IoT Devices or Internet of Things Devices
Tablets and smartphones still drive the craze in the technology of this generation. Its profound time when we focus our attention on the IoT devices. The concept is still in a natal phase, but the development of the devices that are carrying the future has already begun. Anyone aware of what the Internet of Things is knows that we are approaching nearer and nearer.
Excited we all are to see how it has evolved with the marvel products that have been developed to aid the process. Internet of Things being a pioneering idea, many people are unaware of it. The Internet of Things is a platform where every object has its unique identifiers which helps in transferring the data over the internet or the network.
So far, the Internet of Things, closely associated with machine-to-machine (M2M) communication in manufacturing and power, oil and gas utilities. Products built with M2M communication capabilities referred to as being smart.”
IoT devices growth and merits
Internet of Things, able to witness rapid growth in the recent time, and the evolution of wireless products is fascinating. Forecasted that within eight years, the various governmental and business organization will create a market worth almost 10 trillion dollars which consists of around 50 billion connected devices by 2020
Here we are going to discuss the Internet of Things devices which we come through in everyday life. The smart home, the wearables, and everything that makes our lives brighter. What would be an intelligent scenario for an average person? Surely a toast and a coffee that gets ready as soon as you wake up. The music playlist on your phone changing itself to jogging theme whenever you start running on your smart trade-mill on your bright gym.
A smart car which drives you to the office via a shortcut. Whenever you come back home, the automated garage door opens and closes as you park. You can make sure the meal is ready to be served. And at night, whenever you want to watch the movie, turns downlights and when you fall asleep turn off the lights by itself. This scenario may not be an ideal scenario for everybody, but the smart devices are well able to accomplish different tasks as per the desire of the user.
Home Appliance as IoT Devices
Internet of Things devices focused on automation and functionality in the home makes daily life more comfortable. These cover a wide range of products such as Smoke detectors, thermostats, smart lighting system, smart music system, smart security system, etc.
1. Nest
Nest Thermostat
In any list of best thermostat available in the market, Nest thermostat will surely be somewhere near the top. The thermostat can analyze the daily schedule of the user and program itself to monitor the temperature on its own.
Nest thermostat will not only automatize the heating level but also helps in reducing the bills. The user can control the heating level from their smartphone. It is on top of the list, and now we all know why.
Protect smoke detector
The Nest Protect, which detects smoke and carbon monoxide, is the next product of the Nest company. The smart device in the sense that it does turn on the alarm immediately when it detects smoke.
Consider a guest in your house equipped with smoke, and he/she lit the cigarette inside the room and smokes. Then the fire alarm buzzes aloud, and the guest gets all wet because of automatic water spray. That’s the last time he visits you.
If you hate a smoker inside the house or maybe even the guest, then you can be happy in this case. But not always the case. The Nest Protect will receive an only early warning through a flash of yellow lights and will give a mild notice in a human voice.
Notifies the actual area of smoke, and you can check whether the case is an emergency or just a nuisance. If there is no emergency condition, you can easily unalert the detector only by waving the hands standing under the Nest Protect.
2. Sonos Music System
One of the new exciting Internet of Things devices is that it will keep youngster boosted up. Sonos is a system of modern wireless speakers and audio devices. It integrates all the music collection and podcasts in a single application.
Another highlighting feature is the appealing design of the system. It allows you to choose the songs you desire to play in different rooms by using a focused wireless network.
3. Philips Hue Light Bulb
A smart lighting system which includes hue bridge and bulbs- Philips hue light bulb can create lighting variations based on favorite photos of the user.
A single bridge can control up to 50 bulbs, and the user can monitor the system from the smartphone. These bulbs help you to save 80% energy as compared to the traditional ones.
4. LG Smart Thing.
LG, being one of the first companies to implement the force of the Internet of Things in home related appliances. Smart Thing is a line of products of such tools. At the moment, only four categories of appliances are made available, but the launch of other products is imminent soon.
Currently, appliances like refrigerators, ovens, dryers, and washing machine are made available to the buyer. These appliances are connected to the internet for better command and saving more energy.
5. Lockitron.
Lockitron is one of the smartest locks out there. It is an innovative device that boasts the ultimate power of the Internet of Things in the locking system. With Lockitron, you can enter inside the home without any keys, using only the smartphone.
Whether the door is locked or not can be monitored through the smartphone even when you are not at home, it will also notify if the doors are not closed properly. The intelligent power management makes the batteries of Lockitron to last up to 1 year.
6. Amazon Echo- Smart Home.
The Amazon Echo is an innovative system. Alexa, the voice assistant, allows users to interact with the system to perform various problems like playing some good music from their phone. Alexa can also be asked to provide the weather report, order an Uber, get match highlights, sports news, and much more.
7. Smarter Coffee.
As soon as the alarm clock rings and you wake up to turn it off, what would anybody wish? A happy day to follow? Or maybe, hot coffee ready on the coffee pot? The former wish cannot be guaranteed, but Smarter Coffee will guarantee the later one.
Wi-Fi enhanced coffee maker, an IoT device which the user can control from anywhere within the apartment. A smart appliance which can adjust the strength of the coffee as per the user’s demand, And can even act as an alarm clock. It’s hard not to fall in love with this appliance.
8. Haiku Ceiling Fan
A fan with more IQ than some of the people out there, it can automatically turn on whenever you enter the room. It exists when you are off. But it doesn’t just stop here. It can also track the temperature and humidity and therefore modulates its speed automatically in response to these changes in the environmental conditions. It can also act as an alarm clock. Enough reasons to be a fan of this Haiku Ceiling Fan?
9. June Intelligent Oven.
Everybody should learn to cook. Why? Because food is life! Wait, you have some trust issues with your cooking abilities? It’s hard to mess up cooking when you have the support in ‘June Intelligent Oven.’ It may seem as a toaster oven, but don’t go with what it might seem because this master-piece is a know it all system.
It can toast, it can cook healthy meals and can even cook the difficult to-cook ones too. The sensors inside the oven can figure out the best temperature and timing to best cook anything on the menu.
The Wi-Fi-enabled connectivity and an embedded camera for live streaming the cooking video in the smartphone, it has got it all! Order from a restaurant? Nah! Cheers to all the master-chefs in the making.
10. Twist.
Is it a speaker? Is it a light bulb? Or is it a portable light bulb and speaker? It is a super cool but unlikely device called Twist. The bulb can be tuned to work optimally with any application and with a high-quality sound too.
If its day time, brighter and bluer or warm and golden glow at the nightfall, Twist can modulate the light accordingly. Doesn’t fall in the requirement lists before you know it existed. But you know it now, don’t you?
IoT Devices – Wearables
There are devices which can also interact with the human body such as baby monitors, fitness trackers, and smart body wears.
1. Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale.
Fitbit Aria smart scale is a fitness device that tracks the body weight, fat percentage, body mass index, and helps in monitoring these values over a long time. It synchronizes these stats wirelessly and uploads these values automatically to show a graph so that it is easy to keep track of your progress regularly.
It can keep track of the stats of up to 8 people, but the privacy of these data is not compromised. You can also earn badges as per the progress for improved motivation. The user can also receive alerts on smartphones when they are nearing their goals.
2. Withings Smart Body Analyzer.
Withings focused on making gadgets that help you keep fit and look after health. The Smart Body Analyzer is more than just a scale which keeps track of your weight — but equipped with a unique set of features. The features include full-body insight, weight measurement, heart rate measurement, graph analysis feature, and indoor air quality monitoring.
3. Fitbit One- Wearables.
The Fitbit One is a tracker that monitors the steps taken by the user, floors climbed, calories burned during the period, and sleep quantity the user achieved. This IoT device, wirelessly synchronized with the computers and smartphones for transmitting these fitness data into a chart for monitoring the progress made by the user.
4. Smart Baby Monitor
A very useful IoT device, particularly for tech-savvy guardians, is a baby monitor that is smart enough to let the guardians keep an eye on their babies. The Mimo Baby Monitor helps the guardian watch over the baby’s respiration and monitor the temperature inside the room. It can also inform whether the baby is asleep or active.
IoT devices on Larger Scale
1. Barcelona- Smart City
Barcelona, the Spanish city, is one of the smartest cities in the world after the implementation of various Internet of Things initiatives that have assisted in enhancing smart parking and environment monitoring. IoT devices are making cities smarter.
2· AT&T- Connected Cars
1.3 million cars have been added to the network of AT&T in the second quarter of 2016 itself, totaling the numbers of the car this network connects to 9.5 million. Neither any subscription nor monthly payments are required for data to use this network.
Internet of Things Devices Making Environment and Surroundings better
1. AirQuality Egg
Have you ever wondered- if the air that you are breathing is polluted? Then its time you get worried because denying the importance of air quality that we breathe in is careless. The AirQuality Egg is a sensor that monitors the quality of the air in the environment and lets the user share that data in a real-time online community.
The sensing system consists of outdoor sensors having an RF transmitter. The transmitter wirelessly sends the air quality information to a base station which is an Egg-shaped structure. The hub of the Egg allows the data to be sent to Xively- a storing unit which will allow sharing these data with the community.
2. Awair
A vintage radio- a cute look it imparts. The Awair is a sensitive tool for measuring the temperature, humidity, the air quality, and carbon dioxide monitor.
This Internet of Things device will tell you what the air in your surrounding contains and informs if it contains things that you are allergic too. Now, that you have known about this, you can sleep better or maybe sneeze lesser.
3. RainMachine
Drought has been a severe problem everywhere in the world, so taking water for granted and wasting it will be a serious fault we will be committing. The RainMachine automatically adjusts the watering to the plant by using the weather forecast. RainMachine not only saves the water but also keeps the plant healthy.
This machine can be programmed to turn it off during certain months as in freezing conditions when no watering is required. A device which can be controlled from your mobile or PC and for a cause. Well done!
IoT devices for Internet and Security
1· Dojo
Have you ever wondered what all the plugged-in devices are as private as you would like them to be? No, you are not the only one. An IoT device that will make sure that all the devices are private as per your requirement is the Dojo.
A smooth pebble-shaped blatant object that will keep the devices safe from malware, hackers, and other intruders. It will also send a notification to the smartphone whenever there’s something fishy cooking up in your device that you are unaware. Feel safe already? We don’t judge you!
2· LiftMaster MyQ Internet Gateway
With this LiftMaster MyQ Internet Gateway device, the user can check the status of the garage door. It also allows you to open or close the door from the mobile device. The MyQ Internet Gateway device does not use Wi-Fi.
LiftMaster MyQ Internet Gateway uses a radio controller. Thus, hacking through Wi-Fi is not possible. How is the device the application of the Internet of Things then? There are other ways to connect the device to the internet, too; Wi-Fi is not the only way! This gateway connects to the internet through a physical Ethernet connection via the router.
The router though, should be in the signal range of the garage door. An upgraded version of LiftMaster now comes with built-in Wi-Fi. But still, the older model is recommended because the chance of getting hacked increases considerably in Wi-Fi enabled the system.
Other Devices and Platforms
Z-Wave is not a regularly heard name, but for one who is acquainted with the apprehensions of Internet of Things, this word is probably not new.
ZigBee is another kind of similar wireless standard for devices. Despite being a newer standard, ZigBee is on the rise because of its low power approach. These standards are present in most of the Internet of Things devices but are used more in networks and platforms. Some of the platforms described briefly below.
1· SmartThings
SmartThings works as a platform for huge numbers of smart devices connected through the internet. Similar to online market stores, users can buy devices for their homes for upgrading to a smart Internet of Things system enabled homes.
Here one can find different cool smart devices like smart switches, doors, locks, and lights. It’s a platform for the developers to find all the right tools, and users find the smart apps for the devices purchased from this platform.
2· Revolv
Another platform which brings together a plethora of IoT devices under a single command center. Through this platform, the user will be able to control the lighting, TV, heating devices, air conditioners and much more.
3· Securifi
Securifi is another Internet of Things device which was developed by Kickstarter. It is an Internet of Things platform but also supports a standalone device. The latest version of the touchscreen router is Almond+.
This router can connect 5000 square feet home wirelessly and is about four times faster than the normal wireless router. Because of its touchscreen feature, the Almond+ can be set up on itself without needing to use an either smartphone or a Personal Computer. Since it also works with Z-Wave and ZigBee standards, it can support thousands of sensors that exist in the market currently.
4· Xfinity Home products
Xfinity Home products are thriving for providing users with a smart home controlling feature. Created by Comcast, this comes with monthly plans which change according to the needs of the user and is not a pay-once feature. User-provided with a Secure and Control plan which protects the home against break-ins and fire.
This plan also provides the automation for lighting system and temperature control and more. Another plan, the Home Control plan, will provide automation for the lighting system, temperature control, and other home features and is, in fact, a cheaper solution.
5· WeMo Belkin Home Automation
The range of Internet of Things products from Belkin includes baby monitor, motion sensor, light switches, etc. It has also NetCams that will help in the surveillance of the home. The WeMo products are cheaper when compared with other similar house automation systems.
6· Ninja Blocks
These Ninja Block systems are not only the best weather gadgets in the market but can also be used for smart lighting as well as a smart surveillance system. Using this Internet of Things system, we can keep a watch on the humidity levels and temperature. One can also turn off the lights even when you are not at home.
Whenever someone approaches your door, the user can also get a reminder on his phone through SMS. Through wireless sensors on the doors and windows, a person can know if the windows and doors are fully closed and can set accordingly. It can also capture the picture of the person who is in front of your door, and one can store in Google accounts too. Cool, isn’t it?
Conclusion
There are lots of devices that use the application of the Internet of Things for daily usage, and there is still a lot to come in the future. Choosing the IoT devices as per the need and the qualities it possesses is a deal of greater concern because these are not only associated with getting things done, but rather these are the devices to getting things done comfortably and securely as per the requirements. Do not get fooled because there are lots of trash pitched to you as the IoT devices that can do wonders.