High School Student Blog: Understanding the Internet of Things and its Future Effects
The Not-So-Distant Future of the Internet of Things
Hello Everyone!
Welcome to my blog series as an ambassador for the Stanford Inspirit AI program!
WHAT IS THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT)?
IoT is an acronym that gets used a lot by the media, but you may be wondering “What does it mean?” It stands for “The Internet of Things.” But what on earth is that? Isn’t the internet everywhere? And where is it accessed? Or manipulated?
The IoT is a physical system/network of objects or products that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies. The IoT can actually be observed through 3 different sections: Sensors, Connectivity, and People & Processes.
An IoT system consists of sensors/devices which “talk” to the cloud through some kind of connectivity. Once the data gets to the cloud, software processes it and then might decide to perform an action, such as sending an alert or automatically adjusting the sensors/devices without needing a user to get involved. These sensors include:
1. Temperature Sensors
2. Humidity Sensors
3. Pressure Sensors
4. Proximity Sensors
5. Level Sensors
6. Accelerometers
7. Gyroscopes
8. Gas Sensors
IoT connectivity is a term defining the connection between all the points in the IoT ecosystem, such as sensors, gateways, routers, applications, platforms, and other systems. It usually refers to different types of network solutions based on their power consumption, range, and bandwidth consumption. This can include:
1. LAN: Local Area Network
2. Wifi
3. Bluetooth
4. Cellular 4G
5. LTE Advanced
6. WAN: Wide Area Network
People and Process networking inputs can be combined into bi-directorial systems. This allows them to integrate people, processes, data, and systems for better decision-making. Examples include:
1. Remote Maintenance
2. Analytics/Cloud API
3. Customer relationship support
4. Security and Energy Networks
5. Optimizing logistics within a Supply Chain
Now, I hope you recognized some of those products above, but if not, some of the software above is in products and applications like:
1. Waze
2. Nest Thermostat
3. Car 2 Go
4. Belkin Smart Outlets
Now does this seem familiar? The IoT is basically everywhere. Well not actually; the IoT is a part of many industries, some more than others. So, you may be asking “What industries use IoT?”
1. Farming: I mean, this isn’t that surprising is it? We hear about technological advances in the field of farming almost monthly. But farmers and agricultural organizations are now turning to the internet of things for greater production capabilities and to meet the demands of the world’s ever-growing population. It is called Smart Agriculture, and it’s already taking off. Drones, sensors, animal and plant monitors, all with one goal: maximize efficiency for max profits.
2. Financial Services: Banks, insurance companies, travel firms, all have been affected by the IoT. As the internet of things grows increasingly secure both banks and consumers are becoming more accustomed to the idea of managing their financial transactions through a variety of connected devices. An example, the vast amounts of data taken in and given off by IoT devices will mean that businesses are able to measure risk a lot more accurately.
3. Medical Care: Connectivity is transforming medical care. Patients in hospitals increasingly interact with various connected monitors and scanners, equipped with devices that can collect and transmit data. There is something called the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). It describes a connected infrastructure of devices, software, hardware, and services to process and analyze data for decision-making by healthcare professionals in the patient’s treatment. Most importantly it enables practitioners to work together across disciplinary boundaries to carry out and individualize patient care.
Well, those are only 3, there are others like Retail, advertisements, hospitality, manufacturing, etc. Amazon uses the IoT of things to track the orders that you made. Well now all of you have a nice introduction to the IoT and you know what it includes and how it works. But, before we get into the business, how large is the IoT market?
HOW LARGE IS THE IOT?
It is predicted that in the not too distant future, hundreds of millions or even billions of individuals and businesses will stretch the boundaries of available systems currently on market. This creates potential in markets to change how we all work, entertain, learn, and most importantly; innovate.
In 2014, it was expected that 2 billion IoT devices were going to be shipped, it actually turned out to be 6.03 billion. In 2020 (this year) almost 8 billion have been shipped as of today (November 20th, 2020). Out of these 6 billion in 2014, 3.74 million were home devices, 1.7 million were buildings/infrastructure, and 1.5 million were for cities. As an overview (see below), 6,033 million devices in 2014, 13,142 million devices in 2017, and 27,858 million devices in 2020 were shipped. Crazy huh? And what’s even crazier is that the graph below looks very exponential.
When will the function level off? Will that ever happen or will growth always occur?
All this and more will be answered in the coming weeks. Please provide feedback. I appreciate the comments! I hope you all are as excited about this as I am! I can’t wait to continue learning with all of you!
So until next time, Cheers!
Nikola Radan is a Student Ambassador in the Inspirit AI Student Ambassadors Program. Inspirit AI is a pre-collegiate enrichment program that exposes curious high school students globally to AI through live online classes. Learn more at https://www.inspiritai.com/.
Sources:
IoT Presentations. (n.d.). Postscapes. Retrieved November 21, 2020, from https://www.postscapes.com/reviews-tag-presenttags-overview/
7 industries that will be radically changed by the IoT. (2017, July 12). Information Age. https://www.information-age.com/7-industries-will-radically-changed-iot-123467258/#:~:text=7.-,Manufacturing,to%20monitor%20equipment%20and%20assets.
Wireless, S. (2019, March 8). Transforming Medical Care with Connectivity. Sierra Wireless. https://www.sierrawireless.com/resources/white-paper/transform-medical-care-connectivity/?lsc=pda_google_cpc___cpc-google-medical-devices-prospecting&cid=7011M000001VTiWQAW&campaigntype=paid&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=cpc-google-medical-devices-prospecting&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9pH_so-U7QIV1sDICh108QDoEAAYASAAEgKoMfD_BwE
Bura, A. (2020). 80 Wicked & Insightful IoT Statistics [2020]. SafeAtLast.Co. https://safeatlast.co/blog/iot-statistics/#gref
