Last week’s blog ended with some of the IOT trends that Somshubhro Pal Choudhury, who was a guest speaker at CDNLive India 2017, spoke about during his talk. This blog post will look at some of the vertical markets where, according to Som, there is great scope for IoT. And as you can see, the markets are wide-ranging. It almost seems as if there isn't a market where IoT can't be applied. Whether MNCs or startups, there are literally hundreds of companies that are providing solutions and products across the IoT stack - sensors, semiconductor IP, security, analytics platforms, IOT platforms, etc - in markets as diverse as consumer, smart homes, retail, hospitality, automobile, transport, smart cities, agriculture, factories and more. Here are just a few: Smart factories, or Industry 4.0 as it is being called, will be driven by insights from analytics applied to data from a host of sources. He gave the example of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), which many factories have to operate assembly lines, robotic operations and the like, which currently operate independently. Imagine the process efficiency and dollars saved if the data from all the PLCs could be seen and analyzed on a central dashboard. That would be an application of IoT. Other applications would be in warehouse automation, pollution, quality inspection, supply chain management from the supplier side, and RFID tagging. Closely linked to smart factories and automation, robotics is a fascinating field with applications as diverse as surgery (which we are already seeing) to logistics and warehousing to even service industries (how would you like being greeted at a hotel reception by a robot!). Like with robots, the uses for drones are many - delivery services, agricultural monitoring, physical security and surveillance, to name a few. But the interesting thing about drones, Som said, is that the focus has shifted from the hardware to the drone OS, i.e., what happens in a multi-drone deployment scenario. Wireless charging, video image analytics, collision avoidance of drones, anti-drone software are just some of the technology challenges today. It comes as no surprise that IoT in healthcare will have far-reaching benefits. Prosthetics, geriatric care, infant monitoring, neuro simulation, medication reminders and stress monitoring, medical AI imaging – the applications of IoT are many. the changes it will bring about in the area of pharmaceuticals, in drug research and development will be transformative. What Som calls “fitness ecosystem engagement” – i.e., sports- and training-related applications. This is way beyond the now-ubiquitous wearable fitness trackers. He gave the example of a company that is working on developing a smart cricket bat that can tell you how you are hitting the ball, at what speed, what is the follow-through, etc. In terms of smart homes , Som felt that the Alexa Voice Service and Google Assistant kind of applications which are gesture- and voice-based are going to be game changers. They are much easier to use compared to smartphone-based apps. AI and automotive have been spoken about a lot, in fact I have mentioned it in one of my blogs as well . Som talked about V2X technology, which encompasses vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. V2X is a wireless communication technology that aims to increase road safety and help with a host of traffic problems. Som said that an Indian company called Savari Networks is a leader in V2X technology – probably food for another blog altogether. Another application in the automotive space - globally and in India, the inefficiencies of logistics, booking a truck, booking a logistics band, maintaining temperature in a cold storage vehicle – all of which are pretty basic applications – are the focus of IoT. Agriculture is one of the major sectors where IoT will drive a very welcome qualitative change for largely agrarian countries like India. Unlike in the West where farming can be a lucrative business (and one that relies heavily on technology), in India it is characterized by small and sometimes fragmented holdings, heavy dependency on weather conditions, lack of access to technology, etc. If even a few key variables are automated - monitoring temperature and humidity, for example – imagine the savings in time, money and effort for farmers. But, because farmers in India are cash-strapped, Som also spoke about the innovative concept of the “Uberization” of farming technology to make IoT accessible to a large number of farmers. Som said that what we are seeing is a common theme in terms of the technologies. AI, vision and speech recognition, haptic and force feedback, augmented reality, virtual reality, open source and modularized platforms are just some of the technologies that all IoT devices use. Now if someone could come up with an IoT system that could sort out Bangalore’s (or Delhi’s or Mumbai’s) traffic tangle, that would be progress indeed! I am fervently waiting for the day that it becomes a reality.![]()
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