of iot

When Can IoT Be Useful?

IoT can be divided into three categories:

iot for personal use iot for business iot for industry
IoT for personal use (everyday routine); IoT for business (any activity, except Industry niche); IoT for large-scale manufacturing companies (manufacture IoT).

1. IoT for Personal Use (Everyday Routine)

Modern technologies are designed to simplify our lives. Can you live one day without the smartphone? Hardly! Several years ago it was cool! However, nowadays it’s convenient and time-saving. Smartphone used to be modern accessory kitsch. It depicted the status of the owner. Now, even kids have mobile phones and smartwatches. These are exact Internet things. If we take a look in future, cars without the Internet, apartments without automated control will be an “anomaly” as a human without a smartphone presently!

Iot makes our human being easier! It cuts the daily routine, allows people to do only what they want. IoT can do everything if it doesn’t require human involvement.

IoT for personal use “lives” here:

house

Smart apartments/houses entirely

  • Everything can be automated starting from light and curtains up to shopping of goods and household items;
appliances

Automation of one or several everyday activities

  • Regulation of heating, taking into account the weather forecast;
  • The ability to switch electricity on\off if there is no one at home;
  • A wardrobe which can help you choose an outfit considering the weather outside;
  • The coffee machine starts making coffee when an alarm clock wakes you up;
  • An oven or microwave starts to warm your dish over when you are coming back home;
  • And plenty more.
garden

Automation of an estate/vegetable garden/fruit tree garden

  • Everything depends here on your imagination, an automated irrigation system, and manual gardener’s activity;
smart car

Smart car

  • Nowadays, many cars have an auto mode. So if you can drive a car remotely, this is an IoT device or a smart car.
  • For example, a car can be paired with your organizer. It will route you notifying about traffics and the best time to drive.

Thanks to IoT, even more from your activities can be automated.

2. IoT for Business

The application of smart things (smart devices) is a significant competitive advantage if you think strategically. For example, by regulating the amount of electricity, a company can significantly reduce costs. IoT can improve sales efficiency, track consumer behavior in the shop, and provide solutions that increase demand for products.

The main criteria for how the IoT improves your business:

  • unload business processes of routine operations saving employees time;
  • eplacement of certain positions, thereby reducing the number of personnel and the cost of it;
  • competitive advantage – be an innovator with revolutionary technologies in fashion means the best PR;
  • improvement of product or service by the Internet of Things;
  • cost reduction through the more efficient use of resources.

Real and theoretical examples of how IOT can improve your business:

queue management

Say NO to long queues

You can quickly get rid of long queues in public places. Cafes or restaurants with a significant flow of people install screens in the hall where you can place and pay the order. Then, the data from these smart screens go to the processing center. Then your order is given out in the form of a list of commands for the team: the necessary ingredients amount for cooking is displayed in the kitchen, the time when the order is ready a visitor can see on the screen in the canteen. With the help of IoT more orders can be processed within the same area, staff and without any chaos.

Hotel business or supermarket

All we got used to the doors with built motion sensors. However, what if we upgrade them and pair with the cameras around the hotel/store. Furthermore, develop a program that recognizes the faces and actions of people, determining theft and offenses, and link it to the doors. The program won’t allow an offender to open the door, but send a notification to the police or security service. Catching violators would be very simple. So gangsters and thieves will bypass the places with similar systems.

anti-fraud
restaurants

Catering Business

Thanks to IoT the waiter can be connected to visitors and tables where they are sitting. Guests can call the waiter, who can see the request on the smartwatch or other devices immediately. It enables the waiter never to mix up tables, orders, and save visitors from a long wait. By the way, this is our real project, and we will share its results very soon.

Eco-friendly environment

Savings on resources. Green PR. One solution that has significant benefits immediately.
If the whole business center/cafe/shopping mall/anything is connected to an automated system for controlling the consumption of electricity, heat, water, and light – you can save a lot of resources, money, and build an image of an eco-friendly company.
There is nothing hard in the implementing, follow the principles of the smart house system:

ecosystem-iot

heating

1. Automate the heating system (heating and air conditioning turn on and off under certain temperature conditions).

energy

2. Automate power consumption (electricity is on only when people are at home: the light itself turns on and off; if the day is sunny and the room is sufficiently lit, the light doesn’t turn on until the light level falls below the norm).

water consumption

3. Sensor control taps (people in offices and public places often do not care about the excessive consumption of water).

renewable energy

4. Solar and wind batteries on windows and roofs: this type of energy is more environmentally friendly and free (except for the installation itself), the larger the building – the more sunlight can be collected.

3. IoT for Large-Scale Manufacturing Companies

The IoT solutions are provided for huge plants, concerns, and farms. The larger the business, the more significant the role of the Internet of things is. The principles and ideas are the same as for everyday life IoT, and for business, the difference is only in scale. When we speak about a small farm, automated irrigation system saves the time of the owner, when it is endless fields – we are talking about sufficient benefits.

Have you noticed that old tracks still water the fields all day long? So can you imagine how much money the companies spend on gas and the salary for drivers? Internet of things can integrate all processes in one single mechanism and perform 30% of the work the staff does. What you have to pay attention to is the comprehensive approach. If you want to deal with cutting-edge technologies, be ready to use them on the max level!

Internet of Things - Difficult, Time-Consuming and Expensive? Myth or Reality?

Implementing IoT is not an issue, especially when you are in business. Today it’s optional, and you can rarely find it. However, those companies who integrated IoT are on demand and leaders on the market. Before any of us could think about IoT, it would appear everywhere. Moreover, in business, you couldn’t avoid using it.

So what’s stopping you from being among the first and not waiting for a fierce competition in conquering the niche of leaders? You can become a leader on your own. Do you think it worth much money? Maybe. Nevertheless, many ideas are easy to implement at a reasonable cost, and the benefits they will bring it’s really hard to imagine.

The new rule for the future by Google chairman, Eric Schmidt: “By the end of the decade, everyone on Earth will be connected."

Ready to implement IoT? Have questions?

Write us your idea and we will help you to realize it: we will think over the logic of work and the methods by which its implementation will not cost space sums, and we will go with you to the end to realize it.

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30.06.2018
The images used in this article are taken from open sources and are used as illustrations.
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