When we talk about the Internet of Things IoT, we usually think of sensors and microprocessors in everyday objects that communicate over the Internet to gather data, control their functions, and transmit it to other devices or users. This technology is transforming the physical world and merging it with the digital universe. It is made possible by low-cost computing, the cloud, big data, analytics, and mobile technologies.
IoT is making our daily lives more efficient and productive by adding a layer of intelligence to objects, systems, and processes. This technology is being used in manufacturing, healthcare, retail, automotive, agriculture, and many other sectors of the economy. It is also enabling new business models that enable customers to use products or services rather than buy them outright.
The Internet of Things is also bringing the future of home automation to your door by adding sensors to appliances and other household items to make them smarter. For example, smart appliances can monitor your energy usage and report to your home energy service provider when you are consuming more power than usual. This makes it easy for you to manage your electricity Internet of things IoT consumption to save money and stay on top of your energy bills.
Many people already use IoT applications in their daily lives without even realizing it. For example, navigation apps like Waze or Google Maps are IoT applications that send your GPS position to the cloud for processing and recompiling. The information is then used to compute your estimated time of arrival and reroute you if traffic conditions change.
Another popular IoT application is the smart pillbox that lets a patient monitor their medication intake and alerts them if they miss a dose. This is just one example of how IoT is improving health and reducing costs in healthcare.
The next phase of IoT will focus on connecting more sophisticated sensors to everyday consumer products, making them even smarter and more useful. For example, the latest versions of voice-activated digital assistants such as Alexa and Cortana can perform an increasing number of tasks thanks to their embedded IoT capabilities. This makes them an important part of our daily lives and is opening up the opportunity for businesses to offer more specialized products and services to consumers who might not have purchased their main offerings.
The emergence of machine learning and advanced analytics, which are used to process and analyze the vast amounts of data that IoT sensors generate, is driving innovation in IoT. These technologies are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with IoT and enabling other emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and conversational AI. These are all being made possible by advances in semiconductor chips, batteries and wireless communications. The resulting IoT applications are becoming more widespread and affordable to the average user. The IoT market is expected to continue growing in the coming years and reach a total of nearly 6.4 billion devices by 2025, according to Gartner research.