Internet of Things is Transforming the Lives of Everyone Around!
The “Internet of Things” (IoT) is exploding! The concept of the IoT was coined in 1999 by British technology pioneer Kevin Ashton. IoT is made up of billions of “smart” devices from miniscule chips to mammoth machines that use wireless technology to talk to each other and also to us. The IoT world is growing by leaps and bounds; it was 2 billion objects in 2006 and is projected to reach 200 billion by 2020 as per IDC, Intel, United Nations!
From building and home automation to wearables, IOT encompasses everything. Vendors are developing various appliances to address specific needs of consumers like health monitors or home automation. However there is more to the IoT than merely everyday life situations; IoT objects give enterprises the important data they need to manage their business processes, track inventory, enhance efficiency and cut costs. IoT can also have a bigger impact; for example fixed and mobile sensors are dispersed throughout the city of Dublin, which will help the city to react promptly in time of crises. We have identified some benefits that IoT will bring to enterprises as well as consumers!
Enterprises & Industries
- Companies can use IoT to drive cost-efficiency by improving asset utilization, enhancing process efficiency and increasing productivity.
- IoT applications can help increase return on R&D investments, reduce time-to-market and give new business opportunities, leading to additional sources of revenues.
- IoT can help in optimizing resource consumption, leveraging real-time control, increasing responses in complex autonomous scenarios, driving decision making and real-time tracking.
- Automotive industries can benefit by an improved customer experience, decreased pollution, increased safety and added revenues.
- Manufacturing industries will get real-time analytics of supply chains and will be able to enhance agility & flexibility and reduce energy consumption.
- Retail industry will be able to track inventory, purchase through Smartphone’s and conduct analysis of consumer choices. They will even be able to use data from video surveillance, cameras, social media, Internet and Smartphone’s usage.
- IoT will enable supply chain industries to reduce working capital requirements, improve efficiencies and avoid disruptions in manufacturing.
- Healthcare industry will get the benefits of improved employee productivity, optimized usage of resources, resulting in efficiency gains.
- IoT will assist in working of Biometric and facial recognition locks and remote sensors, ensuring security to enterprises.
- Infrastructure industries will be able to get environmental benefits and save significantly on costs by properly utilizing resources and taking preventive maintenance of critical systems.
- The Oil & Gas industries will be able to reduce their operating costs and fuel consumption.
- IoT will enable Utilities sector to provide more responsive and reliable services helping them cut costs for both utilities and consumers.
Consumers
- IoT will help utility companies to communicate in real-time with consumers, shut down the operations of heavy load appliances, such as A/Cs during peak demand times resulting in lower electricity bills for consumers.
- IoT can be beneficial for industrial automation, lighting control, home/building automation, security & monitoring, health & fitness, agricultural and more.
- Through IoT, remote control of climate control systems can be enabled so that end users can alert their homes to make shifts in usage for higher operating efficiency. These systems also have the capability to communicate with homeowners, when required, through text messaging.
- IoT makes it possible for a single application to control devices rather than requiring users to learn different User Interface (UI), for every new appliance added to the network.
- As devices can be managed over a network through IoT, users can control the network from anywhere they want, using any application.
- IoT application can help to regulate traffic. Sensors prefixed on the roads can monitor traffic variables such as volume and speed. When sensors transfer this data to computer using specialized software that takes charge of traffic-control devices, it can maximize traffic flow. Newer IoT technologies will also help to monitor the status of infrastructure like roads, bridges or highways.
- IoT offers many gadgets for fitness and health. A lot of IoT gadgets are also there to address everyday’s tasks and problems like you can find things through your Smartphone’s and even unlock your phone through NFC rings.
- Through Smartphone’s users can control or check the status in the context of connected cars and contribute to a smart city via crowd-sourcing applications.
