Internet of Things !

The Internet...

The Internet has been around for a while now but it’s been mostly the product of people, so all the data, images, recoding, games, books and videos were created by people for people and about people. So, there’s no arguing that the internet is one of the most important and transformative technologies ever invented. The internet is like the digital fabric that woven into the lives of all of us in one way or another. The internet of people changed the world. Well, there’s a new internet emerging and it’s meant to change the world one more time. This new internet is not just about connecting people, it’s about connecting things. So it’s called “The Internet Of Things”.

The Internet of Things!

The Internet Of things or IOT is influencing our lifestyle from the way we react to the way we behave. From controlling your air conditioner with your smartphone, to smart cars providing the shortest route and self-drive itself. It is a giant network with connected devices, which gather and share data between them about how they are used and the environment in which they are operated, and it’s all done using sensors.

Connecting things to the internet is kind of a big deal, because things can start to share their experience with other things. Whoa! Wait what?! Well, it works like that, you take things and then you add the ability to sense, communicate, touch and control, then you get the things to interact and collaborate with other things. So, think of it like that, we as human people interact with other people through our five senses, then imagine a thing that has the ability to sense, touch and communicate.

Importance of IOT in our lives...

Sensors are embedded in every physical device, from mobile phones to traffic lights in the streets, almost in everything that you are using or interacting with it in you daily life. These sensors continuously emit data about anything from its working state to the environment around it. But the most important question is, how can we use these data to our benefit?

Here comes the IOT. IOT provides a platform for all of these devices to dump their data, and a common language for all the devices to communicate with each other. Data is emitted from different devices and sent to the IOT platform securely, IOT platform integrates the collected data, then perform analysis on that data and extract the required information from it. Finally, the result is shared among other devices connected to the same platform for a better user experience and efficiency improvement.

Some of the devices have already been built with sensors which allow it to communicate with each other, but what about the devices that were manufactured before the internet of things, luckily, we have the tools and systems that allow us to add sensing and communication capabilities to existing things. Using an Arduino board (which has a massive do-it-yourself examples on it’s website) and programmable automation controller that can both give other devices the ability to sense and communicate.

IOT and its charm on us! 

Let’s have a look at different scenarios where IOT can do magic. In an air conditioning manufacturing industry, both the manufacturing machine and the belt have sensors attached. These sensors are continuously sending data regarding the machine health and production specifications, allowing the manufacturer to identify the issues before they occur. A bar code is attached to each product, and before this product leaves the belt of the machine, a bar code reader reads it, which contains the product code, manufacturer details, etc. The system uses this data to identify where this exact product was distributed and even track the retailer’s inventory, hence, the manufacturer can make sure that retailer will get a suitable quantity of that product before it runs out of stock.  Next, The compressor of air conditioner has an embedded sensors that emit data regarding its health and temperature.This data is analyzed continuously allowing the customer service to contact you for the maintenance in time. All this magic could easily happen thanks to IOT.

This is just one of the millions of scenarios, we now have smart appliances, smart cars, smart homes and even smart cities where IOT is redefining our lifestyle and transforming the way we interact with technologies. The future of IOT industries is massive. Business Insider intelligence estimates that over 24 billion IOT devices will be installed by 2020.

Let's talk with examples...

Well, who cares about all of this? Let’s start with General Electric who came out with commercial calls “The boy that beeps”,  it’s amazing. In 2014, Samsung purchased a company called “Smart Things” for 200 million dollars which was just founded 2 years before. On the other hand, Google purchased a company called “Nest” - a company that makes thermostats and smoke detectors - for 3.2 billion dollars.

One last thing before you go,

You can find an amazing tutorial for doing your internet of things network online, and too many courses are now available online for free, from turning your coffee maker into smart one to building an automatic garden.