The Internet of Things

The internet of things or IoT is not a new phenomenon. It has been around for some time now and is here to stay. Simply put, IoT is a network that lets the devices talk to us and each other. They receive signals via its sensors and send them accordingly. They can easily sense changes in physical environment which include changes in temperature, moisture level, heart rate etc. and act according to the way they are programmed. To get an even clearer idea, let us look at a few examples of IoT at work:

  • You have left for work and have forgotten to turn the AC off. You want to turn it off by your mobile phone. Through the IoT network, the mobile sends the data to a central system which turns the AC off.
  • Your kids have left for school in a bus and you want to know their whereabouts. This can be possible by fitting GPS devices in the bus. The devices send signal to the central system and transmit data to a GIS map, like Google maps which you can easily access through your mobile phones.
  • A doctor in one city wants to check the heart rate of a patient in some other city. Through sensors attached to the patient, the heart rate is transmitted to a central system which, in turn, sends it to the doctor.

The IoT apps development

The Internet of Things applications can vary from controlling appliances from remote places to informing the pilot that one of the engines of his plane needs service. Developing them may be a cumbersome task which requires intense programming. The starting point of IoT apps development would be the devices themselves. One or more communication protocols may be embedded in them which allows them to connect to the internet.

The next tier is an ingestion tier which is basically a software of our data centre or cloud which sends and receives information from our devices. It also maintains the workability of the system. After this, the processing and organizing of data is done by the analytics tier. Last is the end-user tier which is the final application that the user sees. This may be a web app or a mobile app.

The last two tiers are the most important when developing an app and would require a lot of work.

We are in an era in which the new technology can completely change the way we live our lives. The Internet of Things may become the precedent of life-altering advancements in science and technology.