IoT: A Future Change or a Digitalized Present?

Movies are the place where our wildest dreams come true and a lot of movies show the dream of a smart future. Back in the '90s, when self-driving cars only meant Arnold hailing a cab that is driven by a smirky Robo-driver named Johnny, who would’ve thought that someday in near future it would be a reality. Or in a 1973 Bond movie when a Rolex turned into a smartwatch, it will be an inspiration for today’s smartwatches! Not to forget, 1989’s Back to the Future II movie, where Marty McFly wears the internet-connected smart glasses which are kind of similar to Google smart glasses.

If we talk about technology that we are embracing today considering how it will change our future, then you must watch the 1977’s Star Wars Universe that had IoT devices all over the place.

Everything we saw in movies and wished was real, now is. Smart homes, smart cars, smart gadgets, smart enterprises, every single thing in our life is getting some smarts. With the growing comfort and convenience they provide, our expectations of them are also increasing. We need more and more. Let’s see how the Internet of Things is set to shape our future.

1. Connected Electronics

IoT is changing the way we use devices. Earlier, we used only smartphones to connect with the internet but now, everything is internet-connected - television, refrigerators, washing machines, speakers, thermostats, and the list is never-ending. Just name a gadget and you have its “smart” version. Even your wearables, fitness devices, glasses, have smarts. All these devices are making everyday life easier by taking up a variety of mundane, repetitive tasks for themselves. A lot of them also learn every day which helps them do those tasks better each day.

2. Smart Homes

The comfort starts at home, so skipping this area is not possible. IoT enters our houses with devices such as smart refrigerators that alert when we are running out of milk, little buttons that order things, or the lights that automatically switch on when they detect we are back home.

With IoT devices and sensors, it is like having an invisible helper that does errands without asking, “What am I supposed to do next?” or “Do you want me to do this?”

 It simply does it all, with perfection!

3. Smart Cars

The idea of driverless cars was introduced in 1930 at New York World’s Fair in the Futurama section as a vision of America’s future in the next 20 years. That vision is now the world's reality. Many companies such as Tesla and Volvo are working on making their vehicles completely autonomous wherein cars, infrastructures will talk to one another and make planned decisions such as stop on signals, alert when fuel is low, slow down in bad weather or other conditions. The fear of driving in difficult terrains or bad weather conditions is eliminated with smart cars. We will now have a long drive companion that knows what may happen next and alert us in advance.

4. Smart Cities

We thought of smart homes and someone expanded the concept to an entire city. Integrated cities are being developed that will ease the water, electricity, gas, public management such as public safety and mobility, congestion and traffic, parking spaces, etc. With sensors everywhere, we can easily know where the nearest park is, which road is congested, and should be avoided, how much resources are we using, and how it can be conserved, etc. As the AI learns behavior patterns, it can make a calculated guess of when we use resources like water, or roads and therefore use that guess to maintain, and repair infrastructure when it is not in use. A smart city will change the way we live entirely. It would be a real sci-fi movie where humans can have a conversation with technology.

5. Smart Hospitals

Connecting the healthcare industry with sensors and smarts means better monitoring of patients, predictive analysis of the risks involved in surgeries, and avoidance of last-minute equipment failures. By equipping patient beds with sensors, doctors can keep a check on patients' health and movement, and when the condition deteriorates, doctors and hospital staff can be informed through alerts and notifications. Just like we saw Tony Stark create a 3D visual prototype of a time-travel machine, doctors can virtually do surgeries to analyze the risk factors and situations if something doesn’t go as planned. Sensors on machines will alert if the machine requires maintenance or so.

6. Smart Agriculture

Climatic conditions - irregular rainfalls, extreme sunlight, and human conditions - extensive use of fertilizers, limited water supply, result in the loss of agricultural products, and affect the farmers and producers on a large scale. You can use sensors to track the humidity of the soil, weather conditions, fertilizer requirements, and notify the farmers about it. It will also keep a check on crop quality. Moreover, sensors will detect when the crops are to be watered and if it looks like it would rain, the water won’t be supplied to the crops.

A digital scarecrow in the field will now take care of all the field operations besides discouraging birds from feeding on casting seeds.

7. Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is also known as the intelligent industry. Manufacturing, logistics, oil and gas, construction, transportation, etc. are leveraging IoT to simplify their business operations. Asset Tracking, asset management, inventory management, delivery management, warehouse management, predictive maintenance are the use cases of IoT that reduce the costs and push efficiencies.

So, What is IoT?

IoT is a change-maker and is not limited to the sectors mentioned above. Energy, retail, fitness, are a few more in the never-ending list of our digital future, or should I say the revolutionizing present.

The seed we sowed decades back is growing into a plant now, right in front of our eyes.

So, yes, it’s the future we are witnessing at present!