IoT trends and use cases

Thanks to IoT, the Internet is evolving into an even more powerful entity than it already is. The implications of this new technology on the way we interact with our devices will be profound. The Internet of Things is racing at breakneck speed in consumer products. Take smart watches, fitness trackers, temperature controlled clothes, etc. Consumer health is the new “in thing” in the IoT world and its current trends and use cases will help us predict what the next big thing in the future is going to be.

Trends

The health care industry is ripe for change, and the IoT is capable of delivering that change. The Internet of Things will bring three things into the industry - ubiquitous communication, pervasive computing and ambient intelligence.
?    Ubiquitous communication is the ability of objects to communicate at all times.
?    Pervasive computing is the enhancement of objects by embedding them with processing power. This allows the environment around us to become intelligent.
?    Ambient intelligence is about objects with the capability of registering changes in the physical environment. This allows them to interact actively in any process.

Using these, IoT will be able to break new grounds in the health care industry, and is already doing so in many different ways. Some of these IoT applications in the healthcare space includes:

• Tele-monitoring and telemedicine: The use of smart monitoring devices, coupled with free/paid internet video applications, enables doctors to remotely monitor patient health and provide instructions to the patient / relative / caregiver regarding the medical assistance or care that needs to be provided.
• Medication intake compliance: Medication non-adherence leads to around $300 billion spent every year in the US alone. Not following a prescribed medical plan (because the patient felt better before the dosage was over, because the patient wanted to try other medicine alternatives or because the patient simply forgot) can lead to serious effects, especially in chronically ill patients. From reminders to take your medicine to smart medication dispensers, IoT applications are being used to monitor patient compliance and providing this information to doctors and caregivers.
• Ambient Assisted Living: Using AAL, elderly people can live an independent lifestyle. This is possible due to the use of smart devices that provide reminders, capture health data and even monitor movement such as falls, thus notifying relatives or caregivers in time.

• Wellness wearables: Wellness wearables are a major focus in the health care industry. The wearable smart devices are capable of capturing and monitoring various health parameters such as heart rate, breathing, steps, etc. The reason for wellness wearables in the limelight are as follows:
  o    These devices are the building blocks of the IoT environment. They aid and assist other applications such as telemonitoring, medication compliance and AAL
  o    They are easier to retail for buying by end consumers without the need to create an IoT environment between the payer, doctor and caregivers.

Market in focus

The wellness wearables market is where the moolah is. It has a huge user base of young and old alike. Health never goes out of style and that’s why so much innovation is happening in this sphere.

Wrist Bands and Watches

Wristbands and watches are the most active devices in the wearable segment. By some estimates, 38 million devices will be produced by the end of 2015. The wearables come with a wide number of features and benefits, which include the ability to track steps, distance, pace and calories. Some of them are also capable of monitoring heart rate, sleep and exposure to sunlight. But, they are not perfect and certain challenges still plague these wearables that need to be ironed out for them to become ideal.

Consumable Pills

The consumable pills are the latest breakthrough in the IoT sector and should be available to consumers within the next five to ten years. These pills would be able to monitor temperature, pH and pressure. Along with that, they will also be able to release the appropriate drugs in the system, depending upon the problems it has sensed. It will offer major help to people suffering from eating disorders. The pills are still in research and there’s much to learn regarding risks and challenges.

Smart Socks (and other garments)

The market of smart garments is expected to jump from 0.1 million global shipments in 2014 to a staggering 26 million in 2016. One of the reasons for being optimistic about growth in this sector is because it’s a high funding space. Apparently, Sensoria has raised somewhere around $115,000 for their smart socks. Having intelligent sensors embedded into your garments leads to a wide array of benefits. Some of these benefits include:

• The ability to monitor fitness and training
• Gait, cadence and foot placement
• Temperature, heart rate and pollution monitor
• Fall detection

Moisture and odour control

Although the segment is very promising, the segment has its own set of challenges that it needs to overcome, such as price and product life.

Holistic Health Diagnosis

Holistic Health Diagnosis should be within the reach of the average consumer in the coming five to ten years. Although still under research, the category holds tremendous potential. Allerin is supporting IoT research in holistic health diagnosis aimed at preventive diagnosis and treatment. The end product will play a significant role in improving the quality of medical care assistance being provided to elderly patients. Some of the benefits of Holistic Health Diagnosis include:
￥    The ability to capture data through a wearable device
￥    The ability to send data to a server for real-time processing
￥    Capability of sending notification warnings/ suggestions based on health profile
￥    Taking inputs from healthcare professionals

Challenges

With IoT, one of the major challenges will be handling the humongous pool of data that will be flowing in and out constantly. This ‘big data’ is characterized by 'four Vs':
?    volume,
?    variety,
?    velocity and
?    veracity.

That is, big data comes in large amounts (volume), is a mixture of structured and unstructured information (variety), arrives at (often real-time) speed (velocity) and can be of uncertain provenance (veracity).

As Gartner points out, the magnitude of IoT-related network connections and data volumes is likely to favour a distributed approach to data centre management, with multiple 'mini-data centres’ performing initial processing and relevant data forwarded over WAN links to a central site for further analysis. This will present serious issues around storage for (necessarily selective) data backup, network bandwidth and data centre capacity planning, where Data Centre Infrastructure Management, or DCIM, tools will become increasingly important.

Cisco, meanwhile, has coined the term 'fog computing' to describe data processing at the network edge, to get around location-based and/or network latency issues, something that will be a feature of the IoT.

The idea of big data is to feed the baselines. For instance, what’s the average heart rate or temperature for a certain demographic? At the same time, big data will also allow IoT to make better inferences like, what kind of food is causing a spike in pH levels or what experiences are responsible for changes in a person’s mental state?  The collection of such data creates the following five challenges:

1.    Precision

IoT devices are machines that require utmost precision and can fail even if the timing is off even by a millisecond. In such scenarios, adherence to strict requirements is crucial to the health, safety and efficiency of the end user, operators, machines and the business.
For instance, IoT will play a major role in vehicle-to-vehicle communication for automotive safety. The adaptive cruise control being developed will be seriously flawed if it applies brakes seconds too late.

2.    Privacy and information security

The presence of ubiquitous devices and things monitoring you invisibly at all times is bound to raise some fundamental questions about an individual’s privacy. Where can the data be stored? Who can have access to such data? Can the data be stolen? Can the data be used, against a person’s will, to sell her other products?

3.    Regulatory compliance

IoT will be responsible for the increase in connectivity of devices, along with the influx in the flow of data. This will aggravate existing compliance issues that organisations face when complying with laws related to security and privacy.

4.    Communication

A robust wireless communication system is integral to the success of IoT. The IoT infrastructure relies on having a robust dual directional communication, which will enable it to collect data and control message delivery. But, it easier said than done. The major challenge is to establish reliable connectivity between high volume of sensors of varied types, and keeping them managed and maintained at all times. The connection has to be highly reliable, as the devices will work in high interference environments.

5.    Compatibility

IoT is an emerging new technology, and thus companies are jumping on the “Internet of Things” bandwagon to be the first in the market. But, IoT cannot be deployed successfully if all companies have different proprietary technology. Although Open Interconnect Consortium headed by Samsung, Dell, and Intel is trying to provide a unified standard to allow products made by different manufacturers to work together, different consortiums are popping up with major players backing them.

Allerin’s in the game

Allerin understands the importance of IoT and has a dedicated R&D team for it. Allerin also has a framework ready, which will allow developers and vendors to build health diagnostic products based on the framework and deploy them in the shortest time possible. This framework will allow IoT devices, like wearables, to detect and monitor diabetes and heart-related issues. These devices will include biomarkers that will allow device manufacturers to share inputs with the patient’s doctors.