TRENDS IN INTERNET OF THINGS

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Week Nine ↓
TL;DR
Physical devices can now communicate data over a network independently. They can also be remotely monitored and controlled. These and many more benefits come with the adoption of Internet of Things. We take a look at its application in recent times.

The phrase “Internet of Things” is becoming more pervasive. It is the interconnectivity between different smart devices like; smart phones, smart houses and smart watches to the internet. There has been a huge increase in the number of devices that now connect to the internet. The internet of things has expanded immensely and has enabled innovations across industries. A study that was conducted by Gartner, puts it that there will be about 20 billion IoT devices by 2020 (Hobbs, 2018).
Every aspect of our lives now gives data. The smartphones in our pockets give our location at any moment, knows our shopping habits, knows where we go on holidays, knows what our hobbies are. The smartwatches we use today also give data on all these and can track our heartbeat rates. We also have the smart houses whereby there all devices in the house are connected to the internet; starting from the doorbell at the gate, to the refrigerator and light bulbs in the house. Home devices also give data on the food we consume, sleeping patterns, favorite television shows, temperatures and so on.
Looking back, its clear that with new application of Internet of Things (IoT), our world is changing and existing technologies are improving. There have also been immense improvements in sectors like; healthcare, transportation, housing as a result of IOT (Mistry, n.d).

IoT in the real world

Below are some of the emerging trends in IoT

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
For AI and any machine learning applications, IoT would help supply a lot of data. This is due to the fact that connected devices will to some degree require automation so that they can react to the environment (Mistry, n.d). The huge amount of data created by these connected devices gives artificial intelligence developers a huge platform to work with.

New Business Models
Businesses usually look for low-cost connectivity along with longevity that consumes less power. Connectivity is important in businesses and increase in it will bring about increase in new business models and development for integrated technologies.
Due to technological advancements in the IoT, companies are now adopting new plans for connecting to the internet, therefore the traditional wireless fidelity (wi-fi) and mobile networks that have been in use will be sidelined. For example, the speedy connectivity that 5G plan and Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) offers has made it fast for adoption.

Impact of Retail Sector
Business owners and consumers have gained tremendously with the impact of IoT in the market. IoT has helped business owners to sell their product better to target specific customer needs.
Recent reports are stating that companies are now using IoT to; manage inventories, reach out to potential customers in different ways, manage losses from any theft.

Self-driving Vehicles
Increase in the use of ridesharing platforms like; Uber and Lyft; has led to an interest in self-driving cars, which is also a great opportunity for the application of IoT. Transportation as an industry has seen a lot of changes. There has been reports that state that most of the big automobile companies will use their fleets for the purpose of ride sharing services as IoT is continuously being adopted.

How IoT will Transform Businesses

Increase in Efficiency & Productivity
Leaders of businesses can easily identify ways for increase in productivity and efficiency by connecting business’s key process. A report by Inmarsat says that businesses are expecting a $154 million boost in revenues from IoT (Mistry, n.d).
A motion tracking system that records the movement and speech of athletes and actors has being developed and is in use by Ford at their Valencia Engine Assembly plant. This technology is a special suite that is equipped with body tracking technology. During its early launching, it was being used by 70 employees in 21 work areas. This technology has been used to design less physically stressful workstations and to enhance its manufacturing processes.
This same principle can be applied to different machines to identify problems in production lines.

Tracking of Assets
At an interview, Werner Reuss of Orange Business Services discussed how IoT transformed manufacturing, he also shared a short interesting story that lays emphasis on the value of IoT to tracking of assets (Mistry, n.d).
In the interview, he mentioned that a European car manufacturer with a complex supply chain of materials used for production; contained tens of thousands of boxes valued at 400 euros each. The company had issues keeping track of each of these boxes in the supply chain. This resulted in financial losses. Orange Business Services then came up with a solution that involved using an IoT device to track each box. This solution helped in mitigating loss of box materials, helping them to spend less than they used to (Mistry, n.d).
The more components there are in a business operation, the more it stands to benefit from IoT implementation.

Reduction in Cost and Downtime
Emergence of IoT has brought about reduction in downtime. It helps in identify parts of an infrastructure that are about to go down and will notify engineers in charge; weeks before the actual damage occurs. For example, with the rapid emergency of digital twin technology; in which digital models of physical assets are built from real-time data in pure data form or as 3D representation, a critical infrastructure failure that could cause the entire industrial installations to fail for hours or days will now be fixed even before the damage occurs.
As IoT is being continuous added to businesses, businesses will be able to unlock added revenue, gain competitive advantage over other businesses, create new training methods and produce higher quality of products and services.

REFERENCES
Hobbs, A. (August, 2018). Five ways the Internet of Things is transforming businesses today. Retrieved from https://internetofbusiness.com/5-ways-the-internet-of-things-is-transforming-businesses-today/
Mistry, H. (n.d). Emerging trends in IoT. Retrieved from https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/emerging-trends-in-iot

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