Internet of Things (IoT), What is IoT and How it Works
The Internet of Things – or IoT – is influencing our lifestyle from the way we react to the way we behave. From air conditioners that you can control with your Smartphone, to Smart Cars providing the shortest route, or your Smartwatch, which is tracking your daily activities, IoT is a giant network with connected devices.
These devices gather and share data about how they are used and the environment in which they are operated. It’s all done using sensors. Sensors are embedded in every physical device. It can be your mobile phone, electrical appliances, Pecos, barcode sensors, traffic lights, and almost everything that you come across in day-to-day life. These sensors continuously emit data about the working state of the devices, but the important question is how do they share this huge amount of data, and how do we put this data to our benefit.
IoT provides a common platform for all these devices to dump their data, and a common language for all the devices to communicate with each other. Data is emitted from various sensors and sent to IoT platform security. IoT platform integrates the collected data from various sources, further analytics is performed on the data and valuable information is extracted as per requirement. Finally, the result is shared with other devices for better user experience, automation and improving efficiencies.
Let us look at a scenario where IoT is doing wonders. In an AC manufacturing industry, both the manufacturing machine and the belt have sensors attached. They continuously send data regarding the machine health, and the production specifics to the manufacturer to identify issues beforehand.
A barcode is attached to each product before leaving the belt. It contains the product code, manufacturer details, special instructions, etc. The manufacturer uses this data to identify where the product was distributed, and track the retailer’s inventory. Hence, the manufacturer can make the product running out of stock available. Next, this product is packed and parceled
to different retailers. Each retailer has a barcode reader to track the products coming from different manufacturers, manage inventory, check special instructions and many more.
The compressor of air conditioner has an embedded sensor that emits data regarding its health and temperature. This data is analyzed continuously allowing the customer care to contact you for the repair work in time. This is just one of the million scenarios. We have Smart appliances, Smart Cars, Smart Homes, and Smart Cities where IoT is redefining our lifestyle and transforming the way we interact with Technologies.
The future of IoT industry is huge. Business Insider intelligence estimates that 24 billion IoT devices will be installed by 2020, and ITC predicts that IoT Revenue will reach around three hundred and fifty seven billion in 2019, resulting in a lot of job opportunities in the IT industry.