The next revolution of internet and connectivity is coming and all around the world it has already created a big buzz. This hot topic is Internet of Things (IOT).
What is IOT?
With the widespread of the technologies, data is all over the world. Nowadays everything including vehicles, your pet, mobile phones and your house is literally a data source. Take you for an example. Your blood pressure rate is a data. Cholesterol /glucose level is a data. If a man is walking, running, sitting or eating that can be interpreted as a potential data source. Even when you sleep that stage itself is a data source and we can implement various kinds of applications that can be used on that data. On the other end, because the need of connectivity is emerging and bursting, internet is useless connecting just only webpages, web applications. It is said that in 2008, number of things connected to Internet exceeded the number of people on this earth. Check out this cool infographic by CISCO. So Internet should be able to embrace this revolution and become a platform not just have client server machine to machine connections but connect with everything in the world. That’s what IOT basically means. A platform where everything is connected.
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In IOT everything is interconnected. It is a system of systems or can be seen as a one large eco system. Imagine your home is equipped with 3 systems. You have a security system which is connected with windows and doors. You have a water system which is connected with your taps and water line and you have the electricity system which is connected with the electricity plant and electronic items in your house. So your house is a system which has 3 systems. When you take the whole city, it is also a collection of houses which makes it again a system of system where your house security system can be interconnected with town’s police system. That is a one large electronic eco system.
What are things in IOT ?
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In here “things” means objects that necessarily don’t have to be computers. They can be your pet, your door lock, your water bottle or even your rain coat. These objects have to be smart enough to connect and network with other systems and communicate with them. How do we make them smart? That’s why there are embedded systems. Typically things in IOT should have the following features.
- Unique addressable ID – Just like in a normal TCP/IP environment, IOT entities should have a unique address. Thanks to IPv6 we can have 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 address space. That is 100 addresses per every atom in this world right now.
- Communication ability – Embedded systems and wireless networks can easily do that
- Sense – Embedded systems attached with sensors is the answer.
In the future …
On a perfect IOT implemented environment let’s say you went for a jogging and your trainers are about to be worn out. If you run another 200 meters at your current pace it is surely to be broken. What if your trainers or slippers can tell that to you. What if your slippers can tell you the nearest shoe shop once it is broken? What if your house itself can stop unwanted electrical items in your house considering that your income this months will be somewhat low. What if you are having a heart attack and there will be an immediate notification going to the nearest ambulance and your loved ones notifying about the situation. Possibilities are endless and, IOT can be heaven on earth.
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Is it implemented yet ?
It is not fully implemented yet but there are some partial applications built using IOT concepts. Lot of JIT(Just in Time) inventories in the world have inventories equipped with sensors notifying them the stock levels to various related entities. But everyone seems to be moving towards IOT environments. Very recently Canonical announced that they will be partnered up with Microsoft and amazon so that their IOT API s can be used on Ubuntu.
is it as good as they say ?
Well, every coin has two sides. Most people believe IOT has lot of good than bad and it is true. But this article is worth reading too.
Image credits
image 1: http://www.thomasvanmanen.nl/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Schermafbeelding-2013-02-25-om-10.56.17.png
image 2: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR8Sw_cUj9_fSRCkBehzcQ7PJmGWMIGwKpFYOa3HmlOsEEc0qRvu2iMp7QT
image 3: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FvrdNe8WCec/VDbnlA-somI/AAAAAAAARCY/3PycDuBfNiA/s1600/Protocols-Related-to-Internet-of-Things-IoT.png
