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Internet of Things(IoT)

How does it feel to be around all automated? I want you all to imagine something. When you will tap on some option on your phone screen to switch on the fan, it should start. An awesome thought, right? This is all made possible by the subfield of Computer Science called as Internet of Things. Its short form is IoT. This topic’s main dependency is computer programming, microprocessors, smart chips and sensors, and a stream of networks that holds and passes data throughout the system.

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Internet of Things(IoT)
Internet of Things(IoT)

History of the Internet of Things

     The branch of Computer Science is Artificial Intelligence and its sub-branch is the Internet of Things. Until 1945 it was only a myth. Let us go back to history. There is a famous story from World War 2, the part that depicts the designing and successful implementation of a smart machine that can catch encoded signals and decode them. A team of intelligent mathematicians was elected by the British Government. The job of this team was to decode the signals coming from Germany.

These signals were encoded by a machine called Enigma. The settings for signal encoding in Enigma were 159 million billion. This was a challenging task because the Germans changed the settings every night. British lost many of its soldiers during this period. The calculations say 3 soldiers per minute! To cure this loss the team of 6 mathematicians did their best. One of those team members worked differently. His name was Alan Turing.

He wrote a letter to Prime Minister Mr.Winston Churchil of the UK for approval to design his machine that can crack enigma and give funding of $1,16,521.40. Surprisingly he agreed. Turing took full control of the team and invented the machine. They were successful in cracking the signal. This was one of the reasons for the defeat of German in WW2.

Alan Turing was a patron of Cambridge University and wrote many research papers during his lifetime. The first signs of Artificial Intelligence were found in his research papers. His ideology was ‘Human cannot understand the machine and to surmise a machine one should invent another machine.’ But, it all remained understudies and paper reports till the late 1980s.

First Applications:

    In 1985 the establishment of the Internet as ARPANET at Carnegie Mellon University changed the whole picture. It was implemented firstly in Coca Cola Vending Machine. The system installed in that machine worked quite nicely. It reported whether the drink cans are cold or warm.

Peter. T. Lewis described the concept in his speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in the 15th Annual Legislative weekend meeting in Washington D.C. 

Permanent Coining of the term IoT:

Kevin Ashton and his group Procter and Gamble (P&G) coined the term “Internet of Things“. Auto-ID was functioning for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that integrates the network with sensors and actuators. These helped the traditional computers for easy handling of tasks. Smart sensing technologies made remarkable contributions to the IoT development program.

Workflow of IoT:

Now let us go towards, how the Internet of Things works. But first, we will see, what are its necessary elements:

  • Cloud support for data and code storage
  • A compulsory LAN/Wi-Fi connection
  • Circuit Board to embed smart microchips and processors
  • Sensors according to the terms

Let us get them one by one:

Cloud support for data and code storage:

Cloud support indicates a local server bartender that can send and retrieve data from the user during proper system communication. user first creates a code for the function of the IoT module and then sends it to the cloud. Then the provided data be maintained, stored, and used by the user for present and future directions. The server is always in connection with the installed system. For this, it needs a Local Area Network (LAN).

A compulsory LAN/Wi-Fi connection:

The Local Area Network is the key requirement. It is the lifeline of IoT. The data retrieval and data transfer through the cloud servers is handled by the network setup. Most importantly the connection should be secured. It is a string that connects the user, setup, and the cloud server.

Sensors according to the requirement

While IoT was progressing, it got integrated with Smart Sensing Technologies. These paved the way for the embedded systems. The sensors are those devices that are similar to the human senses. They are of various types like temperature sensors, biometric sensors, vision sensors (cameras), smoke detectors, etc. when these are embedded with the circuit board they can also be re-programmed and made to do certain tasks.

List of some sensors:

  • LDR (light-dependent resistors) used for light sensing.
  • Fingerprint sensor
  • Thermostats
  • Gyroscopes (gravity checking sensors)
  • Accelerometers (speed checking sensors)

Circuit Board to embed smart microchips and processors:

Without these boards the implementation of the idea of the Internet of Things not possible. It is one of its core parts. A board may vary in size according to the user’s requirement. They come up with different microprocessors embeddings. There is the following port for sensors, USB, power, transistors, registers, resistors and many more.

How did Internet of Things work?

    Everything starts from a computer and a programming language. I order to interact with machines we need the language of machines. In the IoT paradigm, the most used languages are C and C++. These are quite useful because their integrity with machines is more than in any other language. Packages or libraries that are code scripts written in the same language are also required.

    Next is the IDE. In earlier implications, the IDE or Integrated Development Environments were not available. IDEs are that software that is used for support during code writing. They are the one-stop solution for code analysis, error checking, and debugging. The most famous IDE used for this purpose is the Arduino IDE.

      These are the steps through which a common IoT setup works:

  1. The sets up the IoT environment.
  2. A user writes the code and data, debugs it, and then sends the error-free code to the local cloud host.
  3. The cloud local host stores that code and data into the server.
  4. After storage, it performs the data manipulation, and then according to the code the IoT connected devices work.
  5. Users can see and control all the operations through their smartphones or computer.

Real-world applications of IoT:

From 2011 as the internet connectivity from mobile phones moved towards the wi-fi boards IoT progressed. It is applied in every field.

Here is a list of those fields:

  • Industrial IoT also called an IIoT
  • Infrastructural
  • Technology
  • Medicines and healthcare
  • Defense
  • Navigation and geology
  • Agriculture
  • Microcontrollers and micro-chips
  • Education

Industrial Internet of Things:

The industries have their old relations with IoT. In 2000 LG made a refrigerator that worked on the internet. this was one of the earliest applications.

Infrastructure:

Nowadays, many home systems are developed under this category. The electrical appliances, air conditioning systems, etc. are connected through the internet connection. These are called smart homes

Technology:

In the tech field, the Robotics sector has most of its development under IoT. Controlling the robot through a computer, a moving arm movement design, etc. are some of its examples.

Medicines and healthcare:

In this industry, the main use is manufacturing the medicines through trained machines. The flaws in medicine are detected through smart sensors. IoT plays a major role in detecting the damaged cells in the human body, killing the cancer cells, monitoring the patient’s sugar and blood pressure, etc.

Defense:

In defense systems, IoT is used to train soldiers, launch missiles through satellites, and many more.

Pathfinding through the online map is made possible using IoT. The satellite is directly connected to the devices and then live route navigation is possible.

Agriculture:

Agriculture has now moved towards it. Smart drones are used to provide water and fertilizers the crops. Smart sensors connected to the pipes controlled using a phone are also used to supply water to the fields.

Microcontrollers and micro-chips

IoT made the complex design of smart microchips and processors very easy.

Education:

Smart study solutions are being possible because of IoT. Through online lectures and videos, students are understanding complex concepts in a better and easy way.

Conclusion:

      This field is a way to total automation of the devices. As always I say the tech field is a magical world. I hope my solutions will help you to build better. IoT has a great in-demand career in today’s world of advancements and it will increase in the future. Wishing you all the best in your automation journey.

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