Internet of Things (IoT)
Internet of Things (IoT)
Nowadays, more and more devices and technologies are connected to the Internet and to each other. The “Internet of Things” (IoT) has become a key term that describes the way in which this technology has changed our everyday lives.
What is the Internet of Things?
The term IoT refers to the networking of machines, vehicles and everyday objects from cell phones to entire buildings with each other and the Internet. These devices are equipped with sensors and actuators to record data and carry out various actions. What they all have in common is that they are networked and exchange data and commands with each other.
The story
The idea of networking machines with each other first emerged in 1968 after Richard Morley designed the first programmable logic controller (PLC). Such controllers later formed the basis for such networking. In practice, however, this type of networking only became practical after the Ethernet standard was developed in 1983. Only a few years later, the first PCs were networked with PLC devices using this protocol. In 1999, Kevin Ashton coined the term “Internet of Things” as it is used today.
Source: https://www.visualistan.com/2018/02/the-industrial-iot-infographic.html
The breakthrough for networking more and more devices came in 1989 with the conception of the World Wide Web. In 2020, over 20 billion devices were already connected to the Internet of Things.
What is the IoT used for?
The Internet of Things is now used in almost all areas of life. In agriculture, it can help to optimize the irrigation and cultivation of fields. The industry uses the IoT to enable production lines to communicate with each other and coordinate them in the best possible way. But the IoT is also becoming increasingly present in the everyday lives of end consumers. The best-known examples of this are smart home assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or similar products. One example of current developments is navigation systems that communicate with traffic control systems. In this way, it would be possible to adapt speed limits variably to the traffic situation in order to minimize congestion.
How the Internet of Things works
The best way to explain how the IoT works is with an example. Here we look at the thermostat of a smart home device. The thermostat is equipped with sensors that measure the room temperature and, depending on the version, the air quality based on oxygen content and humidity. The thermostat then sends this data to a cloud platform via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The user can access the data via this platform and control the temperature remotely using a smartphone. Alternatively, the user can also specify his or her desired operating settings and the software automatically calculates the appropriate settings, which are then transmitted to the corresponding devices via the Internet.
Advantages and disadvantages
As great as the advantages of this technology are in a variety of everyday situations, it also harbors new dangers. Probably the most important example of such a risk is the protection of systems and the data security associated with it, among other things. Networking has long since become a prerequisite for many products, which is why even the cheapest products from the Far East are now networked. However, the software for these products in particular is often very simple and vulnerable, as attempts are made to keep prices as low as possible.
Project example
As a development service provider for embedded Linux systems, we deal with IoT systems on an almost daily basis. We have been cooperating with the company Becker Antriebe from Sinn for more than ten years now and have developed the “CentralControl” smart home system together with Becker.
We will soon be presenting the CentralControl success story in a separate blog article.