Do you know what IoT is? Even if you do, we bet you aren’t aware of how many uses the Internet of Things is capable of. Here are ten of the most amazing Internet of Things examples to show you just how powerful IoT is.
Users are just starting to recognize its potential. Experts say that more and more households will begin connecting their devices with IoT in the next few years, predicting they expect 75 billion IoT devices worldwide by 2025. With IoT making its way to businesses, households, and healthcare institutions, the uses of the network feel limitless.
What is the Internet of Things definition exactly?
Internet of Things presents a network of devices that communicate and share data with each other on the internet. These devices or “things” achieve this by using specialized software, sensors, and innovative technologies that allow them to connect together to communicate and perform tasks.
Top IoT Examples (Editor’s Pick):
- Smart homes
- Smart farming
- Cars
- Smart watches
- Automation of industrial processes
- Automation in retail
- Healthcare
- Digital twins
- Smart buildings
- Smart cities
Homeowners Use IoT To Improve Home Security
IoT is at work in any smart featured technology, but smart homes are closest to home when it comes to where IoT can be found in your daily life.
One of the most popular Internet of Things examples within smart homes is for increasing home security. Internet of Things is ideal for smart home security systems. It allows for sensors, cameras, lights, and locks to communicate with each other to monitor the activities outside of and within a house.
Because it relies on Wi-Fi, you can monitor your house from your tablet or mobile phone from anywhere, be alerted if there is motion in the house, or even if glass breaks.
Some of the devices typically connected to increase home security are:
- Smart Doorbells
- Motion Sensors
- Alarms
- Smart Lights
- Security Cameras
- Smart Locks
Drivers Use IoT For Cars
Are you looking for examples of internet of things in everyday life? Take a look at your car. The Internet of Things is the main factor in the future of automobile development. From a connected network of all vehicles to prevent traffic accidents to auto-maintenance, and in the future, the possibility of a fully driverless car, IoT is making cars safer, more efficient, and easier to use.
Smart Watches Operate with IoT
A piece of tech that internet of things has made its way onto our wrists! Smart watches need IoT to send messages, make phone calls, monitor your location, etc.
There are many different types of internet of things, and devices connected with it are more and more able to function and maintain themselves without the interference of humans!
Some of these devices you can see frequently helping individuals with their daily lives, while others are being specialized to make industries like farming, construction, and even engineering more advanced. It may still seem like a new concept to us, but IoT is already everywhere.
What Is a Real-Time Example of IoT?
IoT is integrating so seamlessly into our daily lives that we may not have even noticed the most common real-life examples around us.
Voice assistants, for instance, have become increasingly popular over the last decade. The use of IoT with these devices has allowed voice control to become part of every room in your house, even with things that don’t have voice control!
Fitness trackers were the most simple beginning of smart watches. Using IoT to stay in contact with your phone, it can monitor your vitals, activity, and location to give you a greater picture of your fitness level and activity through connecting with applications.
IoT is Improving Smart Farming
Smart farming presents one of the most useful Internet of Things applications. Farmers use tools strengthened by the Internet of Things to monitor the soil and the health of their crops.
Tools for checking the weather, soil moisture, composition, crop health, growth, and livestock are becoming increasingly popular. Applications have been developed for analyzing all of this data to indicate the perfect time to plant or fertilize soil and when is the best time to harvest.
IoT is Commonly Used in the Industrial Sector
Internet of things devices are increasingly used in the industrial sector to increase automation and optimize tools and equipment. IoT allows workers and engineers to monitor machines, check processes, perform maintenance, and make adjustments through a connected device eliminating many of the dangerous tasks associated with maintaining things manually.
As IoT grows in popularity, it increases efficiency in many industries, allowing workers to assign tasks to machines and devices and get work done faster.
The Internet of Things is Revolutionizing Retail
There are so many Internet of Things examples in daily life already, and you don’t even know it. IoT is integrating into the shopping experience! With over 8% of IoT devices can be found in retail, many big retailers are using IoT devices. From automized cleaning devices to tracking store inventory, many products are emerging on the market to eliminate mundane employee tasks and increase security.
Some of the top internet of things devices can help with restocking, packaging, and even smart checkouts are just some of the systems that can be automated because of the Internet of Things.
Store monitoring or increased security by tracking customers in stores is another task retailers might entrust with devices instead of employees. We may not feel good if an employee follows us around through the shopping experience, but if it’s a censored camera – we probably won’t even notice.
IoT Can Take Healthcare To A Whole New Level
Some of the most innovative internet of things examples 2021 are in the field of Healthcare. IoT can help monitor patients without them being in the hospital. Taking a new approach to the standard medical alert bracelet, with IoT involved, the bracelet can alert doctors hours, maybe even days before someone is about to experience a stroke or heart attack.
This type of technology is full of potential benefits, not just for people’s health but also for the cost-efficiency of healthcare systems in general. While there are certainly new avenues to be explored for its utilization, 30% of IoT devices are already used in this industry.
What is IoT: Uses in Business
The Internet of Things is used to improve business models for both the consumer and the company.
By collecting data, monitoring how customers interact with store environments and different products, and tracking purchases, IoT allows businesses to create improved environments designed to the specific desires of a customer base. This benefits both parties, as the customer receives an ideal shopping experience while increasing business sales.
IoT Uses for Engineers
The concept of digital twins is a specialized internet of things example that you probably won’t experience in your day-to-day life. Yet, engineers all over the world use this technology.
Digital twins are a digital duplicate of an object that exists in a physical world. It is essentially a real-time model with the help of IoT.
The twin is connected to the real object to change features and regularly adapt to match the physical device. Testing and updating a digital object is much easier than a physical one, and this solution provides engineers with a way to try new solutions and update their tools without the difficulty of physically altering machines.
Smart Buildings Are the Next Modern Use For IoT
Today, you won’t be able to find many IoT examples of smart buildings. However, with a rapid rise in IoT use for smart construction, you can expect to see much more smart real estate around you. Probably the most valuable features are devices that monitor the heating and ventilation systems in buildings. It gives tenants the ability to monitor their electricity and water usage, potentially saving them a lot of money.
Smart Cities Need IoT
While most items on our list are specific internet of things products, there are more complex possibilities, such as creating smart cities. The Internet of Things is vital for the automation transformation that many cities are currently going through.
According to some predictions, countries could spend hundreds of billions of dollars on smart city initiatives in the next few years. Some of the most popular initiatives involve tracking energy, water, and carbon usage as well as monitoring waste pollution.
Internet of Things Explained: The Future of IoT
Experts are still unable to predict where the possibilities IoT offers end. As technology advances, the Internet of Things provides more and more options for everyday users, businesses, and entire industries. One of the trends to watch out for is the automation of industrial processes, driverless cars, man-less production, and automated customer service, all because of developments in IoT.
There are some concerns about IoT. Perhaps the main trouble with the Internet of Things is its use of Wi-Fi, raising questions about network security. IoT security is a two-fold issue. First, many examples of IoT devices concern the operation of security systems, making hacking the network a primary concern for users.
The second, however, is more ominous: Consumer privacy. While it may be seemingly beneficial for companies to collect endless amounts of information on their customers, many consumers say that they are dissatisfied with how IoT invades their privacy.
Just because you can know something about someone doesn’t mean they consent to you knowing that or that they are okay with you using it to sell them something.
Internet of Things: The Bottom Line
Whether we are pro-automation or not, it’s easy to see that internet of things examples are integrating seamlessly into your lives, from the most intimate parts of our homes to major industries and even smart city developments!
The potential of IoT appears limitless, improving healthcare, customer experience, and stream-lining production. Like so many tech industries, the growth is fast and legislation can have a hard time keeping up. Let’s hope for solutions to privacy and data collection coming soon because IoT and automation are definitely here to stay.