The way of work, living a life, and people’s insights towards the world are now reshaping. Transformations are really quick and adaptive in this 20th century. So, what’s the push factor behind it? Well, people can now compute their daily life with more ease and efficiency.
People can monitor their homes even if they are at their office desks. You can treat yourself to all the happenings of the world just with a click. Now it’s all about staying connected and sharing big data banks through internet access.
Yes, you can catch the term. That is the Internet of Things (IoT). It’s like a chain of data from which you can extract and upload the necessary data. Eventually, our global village is now becoming a smart world, where access is easy yet secure. Why are we more interested in IoT?
Because day by day, we are getting more dependent on this influencing technology. Humans are always up with innovations and want to flourish that into their life. So, do you want to know more about this connective technology? From this read you will explore the history of IoT, how it works, and what are the. Let’s take a look at them one by one.
What is Internet of Things?
The IoT is a giant network that gathers, shares, and omits data within physical devices. These devices are always connected. It can be your smartphone, smartwatch, or your electronic home appliances.
These devices are always connected to wireless or wired internet connections and have inbuilt sensors. The sensor of the physical devices helps them to gather the newest information, observe the nearby environment, and report on them.
Your connected physical devices also keep track of their operating system. Hence, all these devices send their data to a common platform. It can be a cloud platform, where data analysis becomes easy. Users can redefine their data needs and use it for further development in the experience.
IoT widens the way of interacting with technology. People can now operate their smart devices and take the help of the data for decision-making. However, a real-time solution is always possible with IoT.
For example, if you have a smart car, it can show you the easiest and low-traffic route to reach your destination. That’s how the IoT wonders are saving our time. Well, the IoT network has a prerequisite to functioning in a well-mannered way. These are:
- Sensor: All embedded physical devices must have sensors. It allows them to gather information about the ecosystem in which they are functioning. Like, the physical devices can read out the temperature, humidity, etc. And allows you to understand the current situation of the weather. Not only the surroundings, but the devices can also notify you about their battery life, efficiency, etc. From these notifications, you can think about what to do next.
- Internet: No matter what, the IoT setup requires strong connectivity between the physical devices. It could be Bluetooth, wired internet connection, or wireless. So, easily with cloud computing, the devices can share data.
- Artificial intelligence: Now that your devices can sense everything and connect to a central platform, it’s time to test how it stores shared data. In general, physical devices can analyze the grabbed data in real-time as a single and notify you of the results. Also, an overall combination of data from all the physical devices can be stored in one cloud platform. Later on, you can use those data for future use. You can check the trend of IoT and implement the trends in your individual experience or for your business strategies.
When you have these three in a row, your IoT network is the best one to serve any purpose. It saves your time and makes your life active but not hectic.
Types of Internet of Things
Now that we know what IoT is and how it has become a promising technology for our better living and earning, we will look at the different types of IoT. Though all these types have the same formation but cater different benefits to the users. So, let’s learn.
Single-User IoT
These are the individual IoT networks. Your smartphone, smartwatch, VR glasses, headsets, and other wearables like a fitness tracker, home appliances, and your smart car as well.
This network only works for you. The devices share data about your everyday activity and so the surrounding of them. Hence, the capability of individual IoT is way smaller than the other IoTs.
The devices are linked through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. So, you can stay close to your office, or home with this individual IoT experience and yes stay relaxed.
Business IoT
Well it combines the activities of all the employees and every step of a business. From confidential strategies to public campaigning, all are involved here. Any industry or even public site can keep track of their daily activities and from these daily data, they can set the goals for the future.
Manufacturing trends, customer engagement, product details, retailing, market trends, etc play a vital role here. In this one, the range of connectivity is wider and mostly wireless, ethernet, or has some specific connection protocol. The big shops, online retailers, hospitals, hotels, and small-big industries, all can set their business IoT for smooth operation and future business analytics.
Military IoT
It’s a confidential one and seems to be the most important for any nation. Military IoT involves the connectivity between the different departments of the soldiers. Air force, military, and navy all can communicate with the help of special military IoT.
Here the physical devices are the soldier’s Woki toki, machines, drones, ships, vehicles, and other devices. The range is really big and the connection system is mostly wireless, through ethernet cables. Each device can share data and through central analysis, the military department can take crucial decisions. So, no doubt it’s an important one.
Infrastructure IoT
This IoT plays a key role in building a smart city. Because when you integrate the networking between structures, you can design an efficient one. Infrastructure IoT includes traffic management, road connects, and bridges, which also include the efficient energy usage of the structures.
Data sharing, and continuous monitoring help for better urban planning and rural development. However, all the energy saving, and promoting better resource utilization can be done with infrastructure IoT. It’s also a big-range IoT network so requires wireless connectivity.
The above are broader types of IoT and there are several wings arising from each. So, you can redefine the IoT network but it is, in most cases, it brings you in front of lots of information within a few seconds and opens the door for best decision-making.
History of the Internet of Things (IoT)
Many assume that the IoT is a newbie in town. But the inauguration of IoT technology happened back in the 80s and 90s. Before heading to IoT, we must know the arrival of the internet first in brief.
The internet came to function in the 1970s by holding the hand of Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf. However, the development of the internet accelerated further and the development was the result of ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network).
Guess what, it was an experimental innovation for US military purposes. Gradually it became successful and famous. Finally, in 1991, the World Wide Web (www) came into focus. From then it became an integral part of digital development and started to spread its functioning in every sphere of life.
Afterward, in the 1980s, the IoT application started but was not termed as now. At Carnegie Mellon University, USA, a coca cola vending machine was installed, and the engineers/ programmers there could have access to the machine even being distant from it.
They could check out if any drink was available through the connectivity. That vending machine was connected to the internet. It anonymously was the beginning of IoT. Finally in 1999, gen Z era, IoT came into the limelight by Kavin Ashton, an expert in MIT lab. He explained how IoT would reduce time, and labor and save money for humans.
According to Kavin, with the help of the internet and computer, mass can store any sort of data and use it later. But people have some boundaries and are not always capable of storing the data on time.
Then Kavin coined the need for IoT devices, which could gather, use and predict data even without the surveillance of humans. These devices can automate the user experience and notify the need for better data management.
The journey of satellites in 1993 also provoked the growth of IoT. Mainly the Geo Positioning Systems (GPS) have helped the functioning of IoT in millions of ways. Step by step, the IoT was blooming. Kavin introduced the idea of the inventory tracking system.
All the computer devices would be connected with the help of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Soon his idea came into action. The use of QR scanning, connecting computer devices through RFID started in 2002-2003 by the US Defence.
Since then the IoT wonders have been all around and rising. Now we have smart cities, industrial IoT, and more secure integration of IoT applications. We can see the self-driving vehicle, automated manufacturing system, new virtual customer care, and of course the energy saving trends. People are embracing the IoT with open arms and enjoying, and using the most of it.
End Thought
The IoT technological surge is now replacing human labor. It fills the gap in data sharing. However, the future of IoT is bright and according to different analytics, the market of IoT will reach 26.79 $ billion by 2025. So, you can guess the spark. Which was impossible yesterday, but is possible today with the help of IoT. In hindsight, the usage of this technology will rise and innovation will be ongoing. Well, are you enjoying the IoT wonder? Surely you are!