Internet of Things (IoT) series - is 3 part series on the Internet of things. In this series of blogs, I will discuss what is IoT? How to make things communicate? In the last blog, I will explain about the tiny computers, which would help the things communicate.
Getting started
(IoT) Internet of Things is the most talked about the stuff on the technologies pages, nowadays. A lot of companies are investing in IoT and I am sure, almost everyone reading this blog has heard and had a little sense of what is it? Those hearing it for the first time would ask this question - What is IoT and why would we need IoT? Thus, rather than beating around the bush - let me straight jump into the details of IoT.
To answer the above questions - let's break the term Internet of Things in two parts - the internet and things. Let us try to seek the answer.
I don’t have to answer this. We all are aware of the internet and it’s now part and parcel of our life. Most of us– in fact, all of us, start our day with the internet and end our day, using the internet.
We use the internet for browsing, sending/reading Emails, watching videos, posting a message on Facebook or a tweet on twitter, writing a blog - read blogs/news, some use it for learning, some for teaching - some for gaining the knowledge.
The important point here is we- the people.
Here, people interact with other people, using the internet. They share, they learn, they see, they hear, they express, using the internet.
Thus, the internet is all about people sharing information.
Now let’s talk about the second part things. All the physical stuff, we see around us, anything - be it a table, chair, bed, living room, window, fridge, car, washing machine, shoe, door, gate, garage, road, bridge are all things. We know things cannot communicate (how wonderful it would be if they could. Just imagine the amount of information, each of these things might be holding and how useful it can be to other things or people if somehow things start to communicate)
Example- the condition of the car, the moisture in the soil, the condition of the road, the room - the size of the room - how big or small it is - the temp inside the room - hot/cold, the amount light in the room,
Another example is the shoe - the make, the model and price of the shoe, the year, it was purchased and the condition of the shoe, if it needs to be replaced.
Just think, if these things were able to communicate and able to tell this information- how useful this information would be for other things.
One simple example - with all the info about the room - whether to make it hot or cold, if you get information advance before you enter the room. To get information, if someone had opened the locker ( with information related to date time pic transmitted remotely) from that locker, the moment it is touched. To turn off the lights, if no one is in the room. To play your favorite music of your choice, as soon you enter the room or sit on your favorite chair.
Getting the information about the shoe, the wear and tear might help the manufactures and to what shoe is the best suitable for you / people like you and they can make the changes in the new shoes.
The fridge can tell, if something is so many days old, if your favorite ice cream is about to get over, it gets added to your shopping list or orders it online on your behalf. Think, if you were able to get info about the items in the fridge, the total calories, and the healthy food in your fridge. If the fridge can provide you the list of items, which are about to finish and the fridge needs to be filled with.
The chair recognizes you, based on your weight and starts the TV with your favorite channel based on the time ( news) or the music system plays the music, based on your mood.
All this information can be useful to other things or to the people to do other things. In other words, it would be super useful, if things can share information (talk to you) and you can take decision-based on the information provided.
This is exactly the idea behind IoT - Internet of Things
Being able to connect all these things, so that they are able to talk to each other and to you as well.
Thus, the basic idea behind IoT is things can communicate with each other (things could be homes, roads, shoe, fridge, cars, etc.) and they can communicate – what they feel, know, what they are doing with other things and people.
This information can be useful if gathered and analyzed by other things or people to do some useful work or pass on the instructions to the things.
Thus, with IoT, things able to share the information on the internet (i.e. communicate on the internet).
In the next article, we will discuss - How to make things communicate.
This blog was posted on my personal
website.