Internet Of Things (IoT) - Top 3 Industries waiting to be Disrupted

In recent years, most of us have learned to live with a constant nag of installing updates on computers, tablets, Smartphones, or rebooting Smart TVs, WiFi routers and very recently even adding security patches to Smart Refrigerators or Driverless Cars to name a few in this ever growing list of digital gadgets surrounding us. I'd bet that 1 out of 5 times, you would have seen a prompt to install an update as soon as you switch on your fancy Smart TV to watch your favorite TV show or be interrupted in the middle of an important presentation, with a prompt to either install the latest updates or reboot your laptop in next 5 mins to complete the upgrade. So far nothing earth shattering that can not be managed and seems like we have a good handle on the limited number of digital devices, that are mostly wirelessly hooked up to internet.

Let's make this situation several times crazier, where every "thing" possible around us, is connected to either an internet or to other connected devices (M2M) wirelessly or via the network of wireless devices equipped with the technology to communicate without any human interference. This phenomenon of network-connected sensors incorporated into devices that in the past were standalone appliances, is termed as “Internet of Things”(IoT).

The Internet of Things consist of smart connected objects in homes, businesses and our surrounding that has the ability to communicate over a multimodal network without human-to-human or human-to-computer involvement

What has led to rapid IoT growth in recent times?

*Source: Raymond James research

The confluence of efficient wireless protocols, improved sensors, cheaper processors, and a bevy of startups and established companies developing the necessary management and application software has finally made the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) mainstream. The number of Internet-connected devices surpassed the number of human beings on the planet in 2011. According to Gartner, there will be nearly 26 billion wireless devices connected to the Internet by 2020. Considering that in 2009 that number was less than 1 billion devices, it seems clear that the Internet is experiencing explosive growth of connected "things." This is now entering a new phase, where embedded digital technology is finding its way not just into smaller and more powerful computing devices such as smartphones and tablets but into, well, everything else.

Kevin Ashton, General Manager at Belkin, long ago coined “The Internet of Things,” every one of over a trillion everyday items will someday include at least some ability to store and process information. And, more important, to share that information over the global Internet with the other trillion items.

The numbers being forecasted for the Internet of Things are truly spectacular. BI Intelligence finds that the number of everyday and enterprise devices that will soon be connected to the Internet — from parking meters to home thermostats — will be huge: 1.9 billion devices today, and 9 billion by 2018, roughly equal to the number of smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, wearable computers, and PCs combined. Of course we’ve long had connected computing devices and, more recently, connected television sets and connected cars. In the last few years, an explosion of wearable sensing and monitoring devices, such as Fitbit, Jawbone Up, and Nike Fuelband, promises to revolutionize health care, fitness, child monitoring and services for the elderly. We’re on our way to the connected self. Manufactured goods will diagnose their own problems and contact the manufacturer for solutions. When products break, we can determine immediately why and how. We’ll be able to predict failure in advance, turning maintenance from a reactive to a proactive function. According to a recent report by economist Michael Mandel of the Progressive Policy Institute, the IoT could stimulate the rebirth of manufacturing in developed countries. Great News!!

Indeed, the IoT has the potential to disrupt and reconstruct the supply chain of every industry, radically improving the efficiency of manufacturing, distribution, retailing, and customer service. So far, IoT technology has been mostly adopted by the manufacturing industry using machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. However, with rapid innovation of IoT technology, more and more industries are taking advantage of this new way of life. Here are 3 such examples of how businesses are becoming "smarter" by adopting IoT. Each presents new market opportunities for entrepreneurs innovating with technology to improve services, connections and communication.

1. Healthcare

With a huge potential to greatly improve the health, safety & care of billions of people across the globe, Healthcare has emerged as one of the most promising industries for IoT. Over the past few years, healthcare providers have increasingly become connected through the use of wi-fi-enabled medical tools and devices, hospitals are able to collect, record and analyze data faster and more accurately. With the recent advances in mobility and wireless technology, the focus has been to not only improve the communication between healthcare providers and patients, but perform real time monitoring of patient health as well.

Health monitoring and wearable devices for patients are becoming extremely popular, as they’re able to transmit a patient’s real-time, vital-sign data from their home to medical staff. Such Wi-Fi powered devices include "things" such as glucometers, scales, heart rate and ultrasound monitors. Furthermore, wearable devices are gaining attention among the elderly and those with chronic illness. With the push of a button, a person is able to alert the medical staff of an emergency situation. Additionally, fitness bands such as the Nike Fuelband or Fitbit measure whole-body movement throughout the day -- transmitting the data wirelessly to the user’s computer, tablet or smartphone. This trend also has the potential to impact the way health insurance companies operate. A health care provider could theoretically use real time data collected from hospitals, wearable devices, home health monitoring devices, and elsewhere to provide better service.

Well established corporations like Philips, Verizon & Qualcomm already have a number of programs offered to healthcare providers and patients using IoT tools. Philips offers TeleStation that transmits vital sign data from the patient at home to the health care provider. It also offers a number of wireless monitoring devices. Verizon offers a solution dubbed Converged Health Management, which remotely monitors patients vitals at their homes, and sends the real time biometric information to health care givers onto PCs, tablets, and smartphones. QUALCOMM has developed a cloud-based platform dubbed the 2net Platform, which enables the wireless transfer, storage, and display of medical device data, and is natively interoperable with a number of existing medical devices and applications, and is HIPAA compliant. It include wireless ultrasound monitoring and remote vital sign monitoring from hospital rooms.

2. Manufacturing

Machinery and manufacturing was one of the first industries to take advantage of IoT technology. Manufacturing industry today deploys billions of wireless devices and sensors that are network linked in factories around the world, feeding back millions of Giga bytes of data every second, that is analyzed in real time to make smart decisions resulting in savings of billions of dollars by eliminating waste & inefficiencies from the manufacturing production lines, supply chains, inventory management, etc. Industrial networks make day-to-day operations "smarter" in many ways. To execute a "smart" manufacturing system, businesses integrate IoT sensor-based technology into their processes and systems.

Connected enterprises see increase in efficiency One of the most quoted real time examples of how IoT could turn into exponential savings is King's Hawaiian. After installing IoT technologies, King’s Hawaiian was able to produce an additional 180,000 pounds of bread every day, doubling its previous output. The company installed 11 connected machines into a new factory that gave the employees the ability to access both historical and real-time data to monitor performance. The system is connected to the Internet, so it can be controlled and managed from a remote operations center. This allows global companies to set up plants in countries around the world and monitor them in real time.

Another company that reaps the benefits of a connected system is General Electric At their Durathon battery factory in Schenectady, N.Y., the IoT helps the company collect data about processes going on 24X7. Through the 10,000 sensors on the assembly line and the sensors in every single battery, managers can instantly find out the status of production. They are able to share that information and data with coworkers in other departments.

Decreasing safety hazards in the workplace The connected enterprise has much more to offer than sped up processes and a better understanding of what’s going on in a factory. It’s also making the workplace safer for employees. Companies are increasingly leveraging existing IoT infrastructure to better monitor the workplace for any hazard, proactively take measures to avoid accidents based on constant data being fed into their analytics system and by providing visual live feeds of high risk work zones.

3. Retail

The convenience of online shopping provides a huge advantage over brick-and-mortar stores. As such, ecommerce giants such as Amazon have been growing at a phenomenal rate. However, with advancements in IoT technology, in-store retailers now have an opportunity to level the playing field by providing customers a more personalized shopping experience, created using a variety of IoT tools. For instance, in-store retailers now have the ability to track inventory, consumers in real time, collect a consumer’s location, demographic info and shopping history for an enhanced shopping experience. With real-time data, sales associates can make personalized recommendations and/or offers on the fly to increase the chances of making a sale.

Retailers are increasingly adopting usage of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags to identify individual items in a store. With RFID tags, retail stores are able to efficiently track inventory and continuously update merchandise information. According to Bill Hardgrave of Auburn University, tagging products so they can be tracked and counted has huge benefits for retailers. Using RFID tags, retailers can expect 99% inventory accuracy, a 50% reduction in out-of-stocks, a 70% reduction in shrinkage, and sales lifts in the 2% to 7% range.

There is an exponential amount of innovation being created as IoT is taking Retail industry by storm. What we are seeing is just a tip of an iceberg and there are endless opportunities for Retail companies & consumers alike to benefit from IoT. Here are a few examples of how IoT technology is already making an impact -

Home replenishment Imagine your smart refrigerator automatically placing order to replenish food from your favorite online or around the street store for home delivery or you pressing a button on the wall of the laundry room whenever you run out of detergent so that a new bottle is automatically ordered. These generic buttons could be configured for different products and placed around the home in strategic spots. Connecting home automation to e-commerce sites could be the next wave of retailing.

Wireless sensing and tracking In-store sensors such as Bluetooth beacons can track smartphones throughout the store and record path-to-purchase data that can later be used to optimize store layouts. They can also be used to target shoppers as they traverse the aisles, providing contextual information and offers as they go. And of course this extends to checkout, where shoppers can use their NFC-equipped contactless cards to pay for goods.

Opportunities & Challenges

The opportunities IoT offers are tremendous and quite exciting. Given the rate of new innovative product launches, investment being made and the future potential where everything is connected seamlessly by use of inexpensive sensors, and cloud-based data storage capabilities, technology is no longer the inhibiting factor when it comes to disrupting the current industries.

This rapid advancement comes with its own risks and challenges that will need to be addressed very quickly, by companies that wish to take advantage of IoT. The most significant challenges to be overcome would be Privacy, Data Security, technical challenges like creating standards & protocols, ensuring low power consumption, Infrastructure challenges like creating large amounts of cloud based distributed computing with high performance & multifold network bandwidth that would be required to sustain the growth.

The implications of IoT is far-reaching with disruption to many established industries and there are many hurdles to overcome but it’s an interesting space full of promise.

References: www.forbes.com, www.zdnet.com