Internet of Things

Benson Hougland, Vice President at Opto 22, describes the internet of things in a very simple and interesting manner. Previously, the internet was of people, content was created by people, for people and about people. Now, internet is just not about connecting people, it is also about connecting things. It is THINGS+ Ability to SENSE and COMMUNICATE.

Ability to Sense:

Your smartphone knows where you are, how you are holding it or moving it, how much light is there in your environment, and now can recognize your voice and face.

Your digital bracelet knows steps taken, calculates calories burnt and communicate to your smartphone.

The digital lights, thermostats and car garages are some more examples in which we see the ability to sense.

Ability to Communicate:

Then, he describes how these devices communicate to one another and a chain of events drive his day. The digital bracelet gently vibrates, thermostat sets the temperature, the house fans turned on, coffee maker starts up, water sprinkler at his house communicates with local district's water system to grab the water to apply in lawn.

GE DIGITAL launched an advertising campaign called "The Boy Who Beeps" depicting the application of IoT to electrical grid, medical system, traffic light system, and aviation system.

Google Flu Trends attempted to reduce the impact by early detection of disease.

Lastly in his session, he illustrates a brief example where the digital bracelet saved him from a severe casualty. The digital bracelet senses that the heart beat is abnormal & high, so it vibrates heavily to wake him up, texts this unusual observation on his mobile and shares the insight, sends the digital record of this behavior to local hospital, a call for ambulance service is triggered, doctor starts analyzing this data before the patient is in hospital. This reduces the time taken to treat the patient due to early detection of disease.

IBM Think Academy also talks about how the IoT works.

Application in Energy sector: Energy is a daily need. It is now seen as a service as compared to being a commodity. It is important to monitor the real time usage(20 to 30 seconds delay), know where the consumption is and then visualizing it graphically to help business make decisions. The small set can be used to predict for larger sets of data.

IoT forms the basis for:

• making grids more reliable,
• reducing operating cost to make utilities more affordable,
• effectively plan so that there is no shortage and more importantly ensure worker safety.

Application in Retail sector: Consumer behaviors changes: how they shop, where they shop, how they pay, what they expect. The consumers can raise their voice, with more impact. Consumers desire more personalized, interactive, convenient experiences,. 

3D wayfinding application to kiosks, 4K video walls, dynamic signage are used to add to customer experience in retail stores.

The profit is business of business. The retailers are reducing losses by utilizing IoT technology to resolve the problem of waste and spoilage. For example, Refrigeration units are equipped with early-warning mechanism which reduces the chances of unit's failure, food spoilage and hence, increase operational efficiency. Also, if the failure occurs, the time taken to report the issue at unit is minimal. 

Similarly, the IoT technology is transforming automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, defense sectors. Technology giants like Google, Samsung, Intel are betting on IoT and investing millions & billions of dollars to build the solutions capable of revolutionizing the industries as well as the consumers.