The patrols control systems technology goes towards the Internet of Things
Lately people are talking more and more often about the Internet of Things (IoT). With this term it’s defined the interconnection between the objects of our daily life. So, not only the Pc connected to Internet but also every single object that surround us. This is possible ought to the new interconnection technologies as WiFi, RFID, 3G or Bluetooth. Instead of that, the data exchange among objects is done trough sensors or smart phones as Android, iPhone or BlackBerry.
The Internet of Things is kind of ecosystem where in the middle is placed the person who interacts with the objects that surround or regard him/her. With the rapidly growth of the technology, communication and sharing have become key words, it means to be allow to quickly access to any information we are interested in or publish anything that regards us regardless of the time and place.
Analyzing a specific sector as the security/safety one, we can see how the professionals of security and surveillance can offer, with the IoT, more and more evolved solutions, optimize the organizational process and rationalize the costs.
For example, a worker of the security sector can use a smart phone as a multiuse tool to:
- Let the operative central know which is his real position (through the GPS or through the triangulation of the GSM)
- Activate the man down alarm using the smart phone’s sensors that detect the movement
- Report anomalies or alarms by sending in real time images or video recorded by the webcam
- Manage the paths with the digital maps help (as Google Maps)
- Inform which area has been already controlled reading the RIFD tags (with the NFC reader integrated) or the barcode labels (trough the webcam)
- Manage the group work by monitoring each worker’s physical position and sharing the activities calendar.
The smart phones allow the data exchange in real time and are able to track any information regarding the professional activity. The analysis of these data can help to improve the services reducing the times and the mistakes while guarantying the workers safety.
But could the Internet of Things –or the smart phones- contribute to effectively improve the quality of the security workers activities? These are valid tools that could be useful, although none of us has a magic wand, the indicators predict a high potential.
The mobile devices technology has rapidly evolved in the last years, in 2010 the sale of smart phones in a global level experimented a growth of the 72,1%, this data impelled us to think that the business applications will become more and more orientated to the mobile sector, probably causing the disappearance of the dedicated mobile devices and the prominence of the smart phones, always more equipped and adapted to critical applications. In fact, there are already waterproof smart phones or smart phones with IP65 grades protection on the market, suitable for professionals.
The smart phone is distinguished from a classic dedicated mobile mainly for its versatility: can be used for several business applications (as for example patrols control, presence detection or activities management), the software developers without big difficulties can interface it to the existent systems or it can be simply used as a phone.
Several manufacturers – always with an eye on their customers’ needs and on the market trends – are redesigning the security management systems, the first applications orientated to the Internet of Things are available. We will probably be witness of a smooth transition to these new systems, one fact is certain: the competitions between the innovators can’t be stopped.
As the IoT matures into the connected Society
Bucarest - Last 16th May took place High-level Internet of Things conference. The speech of Mr. Neelie Kroes – the Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda – was very interesting , I quote the two most important passages:
“We must never, ever forget that the Internet
of Things is there to improve people’s freedom, choice and
control over their lives”
“We cannot have a policy or create the impression that the Internet
of Things would create a an Orwellian world. Our goal, and our
commitment, should be to create a vision that focuses on providing
real value for people.”
I invite you to read the complete text @:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/document.cfm?action=display&doc_id=827
IoT for dummies: the objects of our daily life will speak to each other thanks to the growing technology
Internet of things also known as IoT, refers to a interconnection of everyday objects in a network. In the last 10 years we have been witness of the awesome Internet’s growth that every day offers us new great advantages, so why not to apply Internet to all the things around us?
Since always, we are surrounded by data that come from our planet, from the natural systems, from the human systems and from the natural objects. A huge amount of information that we weren’t able to percept, touch or catch, but that nowadays, thanks to the digitalization we are; the data are interconnected and we can access to them. In this way, a kind of nervous system where the information travels, is been developed.
With the Internet’s evolution, we have connected many devices as the humidity or temperature sensors, video cameras, traffic control’s sensors, access systems – and that is why paradoxically there are more objects in Internet than users. We can access to a sea of data that thanks to our intelligence we are able to transform it in information, that then we transform in knowledge to arrive to wisdom and make the data useful.
Our life is currently surrounded of automatic systems that help us in our daily tasks. Let’s see for example how could be a typical day using the technology: in the morning the alarm clock sounds, the rolling shutters go up, five minutes before we wake up the coffee maker begins to warm the water, the fridge informs us that the milk we are taking isn’t expire yet, we get into a car to go to the client but before arrive we should take a ferry for which we have already bought the ticket in Internet, then the GPS navigator guides us to the client and lets us know how the traffic is, once we arrive to the client we are able to offer him all the information he asked for ought to our notebook, half an hour before we arrive home, the warmer begins to work so we could take a hot bath. This automatic systems are incredible useful but they are closed, they do not interact between them.
If instead, we try to think how it could be to connect all the devices, we notice that an intelligent system that saves time, eliminates the human mistakes and optimizes the energy could be created. With a centralized system, for example it would be enough to confirm our agenda to program all the devices that surrounded us at home, work and into our car.
The next step is to connect into the intelligent system all the objects of our life, especially those non-electronic as can be the milk or biscuit confirmation, the folder, a plant, the shoes and the clothes. This is possible with an automatic radiofrequency identification – like RFID, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth – and sensors to measure for example temperature, lightening or humidity. Radio Frequency Identification System and sensors could be used as a tool to apply the Internet of things. For example providing the objects with a RFID tag can let us know if the milk is expire when we take it from the fridge, if we are allergic to the biscuits we are going to eat, if we should water the plant, find the folder we loosed anywhere, make to the washing machine choose the best program depending of the quantity and dirtiness.
Internet of things means to connect all in a global network, so when we speak of IoT we refer to the interactions Machine to Machine (M2M), Machine to Enviroment (M2E) and Machine to Humans (M2H).
In the digital age the Internet of things will offer great advantages that we could enjoy, these advantages could be compared with the experimented in the industrial age when machines replaced people in the tired and repetitive works.
In the last years we have learnt that technology can replace us in all the tasks we do not want to do o we cannot do. Furthermore, we also have learnt that in this sea of data our privacy is also tutelary. In fact, with the Internet we known, once we get into – i.e. opening a blog or sharing pictures – that what you share will be always accessible in the net, we could not turn it off. As a result, we should think before begging to use this tool – Internet of things – about how are we going to protect our right of being disconnected and the freedom to choose what we want to share.
Hello world!
Welcome to my new blog dedicated to the Internet of things.
Internet of things (IoT) is an ecosystem that will connect the everyday objects in a new global network, it’s a new way to interact between humans, machines and the environment.
Thanks to the fast growth of the technology, Internet we know is changing to a real global network that will connect things that are involved with us. The main target of IoT is to improve the quality of our life and the director of this ecosystem are you.
This new philosophy has an enormous potential, this is because it’s important to make a good control of it, defining clear guidelines to protect our privacy and prevent frauds. Also it’s fundamental to supply tools to all that allow us to connect or disconnect ‘our things’ in the global net and prevent that remain accessible forever.
This blog would be an observatory of the Internet of Things, a neutral discussion centre where we can understand how it changes and how it involves our life.
Internet is also a public square, so I really hope that many people – the community – will help me in this new blog challenge writing their comments and posts.
Marko
