IoT Innovation Examples 

One of the biggest examples that IoT is changing the world today is smart cities. Like what I said before, it is innovation that is taking place on a municipal scale and not something you will most likely hear from Silicon Valley. I will be talking more about smart cities in later chapters. I have spoken with people who worked on smart-cities projects and listened and spoken with high-ranking officials related to infrastructure and technology projects from think tanks in Washington, DC, and big companies (Fortune 500 types) that are leading technology in the field of infrastructure and smart cities. 

One of the examples that I will briefly mention to entice your interest is about how these devices can impact energy conservation and cost savings in rural areas. I will be delving more deeply into this matter, but it is true that urbanization can come at a much cheaper cost than conventional methods of building infrastructure because the devices will enable projects to be viewed holistically by figuring out consumer demands more proficiently and in real time.

And this example has to do with farming. I did not really think about writing about farming when I was thinking of the Internet of Things. But there’s so much water that’s being wasted right now in farming. And if you can incorporate these drones and sets of devices that make up what IoT is, these sensors of Internet of Things get connected with networks benefiting all parts of life, starting with farmers and agriculture companies to cities and governments that lead to consumers and the general public to actively monitor water usage levels to conserve and save our precious resources.

There are places in this world that have drought issues during the summer, and some are very dependent on agriculture. And agriculture uses large amounts of water out of all the other sources of human activities. So, if there’s going to be a foreseeable drought, we could use these technologies to make sure the water is used efficiently so that the cities will have enough water and supplies and energy and resources during unexpected droughts. Since agriculture takes a lot of water, with improvements in how farms use water by monitoring the water amounts flowing into our farms and controlling the usage more carefully, countries can use water in the best way for cities to get better access to new water supplies.

Speaking of cities, yes, this IoT technology can be incorporated in every dynamic of our infrastructure. Through incorporating multiple sensors into infrastructure projects, cities can go smart, meaning that cities will now be able to sense the inefficiencies of their surroundings and will make sure that they make changes to run in ways that can save costs and increase productivity. Public transportation, for example, when cities work on projects like making train subways and buses, routes are set separately, and project financing is done per contract for these public goods. However, with smart cities, these sensors all across the cities will have a better understanding of the city’s current level of transportation volume and the lack of usage of existing routes and will incorporate such findings into the new blueprints of the entire transportation plans and have an artificial intelligence to structure the routes that will not be redundant with the existing infrastructure and create a cost-effective way of transporting the public. 

This can make sure that the city can get the most efficient public transportation method by using these sensors and data to see where traffic is seeing congestion and see if any parts of the city need better water supplies during summertime. I have had discussions with people that are related in this field in Washington, DC, and the people that are involved in smart cities have said that the most and what can kind of routes will be experiencing the heaviest traffic and make sure that they could be public transportation caters to these contexts, conditions, and also the available capacity of transportation means. 

I have worked in a company that makes electronic components. I have heard time and time again that automated manufacturing will be incorporated all around the world. And it will bring an industrial revolution that will impact all aspects of the manufacturing world, causing an increase in efficiency and save costs and make sure that innovation happens faster.