Internet of Things (IoT) - Part 3 (Devices & Technologies)

Introduction

Before reading this article, I highly recommend reading the following previous parts of the series:

• Internet of Things (IoT) - Part 1 (Introduction)
• Internet of Things (IoT) - Part 2 (Building Blocks and Architecture)

DEVICES THAT MAKE IoT When it comes to devices of the IoT, most of us wonder, are smartphones and tablets IoT devices? Well:

Therefore they fit every requirement of IoT devices! So, can we call smartphones or tablets IoT devices? This doubt was clarified at a keynote event during Sept 2011’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona by Qualcomm Chairman and CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs. Paul Jacobs talked about how mobile technology could be used to connect non-phone and non-tablet devices called IoT devices and objects to the internet. In the future where everything will be connected on the web and mobile phones will serve as the hub, or the remote control, for the Internet of Things. So IoT is internet connectivity of smart objects and embedded systems other than mobile phones that can be connected to external hardware. Mobiles, Tablets, Laptops, and PCs are a remote control/access center of IoT. Let’s have a look. Today, smartphones or tablets are equipped with sensors of data from anything from location to the device orientation to light conditions. Altogether, these sensors produce a huge amount of data, both in an unstructured form (picture or videos) as well as structured, such as GPS or acceleration data. With the rise of the wearables, smartphones increasingly have an additional role. This new role can be considered as the "brain" of your Body Area Network (BAN), given the storage and communication capabilities of the smart phone. Last but not least with technologies such as Near Field Communications (NFC)?, smart phones can function not only as sensors but also as actuators. That is, trigger actions (such as payments) or control other things, including home, parking slots, cars and many more. Smart Devices With IoT, we also get to hear a lot about Smart Devices. What are these Smart Devices? Let's look into the definition. “A Smart Object is an object that can describe its own possible interactions.” OR According to Wikipedia, "A smart device is an electronic device, generally connected to other devices or networks via various wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, NFC, WiFi, 3G and so on that can operate to some extent interactively and autonomously.". Any device that not only has a state but also has certain data associated with that state and can also determine the nature of connectivity, duration of connectivity and connectivity protocol are called smart objects. Some of the smart devices are smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smart bands, and smart key chains. The term smart device can also refer to a ubiquitous computing device, a device that exhibits some properties of ubiquitous computing. Characteristics of smart devices