What is IOT and it's significance?

What does this term IOT (Internet Of Things) actually mean?

It is nothing but simply an expansion of the Internet devices into tangible or daily use objects.

Some technologies are taken into use for exchanging the data between the existing networks and those technologies are RFID & mesh net.

IOT somehow or the other has improved the functioning of the humans & their daily needs.

In simple terms Internet of the Things/IOT is a methodology under which one physical device is connected to the other physical device over the internet connection with a facility of on and off switch. IOT is a large connection of networks connecting devices with the peoples over the Internet Networks.

Data is dealt among these devices and the functioning of the devices with the integration of human advice or demand works on.

Some trending IOT devices are:

Coffee Makers

Washing Machines

Music Systems

Amazon Echo etc…

Basically, under this comes all the devices which can be managed through other devices and also with human integration.

Interaction between devices to devices is called as M2M communication i.e. machine to machine communication.

In the case of humans, calls are taken and then these calls are processed by these smart devices with the least human interference & once all the process has completed the task is done.

The concept of IoT is in trend and it is slowly & gradually taking all the platforms singlehandedly. The concept of IoT is being widely used by homes as well as offices and at many outdoor places nowadays.

This processor technology of IOT is also increasing the connectivity between humans. This IOT is taken into use in smart cars by the big business giants like Tesla, BMW, etc. Their main focus is onto designing a driverless car with 0% cons.

With the modern-day technologies, IOT is playing a handful role in the Healthcare industry by providing immediate full and proper assistance during any type of medical emergency with virtual nurses & doctors and many other facilities.

Actually, the Working of IOT is very attractive and interesting. I have mentioned above that what does IOT means so I need not explain the IOT again which takes us to a fact that it uses the data provided to it and accordingly it produces the output.

Devices that have built-in sensors are connected to IOT platforms that acquire or take data from all the connected devices and store it. Then the important or the desired data is used for the working or fulfilling the needs of the people.

Let me tell you that all the data stored is not always useful. Devices very carefully detect the same data of which the command has been given. Patterns, recommendations are detected so that the chances of problems can be minimized.

Some examples where this IOT has been working at the backend:-

• Postal companies offering tracking codes are the best examples of IoT & this offering of the postal code makes the user track their order in real time which is a great thing to look on to.
• One of the most important IOT device trending in the market & making life easy is Amazon Echo. You just have to speak your question and you are gonna get the reply or the work done. When embedded with home utilities it can switch off the lights, can switch on the fan, etc.
• This technology is embedded with the printers also and modern printers are coming with the technologies that before the ink last the printer is going to give you a warning that the ink is going to last.

Although IOT is facing some criticism regarding the security and privacy hack then also it is trending in the market and going to the future of the technical world.

There are 4 fundamental components of IOT platform

1. Sensors:-

The main work of the sensors is to identify each & every minute or tiny details from the environment even though the environment may have many types of variations and very good quality of these sensors is that they can feel the smallest and the most negligible sensitive activity also.

This collected data is then used at the time of output generation. When the command is given to the device for generating the output the devices with the help of these saved data gives the output.

For example, our smartphones come with GPS and Camera Sensors, etc.

2. Connectivity:-

Once the data is collected then it turns to transfer the data to the cloud infrastructure (also known as IOT platforms). Data transfer function needs a medium by which the data could be transferred & that medium may be Bluetooth, Wi-FI, WAN, Cellular networks, etc. These mediums are different and must be chosen very wisely in order to get full and satisfying results.

The functioning of IOT majorly depends on the availability and speed of these mediums.

3. Data Processing:-

Now the data has been reached to the cloud erudition and it’s been analyzed by the processors to choose or to generate the right action according to the data processed. IOT application is made in such a way that minimum time to generate the results once the input has been given.

4. User Interface:-

Last but not least, the user is notified with a notification or with the help of any message or sound that the particular command has been executed. Now it may seem to some of you that it is very simple but No its not. The functioning of the IOT is dependent on how it has been made or produced.

Some integrations like manual integration are being worked upon to increase the efficiency of the output like ice cubes in the fridge should not break fire once they are fully converted into ice cubes and the fridge should control the temperature itself by getting the indications by the sensors present in the fridge.

Features of IOT

1. AI:- The main aim of the IOT is to make everything smart. Through the power of networks and data collections as well as artificial intelligence algorithms IOT improves every part of life.
2. SMALL DEVICES:- Devices volume or we can the structure of the devices are kept as small as possible so that we humans do not have a problem in carrying them outdoors.
3. SENSORS:- Sensors are the base or we can say the backbone of the IOT. The devices are made in such a way so that these inbuilt sensors in the devices can react to the almost uncatchable vibrations in the surrounding also.
4. CONNECTIVITY:- As these IoT devices are null without the connectivity so connectivity is also an essential point in IOT and the type of connectivity also matters as if the rate of connectivity will be good the devices will work very smoothly and if the rate of the connectivity will not be good the device may not function well.
5. ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT:- In today’s world communications with associated tech is carried out through submissive engagement. IOT has a new model for every single content or for active products.

Advantages of IOT

• Technology Optimization
• Reduced Waste
• Enhanced Data Collection

Disadvantages of IOT

• Security
• Privacy
• Complexity

The List of Top 5 IOT Companies

These best IOT companies in the list below include both hardware & software paddlers, end-to-end (M2M) & connectivity service providers (CSP).

The IOT company ranking is issued by IOT analytics on a regular basis.

The main aim of issuing this ranking is just to give a quality/popularity based ranking among some of their biggest competitors present in the market.

1. IBM(+4)

IBM in the late March of 2015 declared that it is going to invest $3 billion over the next 4 years into an IOT sector which made IOT community clap for its effort.

After the announcement immediately IBM took action on its words and appointed 1400 employees for the IOT working.

As a result of which the search traffic for IBM regarding IOT increased very rapidly.

In addition to the announcement made by it itself, IBM recently formed an important industry partnership, similar to the joint development of Continentals which connected mobile vehicle solutions and predictive analytics of Pratt & Whitney’s 4,000+ commercial jet.

2. GOOGLE(+2)

Google has now officially launched devices that support IOT functions.

On May 28th/2015 at one of the conferences, Google announced Brillo, one of the “underplaying operating systems for the Internet Of Things” with a developer preview coming in Q3 of this particular year.

Additionally, there is Weave, the (cross-platform) a common language that allows Brillo devices, phones, and the internet talk or we can say transfer the data to one another – all this is integrated into its new version i.e. Q4.

3. INTEL(-2)

The IOT drives most of Intel’s revenues. Intel in the recent time has made a billion dollar from the IOT in Q2/2015, the newest indications that IOT has started to act like a significant revenue driver for tech firms.

Busting out the sales, for the very first time when Intel calls embedded system in retail, transport, industrial and domestic products, the chipmaker announced that the $533m from the joined devices helped to balanced the demand which was lower than the expected ratio for business desktop PCs in the first fraction of 2015.

The big news for Intel in Q2/2015 has been announced which depicts that they shall be buying Altera in an all-cash the transaction valued at about $16.7 billion which is going to be the largest acquisition ever made by INTEL in its history.

Intel also plans to offer Altera’s FPGA goods with its Xeon processors as very highly customized, integrated products and also to make the changes and enhance the Altera’s products by applying Intel’s design & manufacturing them.

4. MICROSOFT(-2)

Microsofts biggest news of the season was the announcement that the company would make Windows 10 ready for IOT.

If this is going to work the meaning of this upper statement is Windows 10 then can be used as a developer tool, for example, Raspberry Pi 2.

The software giant also announced a no of other devices that are supposed to run on the companies upcoming operating system.

And then suddenly we came to saw a very interesting partnership between the two Giants Toshiba and Microsoft as an Internet Of Things alliance.

5. CISCO(-2)

Cisco is finally in a phase where it is making its IOT ambitious a reality. In the past, there had been gossips regarding the IOT factors in Cisco but then all went blurred.

In Q2 AND NOW IN Q3, Cisco is now making stuff happen.

ON June 30, Cisco Systems announced a $635 million and that also all in the cash for a buyout of the cloud security company OpenDNS, for a reason and the reason was to boost the Cisco’s position in the IOT security market.

Furthermore, Cisco invented more than 15 new products related to IOT which were mainly focused around the connectivity and security but these products were having an additional feature of fog data analysis.

IOT Applications

IOT traces each and every surface of our lives from our home automation to the wearables. IOT things are huge. We have listed some of the applications for IoT…

1. Building & Home Automation

In the market, there is a broad range of technologies that are running in the field of improving the security system and meanwhile maintaining the cost.

• Access Control
• Light & temperature control
• Energy Optimization

2. Smart Cities

There are lots of industries which are working for reducing the cost and resource consumption of these products for the security purpose.

• Residential E-meters
• Smart street lights
• Traffic control

This was a short glimpse of what IOT is and what are its components, features, advantages & disadvantages, its applications, etc…