The world is an ever-changing spiral of technological advancements, which stands for progress and development. Our lives are made easier by the new tech genius ideas that evolve every day, bringing us a whole new meaning to the word reliability.
The internet is almost a part of our life that can never be removed. It’s something that connects each and every individual; it’s used by each other and is an inexhaustible source of knowledge, ideas, theories, beliefs. A place where one can speak out their thoughts to the world through the tiny screen of their phones or any other electronic gadget.
The world is in a fast-paced tech race, and the Internet of things is taking the game field to new heights. Many movies have been made in the past where the virtual or the digital world and the physical world will merge and create the ideal society.
The Internet of things has already brought such an era into the world with its innovations. The idea or the concept of the Internet of things has grown in its meaning as its influence, and the technological advancements are making it broaden its horizon between the impossible and the possible.
What Is The Internet Of Things?
We have heard of the impact of the IoT or the internet of things but do we exactly understand what the internet of things is. The internet of things concerns the almost innumerable no of physical devices equipped with software, sensors, and many other technologies that serve to connect and share data with every other system and device over the Internet around the globe, which are also connected to the internet.
Because of the discovery of ubiquity of wireless networks and almost dirt-cheap computer chips, the possibility of turning anything, be it something as small as a pill to something as big as a space ship into a part of the internet of things is almost effortlessly easy.
We can connect a vast variety of different objects along with equipping them with sensors, which gives them a level of virtual intelligence that would be capable of making independent calculations and suggestions, which presents them with the capability to communicate real-time data without the involvement of a human being.
The discovery of the internet of things has helped evolve the very fabric of our world to be more responsive and smarter, merge and create the world the digital and physical universes exist at the same time, each indistinguishable from the other.
What defines the Internet of things has changed along with the embedded systems, real-time analytics, convergence of multiple technologies, machine learning, and commodity sensors. Much older and more traditional means of wireless sensor networks, embedded systems, control systems, automation, which also includes home and building automation, and many more, contributed to the evolution of the Internet of things.
Also Read: What is LiFi? – Advantages and Disadvantages
How Does the Internet Of Things Work?
Understanding what the internet of things is? Then leads us to the next, how does the internet of things work. Multiple objects and devices equipped with built-in sensors are linked to an Internet of Things program, which sends information, and the information is integrated into data collected from the different objects and uses analytics to exchange much valuable information with applications that are built for specific needs.
All of these powerful IoT platforms are capable of pinpointing the exact information according to its usefulness and safely ignore unnecessary inputs. This information is valuable as it can be applied to make recommendations or suggestions, detect patterns, and handle possible issues before they can occur.
The Internet of things gives many benefits for implementing qualities like agility and efficiency, which are usually top necessities. The business, organization, and even day-to-day worker can gain great benefits from the Internet of things.
IoT Advantages And Disadvantages
There is no technology available today in the world that has reached its perfect capability. There always exists a gap or a loophole. So, just like any other technological evolution, the Internet of Things though equipped with significant technology that even helps other technologies to reach its accurate and top capability. Like any other genius invention, the Internet of things has its flaws and advantages.
Advantages of IoT
The internet of things has brought to us a world where digital and physical universes merge together; the following are some advantages of its existence.
- Increase security. The existence of the internet of things shows that each and every device is interconnected and share useful information making it secure.
- Improve Data Collection:
- Reduce human effort: Since the devices connected by the internet of things communicate and exchange data with each other, there is a reduction of human effort.
- Save time. Consecutively when human effort is reduced, one can save valuable time.
- Efficient utilization of resources. With the knowledge of the functionality and understanding of the workings of each device, we can increase efficient resource utilization and manage natural resources.
Disadvantages of IoT
As much as it has advantages, the Internet of things is not perfect and has flaws. There are mainly three challenges faced when using the Internet of things.
- Since the IoT systems can communicate over networks and are interconnected, the system can only offer limited control no matter the no of security measures and can lead to different types of network attacks.
- Privacy: Even in the absence of active participation of the user, the IoT system provides a vast amount of personal data in detail.
- Complexity: The process of creating a design, developing, maintaining, and enabling this massive technology like IoT is extremely complicated.
Application of Internet Of Things
The magic of the Internet of things is that almost any physical object can be changed into an IoT device and be connected to the internet to communicate information or be controlled. An example of IoT devices is a lightbulb, which can be turned on using the help of a smartphone app. The same can be said for a smart thermostat set up in your office or home, motion sensor, or even the connected streetlight.
The Internet of things device could be as harmless, small, and fluffy as a child’s toy or as big and serious as a driverless heavy goods vehicle.
In some cases, the components of a large device are made up of IoT devices like the jet engine, which is equipped with thousands of sensors collecting and transmitting data back to confirm its efficiency of operation. To truly understand the capacity of the applications of the Internet of things, we can take the example of smart cities projects which are aiming to equip entire areas with sensors that will give us the power to learn and control the environment.
One actual incidence of how IoT devices can help make your life easier is your daily life. If you are a person who wakes up at 8:00 am for work and has set the alarm, but for some reason that day the train is canceled, and it’s raining badly outside.
In normal cases, you would be late as you are not aware of these factors, and the alarm clock did as it was set to do. However, if you have a smart alarm that is IoT enabled, then it will not only adjust the time based on any sort of uncharted delays like bad weather or transportation problems but also even instruct your IoT enabled coffee machine to get ready your daily dose of caffeine to get the day going.
From all these instances, one can say that the Internet of Things will change the normal we know now and bring a digitalized way of living in the future.
By..Shubhangini