The Internet of the Things - IoT
Maria Alejandra Coy Ulloa
Business Analyst I Data Analyst I IT Product Development I Agile Methodologies I Stakeholder Management I Decision-Making I Consultancy I Product creation
Basically, the Internet of Things is actually a pretty simple concept, it means taking all the things in the world and connecting them to the internet. Internet of Things (IoT) is here to change the world we know. Smart cars, smart homes, smart cities, everything around us can be turned into a smart device.
The internet of things is a concept to that is hard to define precisely. In fact, there are many different groups trying to do this task, although we attributed the initial use of the concept to Kevin Ashton, an expert on digital innovation. Each definition shares the idea that the first version of the internet was about data created by people, while the next version is about data created by things. In 1999, Ashton said it best in this quote from an article in the RFID Journal:
If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things – using data they gathered without any help from us – we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. We would know when things needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their best.
The internet of things, or "IoT", is related to extended the power of the network, internet, computers and smartphones to a whole range of things, processes and environments. These "connected" things are used to send data requested, request data or both. So, now the “things” could connect to the internet immediately and directly to communicate with people or more "things". This connectivity will result in a raises in efficiency, effectiveness, and safety in our daily lives, from transportation, to work, play, home, and others.
The reality is that the IoT allows for virtually opportunities and connections to take place. The IoT is such a hot topic today, opening the doors to a new completely market, lots of opportunities but also many challenges are coming with it. THE SECURITY is a big issue challenge that is oftentimes brought up. With billions of devices being connected together, what can people do to make sure that their information are secure? Will someone could be able to get into your freezer and get access to your entire network? The IoT also opens up companies all over the world take seriously this issues and have more security threats. Another issue related to the last one, is the 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.
Why IoT Matters
When something is connected to the internet, means that the "thing" could send information or receive information, or both. This ability to send and/or receive information or both makes things smart. To be smart, a thing doesn’t need to have super storage or a super computer inside of it. All a thing has to do is connect to super storage or to a super computer in a network connected with other devises or people.
In the Internet of Things, all the things that are being connected to the internet can be put into three categories:
- Things that collect information and then send it: this means sensors, that allows us to automatically collect information from the environment which, in turn, allows us to make more intelligent decisions. Sensors could be temperature sensors, motion sensors, moisture sensors, air quality sensors, light sensors, you name it.
- Things that receive information and then act on it: we’re all very familiar with machines getting information and then acting. Your printer receives a document and it prints it.
- Things that do both: the perfect example is the irrigation system can automatically turn on as needed, based on how much moisture is in the soil.
IoT security challenges
The securing of IoT devices prevent a number of challenges and ensuring end-to-end security in an IoT environment. A major issue cited with IoT security is the use of hardcoded or default passwords, another common issue facing IoT devices is that they are often resource-constrained and do not contain the compute resources necessary to implement strong security, they are expensive devices, finally, connecting legacy assets not inherently designed for IoT connectivity is another security challenge.
IoT Architecture
By now you might have understood that IoT is not just Internet-connected consumer devices. In fact, IoT is the technology that builds systems capable of autonomously sensing and responding to stimuli from the real world without human intervention. We therefore need to develop a process flow for a definite framework over which an IoT solution is built. The IoT Architecture generally comprises of these 4 stages:
Stage 1 (Sensors/Actuators):
“Internet of Things”, should be equipped with sensors giving the ability to emit, accept and process signals.
Stage 2 (Data Acquisition Systems):
The data from the sensors starts in analogue form which needs to be aggregated and converted into digital streams for further processing.
Stage 3 (Edge Analytics):
Once IoT data has been digitized and aggregated, it will be processing before it enters the data center.
Stage 4 (Cloud Analytics):
Data that needs more in-depth processing gets forwarded to physical data centers or cloud-based systems.
How Does This Impact You?
The new rule for the future is going to be: "Anything that can be connected, will be connected." But the important questions here is why would we want so have many connected devices and people talking to each other? There are many examples and situations for what it is awesome!!
For example you are on your way to a meeting; your car could have access to your calendar and already know the best route to take, but if the traffic is heavy your car might send a text notifying them that you will be late. What if your alarm clock wakes up you at 6 a.m. and then notifies your coffee maker to start brewing coffee for you? What if your office equipment knew when it was running low on supplies and automatically re-ordered more? What if the wearable device you used in the workplace could tell you when and where you were most active and productive and shared that information with other devices that you used while working?
On a broader scale, from the IoT could born a "smart cities" which can help us reduce waste and improve efficiency for things such as energy use; this helping us understand and improve how we work and live.
More examples and applications...
Natural Disaster Management with IoT
The Internet of Things platform can be used to accumulate data related to a specific geographic location using remote monitoring tools and perform analytics so that early warnings of a disaster can be found out.
Smart Farming with IoT
The task of irrigation can be automated with the help of IoT. A set of sensors such as light, humidity, temperature can be used to continuously monitor the field conditions.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EiSiIIXAQQ
https://www.iotforall.com/what-is-iot-simple-explanation/
https://www.edureka.co/blog/what-is-iot/
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/28247/internet-of-things-iot