Image Credits : business2016.com
Internet of Things – Getting to know :
There should be no two-ways in accepting that Iron Man series, more specifically – Tony Stark and the most awesome virtual assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. – DEFINE the amalgamation of Technology and human interaction i.e. the Internet of Things (For those who haven’t yet watched the series, I urge them to go and watch those – I bet you won’t regret a minute of your time!!)
Image Credits : scifi.stackexchange.com
C3PO, R2-D2, and the latest one now – BB8!! Yes, these are the popular droids from Star Wars series. These amongst other droids, the CLONED army, the super cool weapon – Death Star, the amazing light-sabers, are all responsive, powered and also capable of interacting with humans as well as computers!!
Image Credits : pinterest.com
From all these references and hints, it is a no-brainer to guess where I am heading – the Internet of Things (IoT)!!
So basically, Internet of Things, is enabling or powering up or in fact, CLONING any physical object to communicate with the internet and be responsive, interactive and a hub of information access and transfer!!
[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” class=”” width=”600″]An IoT Workshop is to be held during Mumbai Startup Fest 2016 !
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According to a report by Analytics India Magazine, the Internet of Things is –
“An environment of smart small hosting devices (because they get attached with any device and make them smart device) which are Always, Anywhere and Anytime (3As of IoT) connected with each other and sending some data or information which can further be processed over cloud to generate meaningful analytic result that can help a lot or to trigger an automatic action according to the analysis. These small devices are called the “THING” of Internet of Things and this environment comprises of 3 ingredients called Device, Network and Application also known as DNA of Internet of Things.”
It is expected that around 50 billion devices will be IoT-Powered by 2020. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that IoT is on its way to bring a digital revolution in the world!!
Image Credits : pinterest.com
Anything and everything can be a “THING” in the “Internet of Things”, provided the basic criteria are met.
IoT Analytics has compiled a list of popular IoT applications on social media –
Image Credits : iot-analytics.com
India is a growing hub for IoT and we can rest assured that India is positioned for an exponential increase in the IoT market. As showcased in the NASSCOM Report, in order to realize the dream of 15 billion USD market of IoT, “The Centre of Excellence for IoT- a combined initiative of Department of Electronics & IT, ERNET India and NASSCOM – is expected to promote an IoT ecosystem, which is vibrant & at the same time innovative, which will help our country attain a leadership role in this field.”
Image Credits : brandchannel.com
This video of TEDx talks published in December 2014 on the Internet of Things and why should we care about it, sums up the entire plot of how does it affect the human race –
Pointing towards the impact of IoT, Google chairman Eric Schmidt quoted the following at the World Economic Forum –
“I will answer very simply that the internet will disappear. There will be so many IP addresses, so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with that you won’t even sense it. It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room.”
There is always a flip side :
Enough said about the gigantic positives of the IoT, there are still demons to be busted!!
In this video of the MIT Technology Review’s Digital Summit, Todd Greene, CEO of PubNub – a secure global data stream network for IoT applications, discusses about the challenges associated with the IoT applications/devices –
In addition to Security which includes Authentication, Authorization and Encryption; Connectivity, Power Management, and Complexity of design (IoT is for layman too, not just experts and geeks!!) are the pain areas for IoT and each one needs to be addressed and thought about before creating a new “THING” in the network of “INTERNET OF THINGS”.
India and IoT :
Although much remains to be done, some of the IoT startups have caught an eye in the market and making news..
- Altizon, a Pune-based startup focuses on the industrial internet and big data analytics using their flagship product – the Datonis IoT Platform.
- Entrib, another Pune-based IoT startup, focuses in providing shop floor solutions and optimizations with their product – ShopWorx.
- CarIQ, yet another Pune-based IoT startup makes your car smarter by connecting it to cloud and empowers the owner to be connected to various services such as Insurance, dealership, breakdown etc via an app. This app also records data from your car such as mileage, speed, position of the driver, driving patterns etc.
- Teewe, a Bengaluru-based startup caters to consumer technology/electronics and boasts of its product which is an HDMI dongle that allows streaming of media wirelessly using a smartphone app. “Teewe brings entertainment to you with a hint of lazy..”, is seen on its About page and we couldn’t agree more!!
- LifePlot – not a “startup” per se – is a product of Sofomo Embedded Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which is based out of Pune. It is deemed as the cheapest and most mobile ECG diagnosis tool. This device is always-connected and facilitates real-time accurate results while data capture and transmission.
Recognized as the best startup of the year 2015 by Silicon India Magazine, Axelta is a Hyderabad based IoT company which provides IoT training, Consulting, IoT solutions in Remote Asset Management for Sales, Security and Logistics and a cloud-based analytics enabled platform – Osmosis.
We are headed towards an ERA of IoT, which will make our lives easy, empowered and to an extent – driven by smart objects!! An “Age of Ultron” in the making??!!
