As per Techworld Internet of Things is about connecting internet-enabled devices that relay information back to us, to cloud-based applications and to each other (device to device). These ‘smart’ devices can be anything from mobile phones, fridges, washing machines to wearables, medical equipment or jet engines. Basically, in the Internet of Things, objects use the web and unique identifiers such as RFID tags or processors in order to exist as part of the internet. The IoT promises to reshape entire industries. As per McKinsey estimates that IoT could generate up to $11.1 trillion a year in economic value by 2025.

Trending IOT Industries in day to day life –

1. Airline – An equipment tracking app provides an airline’s engineers with a live view of the locations of each piece of maintenance equipment.

2. Pharmaceutical – A medication temperature monitoring app uses sensors as a way to ensure the best possible delivery of medical supplies.

3. Healthcare – A Patient monitoring app can use multiple sensors installed on the patient body which communicate with the IoT network and provides all the required information of the patient under treatment and generates alerts to doctors if immediate action required.

4. Business Services – A facility services company uses their multi-device IoT application to enable support personnel to receive alerts about service issues and take immediate action.

5. Home Security – IoT concept is used in home security devices which are monitored and controlled either locally or remotely using easy to use applications available on mobile phones or smartphones. Typical IoT devices are security alarm, Camera, sensors, door lock etc. are used in home automation environment.

6. Agriculture – An iOT system to enhance productivity and reduce the resources to help farmers and also reducing the environmental contamination .

Apps that uses IOT technologies – Here’s the top apps they are featured for using IOT features –

1. In Healthcare Industries :

   1. Using smart band with mobile app we can send heartbeat of patient at a regular time interval for monitoring health of patient and provide medical facilities like sending ambulance or doctor or any other assistance required.

   2. We can use tracking wearable device for dementia patients who have memory issue and track them if they lost or get notified if they leave certain region. And the same can be extended to many more scenarios in medical science.

2. In Home Automation and Security :

   1. In smart home automation system where app can control the light in home from anywhere by communicating with controller or gateway installed at home.

   2. We can use iOT app to observe electricity consumption at home by receiving data from digital meter with help of controller or gateway installed at home.

   3. In Smart home security system where app can be notified of forced entry (Using camera or IR sensors) at home by receiving message from controller or gateway installed at home.

3. In Agriculture Industries : We can use IOT system to get the information about soil texture along with the humidity information through various sensors that will be sent to mobile app for further analysis. The app in turn will apply appropriate algorithm and in turn will suggest the best the quantity of water as needed and would also guide in choosing the best fertilizer for a particular crop.

Structure of typical IOTs apps – The following diagram shows typical components of an IOT based mobile app architecture.

Data and logic are distributed across the device, cloud and other resources in order to deliver a full user experience. The app should use secure protocol to communicate with gateways or the remote server and it should be scalable as the traffic grows . There are multiple APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) written to create and show various dashboard and actions including integration with various data analytical services. The APIs typically makes a connection among devices, cloud and third-party web-services.

Challenges for IOT applications – We know there are certain amount of challenges we face while creating an IOT application. Following are the most challenging aspect while creating these kind of applications –

• Discovery of devices – To know when to use Messaging or IP related protocols to communicate devices with Mobile App depending upon environment and requirement. The sensor controller will poll the backend by calling some REST API to know about newer devices being added to the network.

• Sharing data between devices and cloud – The specification describing how the device will share and consume data from various sensors. The mobile app would take the raw data from the sensors , process and transform it into an appropriate format to send it over the cloud for data analysis etc.

• Data communication across network – To know how the data travels around the network.

• Data security – To avoid data intrusion/network intrusion we need to know various security measures across the communication channels.

• QoS (Quality of Service) – How reliably the network carries data, and adjusting accordingly.

Comparison of various IOT platforms :

 

Platform name	Supported devices	Features	Device management	Language support	Cost
Evothings	Android,iOS	API library, Multiple code options, Tutorials, Options to add beacon sensors, Mini-controllers and Bluetooth LE	Yes	Html5, Css, Javascript	Free
Appcelerator	Android, iOS	Cross platform SDK	Yes	javascript	Free
Ionic	Android,iOS	Cross platform SDK	Yes	Javascript, html5	Free
Xamarin	Android,iOS	Cross platform SDK	Yes	C Sharp	Free