The Internet of Things or IoT is influencing our lifestyles from the way we react to the way we behave. From air-conditioners that we can control with our smartphones to Smart Cars providing the shortest route or the smartwatch which is tracking the daily activities.
IoT is a giant network with connected devices. These devices gather data about how they are used and the environment in which they are operated. It is all done using sensors. Sensors are embedded in every physical device. It can be a mobile phone, electrical appliances, Pecos barcode sensors, traffic lights and almost everything that we come across in day-to-day life.
These sensors continuously emit data about the working state of the devices, but the important question is how do they share this huge amount of data, and how do we put this data to our benefit?
IoT provides a common platform for all these devices to dump their data and a common language for all the devices to communicate with each other.
Data is emitted from various sensors and sent to IoT platform security. IoT platform integrates the collected data from various sources. Further analytics is performed on the data and valuable information is extracted as per requirement. Finally, the result is shared with other devices for better user experience-automation and improving efficiencies and data collectivity. Many Tech-Giant sells those data to others for experimentation or manufacturing of other IoT things. IoT helps in many sectors nowadays from your high-end smartphone to CT scan machine to cars, watches, etc. All under one roof. If u have WiFi in your home it can be connected to many devices at a time like T.V, A.C, Fridge, Smartphone, washing machine, etc.
AN EXAMPLE OF HOW IOT WORKS:
In an AC manufacturing industry, both the manufacturing machine and the belt have sensors attached. They send data continuously regarding the machine health and the production specifies to the manufacturer to identify the issue beforehand. A barcode is attached to each product before leaving the belt. It contains the product code, manufacturer details, special instructions, and others. The manufacturer uses this data to identify where the product was distributed and track the retailer’s inventory. Hence, the manufacturer can make the product running out of stock available. Next, this product is packed and parceled to different retailers. Each retailer has a barcode reader to track the products coming from different manufacturers, manage inventory, check special instructions and many more. The compressor of air-conditioners has an embedded sensor that emits data regarding its health and temperature. This data is not allies continuously allowing the customer care to contact the customer for the repair on time.
This is just one of the million scenarios. We have smart appliances, smart cars, smart homes, smart cities, where IoT is redefining our lifestyle and transforming the way we interact with technologies.
The future of the IoT industry is huge. Business Insider Intelligence estimates that 24 billion IoT devices will be installed by 2020. ITC predicted that IoT revenue would reach around 357 billion in 2019, resulting in a lot of job opportunities in the IT industry.