What is Internet of Things (IoT) and how it's changing our lives?

On 1st April , Prime Minister Modi addressed students at Smart India Hackathon and during his speech , quoted "This is an era of Internet of Things". So what is IOT and why world is going crazy about this technology.

Internet is about sharing images, browsing web pages and interacting with people. Internet as we know is basically about people. Internet of People (IoP) has changed the world. Now Internet of Things (IoT) are changing the world again. This new internet is about things; connecting things to the Internet. You take things and you add the ability to sense and communicate and touch and you get an opportunity for things to interact and collaborate with other things. 

Let's look at this with some basic principals of communication. Humans use five senses to communicate -  Sight, hearing, taste, smell & touch. We all use smart phones. Do you know that our Smart phone also have these senses. Touch screens perfectly reflects the way we use our senses of vision and touch and hearing when we receive calls. A Japanese company Shift has created a unique accessory Scentee. The accessory has an integrated cartridge containing liquid with a specific fragrance. If we receive, for example, a text message, Scentee will evaporate this liquid in order to notify us of the message. Among the available fragrances, there are some more or less conventional ones like the smell of roses, mint, cinnamon, coffee, lavender, strawberry or apple, but there are also some original ones, like the smell of like fried bacon or french fries. TellSpec , a sensor , which uses a spectrometer to analyze the ingredients of any dish we aim the device at. TellSpec allows us to know what any food is made of and it also provides us with nutrition facts like the calories of a certain dish. Smartphones are becoming more and more human. This is an interaction point between IoP and IoT.

The Internet of Things (IoT, for short) is a phrase for when everyday objects are connected to the internet and participating together on a system, though it also means the convergence of conventional connected devices and smart appliances?. Things could be everything from cellphone, coffeemaker, washing machine, headphones, lamps, fans, wearable devices and almost everything you can think of.

Lets now look at the "ideal IoT" day . What if your smart wrist band wakes you up at 6 AM with a vibrator, and send a signal to coffee maker to start brewing coffee for you ?  You just clap to switch off your airconditioner. Coffee maker sends a signal to your music system to play your favorite music or basis on your mood. You give speaking command to your TV and change channels without physical remote. If the traffic is heavy, your car might send a text to other party notifying them that you will be late. On the way , your car might detect potholes on road in advance and give signals to slow down . We can just go on and on.

So who cares about IoT. Well, Big business care and billions of dollars have already been invested. The number of internet - connected devices (12.5) billion surpassed the number of human beings (7 Billion) on the planet in 2011 , and by 2020 , Internet - Connected devices are expected to be 50 billion globally. In 2014, Google buys Nest, a digital thermostat and smoke - detector maker for $3.2 Billion. The Indian government is serious about its IoT strategy and has announced a package of $2 Trillion to connect 100 cities across the country. General Electric (GE) approach to IoT is slightly more industrial, as it bought software license worth $2.5 Billion to take control of Power, Water, Healthcare, Aviation and Energy management.

Internet of Things involves three distinct stages:

1. The sensors which collect data
2. An application which collects and analyze this data for further consolidation
3. Decision making and the transmission of data to the decision making server. Actuators and Big data may be used for the decision making process.

While the term “Internet of Things” is relatively new, the concept of combining computers and networks to monitor and control devices has been around for decades. The confluence of several technologies are making it possible to interconnect more and smaller devices cheaply and easily.

• Low cost, high speed pervasive network connectivity
• Widespread adoption of IP based networking
• Miniaturization of computing and communication technologies
• Advances in data storage (Hadoop), Data Analytics(Big Data) and rise of cloud computing

As we increasingly connect devices to the Internet, new opportunities to exploit potential security vulnerabilities grow. Poorly secured IoT devices could serve as entry points for cyber attack by allowing malicious individuals to re-program a device or cause it to malfunction. There are few issues in IoT stated in the white paper published by Internet Society. There are security, Privacy considerations, Interoperability, Regulatory and Emerging economy development issues.

While there are innumerous IoT uses, listing below 2 interesting one ;

1. Emotiv MindDrone - Fly airdrone with your mind, facial or head movements.
2. Amazon Echo - This lets you play music, control your smart home, get information, news and more by just using your voice.

Do share your views and suggestions on the post.

Views are Personal. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.