The IoT Effect

Sidhant Joshi

To start off with IoT, we need to know about the Metcalfe’s Law which pertains to the field of Network Theory. It states that the utility and value of a network increases with each new device connected to the network. How does this law even relate to our world? With each smartphone connected to the Google Maps repository, our navigation capabilities only expand to a massive extent. Same goes for every connected computer, smart phone, or any such smart device, with each device increasing the value of the network we are involved in. Imagine how high the value of our networks will shoot up to if other basic devices and appliances such as thermostats, refrigerators, security systems, vehicles etc. are included in this network. In our era, this isn’t just left for imagination.

IoT is such an internetwork of physical devices, appliances, electronics, vehicles or any other items embedded with sensors and network connectivity capabilities. The connectivity enables these entities to collect, process and exchange data amongst the network entities. Devices so connected are termed as Connected Devices or Smart Devices. IoT is one of the most anticipated upcoming surges in technological disruption in Industry as well as Households and Businesses. Market estimates and forecasts on the field of IoT are all over the map. International Data Corporation estimates over 28 billion devices to be included in the IoT parameters by 2020. McKinsey has estimated a projection that IoT will be a $6.2 trillion industry by 2025. Almost all the forecasts agree that IoT is going to be huge, and will substantially change our lives. IoT will make our livelihoods, industries, societal functioning and businesses much more efficient.

An article by Ashton published in the RFID Journal in 1999 said, “If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things - using data they gathered without any help from us - we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. We would know when things needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their best. We need to empower computers with their own means of gathering information, so they can see, hear and smell the world for themselves, in all its random glory.” How this faint idea of the 20^th Century is now becoming a reality in today’s world. The concept of IoT has endless possibilities, many of which are being exploited by Start-ups around the globe.

Data is one resource which can take a start up from a classroom idea to a Billion-dollar brand. With IoT, data and information collection and exchange has become spontaneous, intelligently efficient and accurate. This leads to increased amount of data at one’s disposal, which can be further processed and implemented. Smart products, around which a Start-up can flourish, or using an array of which will lead to a disconnected start-up’s journey to a connected and highly efficient future. It has an obvious potential to expand communication amongst the workforce and other related resources of the start-up. This can be implied with quicker work management, remote working capabilities and a more refined work output. Transportation and machinery automation is another such way IoT is helping start-ups to increase an efficiently formulated output. What’s great about IoT is that it’s already here, we don’t have to wait for it to hit us. How quickly we let it revolutionize our business potential is up to us.

Uber, and how that name relates with IoT? When you request a cab from their app, it isn’t as simple and inefficient as the app sending a request directly to the nearest Cab driver. When you tap the “Request Cab” button, you send a request to Uber’s Internet Cloud, which is an intricate network of location sensors on both the Cab driver’s and the Passenger’s mobile devices. This Internet Cloud then uses private algorithms to match a Cab to the passenger. Google Home or Amazon Alexa are massively popular for being a regulating home IoT device, bringing simple voice commands to the users’ aid to control their smart household. Snapchat, another start-up, quietly revolutionised the IoT industry, with an infamous product known as Spectacles. Their simple approach to an even simpler product eradicated some problems that were often faced by industry leaders of IoT.         

Now’s the time to induce every possible device to the network, the network of us.