Internet of Things
In my last article, Digital Transformation & Disruptors, I referred to ‘Internet of Things’ as per below.
- Internet of Things will increase as networks of low cost sensors and actuators for data collection, monitor, aid decision making and process optimization.
So, I wanted to expand my thoughts around this subject. What could the word ‘Things’ refer to in the subject?
- Internet of Wearables
- Internet of Home Items
- Internet of Industrial Machinery
- Internet of Building Control
- Internet of Vehicles
- Internet of Logistics & Shipping
- Internet of Etc
The list of ‘things’ could be extensive as you can see from the examples.
So, what could these ‘things’ provide? let’s again use the list above provide some examples of thoughts.
Internet of Wearables
- Sensors in your running shoes providing data to help you run better with more efficiency.
- Sensors on your person that monitors, calories, perspiration, blood pressure that will help you manage your lifestyle.
Internet of Home Items
- Sensors in your bed mattress to detect your weight, movements and react to help you sleep better.
- Sensors around your home to detect movement and change your environment; lighting, temperature, heating or Air Conditioning, Turn On/Off components.
Internet of Industrial Machinery
- Sensors to monitor parts, components and mechanical systems. Analytics can hunt for anomalies in data to monitor overall health and can determine if units or components need replacement.
- Sensors in processing plants to monitor quality, volumes, throughput and data for efficiency and optimisation.
Internet of Building Control
- Sensors to Monitor energy (light, heating, Cooling, Power) consumption in buildings and drive initiatives to manage such consumption.
- Sensors for Building access control to allow occupant or Visitor access to a building using specific data.
Internet of Vehicles
- Sensors in vehicles to help manage traffic around cities.
- Sensors in vehicle to help avoid collisions.
Internet of Logistics & Shipping
- Sensors in Postal boxes to detect if empty or not which will allow organisations to avoid visiting remote locations unnecessarily.
- Sensors to monitor quality and locations of items around the world.
You may have noticed I described each item above as ‘sensors’. Well ‘Internet of Things’ is the detection or monitoring of a process or component, it collects data. The data is fed to analytical systems which enables decision making capabilities. All the data collected by ‘Sensors’ isn’t worth much if there is no real analysing system to assist decision making.
The Internet of Things doesn’t function without cloud-based applications to interpret and transmit the data coming from all these sensors. The cloud is what enables the apps to go to work for you anytime, anywhere. This is the ‘connected all the time’ feature of ‘internet things’.
What companies are actively using ‘Internet of Things’ to gain competitive advantage, embrace digital transformation and bring efficiencies to their organisations?
- An America Beer Distributor B United is using a GPS enabled system of sensors to monitor the quality of its beer and cider while it transits the world. Using Satellite technology, the distributor can monitor the temperature and pressure of its beer. Since beer can spoil easily while in transit, system sensors monitor temperature, pressure and location and enables to distributor to react in real-time to any problems.
- Fitbit One - Wearables: The Fitbit One tracks your steps, floors climbed, calories burned, and sleep quality. The device also wirelessly syncs with computers and smartphones in order to transmit your fitness data in understandable charts to monitor your progress.
- Smart Parking with Monitoring of parking spaces availability in the city or specific carparks. Many new car parks are built with these sensors.
- Products like the cellular communication enabled Smart Belly trash use real-time data collection and alerts to let municipal services know when a bin needs to be emptied. This information can drastically reduce the number of pick-ups required, and translates into fuel and financial savings for communities’ service departments.
- The DontFlushMe project by Leif Percifield is an example that combines sensors installed in Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) with alerts to residents so they can avoid polluting local waterways with raw sewage by not flushing their toilets during overflow events.
- Retailers can run real-world A/B tests using networked cameras and sensors to detect how customers are engaging with specific products and the store's layout. Many retailers are now using this technology.
- The University of Berkeley's Floating Sensor Network project uses motorized drifters (Outfitted with cell communication, GPS, temperature, and salinity sensors) that can be quickly deployed in response to unanticipated events such as floods to track the movement of water, contaminants, and other conditions in waterways.
Everything in our lives from what we wear to how we interact with our environments is going to be ‘Smart’; networks of data-gathering sensors always connected and gathering massive amounts of data in cloud environments.
We can expect to change the way we live and work. Of all the technology trends going on right now, Internet of Things’ is perhaps the biggest disruptive technology in next few years as ‘things’ get increasingly connected.
We expect 30 billion things connected by 2020. Think about how much data these devices will be generating. That's why people talk about 'Big Data' - the amount is increasing exponentially.