What is IoT (Internet of Things), How It is Developed, It's Applications and More!

Imagine a world in which you can control everything you own just by your smartphone. With a few swipes and touches, you can control your Television, A.C, lights, fan, Washing machine, CAR, and even your pacemaker!

But don't just say 'What? No way!' and turn your back. This is going to be true or in other words, This is already true!

IoT is this promising technology which is going to change our life. With IoT, there might be Digital door locks that automatically lock or unlock when you are leaving or entering your home. Like that, you can control every home appliance that is connected to the internet using your smartphone. 

What is IoT?

The simplest definition of IoT or in full form, the Internet of Things, is that it is a group or network of various devices that are connected to the Internet. These devices, which are connected to the web, is known by the name of IoT devices. 

These devices can communicate with each other through networks without human intervention. So, if you view these from this perspective, Personal computers, Smart Phones, Smartwatches, Fitness bands, etc are all examples of IoT devices.

The simple but strong desire that led to the invention of the first IoT device!

The first IoT device in the world is a Coke Vending Machine! Yes, you read it right!

This invention was the result of a person's big desire to drink Cold Cola!

David Nicholas was a science student at Carmagi Melan University, America, and it was the beginning of the 1980s. David was a big fan of Cola.

He who studies (at that time) in a classroom which was situated on the third floor of the building, had big trouble getting to the Cola vending machine on the floor below. Because, every time he reaches the machine, during intervals, all the Cola had been taken.

Even if there are some left, they all will not be cold. So, David decided (seriously!) to make a solution to this problem.

His classmates Mike Casavar, Iver Dhuram, and a research engineer at the University, John Surne also teamed up with him.

The system they made can find the number of Cola bottles in the vending machine using microswitches and controllers placed inside the machine. They also made the software for this system.

That university was a part of Arpanet, the predecessor of the Internet. They, David and his group, connected the Cola machine to Arpanet to find the number of Cola. This means, anyone who has connected to Arpanet, can know the number of colas by giving a special command!

Thus, the coke vending machine became the first IoT device in the world!

Unfortunately, due to the lack of technology at that time, they could not continue developing this project.

The formation of IoT!

Kevin Ashton was a Brand manager in a company, named 'Procter and Gumbles'. In 1999, he made a presentation for submission to the company. As his company had many products, it was hard to know if they are delivered correctly at different places.

But Kevin found a solution to these problems and used his presentation to explain his Idea. He said that - if the company can track its wide range of products, then it could solve these problems.

As Kevin wanted to attract it's seniors to his presentation, he gave it a weird name - the Internet of Things! 

Thus the name which is now being world widely used was born. Everyone liked Kevin's presentation. Later, He landed in Maschewsit's institute of Technology, in America, where he joined with Sanjay Sharma to make the idea of the Internet of things. 

Kevin Ashton and Sanjay Sharma started a research centre named 'Auto-ID centre'. This centre played a major role in developing IoT. 

The Development of IoT.

The major development in the 'Internet of things' technology took place with the coming of radio frequency tags. The development in broadband, cellular and wireless technology also affected this field.

With the invention of IP addresses that connect each device individually to the internet, IoT had the start of its good age. Defining the Internet of things as "simply the point in time when more 'things or objects' were connected to the Internet than people", Cisco Systems estimated that the IoT was "born" between 2008 and 2009.

The key driving force behind the Internet of things is the MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor, or MOS transistor), which was originally invented by Mohamed M. Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959. 

The MOSFET is the basic building block of most modern electronics, including computers, smartphones, tablets and Internet services. MOSFET scaling miniaturization at a pace predicted by Dennard scaling and Moore's law has been the driving force behind technological advances in the electronics industry since the late 20th century.

MOSFET scaling has been extended into the early 21st century with advances such as reducing power consumption, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) semiconductor device fabrication, and multi-core processor technology, leading up to the Internet of things, which is being driven by MOSFETs scaling down to nanoelectronic levels with reducing energy consumption.

source: Wikipedia

Major Applications of IoT

IoT has many different applications like the following -

Consumer Applications of IoT

The number of IoT devices designed for consumer use is growing much, day to day. Some of the examples include Smart homes, connected vehicles, wearable tech, etc.

Smart Homes

IoT devices comprise a large part of home automation which include lighting, air conditioning, security and much more.

A smart home or automated home is like a hub or a platform filled with automatic machines or smart devices. As the home is connected to the internet, we can control or automate our appliances even if we are many miles away.

Some of the best features of an automated home is - lights are turned on and off automatically whenever you enter a room, even the colour of the light is changed with the mood of the room, whenever there is a danger like gas leakage or fire, you will be informed, etc.

Care of Elderly and Disabled persons

Another good application of consumer IoT products is that it can be used to provide assistance to the elderly or persons having disabilities.

Voice control can assist users with sight and mobility disability. While alert systems can be connected directly to hearing aids worn by hearing-impaired users. 

They can also be equipped with additional safety features like constantly monitoring health and detecting falls or other accidents and inform family or friends when needed.

Commercial applications of IoT

Healthcare and medical application

Today we live in a world where 'Internet of Bodies', humans connected to the internet is possible. In a matter of years, healthcare innovations like small instruments planted in the body, sensors which can monitor health in realtime and even digital medicines and tablets will become popular.

'Internet of Medicine' is the name of using IoT technology in the medical field. This technology will make healthcare easier using small instruments placed inside the body that monitors health, etc. 

Another example is Robotic surgery, which is now possible. With the arrival of 5g technology, Doctors can do this even if their patients are in any place in the world that too much easily.

Transportation

IoT also makes travelling easier by connecting different transportation systems together. With a good interaction between transport systems, many things like smart parking, smart traffic control, safety, vehicle control, etc are enabled.

With this connection between vehicles, users can track the location of vehicles nearby and can take appropriate decisions. If this is connected to machine learning, it can reduce traffic accidents by giving driver assist and even can introduce the arrival of self-driving vehicles.

Schools/Education

Schools can use IoT technology to automate Student attendance, you know they call name and we say Present!, to manage Discipline, for making Education more fun or even to withstand accidents.

There are many many and many more applications of IoT in many fields like military, research, industries, daily life and more.

Conclusion

Internet of Things technology, that evolved from a silly problem to a big field, is changing the world. The time when we talk to our home and devices is not going to be far. Anyway, do you have any thoughts on this? Share them in the comment section below!

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