The Internet of Things is well established in our lives now, and its potential only gains traction. We use such devices both at home and at work, and even our cities are getting IoT hardware development products! We already explained the IoT concept in detail with examples, and now we’re moving to the next subject – IoT hardware development in 2021 – to keep you up to date on the new technologies!
Let’s discover what IoT hardware development trends are:
1. Wearables in Healthcare. It’s reasonable to put these in the first paragraph because, well – pandemic! People care about their health constantly, but especially during these times. And it provided great opportunities for sensing IoT devices in Healthcare! Such wearables allow medics to facilitate their workflow while patients perform some simple tests by themselves – isn’t it great? The main requirement for healthcare IoT hardware development is excellent quality and precise measurements. Also, there is an option for doctors to monitor their patients’ health through connected devices, so people can be safe in case their test results are abnormal. Healthcare wearables are presented in many different forms, such as Smart Watch, Smart Rings, and the recent discovery – biosensors. These are small patches you put on your body to track the necessary information like blood oxygen and glucose level, temperature, and blood pressure. Sensors and actuators situated right on the skin provide the most accurate information, which is an incredible achievement for Healthcare.
2. Smart cities solutions. The smart cities concept is one of the most exciting IoT hardware development trends. Imagine, in 10 years living in a high-technologic city filled with IoT solutions will be just a perfectly normal thing for us! IoT completely changes the urban area, making it safer and comfortable for citizens. Let’s look at some solutions:
- Smart Waste. We all know about the big worldwide recycling problem. Some people are confused – what does it mean to recycle efficiently; isn’t it enough to separate plastic from the rest of the trash? It’s not gonna be a problem with Smart bins that tell people where you need to throw out a specific type of plastic or how you can correctly compost. Another problem – too much garbage in the trash cans. The best example is New York: there is way too much trash and way less disposal. The solution is – filling sensors, the IoT hardware development. Sensors transfer information to waste management companies, and they can plan their routes more efficiently, according to the locations of full bins.
- Smart Transportation. Another IoT hardware development is Smart Transportation solutions. And even now, transportation technologies have ample room for development. For example, the system can choose a better parking place for your car. Or, if we’re talking globally, IoT improves road safety and helps deal with traffic! Don’t have a car? Not a problem – public transportation also benefits from IoT hardware development. Turnstiles sensors collect the data that enables predicting the hourly passenger traffic to improve the schedule. Trains in the metro transmit information to a server, which makes it possible to adjust train schedules in real-time, decrease waiting periods, and inform passengers about alternative routes.
3. Smart retail. Recently, we’ve been experiencing a great need to avoid unnecessary social contacts. But IoT development companies got the idea way before that and opened the first employee-free supermarket in 2016 in Sweden. It’s simple as that – you can just move around the shop, choose whatever you need and then pay for it – no communications!
4. Artificial Intelligence and IoT. AI by itself is a powerful thing that’s definitely gonna change the business processes. But in conjunction with the IoT hardware development, their opportunities only grow. This technology provides better data analysis. And therefore, improves quality control, reduces the possibility of errors in manufactures, and contributes to less money and resources waste. One more benefit from its endless list: the “AI + IoT” concept is flexible, so it can be optimized and changed to fit your companies’ needs.
5. Edge Computing. And the last on our list goes the fast-developing IoT hardware development – Edge Computing. Often it’s being explained like some kind of rocket science, so let’s make it simple. The data transfer process used to be massive. But with the IoT explosion, companies needed a faster way to transform literal data rivers from IoT devices to data centers or clouds. And here comes Edge Computing.
Let’s refer to an example. Imagine you have sensors in your garden to control the humidity level, and they constantly collect the data. Before Edge Computing, they used to deliver this raw information right to the data center/cloud. Now sensors transmit the data to nearly located edge devices, where they run a preliminary analysis. Only after that, your sensor information goes to the data center.
This computing work allows devices to respond to the analysis faster. In the case of sensors, only greenery’s fate depends on rapid analysis. But if we talk about manufacturers’ sensors that trigger immediate shutoffs, edge computing can save not only tons of money but even lives.
Conclusion:
Over the last year, the pandemic and 5G growth provided an opportunity for the Internet of Things to grow exponentially. Many companies started to incorporate IoT hardware development in 2021, which is a big win-win for businesses and customers. Because, as we can see from the article, the IoT products are not some luxury excesses but valuable devices that make our life much more comfortable and safer.
