What Is the Internet of Things?

Since its inception, the goal of the internet has been to connect people in different locations through the use of simple devices such as phones, desktops, etc., enabling swift communication and interaction, thus, reducing the world to a global village.

The internet has helped a great deal with different protocols aiding connectivity between sensors and the cloud in the management and transfer of information.

Through extensive scientific research, the internet went from just connecting people to connecting ‘things’ such as digital systems, machines, appliances, industrial tools, etc, and enabling processes that can monitor and adjust the interaction between connected things and the Internet. In other words, the IoT is the technology that brings connectivity between things, systems, and persons making them adaptable and responsive systems and increasing their efficiency which results in lower costs.

In this article, we will learn about the Internet of things, how it works, its benefits to humanity, and the latest developments in this burgeoning industry.

What Is the Internet of Things (IoT)?

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the collection of all those devices (phones, television, cameras, alarm system, weather system, doorbells, wearables, etc.) that can collect data from their surroundings using sensors and actuators and sends this collected data to the Internet where the processing of data can happen.

Internet of Things integrates everyday things or objects with the internet allowing for effective communication and interaction between these items. Anything that can connect to the internet, and collect and share data is part of the Internet of Things.

Most IoT devices have the word smart at the start of their names, for example, smartphones, smart watches, smart refrigerators, smart farms, smart homes, etc.

The technology behind the internet seeks to integrate everyday objects/things with the internet. The underlying technology behind IoT is the deployment of sensors and actuators, which aid smart objects to automatically transmit data to and from the internet, allowing for certain interactions to go on within these items in their immediate environment.

The concept of the internet of things was first used by Peter T. Lewis, at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in 1985. According to Mr. Lewis, “the Internet of Things, or IoT, is the integration of people, processes and technology with connected devices and sensors to enable remote monitoring, status, manipulation, and evaluation of trends of such devices.”

Furthermore, Cornelius, “Pete” Peterson, CEO of NetSilicon, defines the internet of things as “simply the point in time when more things or objects were connected to the internet than people.”

However, the phrase ‘Internet of Things’ was elaborated in 1999, by Kevin Ashton, co-founder of the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in a presentation he made to Procter & Gamble (P&G). He viewed radio-frequency identification (RFID) as very essential to the Internet of things. The main theme of the Internet of things is to embed short-range mobile transceivers in various gadgets and daily necessities to enable new forms of communication between people and things, and between things themselves.

IoT seeks to facilitate the interaction between objects through connection to the internet, thereby taking the focus off people and placing such on items.

Moreover, the advent of inexpensive computer chips and high bandwidth telecommunications lead to an explosion in the connection of billions of devices to the internet, an estimate of 50 billion items would be connected by 2050.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

Industrial Internet of things (IIoT) is the application of IoT technology in different industries, and companies to drive efficiency, increase product output, reduce labor costs, and monitor equipment, through the integration of sensors, processors, and actuators.

IIoT follows a different path but works with existing technologies such as cloud, analytics, machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence to achieve a new automation layer. This aids the connection and transfer of information or signals, between equipment.

This new technology has moved productivity in industries to an all-time high while reducing work hazards and ensuring efficiency at a reduced cost.

Application of the Internet of Things

The Internet of things is revolutionizing the way we live, the way we interact with objects in our environment, and the performance of our daily tasks at home, in the industry or companies, and our communities. The importance can be felt in the following sectors:

Manufacturing: The application of IoT technology and some adjoining technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Cloud Computing has greatly improved output, efficiency, and worker safety. It has automation replacing many manual jobs.

The manufacturing industry has been greatly favored by IoT technology and has witnessed increased utilization of the innovation arising from IoT technology.

IoT will not only increase interactivity but will also boost efficiency, productivity and safety.

Healthcare: The application of technology and in particular IoT, has taken healthcare delivery to the patients and in the comfort of their homes. IoT enables effective remote interaction between doctor and patient particularly if the patient is suffering from a deadly disease e.g COVID -19. The physician doesn’t necessarily have to be in close contact to administer treatment but could do this using IoT devices and technology.

Further, this tech has greatly improved patient medical data analysis as they are automated, thus, enabling doctors to make informed decisions and proper diagnosis.

Agriculture: The optimal utilization of this technology in farmlands will ensure productivity and high yields of agricultural products.

IoT technology would greatly help to ensure food production and availability through the use of smart farm equipment like smart tractors, smart planters, and harvesters, and connecting these devices to the internet. This will help get a better data analysis of soil, and farm equipment, and aid the supply chain for perishable crops.

Home Management: Smart houses have several features that enable comfortability, such features include automatic lights, which switch on detecting your presence in the room or they can be voice activated. The technology also opens and closes doors allowing authorized people to have access to your house.

Also, IoT keeps track of temperature management and automatically adjusts to the most optimal temperature based on the surrounding and weather conditions. IoT truly brings luxury into our lives and makes it more comfortable for us to live.

Education: The use of augmented reality to give students a better experience of real-life animals and even those that have vanished from existence e.g. dinosaurs, employ the IoT technology.

How Does the Internet of Things Work?

IoT operates through the collection and exchange of data across different smart devices and the Internet and integrates emerging technologies like, low-cost computing, cloud computing, data analytics, and mobile technologies.

The basic working principle includes:

• Sensing/Device Layer:
  Smart devices are those computing devices that collect data from their surroundings based on certain triggers and communicate the same to the cloud (Internet) through the Internet of Things Software Applications (IoT Apps).

Also, the smart/IoT devices include sensors with the ability to sense, compute and connect to other devices. Unique Identifiers (UIDs) are the sensors that make the idea of IoT possible because without the availability of sensors the whole Idea of IoT would be a farce.

• Connectivity Layer:
  This layer sends the data to the cloud using the internet via RFIDs, Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, etc.

• Data Processing Layer (Cloud):
  This layer processes the entire data obtained from the sensor layer and is analyzed involving different algorithms based on the type of data collected to get meaningful insight and patterns and a decision is made based on the information available. Once the analysis is done, the results are conveyed to the IoT device through Graphical User Interface, (GUI).

Also, the cloud enables large lines or sets of commands or sensor data to be uploaded, they are to be transferred from one object to another, and cloud computing gives reliable security to data through end-to-end encryption.

• Application Layer or Graphical User Interface (GUI):
  This layer is visible to us and conveys the data analyzed by the processing layer. This layer entails the results of the backend processing which displays on the IoT device.

Furthermore, this layer acts as an interface between third-party applications and structures.

IoT Design Consideration

There are several factors to be considered before choosing an IoT solution, they are:

• Interoperability
• Functionality
• Secured storage
• Wire and build capability
• Cryptographic Control
• Power management
• Device characterization

The design consideration should be a mix of the estimated average of all these components and indexed balance to user requirements to guarantee productivity, efficiency, reduced labor costs, and safety.

Benefits of the Internet of Things

There are myriads of benefits to be derived from the deployment of IoT technology.

• The use of IoT in homes is invaluable as it better coordinates the house and turns it into a living wonder, from waking you up in the morning to opening up the window blind, heating your water, controlling the room temperature, preparing your morning coffee, etc;

• IoT helps people live and work smarter, as well as gain complete control over their lives through daily scheduling and the performance of certain activities in their home;

• The deployment of IoT technology in healthcare has saved lives and offered patients an opportunity to interact with their physicians and other caregivers from the comfort of their homes. Patients do not necessarily have to show up in the hospital for check-ups and examinations;

• Also, gadgets such as bracelets can be used by patients to test their body temperature and other health needs, they can alert you to a health emergency, inform the hospital, and call for an ambulance;

• The manufacturing industry is the biggest beneficiary of IoT technology as its deployment has seen increased revenue and reduced time loss. This is possible as the use of IoT technology enables the monitoring of production, equipment maintenance, supply chain, and logistics operations;

• The Internet of things supports automation processes, reduces labor costs and waste, as well as improves service delivery, making manufacturing and product delivery less expensive;

• It also offers transparency in customer transactions.

Challenges of the IoT Technology

One major challenge confronting this new technology is the safety of ‘data’ and the attendant leakage of vital information due to security breaches from hacks and other cyber security attacks.

Any breach could expose sensitive and confidential information about the day-to-day activities of an individual or the operational system of an organization, hence the need for regular checks on these smart devices, and the underlying technology.

Further, the high cost of acquiring these sensing devices — sensors, processors, and actuators — is one of the biggest challenges the industry is facing today.

These components are still under development and are very expensive, thus impeding the development of this industry. Cutting down costs will greatly boost efficiency, productivity, and availability.

Conclusion

The Internet of things (IoT) is one of the most important technologies of everyday life and will continue to record increasing adoption as more businesses and organizations realize the potential inherent in connected devices.

This technology has grown tremendously over the last couple of years, the number of IoT devices in the world is above 7 billion and growing. In the next few years, we will see a great surge to an extent where every household will own an IoT device, from water heaters to alarm systems, to farmlands, and even baby toys.

With IoT technology, objects with embedded sensors can be able to communicate with little or no human intervention, that is without human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. Physical objects can now connect and collect information with absolutely little or reduced human assistance.