Ever gone on a vacation and wondered whether you kept a window or door open for the thieves to break in? Or do you always forget to switch off your electrical appliances, which are charging you hefty bills?
With the use of the Internet of things, we can let go of these small fears. This technology has integrated itself with our daily lives quite smoothly. Now, with the help of IoT, we can monitor and manage many small or big issues without much effort.
IoT (Internet of things) is an emerging topic with great social, economic, and technical significance. Everything around us such as cars, trucks, industrial and utility objects, and other everyday objects are integrated with internet connectivity and strong data interpretation capabilities that guarantee to change the way we work, live, and play.
The rising use of IoT is changing the functioning of our lifestyles and has made a great impact on the operation and performance of a wide range of sectors.
Some of the industries with booming use of IoT are:
Automobile Industry:
IoT has changed the prospect of the automobile industry tremendously. A few decades ago self-driving cars were still a distant future. With IoT, these driverless cars have become a reality. Car GPS systems and self-driven cars are the biggest examples of IoT in the automobile sector. Autonomous vehicles combine a variety of data using sensors that perceive the sensory information from their surroundings including computer vision, GPS among others, and interpret this information to identify navigation paths, avoid obstacles and read road signs and markers.
Application of IoT in the Automobile Industry:
- Fleet Management: Fleet management refers to the management of commercial motor vehicles such as cars, trucks, vans, etc. IoT in fleet management provides real-time data of the vehicles with the help of IoT sensors. With the help of IoT, fleet managers can get real-time information about their asset utilization, information on performance indicators such as speed violations, active trip numbers, fleet conditions, etc.
- Smart Parking: Increasing numbers of vehicles on roads and mishandling of available parking areas leads to parking problems along with traffic congestion issues. The use of IoT in the development of smart parking has helped to solve these issues. With the help of IoT, we can now make inquiries on availability of parking space and reserve parking lots beforehand, real-time parking navigation and route guidance avoid any mismanagement and traffic congestions, vehicle occupancy detection, and management of parking lots helps to identify spaces available for parking saving time and resources.
Manufacturing Industry:
The manufacturing industry has undergone an immense change with the help of IoT. Manufacturing industries are using the Internet of things in their processes to gather information and regulate operations. The tools and equipment are now equipped with sensors. These sensors collect consistent and definite information on production output, performance, time frame, and the status of the machines. All the data collected from these sensors are further scrutinized and used to improve the production process. With this data, the waste of materials and time can be reduced as necessary, which can be used elsewhere.
Application of IoT in the manufacturing industry:
- Quality Control: With the help of thermal and video sensors IoT helps the process of Quality Control making it more dynamic and helps to check and rectify any flaws. In addition, instrumentation and monitoring of products help personnel to check if the measures and scale of the product diverge from the actual setting.
- Management of Inventory: IoT helps in creating a record of items in inventory, their status, and movements, usage. It also helps the users to keep a check on the inventory items if any item is missing and also alerts them if any items need to be reloaded.
- Smart metering: Smart meters in manufacturing industries can be used in the monitoring of usage of water, electric power, and other fuels. With the help of these smart meters, the users can regulate the consumption of resources and adopt smart practices to avoid any wastage.
Healthcare Industry:
In recent years there has been a massive investment in the application of IoT in the healthcare industry. With the rest of the world stepping towards automation, the healthcare industry has also gone through a massive transformation. There have been many types of healthcare equipment that are developed using the Internet of things, some of which are smartwatches, wearables, monitoring systems, etc.
Application of IoT in Healthcare :
- Devices such as wearables and smartwatches help in keeping track of their health daily. These devices can be used by the users to check the vitals such as blood pressure, heart rate at their home without the help of physicians.
- IoT can help in monitoring the real-time availability of rooms which reduces the waiting time for the patients. Also, not only it helps in tracking types of equipment but it can also be used to monitor when a piece of equipment is in bad condition and is about to fail.
- IoT can make healthcare charting for doctors easy and save their time and efforts. With the help of devices operated by voice command, doctors can upload and access the medical data of patients more easily.
Smart Homes and Buildings:
One of the most convenient uses of IoT has been in making our home appliances accessible through the internet. These devices are fitted with sensors and WiFi connectivity. Applying IoT helps to monitor and control your appliances even when you are not at home. It helps in optimizing the use of devices which helps in saving power and money.
Application of IoT in Smart Homes:
- IoT helps to strengthen the security measures of your home. Home automation systems can integrate surveillance cameras with motion detectors and alert the users of any suspicious activities. Smart locks can be used to secure houses. These smart locks alert the user if any dubious entry attempt is detected.
- IoT helps you to manage all your home devices from one place. All the devices connected to the Internet can be managed from a smartphone or tablet making it more convenient.
Agriculture Industry:
In the agriculture industry, devices are being developed using the Internet of things for monitoring and production purposes. IoT in agriculture has helped to increase the quality and quantity of the yield, helping farmers to gain more profit with lesser efforts.
Application of IoT in Agriculture:
- Climate Conditions: One of the most popular smart agriculture technologies is the climate monitoring system. It helps in determining the real-time changes in the weather with the help of data from various sensors. This data can be used to take preventive measures to protect the yield beforehand avoiding any losses.
- Crop Management: Crop management systems are used to collect data on crop farming; from temperature and precipitation to leaf water protection and overall crop health. This data can be used to monitor the crops and prevent any diseases or infections that can harm the yield.
- Agricultural Drones: One of the most advanced developments using IoT in agriculture are agricultural drones also known as UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). These are used to collect agricultural data and monitoring. Apart from monitoring, it can also perform various tasks such as planting crops, fighting pests and infections, agricultural spraying, etc.
Conclusion:
While the concept of combining computers with objects has been discussed for decades, the recent convergence of key technologies and market trends is assisting in building a new reality. The future of the Internet of things as a ubiquitous array of devices bound to the internet might change how people think about what it means to be “online”.
Borgfy is an organization with some of the most intellectual minds, working passionately and helping start-ups, SMEs, MSME by giving shape to their ideas and developing their products. Enhance your life and way of work with IoT. We at Borgfy have IoT developers that are ready to help you with your ideas in the automation of devices.
Get in touch with us at info@borgfy.com
