Ekata Niraula
B.E. (Electronics), IOE:
The Internet of Things is an emerging topic of technical, social, and economic significance. Consumer products, durable goods, cars and trucks, industrial and utility components, sensors, and other everyday objects are being combined with Internet connectivity and powerful data analytic capabilities that promise to transform the way we work, live, and play. Projections for the impact of IoT on the Internet and economy are impressive, with some anticipating as many as 100 billion connected IoT devices and a global economic impact of more than $11 trillion by 2025. So lets talk about it.
IoT: What is it ?
If I say that things around you will interact to you in a manner you haven’t imagined or ever thought to see outside the screen of fiction movie, will you believe me?
Yes, it will be sooner in future. And NO, it is not going to be in the manner shown in he Beauty with The Beast movie. It will be more like in Upgrade 2018, subtle, yet there. It is more unseen but it will be there.
What is IoT ?
IoT, or Internet of Things, is a smart network of smart things around you. The things said here are the things that surrounds you, like your fridge, TV, lamp, doors, house, or even a whole building. These things are interconnected together to perform various function as per need, and what is needed they decide themselves.
Still confused? Question might be arising in your head? How these things can decide?
Yes internet has made it possible to connect phones, tablet, computers, tv, cars. But how whole building or doors are interconnected?
So, How these things decide ?
If you are tech enthusiastic, you might have been hearing about Big Data for some year now. Let not delve into Big Data now, but one things should be remembered, these smart object interconnected to form IoT significantly contribute in the problem of Big data. Yes, these things are always collecting data of your daily life, your choices, your movements, your hobbies, your jobs and other information, gathering them to a central or distributed analyzing infrastructure. These analytics (be it central type or distributed) analyze these data through various analytics algorithm, and put out best results which are then received and executed by things of IoT network. In summarization these have Artificial Intelligence.
Now how do these things like lamp, door collect data? In the same manner, your phone, or care does. The miniaturization of electronic circuits and chips, with significant involvement of nano-technology, and refinement in sensor technology has made it possible to fabricate suitable sensory circuits, which can be wirelessly connected to the IoT network, while seamlessly embedded in your objects to make them SMART!
Current Status of IoT:
This thing seems little futuristic, doesn’t it?
But IoT can knock at our door (or as IoT does: smartly open it!) sooner in near future. In some of countries and universities prototype of such network are being developed, concept of smart city, wireless sensor network are being researched upon, and their prototype are being implemented and tested. There are challenges of reliability and energy in such smart network, which are being further studied upon to mitigate or minimized, so that IoT can be implemented and operated seamlessly and globally.
