Since the appearance of the Internet, a digital revolution has transformed the lives of millions of people. Digital files have replaced paper, email has replaced postal mail, and mobile phones provide access to many services that make daily life easier. This digital revolution is not over, and there is now a growing deployment of technologies grouped under the most common fashionable term in technology circles at the moment, the “Internet of Things” (IoT). People are talking about it everywhere, from the newspaper to technology blogs, but what exactly is IoT?
It is a global network of interconnected objects that are uniquely addressable through standard communication protocols. By 2020, there may be up to 30 billion objects connected to the Internet. These devices can generate direct energy savings, but it is much less clear what their net effect will be on the overall energy system.
The IoT is a network of physical devices, including things like personal health monitors, smart devices, and autonomous transportation systems, that are integrated with digital technologies that allow the devices to interact with each other by collecting and communicating data. It has the potential to further transform human lives with applications including smart power grids, smart homes, smart cities, health monitoring, transportation system control, and environmental management. The IoT will also affect energy production and use, which in turn will affect the environmental impacts of the energy system.
IoT technologies can have complex effects on energy use. It can be difficult to understand without seeing examples of the technology in action. So here are 15 examples of IoT technology in use today:
August Smart Lock
With this smart lock, you will never need keys again; It automatically unlocks when you get home and locks behind you when you close the door. You can give guest keys to friends or a dog sitter, and have them expire when you no longer want to give that person access to your home. An optional keypad means you can set a code to open your door if you don’t have your phone, for example when going for a run. You can even view the activity log and grant access from your smartphone remotely. Smart security systems are becoming more popular with increasing options, and a smart lock like this one is a great place to start.
Nest Smart Home
It provides users with an application on their smartphones to monitor each of their IoT devices in their home. Nest aims to make creating a smart home simple and easy. Although the company has been around for 8 years, they have already made great strides in IoT development from their Nest thermostat, whose smart functionality even allows you to turn off the air conditioning when occupants leave the house.
Canary Smart Security System
Taking things a step further, Canary’s smart security system aims to provide an all-in-one solution to home security problems. Canary not only works with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, but it also includes built-in AI technology, a 1080p HD camera, a microphone and a 90-decibel siren plus a built-in weather monitor. The Canary system allows users to review security footage from their application, even at night, as Canary includes a night vision camera. When it comes to smart home security, Canary has it all.
These IoT examples show that IoT can have broader uses within the home than just making processes more efficient.
The Internet of Things is a fascinating field, and connecting everyday devices to the Internet can be difficult at times. But with the technologies mentioned above, and the others that are researched and launched every day, we are moving towards a future where devices are smarter, we have more control and we will be able to take advantage of technology to create more efficient and intelligent ones.
More related articles
This post is also available in: