As our world moves towards more advance technologies, researchers and analysts predict that millions of devices will be able to communicate with each other. This ability will further enhance our experience with the devices around us.
Internet of Things (IoTs) is the next step in the evolution of the internet. It is defined as a seamlessly connected network of intelligent systems developed by the interplay of software, telecom and electronic hardware without any human intervention.
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The IoTs enables more 'things' or 'devices' or 'sensors' to be connected to the internet and will enhance consumer and business experience.
With the advent of the computers, the number of active internet connections swelled to the millions, which was called the first wave. Then came the second wave as smartphones and tablets were introduced and quickly adopted, and all of a sudden a single person could have multiple devices connected to each other. We are now at the beginning of the third wave as wearable devices—fitness bands, watches, and eyeglasses, automobiles, appliances, and sensors connect to the internet, bringing the number of connected devices into tens of billions.
While the fixed internet connected 1 billion users via PCs, and the mobile internet connected 2 billion users via smartphones (on its way to 6 billion), IoT is expected to connect 28 billion “things” to the internet by 2020.
IoT basically involves three distinct stages:
Sensors which collect data
Application which collects and analyses this data for further consolidation
Transmission of data to the decision-making server
IoT have started to affect various spheres of our life viz. business, work, healthcare.
Manufacturing is perhaps the furthest ahead in terms of IoT, as it’s useful for organizing tools, machines and people, and tracking where they are.
Farmers have also been turning to connected sensors to monitor both crops and cattle, in the hopes of boosting production, efficiency and tracking the health of their herds.
Smart pills and connected monitoring patches are already available, highlighting the life-saving potential of IoT, and many people are already strapping smartwatches or fitness bands to their wrists to track their steps or heartbeat while on a run.
There’s a host of clever connected health ideas: Intel made a smart band that tracks how much patients with Parkinsons shake, collecting more accurate data than with paper and pen.
Sonamba, a medical alert system, monitors daily activities of senior or ill people, to watch for dangerous anomalies.
The examples are endless, and all we know is that connected devices will likely creep into our life, just the way computers and the web have.