What is Internet of Things(IoT)?
If we define the Internet of Things, we find out that it is the concept of inter-networking of connected smart physical devices embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data.
In other words, an object can be controlled remotely through the existing network infrastructure that enables direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems, which improves their efficiency, performance and accuracy and reduces human intervention.
So we can say, in simpler words, that 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.
I know that is still may be confusing. To clarify, I think it’s important to understand why connecting things to internet could be very beneficial
Why IoT Matters
Things that are connected to the internet can send and/or receive information. This ability makes things smart (and I think you would agree that smart is good).
Let’s use smartphones as an example: using your smartphone, you can just watch any movie in the world, but it’s not because your phone actually has every movie in the world stored on it. It’s because every movie in the world is stored somewhere else, but your phone can send information (a request to get the movie you want to watch) and receive information (streaming that movie on your phone)
To be smart, an object doesn’t need to have a super storage inside of it. All an object has to do is to connect to a super storage or to a super computer.
In the Internet of Things, all the thinks that are connected to the internet can be classified into three categories:
- Things that collect information and then send it
- Things that receive information and then act on it
- Things that do both
And all three of these categories have lots of benefits that feed on each other.
Collecting and sending information
This means sensors. Sensors could be motion sensors,temperature sensors, air quality sensors,moisture sensors, light sensors, you name it. The sensors, along with connection, collect information from the environment which, in turn allow us to make more intelligent decisions.
For example, in farm, automatically getting information about soil moisture can tell farmers when their plants need to be watered. Instead of watering too much (which can be an expensive over-use of irrigation systems) or watering too little (which can be an expensive loss of crops), the farmer can make sure that crops get exactly the right amount of water.
So the farmer can save money and the world can save food!
Receiving and acting on information
We’re all very familiar with machines getting information and then acting. For example, your printer receives a document and it prints it, or, your car receives a signal from your car keys and the doors open. The examples are endless.
Whether it’s a simple as sending the command “turn on” or as complex as sending a 3D model to a 3D printer, we know that we can tell machines what to do from far away. So what?
The real power of the Internet of Things arises when things can do both of the above. Things that collect information and send it, but also receive information and act on it.
Doing both
Let’s quickly go back to the farming example. The sensors can collect information about the soil moisture to tell the farmer how much to water the crops, but you don’t actually need the farmer. Instead, the irrigation system can automatically turn on as needed, based on how much moisture is in the soil.
You can take it a step further too. If the irrigation system receives information about the weather from its internet connection, it can also know when it’s going to rain and decide not to water the crops today because they’ll be watered by the rain anyways.
And it doesn’t stop there! All this information about the soil moisture, how much the irrigation system is watering the crops, and how well the crops actually grow can be collected and sent to supercomputers that run amazing algorithms that can make sense of all this information.
And that’s just one kind of sensor. Add in other sensors like light, air quality, and temperature, and these algorithms can learn much much more. With dozens, hundreds, thousands of farms all collecting this information, these algorithms can create incredible insights into how to make crops grow the best, helping to feed the world.
Know that we have a global idea on what is IoT, let’s explain some key technical concept.
Key concepts of IoT
Hardware — The heart of IoT is billions of interconnected devices with attached sensors and actuators that sense and control the physical world. In addition to network connectivity to transmit the data they collect, these devices require some basic processing and storage capabilities, provided by a micro-controller or by an integrated circuit, such as a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) .
Embedded programming — IoT devices are embedded devices, and may be prototyped using commoditized micro-controller platforms, such as Arduino, with custom printed circuit boards (PCBs) developed at a later stage. Prototyping with these platforms requires circuit design skills, micro-controller programming, and a deep understanding of hardware communication protocols like serial, I2C, or SPI used to establish communication between the micro-controller and the connected sensors and actuators. The embedded programs are often developed using C++ or C, however Python and JavaScript are becoming more popular for prototyping IoT devices.
Security — Security is one of the most critical concerns in IoT, closely related to data ethics, privacy and liability. It must be built-in at every step of the design of the system. With millions of new devices connected every day, the number of potential points of attack grows daily. With so much at stake, security engineering skills, including threat assessment, ethical hacking, encryption to ensure data integrity, securing network architectures and applications, as well as event monitoring, activity logging, and threat intelligence, move to the foreground of the IoT development projects.
Networking and cloud integration — Network design and management are essential within IoT, due to the sheer volume of connected devices and due to the impact that network design decisions can have at scale. Connectivity enables devices to communicate with other devices as well as with applications and services that are running in the cloud. Though cloud computing and the IoT are two very different technologies, real-time data streaming and cloud integration are crucial for the proper functioning of the Internet of Things. Cloud infrastructure is used for data storage, processing and analysis, as well as for implementation of the business logic of IoT applications.
Data analytics and prediction — The number of IoT devices transmitting data increases on the daily basis, which turns big data into huge data. Developers will need securely and reliably ingest, store, and query the vast quantities of heterogeneous data originating from these devices. Besides, as many IoT devices generate latency or time-sensitive data, it is also necessary to filter or discard irrelevant data.
Machine Learning and AI –To deliver value and make sense of the huge volumes of data that is generated by IoT devices, machine learning and AI skills are the ultimate must-have skill for IoT developers. To be truly intelligent, big data analytics needs to apply cognitive computing techniques drawn from data mining, modeling, statistics, machine learning, and AI. These techniques can be applied in real-time both to sensor data streams for predictive analysis and to autonomously make decisions in response to incoming data. Besides, machine learning can be applied to historical data to identify patterns or anomalies in the data.
IoT and Industry
The impact of IoT on industrial ecosystems has resulted in emergence of robust physical-cyber connectivity, often called the fourth industrial revolution aka Industry 4.0 , also known as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The connected ecosystem encompasses physical connected assets: including those on the manufacturing shop floor as well as the manufactured connected devices such as connected cars or appliances.
The IoT/IIoT digital transformation in Manufacturing is providing robust communication, understanding and opportunities for innovation involving orchestration of Things, People, and Systems in end-to-end automated value streams.
IoT in Healthcare, or Internet of Medical Things
Similar to industry, IoT has the potential to redefine the healthcare system. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is virtually the collection of medical devices and applications that connect to healthcare IT systems through online computer networks. As the amount of connected medical devices increases, the power of IoMT grows as grows the scope of its application, be it remote patient monitoring of people with chronic or long-term conditions or tracking patient medication orders or patients’ wearable mmHealth devices, which can send information to caregivers. This new practice to use IoMT devices to remotely monitor patients in their homes spares them from traveling to a hospital whenever they have a medical question or change in their condition which and revolutionize the whole healthcare ecosystem and doctor-patient communication settings.
Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of about 30 billion objects by 2020. Starting from a single sensor and to the global network of orchestrated devices, IoT sketches for us an exciting new world, and SciForce is eager to be a part of it. With our expertise, we can help you securely connect smart devices, manage and process data and ultimately transform the way your business runs.
