The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as an innovative technology which is making our life easier. With the help of sensors and cloud computing, it is now possible to connect all of the “things” of our daily and professional lives.
The popularity of IoT is on the rise as every day a new company announces some IoT enabled product. And today, this connectivity is not confined to laptops and smartphones only. IoT is being used to connect cars, smart homes, wearables, smart cities, and much more.
In fact, IoT is making it possible to give us a life where electronic devices and machines will probably become smart enough to trim down human labor to a minimum. This is being made possible with the help of inter-connected devices where the machines are capable of sharing information.
By connecting devices, IoT helps in collecting and utilizing every bit of data which can be used to interact with humans and accomplish tasks. In this way, IoT is making our life connected and it’s expected that by 2020 these connected devices will reach to 20.6 billion.
Here are some most common applications and example of IoT in the present world.
Connected Health
IoT has the potential to connect healthcare. The applications of the Internet of Things in healthcare system offer smart medical devices that can be of immense benefits for both companies and patients.
IoT enabled devices and system collects and analyzes data of an individual’s health. This can be used to formulate specific strategies to fight diseases and lead a healthier life by wearing connected devices.
Agricultural Efficiency
With the growing population, nations are encouraging farmers to use advanced techniques to increase food production. This is where smart farming is becoming popular to provide meaningful insights to farmers from the data. Although the Internet of Things has the potential to revolutionize the agriculture sector, still it’s not applied on large-scale.
The technology can improve agricultural efficiency by monitoring soil moisture, nutrients content, controlling water usage, providing weather forecast, and indicating fertilizer usage.
The smart irrigation systems can alert farmers when crops need water and when to reduce the amount of water usage. IoT can boost production of indoor agriculture also by monitoring micro-climate conditions such as humidity, temperature, and light.
Smart Retail
IoT is making retail smart by offering plenteous opportunities to retailers to connect with the customers. The idea is to boost the in-store experience and streamline the operations. With the help of smartphones, it is possible for retailers to stay in touch with their consumers from anywhere.
Moreover, an IoT connected system is helping retailers to track the behavior of their customers and improve store layout in a way that top selling products are placed in high traffic areas. Besides, IoT is revolutionizing the supply chain by tracking goods from the point of manufacturing to the selling point.
Retailers get to know the accurate status of what’s in stock and what isn’t. This is quite useful for a store inventory manager to place a new order when needed and reduces the cost of keeping extra inventory. It is also helpful in reducing the labor costs for manually checking the stock.