Introduction to IoT Technology
IoT technology can be described as ‘Internet of Things’, wherein this technology is built based on the concept that all the desired devices can be connected inside a specific network for sharing data and information without any manual intervention. The devices used for this can be segregated conditional to their capability to send, receive and gather data in the given network. IoT is conspicuous due to its salient properties, that are, secure in nature, can be used on smart devices, ability to connect to any type of network, aids for faster connectivity, etc.
What is IoT Technology?
- IoT is like establishing communication between interrelated computing mechanical devices that can transfer data over the internet and respond accordingly in the human-machine contact-free world. There is numerous example to show where IoT can be applicable and beneficial.
- Let’s consider a couple of them. Imagine that you had to leave early to the office and you have left your Air Condition on which is quite unnecessary and if not switched off will consume unnecessary power throughout the day until you return.
- In this case, if the device is smart and connected to the internet then a simple command from the owner can trigger the software to switch off saving lots of effort. Similar to the scenario can be considered with other devices as well. A oneliner for IoT will as below
- “Connecting all the devices that are present in the world with internet”
Categories of IoT Devices
Basing on the devices that connect over the internet, IoT has three categories
- The devices that can collect and send the information
- The devices that collect and respond to the information
- The devices that can equip both of the above features
1. The devices that can collect and send the information:
One word substitute for devices that can collect and send the information will be ‘sensors’. There are numerous sensors available like temperature sensors, motion sensors, different quality measurement sensor and it can be any one of them or a combination of them. These sensors are intelligent and can collect the information for us to take the decision. Like our senses like sight, taste, touch, etc the machinery sensor will make machines feel the senses and respond.
2. The devices that collect and respond to the information:
There are many machines that will act upon after receiving the information like a printer connected to your desktop which will respond upon print request. Similarly, the signal from the car key will make your car door to respond and open. There will be endless examples of such devices. So we can actually trigger the machines with the command which can be complex or simple and if the machines are designed with a good algorithm then will respond aptly unless the extreme
3. The devices that can equip both of the above features:
The actual power of IoT is from these kinds of devices that can do both of the above-discussed features. The sensor will collect the information and the devices intelligently should respond with the intervention of humans. Like depending on the output of moisture sensor from the soil, the irrigation system should by default try to operate on the motor without the involvement of the actual farmer. And if this irrigation system is connected to the internet and is able to receive the whether details then it will be smarter and action on the motor will be more efficient now. Achieving this kind of efficiency is the target of these organizations which work on IoT.
Features of IoT Technology
There are six main characteristics features of IoT and are listed below with the description
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- Intelligence: This will be essential for smart product
- Connectivity: This feature will be responsible for network accessibility and compatibility features of the devices and hence one of the prime characteristics.
- Sensing: Like collecting the information basing the retrieval capacity and providing it for intelligent decision
- Expressing: This will enable interactivity with humans and the world.
- Energy: Without this, there will not be the creation of our devices. Energy harvesting and proper infrastructure to charge and all will be important features for our IoT devices
- Safety: The prime feature on which the customer rely and use the product. Hence no compromise on this is allowed and all the details need to be checked and validated. For some feature, if you see there are even government regulations as well.
Benefits of IoT Technology
There are many benefits of IoT technology which is a niche technology and some of them are listed below:
1. Business Opportunity: There will be enhanced opportunities for the business with IoT and new revenue tracks can be easily developed. IoT driven products and innovations will be an asset to the organization.
2. Enhanced and Efficient Asset Utilisation: with IoT, there will be improved tracking of the assets and efficient products can be achieved on a real-time basis.
3. Enhance Device Communication: Establishing the interaction between machines will be boom and IoT will one step further in this process.
4. Automation and Control: IoT with its device interaction and connectivity strives towards achieving automation with minimal or no human intervention since machines can lead to a faster and timely output.
5. Time-Saving and Efficiency: IoT which uses the machine to machine interaction will help us to utilize human time efficiently and also the work gets faster results which will define its efficiency.
Conclusion
Thus IoT is a niche technology where lots of work is going on and where the organizations are trying to automate human effort so that the chance of error will be minimal or zero. IoT will make things a lot easier for humans and organizations with their machines to machine interaction and connectivity.
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This is a guide to What is IoT Technology?. Here we discuss the Main Categories, Features, and Benefits of IoT Technology. You may also look at the following article.
