IoT or Internet of Things is one of the latest trends in technology. From smart cars to smart homes, IoT is helping us interact more with the physical world – of course through the use of Computers. The textbook definition of IoT is “it is a network of physical objects – devices,vehicles and other items that are embedded with electronic, sensors and softwares along with networking capability which in turn allows these objects to collect and exchange data.” Since these objects are capable of networking, they can be accessed and controlled remotely over the internet. So it’s like connecting everything from your cellphone to TV, AC and other appliances to the internet so that they can ‘talk‘ to each other and provide you a great overall experience. Internet of Things has a huge potential to not only improve the way work, but the way we live.
One can consider Internet of Things as providing more power to your computer. It’s just like providing your computer a pair of eyes, ears a nose and a mouth along with a couple of other senses. With so many powers to your computer, it will indeed become a lot smarter over time and ‘learn‘ what you need. Technically, giving ‘senses‘ to your computer is nothing but hooking up a couple of sensors that can capture the physical world data. It can be anything even a simple ambient room temperature sensor. These sensors are easily available in the market – both online and offline. But the question is how would these sensors ‘talk‘ to your computer ? Well that’s were we have the embedded devices hoping in. These devices enable the computer to talk to the sensors and exchange information. And now a days there are a lot of DIY micro-controller based kits available which open a world of ideas using Internet of Things. Some of the most widely used DIY kits include the Raspberry Pi and Arduino. For a basic example what exactly Internet of Things does, you can read my complete post on a controlling an LED bulb using a computer program written in Java using the Arduino Uno – this is the most popular post on the internet for doing so !
How would IoT impact your lifestyle ?
Imagine your car having access to your office schedule and is aware of the meetings on a particular day. And when you get into the car, it’s able to tell you a better route with less traffic to reach office. Wouldn’t that be just great ? IoT has a great potential to impact our day-to-day activities. Internet of Things can do a lot of things, and I would like to share the things that want the IoT to take care of to make my home more smarter !
I’m a regular to the supermarket to buy groceries, and like many, I tend to forget to buy some items. I wonder sometimes what if my refrigerator and the cabinets in kitchen could talk to my phone and tell it what is not there in the fridge. Having scanners placed along the door of the cabinet and the fridge so it exactly knows what is going ‘in‘ and ‘out‘. And later when I going grocery shopping, my phone can inform the fridge and cabinet that I’m at the supermarket and the appliances can return a list of items that are either no there or are in less quantity, that of course you can decide. Isn’t this simply amazing ? Imagine the impact it would have on your grocery shopping.
So you see how IoT would impact your lifestyle ? Whatever I mentioned earlier isn’t something that is IMPOSSIBLE, this is definitely possible its just that it would take sometime for it to reach your kitchen. IoT is a hot topic since everything is moving to the cloud now a days, people want to carry everything from their cars to homes on the cloud. Internet of Things is definitely there to stay and help you carry your home everywhere you go ! Have you worked on any IoT concept ? Or have a weird IoT idea in your mind ? Do share it with all of us, would be great listening to your inputs.
This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.
I was asked to present a paper on IOT and was simply knocked out at the amazing world of technology that we live in, the smartest human race ever unless of course the Search for Exterrestrial Intelligence succeeds in its attempts to do so! This post is indeed an eye opener for many!
IOT is certainly one of the best and an upcoming field. Thanks for the visit 🙂
Its a very interesting concept…
Cheers, Archana – http://www.drishti.co
Thanks 🙂 Glad you liked it.