While a lot of people believe that modern technologies are primarily used to help enterprises increase their performance and get higher profits, it is not fully true. Though tech innovations are widely applied in the business world, they also have a lot of use cases in our daily lives. Moreover, we are so accustomed to their presence that sometimes we do not even notice how strongly we rely on them and can’t even imagine that some years (or decades) ago, we lived without them.
For example, today it is absolutely common to order pizza via a mobile app but when your parents were students, they did it in a completely different way. In this article, we’d like to focus on the Internet of Things and explain how IoT-powered solutions facilitate and enable a lot of routine processes for us.
The range of apps that can be enriched with this technology today is very wide. The global IoT industry is continuously growing and in 2023, it is expected that its revenue will achieve the mark of $1,177 billion. This figure can be viewed as an indicator of a huge interest in such products from the side of users and businesses.
Of course, it is necessary to make sure that your project fully corresponds to the ongoing market needs and expectations. When you are planning to build your own solution powered by the Internet of Things, you should have professional IoT consultants by your side. Experts will help you evaluate your idea and find out whether it has an excellent chance of attracting the attention of potential users. Based on the result of the conducted analysis, you will be able to understand if it is really worth investing in your project.
Here are a couple of examples that show how the Internet of Things is able to impact various aspects of our daily lives.
1. Optimized energy consumption
High energy consumption is a pain for many families but the key problem is that very often impressive amounts appear in bills due to improper use and waste of resources. Sometimes people simply forget to switch off a lamp when they leave home or go to bed. The same principle is relevant when we are talking about heating devices and thermostats. Often they remain turned on even in those cases when they are not needed.
However, smart IoT systems are able to detect when you are at home and when you are not to turn off your appliances if you are not using them. Moreover, smart solutions can analyze and learn your habits to switch on and regulate thermostats and lighting in accordance with your lifestyle.
2. Wearables
The popularity of wearable devices is growing in various domains, for example, fitness and sports, healthcare, pet care, and others. What can they offer to their users? First of all, they can help to monitor different vitals like heart rate. Secondly, they are widely applied to estimate your physical activity. Thirdly, when enriched with GPS modules, they can play a key role in tracking the real-time location of objects, pets, and people. Smartwatches remain the most popular type of wearable device.
They are convenient to use and already today there are a lot of apps with different functionality developed for them. While some applications on smartwatches can work only when they are connected to smartphones, some others can fully replace traditional mobile apps.
3. Organization of traffic and driving
IoT is also applied in smart city projects and can fully change the way traffic is organized. Moreover, this technology can increase the safety of driving and make it less stressful. Thanks to the Internet of Things, it is possible to make sure that traffic lights are adjusted in accordance with real-time road conditions.
This functionality will be helpful not only during rush hours but also in cases when emergency vehicles like an ambulance are approaching. Sensors can track weather conditions and set real-time speed limits to minimize the risks of accidents.
The Internet of Things is a core technology in building smart parking systems that can help drivers find available slots, pay for public parking usage, and book a slot in advance.
In our article, we also can’t skip such an example of using IoT as autonomous cards. Today there are still a lot of discussions and concerns related to the safety of these vehicles and their benefits in comparison to traditional cars. Nevertheless, a lot of companies all over the world are working on the development of more and more advanced and reliable solutions that can change the transportation industry forever.
Of course, this list includes not all possible use cases of the Internet of Things. In reality, it can be significantly longer. However, you can use these examples as inspiration to design your own unique IoT-powered product that will precisely address the needs of its target audience.
