Understanding Things in Internet of Things

The Internet of Things(IoT) is the most buzzword in today's technology, which will completely depend on the internet. The Internet of Things will be helpful to create or provide communication among physical objects, these objects include either sensors or software which will provide a link and transfer the data between devices utilizing the Internet. We can simply say that with the support of the internet and IOT human can communicate with the machine and communication might occur between machine to machine.

The word “Things ” in the Internet Of Things can be physical objects or machines which are connected internet as a medium.

Let's show you some examples

• Example 1 − A "Thing" may be a person embedded with a heart monitor system.

• Example 2 − A "Thing" may be a man-made device like a car, which embed in a sensor to wake the driver when there is any malfunction happening within the car.

In the same way, any object which is having IP address(Internet Protocol) and can transfer data over the network can be a "Thing". Depending upon the usage objects have been categorized.

Types of Objects

Objects can be categorized in the following ways −

• Smart Objects

• Non-Smart objects

1. Smart object

Smart Objects are also called intelligent objects or objects embedded with intelligence. From the word intelligent object, we can understand that the object can communicate, responds, and recognize the other objects in the network.

The main aim of IOT is to reduce human involvement and human interaction can be occupied with smart objects to satisfy the requirements. So, this is the reason we can call smart objects the essential elements of the Internet of Things. In today's modern infrastructure, both IOT and smart objects will act like two wheels, which will speed up the performance of modern technology.

We can define smart objects are digital or physical objects which can have the capability of recognizing, storing, sensing, transforming, and computing power and also having network capabilities.

Some smart objects are −

• Microcontroller

• Robots

• Smartphones, etc...

Above mentioned smart objects are having situating and communication technologies that are combined in the communication network.

Smart Objects

The above diagram represents some smart objects, all devices having the power of intelligence. So, they can identify, sense, store, and process capabilities. All these devices are connected through the internet as a medium.

Characteristics of Smart Objects

We can call physical objects smart objects because of some characteristics, let us discuss them below.

• Physical shape − Any physical objects have some features like size and shape. So, the objects which are having these features can be easily accommodated somewhere in the infrastructure as per the requirement.

• Unique Identifier − A unique identifier will be used to identify uniquely the object with the other object. such objects are deployed in the infrastructure for easy identity.

• Communication Capabilities − The object used in the infrastructure can have communication capabilities to send and receive messages over the internet.

• Unique name and address − Every object should have a unique identity like name and address. The address refers to the IP address which will be used for communication. Every time in the entire infrastructure the address should be unique.

• Processing powers − Smart objects should have to take decisions instantly, so they should have the capability of fast computational and processing capabilities.

• Sensing capabilities − Smart objects should have the sensing capability to understand what is happening around them. Based on the sensing input only further actions depend.

The above diagram is the representation of different characteristics of smart objects.

Examples

In human day-to-day life unknowingly use the smart objects which are surrounded them. some of the examples are mentioned below −

• Smart Fridge

• Smart TV

• Voice Assistant devices

• Smart Watch

All smart objects act as small-size computers which are embedded with sensors, communication devices, and many more required objects.

Application of Smart Objects

Smart objects have a wide range of applications such as −

• Home Automation

• building Automation

• Factory Monitoring

• Smart cities

• Health Management system etc...

Advantages of Smart Objects(Things) in IOT

• Energy saving purpose

• Automation

• Can operate independently and collaborate with other objects.

2. Non-Smart object

Non-smart objects are the opposite of smart objects. i.e, which don't have intelligence characteristics and processing capability. We can say that sensors and actuators are the Nonsmart objects. These are essentials in the Internet of things to make things automated without human interaction.

Sensors

Sensors are electronic physical devices that will be used to sense the physical things around them and also sense or measure the scientific quantity such as temperature, humidity, weather, atmosphere, etc...

Sensors are used in many applications for detecting things as well as to know the weather updates based on future assumptions has been happening.

Actuators

Actuators are also electronic devices. It performs tasks according to the data gathered from different sensors over the internet.

In actuators two main parts are there −

• Mechanic Actuator − Mechanic actuators will do tasks on themselves and they can also do for other objects.

• Actions − Actions are the tasks performed based on events like sending the email etc...

The Internet Of Things helps people to live smarter and work smarter, to prove this, the “Things ” in IOT will play a vital role. Both smart and nonsmart objects will continuously improve the performance of IOT implementation in every field. Together make complex application also reduces human interaction and improves the automation process. This improvement is really important when human availability is not there and also improves humans life style.