The Internet of Things
Gartner has predicted that by the end of this year 2021, there will over 25 billion devices connected to the internet. IoT is witnessing unprecedented adoption levels across all sectors of the economy. By the end of 2018 most of the devices connected to IoT were devices we use at home. IoT has since penetrated to many other sectors of the economy. In fact, it is expected that IoT will be responsible for the fourth revolution by connecting machines and objects on factories to the internet for monitoring and action. IoT applications have also gained adoption in many others as discussed below.
Popular real world IoT applications
Health Care
The key players in the healthcare sector include patients, doctors, hospitals and health insurance firms. IoT seeks to enrich each of these parties. Wearables like fitness bands and blood pressure monitors are some of the common ways IoT is already being used in the health sector. Wearables also have alert mechanisms that notify doctors in case of emergencies.
Doctors can easily get into the history of a patient through IoT such devices. Doctors are also able to access real time health data which comes in handy in improving the efficiency of clinical trials. IoT can also be used in hospital setups to track the locations of equipment and inventory management. Most IoT devices collect data and store them in the cloud. Health insurance companies can use this data to track a patient’s routine activities to establish whether or not they are adhering to treatment plans.
smart Home Applications
This is arguably the most common application of IoT so far. A smart home device collects and share information with each other through an integrated platform which also automates their actions according to preset preference. Smart home uses IoT in many ways. This ranges from environment monitoring and control to smart lighting.
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Agriculture and Pest Control
The effects of global warming have been injurious to agriculture. Coupled with global population explosion, the need for improved farming methods has been growing. IoT helps boost production and keep in line with these challenges. One of the biggest applications of IoT is agriculture is in precision farming. It employs the use of analytical data to monitor soil moisture, prevailing climatic conditions and plant requirements. IoT can also be used to monitor cattle locations and health status. It can also be used to monitor pest population for considerable action.
Smart Cities
Cities are increasingly utilizing IoT for traffic management, parking management and utility billing. The combination of sensors, GPS data collection and cloud platforms make it possible and easy to monitor traffic conditions within area. This data can then be used to plan construction programs.
Supply chain
IoT can be used to track goods in transit and give customer immediate feedback. It can also be used by suppliers to preserves good better during transit by communicating information on temperature and pressure of the item. IoT can be used to improve the supply chain transit in many ways.
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