Smart Lab
Smart Lab (IoT Lab)
The Internet of things (IoT) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity which enables these things to connect, collect and exchange data.
IoT presents a host of opportunities to improve the everyday health and lifestyle of consumers and presents a massive business opportunity for manufacturers of consumer electronics. By adding cloud connectivity to regular electronics, ingesting the data, and analyzing to understand patterns of usage and consumer behavior, consumer electronic companies can grow their presence in the market by providing new value to consumers. This value can be delivered in the form of lifestyle suggestions and tips, suggestions for new products, tracking and reporting on product usage to advise on best practices for health or home. Ayla IoT provides all foundational elements required to connect, secure, manage, and scale consumer electronic devices globally while providing the business applications necessary to optimize consumer support and enable new value-add services and revenue opportunities. home automation with new, enriched products allowing their connected lifestyle to streamline.
IoT provides all foundational elements required to connect, secure, manage, and scale smart home devices globally while providing the business applications necessary to optimize consumer support and enable new value-add services and revenue opportunities.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is about interconnecting embedded systems. It brings together two evolving technologies: wireless connectivity and smart sensors. Combined with recent advances in low power microcontrollers, these new “things” are being connected to the internet easily and inexpensively, ushering in a second industrial revolution.
These connected embedded systems are small microcontroller-based computers that do not require a human interface. Instead of interacting with a human these systems use sensors or other advanced detection mechanisms. These sensors collect data, data that has value and that is part of a larger system.
This data is then networked as part of a larger system. While the term “Internet of Things” implies that these sensors are networked via the world wide internet using WiFi or Ethernet, the networking can also be performed using protocol such as ZigBee or Bluetooth that does not have an IP address. The networking protocol is selected based on the distribution of nodes and the amount of data to be collected.
This data is sent over the network to the main hub or computer. This main computer collects and analyzes the data, storing it in memory and even making system decisions based on the results of the analysis.
A wide variety of devices are have already hit the market and many more are set to be released as developers work towards increased connectivity of electronic devices in homes, hospitals, Institutional Campuses and Office premises. Today you can easily control your refrigerator, treadmill, smart TV or toaster from your smart phone.
However, IOT is only possible as a result of the availability of a platform on which these devices can operate.
Today Android has become the Major Driving Force behind IOT
Android has risen quickly as a software platform mostly because Google (the company behind it) chose to give it away to developers and device makers. The Linux-based software is open source, therefore allowing just about anyone to use its source code and therefore customize it for use in just about any gadget they can imagine.
The number of devices that rely on Android as an operating system today are numerous. With such a large number of devices run on Android it is easy to see how Android acts as a front end for IOT. It is easy and cheap to develop devices for IOT making them even more affordable for consumers.
Apps drive IOT
A gadget is just a gadget. However, with the right app to and software to help it run and perform different tasks, it becomes much more. Apps are what make it possible to use IOT devices. Android is currently the world’s largest app platform. Google Play-store was reported to host more than 3 million apps. It is not surprising that Android drives the IOT movement.
Most Popular Internet of Things Applications
- Smart home
Smart Home clearly stands out, ranking as highest Internet of Things application on all measured channels. More than 60,000 people currently search for the term “Smart Home” each month. This is not a surprise. The IoT Analytics company database for Smart Home includes 256 companies and startups.
- Wearables
Wearables remains a hot topic too. As consumers await the release of new smart watch in April 2015, there are plenty of other wearable innovations to be excited about: like the Sony Smart B Trainer, the Myo gesture control, or LookSee bracelet. These wearable’s can be connected and apps be developed to render smart services.
- Smart City
Smart city spans a wide variety of use cases, from traffic management to water distribution, to waste management, urban security and environmental monitoring. Its popularity is fueled by the fact that many Smart City solutions promise to alleviate real pains of people living in cities these days. IoT solutions in the area of Smart City solve traffic congestion problems, reduce noise and pollution and help make cities safer.
- Smart Grids
Smart grids is a special one. A future smart grid promises to use information about the behaviors of electricity suppliers and consumers in an automated fashion to improve the efficiency, reliability, and economics of electricity. 41,000 monthly Google searches highlights the concept’s popularity.
- Industrial Internet
The industrial internet is also one of the special Internet of Things applications. While many market researches such as Gartner or Cisco see the industrial internet as the IoT concept with the highest overall potential, its popularity currently doesn’t reach the masses like smart home or wearable’s do. The industrial internet however has a lot going for it
- Connected Car
The connected car is coming up slowly. Owing to the fact that the development cycles in the automotive industry typically take 2-4 years, we haven’t seen much buzz around the connected car yet. But it seems we are getting there. Most large auto makers as well as some brave startups are working on connected car solutions. And if the BMWs and Fords of this world don’t present the next generation internet connected car soon, other well-known giants will: Google, Microsoft, and Apple have all announced connected car platforms.
- Connected Health (Digital Health/Telehealth/Telemedicine)
Connected health remains the sleeping giant of the Internet of Things applications. The concept of a connected health care system and smart medical devices bears enormous potential, not just for companies also for the well-being of people in general. Yet, Connected Health has not reached the masses yet. Prominent use cases and large-scale startup successes are still to be seen. Might 2015 bring the breakthrough?
- Smart Retail
Proximity-based advertising as a subset of smart retail is starting to take off. But the popularity ranking shows that it is still a niche segment. One LinkedIn post per month is nothing compared to 430 for smart home.
- Smart Supply Chain
Supply chains have been getting smarter for some years already. Solutions for tracking goods while they are on the road, or getting suppliers to exchange inventory information have been on the market for years. So while it is perfectly logic that the topic will get a new push with the Internet of Things, it seems that so far its popularity remains limited.
- Smart Farming
Smart farming is an often overlooked business-case for the internet of Things because it does not really fit into the well-known categories such as health, mobility, or industrial. However, due to the remoteness of farming operations and the large number of livestock that could be monitored the Internet of Things could revolutionize the way farmers work. But this idea has not yet reached large-scale attention. Nevertheless, one of the Internet of Things applications that should not be underestimated. Smart farming will become the important application field in the predominantly agricultural-product exporting countries.
This lab is set up with an objective that students have connected devices, sensors, Android App powered control for Automation and setting up the user oriented profiles. Students not only experience the IOT technology use cases but can develop innovative use cases that can enhance ease of lifestyle and contribute to build more utilities in the ecosystem. The initiatives is expected to build skills along with organization of knowledge and competencies of the students involved the projects in the lab.