How can IoT applications work together? Perhaps a weather sensor working with a traffic sensor could control the speed limit signs for safer roads.

Ten ways the Internet of Things is transforming our lives

This article offers examples of how the IoT is likely to impact business and society in the coming years. Let us imagine the IoT in “silos” where sensor data make processes within a specific industry vertical more efficient and effective. The ten examples given are:

1. Smart cars


2. Smart clothing


3. Smart sports equipment


4. Smart lighting


5. Smart cities


6. Smart farming


7. Smart planes


8. Smart living spaces for the elderly


9. Smart security for the home


10. Smart traffic systems

The Internet of Things is far bigger than anyone realises

Let us highlight the value of sensors and data analysis in the Internet of Things, and ask whether we are ready to leverage the opportunities that the IoT offers and start to connect all the data that is coming from different applications. Here is a key passage:

yle="text-align: justify;">yle="font-size: 10.0pt;">What can you achieve when a smart car and a smart city grid start talking to each other? We’re going to have traffic flow optimization, because instead of just having stoplights on fixed timers, we’ll have smart stoplights that can respond to changes in traffic flow. Traffic and street conditions will be communicated to drivers, rerouting them around areas that are congested, snowed-in, or tied up in construction.

yle="text-align: justify;">yle="font-size: 10.0pt;">So now we have sensors monitoring and tracking all sorts of data; we have cloud-based apps translating that data into useful intelligence and transmitting it to machines on the ground, enabling mobile, real-time responses. And thus bridges become smart bridges, and cars smart cars. And soon, we have smart cities…

yle="text-align: justify;">Vital links

yle="text-align: justify;">yle="font-size: 10.0pt;">Daniel Burrus. The Internet of Things is far bigger than anyone realises http://www.wired.com/2014/11/the-internet-of-things-bigger/ (accessed 12 january 2018)

yle="text-align: justify;">yle="font-size: 10.0pt;">Chris Boorman. Ten ways the Internet of Things is transforming our lives. http://blog.automic.com/ten-ways-the-internet-of-things-is-transforming-our-lives (accessed 12 january 2018).

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6488907 yle="font-size: 10.0pt;"> (accessed 12 january 2018).