Modern day Internet of Things (IoT) applications

 IoT applications promise to bring immense value into our lives. With newer wireless networks, superior sensors, and revolutionary computing capabilities, the Internet of Things could be the next frontier in the race for its share of the wallet. IoT applications are expected to equip billions of everyday objects with connectivity and intelligence.

• IoT Applications
• • Wearables
  • Smart Home Applications
  • Health Care
  • Smart Cities
  • Agriculture
  • Industrial Automation

1. IoT Applications – Wearables

Wearable technology is a hallmark of IoT applications and probably is one of the earliest industries to have deployed the IoT at its service. We happen to see Fit Bits, heart rate monitors, and smartwatches everywhere these days.

One of the lesser-known wearables includes the Guardian glucose monitoring device. The device is developed to aid people suffering from diabetes. It detects glucose levels in the body, using a tiny electrode called a glucose sensor placed under the skin and relays the information via Radio Frequency to a monitoring device.

2. IoT Applications – Smart Home Applications

When we talk about IoT Applications, Smart Homes are probably the first thing that we think of. The best example I can think of here is Jarvis, the AI home automation employed by Mark Zuckerberg. There is also Allen Pan’s Home Automation System where functions in the house are actuated by the use of a string of musical notes. The following video could give you a better idea.  

3. IoT Applications – Health Care

IoT applications can turn reactive medical-based systems into proactive wellness-based systems.

The resources that current medical research uses, lack critical real-world information. It mostly uses leftover data, controlled environments, and volunteers for medical examination. IoT opens ways to a sea of valuable data through analysis, real-time field data, and testing. 

The Internet of Things also improves the current devices in power, precision, and availability. IoT focuses on creating systems rather than just equipment.

Here’s how an IoT-enabled care device works.

4. IoT Applications – Smart Cities

By now I assume, most of you must have heard about the term Smart City. The hypothesis of the optimized traffic system I mentioned earlier, is one of the many aspects that constitute a smart city.

The thing about the smart city concept is that it’s very specific to a city. The problems faced in Mumbai are very different than those in Delhi. The problems in Hong Kong are different from New York. Even global issues, like finite clean drinking water, deteriorating air quality, and increasing urban density, occur in different intensities across cities. Hence, they affect each city differently.

The Government and engineers can use IoT to analyze the often-complex factors of town planning specific to each city. The use of IoT applications can aid in areas like water management, waste control, and emergencies.

Let’s take an actual example of a Smart City- Palo Alto.

Palo Alto, San Francisco, is the first city of its kind, that took a whole new approach towards traffic. They realized, most cars on the streets go around and round the same block, in search of parking spots. That’s the main reason for traffic congestion in the city.

Thus, sensors were installed at all the parking spots around the city. These sensors pass the occupancy status of each spot to the cloud. Any number of applications can consume that data. It can guide the drivers through the shortest route to an open spot.

This solution here involves the use of sensor arrays feeding back to a point which, aggregates the data and uses it for various purposes.

5. IoT Applications – Agriculture

Statistics estimate the ever-growing world population to reach nearly 10 billion by the year 2050. To feed such a massive population one needs to marry agriculture to technology and obtain the best results. There are numerous possibilities in this field. One of them is the Smart Greenhouse.

A greenhouse farming technique enhances the yield of crops by controlling environmental parameters. However, manual handling results in production loss, energy loss, and labor cost, making the process less effective.

A greenhouse with embedded devices not only makes it easier to be monitored but also, enables us to control the climate inside it. Sensors measure different parameters according to the plant requirement and send them to the cloud. It, then, processes the data and applies a control action. 

6. IoT Applications – Industrial Automation

This is one of the fields where both faster developments, as well as the quality of products, are the critical factors for a higher Return on Investment. With IoT applications, one could even re-engineer products and their packaging to deliver better performance in both cost and customer experience. IoT here can prove to be game-changing with solutions for all the following domains in its arsenal.

• Factory Digitalization
• Product flow Monitoring
• Inventory Management
• Safety and Security
• Quality Control
• Packaging optimization
• Logistics and Supply Chain Optimization