Exploring the Applications of Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a game changer in today’s world and is playing a vital role in the industrial revolution. Yet in its adoption India still lags far behind China. Today IoT has brought transition to the industry. An IoT factory will yield an operational and optimization cost reduction of 5-12.5 percent, cost savings of 10-40 per cent in predictive maintenance and cost reduction of 20-50 percent in inventory optimization

This blog explores the uses of IoT in healthcare systems, water supply, recycling systems and many other areas.

To boost IoT concepts, few industrial IoT Center of Excellence (COE) is launched in India. They aim at developing innovative solutions for customers in industrial manufacturing, automotive, healthcare and pharmacy.

Innovations needed for IoT industries

Innovation leads, the world follows. With the rise in the Indian Startup Ecosystem, innovation has reached its peak in the country with 45,444 patent applications filed in 2016-17 alone.

Today, a lot of IoT related startups are coming and working in India. They are deliberately taking advantage of the Internet to enhance the abilities of the devices. The devices may be lighting system, entry into home, water sprinklers used for irrigation in agriculture, traffic control system, vehicles, road lighting systems and many more. In a smart city, electric transmission, billing and the security of various services such as banks, ATMs, hotels, etc, are all done through IoT-operated devices. Dealing with IoT related projects by companies and startups is offering great challenges.

Vyuti is a visual object intelligence provider for the manipulation of objects by robotic arms. It can pick, orient and place objects in various locations. With adequate training, the solutions can be applied in sectors like manufacturing, construction, healthcare, and warehousing. Today, there are many solutions in the market for object recognition.

Numocity is working with the electric vehicle ecosystem. It aims at connecting the battery, charging stations, etc., via a transaction engine, distributed ledger and an artificial intelligence (AI) based engine.

Areas benefiting through IoT

While India is considered to be the fourth largest home for startups, the failure rates are also very high here due to many factors including difficulties in managing the ventures.

The hundred billion dollars Indian healthcare industry is set for a revolution. Big data, IoT and AI will shape the future of this new ecosystem.

Increased entry of affordable IoT products, and growing user preferences drive the IoT market’s to rapid growth. India’s IoT market is expected to reach $15 billion by 2020, representing approximately five per cent of the global market as a whole. Today, with almost 120 companies providing solutions in the IoT market, enormous prospects for more growth exist.

Smart lifestyles, built-in houses, schools, healthcare and manufacturing are primary industries for IoT startups in India. With a total investment of more than sixty million dollars since 2014, investors are showing more interest in IoT startups now. The top four funding areas are: lifestyle / wearables, embedded computing, the Internet of technology and connected homes.

Today on IoT systems, specific city operations such as traffic, power, water, waste management and much more are performed. The Samsung R&D Institute has jointly announced the establishment of the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) India Ecosystem Task Force in Bengaluru, Nasscom, Intel and L&T to increase awareness of global IoT standards and their benefits to the Indian IoT industry.

IoT based systems for water supply and water recycling

Increasing dependence on ground water as a reliable source of water in rural areas of India has resulted in the unlimited extraction of water. Without considering the research of aquifers as well as other environmental factors, ground water source may be threatened. IoT based systems can even help to utilize waste water at malls, flats, etc.

Greenvironment India is an environmental engineering company incubated at IIT Chennai, offering smart water and waste water management solutions for residential companies/apartments, commercial establishments, institutions and industries.

IoT-based cloud-based smart sensor solutions can track pH, Flow, DO (dissolved oxygen), ORP (potential reduction in oxidation), TDS (total dissolved salts), level, pressure, water temperature during water supply. It can keep automatic records of the parameters above, and send notifications via email or SMS.

Smart water management systems in multi-specialty hospitals are helping to reduce hundred litres/person/head resulting in 20-30% water conservation. Today, in 172 apartments of Chennai, dependency on an external supply of water is greatly reduced by producing good-quality recycled water for 55% of the communities living here using an efficient IoT based system. This has resulted in saving of thirty per cent of overall water costs.

Effects of IoT based wearables in the healthcare system

The market size for wearables had reached 25 billion dollars by the end of 2019. Currently, wearable technologies are considered as an integral part of IoT based projects and include smart watches, fitness bands and even AR/VR headsets.

One of the most awaited Medical IoT innovations is the smart contact lens. Pharmaceutical company Novartis has teamed up with Google to create a groundbreaking tool that aims to support diabetes patients by monitoring their glucose levels and supporting those with eye problems. The smart contact lens looks like a normal contact lens, but comes with a sensor that non-invasively monitors the user’s blood sugar level through the tears and accurate vision in a modern, creative way.

The lens is inserted in one of its thin concave faces by a lightweight, ultra-slim microchip. This will transfer glucose measurement data from the user’s tears via installed software to its paired smartphone through its similarly tiny antenna. Modern technology has the potential to reduce the cost of chronic disease treatment and enable patients to be involved in the treatment of their illness.

Conclusion

IoT is an emerging field of Internet technology. It is a field of research and innovation concerned with increasing the abilities of devices on the Internet scale. Ordinary rules of operating devices no longer apply here. Basically, here the Internet leaves its classical realm and enters a new world of control of the device’s mechanism.

The research community, policy-makers, apex bodies, and funding agencies are constantly working to advance in various IoT fields. India has accomplished several achievements in the IoT fields over the last two decades and others are yet to be accomplished.