Internet of things this term has become quite popular in the last few years. This technology is revolutionizing the IT sector massively. But there are still a lot of people who do know what it is and its uses. The idea for the internet of things was born between the years 2008 and 2009. The reason for this was that more objects were connected to the internet than people. It started gaining popularity in 2010. So what does the internet of things mean? Where is it used?
What are the benefits of using it?
The Internet of things is nothing but connecting different things through the internet. According to this strategy, anything can be connected to the internet. The things or objects can be both man-made or living things. For example, embedding the internet of things in automobiles to make the vehicle more safe and intelligent. It connects living things with the internet through implants. A biochip is implanted in cattle to monitor their heart rates, temperature, digestion, blood pressure, etc. This enables the farmers to know the health condition of cattle automatically. It helps the farmers in preventing losses due to animal ailments.
Follow the below steps to create your own project using the internet of things.
1.Understand the basics
The key to creating your own projects lies in the knowledge of your basics. Not only should you know the basics you should also know the right questions to ask. Know what are the sectors that use IoT in their work. The range is wide as it covers many industries from automobiles to health care. Observing these sectors and how they use iot development , see if you can use it to develop your project. See if there are any similar projects that have already been done. Look at their success or failure to understand the reality of execution. See if you can incorporate any of the methods that can improve your project.
Ask yourself the following questions:
What is the aim of the project?
Can you use IoT to solve the problem?
How do you plan to transfer the data?
How do you plan to provide security to the data?
Who can access the data?
What are the properties or features that the project must have?
What is the cost and whether it falls under your budget?
What are the factors that may lead to the failure of your project?
2.Know your use case
Identifying the use case that suits your project is very important. Because the use case is what determines the series of actions that your project will perform. The use cases differ depending on the industry you are working in. The use cases represent the dynamic behavior of the product. Use cases are used to collect the design requirements of the project. The requirements are established based on the internal and external functions needed to be performed. Here are some of the common use cases that are in IoT.
Fleet management
Fleet management is used by companies that rely on transportation to run their businesses. It aids in improving efficiency and productivity while minimizing investment risk. This results in a decrease in the costs of staff and transportation. This is used by a city’s waste department to collect the garbage effectively by trash collectors. Even the shipping services use this to take routes with less traffic to deliver packages more efficiently.
Asset tracking
Most of the companies around the world are aware of asset efficient exercises. But only a few of them execute them in a systematic order. Companies like Infosys, Intel and IBM have launched testing grounds to collect and analyze the asset information in real-time. This helps them in making the right decisions. The aim of this use case is to monitor key assets like products, raw materials, and containers. After monitoring it maintains quality, detects theft and optimizes logistics.
3. Choose the right IoT platform
After finding the correct use case the next important thing is to choose a good IoT platform. It is very essential as the tools you choose, determine the ease of your project completion. So even prior to starting the project, investigate what are the best IoT platforms. Choose a platform that is capable of growing and adapting to your business needs in the future.
Consider these factors before choosing an IoT platform.
Hardware:
See if the vendor offers any developer kits for your use case. Take any IoT product, its efficiency always depends on the hardware. So make sure you choose the right pack. Because it is always good when you don’t have to start from scratch. It reduces the time and effort required.
Method of connectivity:
What kind of connectivity does your IoT require? Do you plan to use wifi or ethernet? See how the vendors can deal with this.
Service type:
Decide what type of service you are going to provide. Are you going to provide end-to-end solutions or just provide connectivity?
4. Choose the right hardware
Modules and boards are the most important part of any IoT project. Because they are the base of the project. As IoT evolved the hardware became more and more complex. So always be ready to work on complicated kits as the work progresses. Developing kits are designed to be expandable and easy to use. The scale of these kits can be changed depending on the product. These kits are just a simplified version of mass production modules.
5. Build a strong team
IoT deals with a variety of technologies. So to work on your project you need to have a team of experts in different areas. You need people you handle both hardware and software. There are not many IoT experts so fill in the gaps with people with required skill sets.
6.Create a prototype
Testing is the final and most important stage of any project. Because it shows all the wrongs and rights that are in the project. So making a prototype and testing it will let you know if you have succeeded in your attempt. It will also help you find out where you can improve your product. A prototype should have all the features of the final product. It need not have the final look but it should have the core features it promised to deliver.
Not only the hardware but software of the product also has to be checked. The software should only contain the necessary traits. Design a mobile application for your product that is easy to access and use. Make sure that the application is user-friendly and easy to navigate. The customer should have a great user experience while going through the app and your product.
Conclusion
The internet of things connects both real and virtual entities with the internet. Basically here the aim is to connect almost everything with the internet. In this technology, every object has the ability to communicate with other objects without human interference. Physical devices are always connected to the internet contributing to great communication. These devices are digitally controlled through wireless infrastructure. Monitoring is another great advantage of using the internet of things. The internet of things provides you the information about the objects in real-time. This also saves a lot of time as you don’t have to fetch information every now and then.