5 Internet of Things (IoT) Devices and Their Applications

This is the IInd article of the two-part series covering the Internet of Things. Here we are going to take a look at some of the top Internet of things devices along with their applications. Previously, we contented ourselves with a discussion regarding the basics of IoT.

The important points raised were:

→ The meaning and definition of Internet of Things

→ The architecture of Internet of Things environment.

→ The history of Internet of Things.

→ The future scope of Internet of Things in terms of development and the varied opportunities that it offers.

→ The benefits that a comprehensive security policy would provide for the adoption of this technology.

For a brief brush up of these points, you can go through The Basics of Internet of Things.

With the essentials behind us, let us get down to brass tacks by examining 5 Internet of Things products that have the word ‘smart’ written all over them!

Mother from Sen.se

Mother is a Russian doll-like device which comes along with four sensors called cookies. It’s used to remotely monitor and collect data via the connected sensors for which it acts as a central hub. An ethernet cable is plugged into the device and the sensors are placed on objects that we want to monitor. A monitoring app is chosen for that particular sensor. The sensor monitors the parameter specified in the app with respect to the object that it is clipped on. Once the information is collected, it is transferred via the home network to Mother which stores the information, sends it to the cloud to be crunched using the latest data analytics and big data methods and send the result back in the form of graphic charts to the senseboard.

Senseboard is a dashboard for mother and it’s cookies, which can be accessed via the browser.  The functionality of each cookie can be changed from the senseboard by selecting another app for it. With application from healthcare to entertainment, it’s applications are many. The popular apps that Mother supports are Walk, Coffee, Presence, Teeth, Door, Sleep, etc. These apps can let you measure the distance you’ve walked or jogged, take a count of  family members who are at home, sense the temperature of the home environment and provide alerts if it is more or less than specified levels, tell you about your sleeping patterns, etc. The remarkable thing about these sensors is that they provide a smart environment for the home through ubiquitous sensing, i.e., by way of wireless sensor networks. They can communicate with mother and also among each other using the 915 Mhz and 868 Mhz frequency bands. The Device was debuted at CES 2014 where it was chosen as an honoree of 2014 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards.

Neurio Home Intelligence

Neurio, as you can see above, is a small rectangular black box, that is designed to be integrated into your home’s electric board. This home intelligence system strives to make your home more efficient by providing a means of monitoring your electricity consumption activities. Another aim of Neurio is to integrate smoothly with home automation systems present in the market. One among the several companies trying to become a market leader in this area, the advantage that Neurio has over the other systems is that there is no need to install sensors on individual appliances. After its installation to the electric board, a Wi-Fi enabled power sensor sends data regarding electricity usage to Neurio via cloud computing, where it is analyzed by the company’s algorithms to produce meaningful results.

The results will be represented in the form of a real-time graph showing your home’s electricity usage. Per hour cost of various appliances and their individual usage can also be seen. This provides a means of research and identification of the heavy power users and moderating their usage. Also, if you are outside your home, and say an appliance like the oven is switched on, the app has provisions for sending push notifications to your mobile as an alert. Neurio has apps in both the Android Marketplace and Apple App Store.

RaspiTrap

When you think of mouse traps, the image that might come to your mind first would be something like this.Well we don’t blame you. “Tom and Jerry” was a favourite show of ours too. However, mouse traps need not be so cruel. There are Humane ways of catching the critters who rifle through our kitchen at night. Born out of this altruistic idea, a slice of Raspberry pi, some IR sensor flavouring and a little Wi-Fi magic comes RaspiTrap, a Raspberry pi based project and a DIY IoT device.It’s construction and working is easily explained. The frame is made from PVC sheets of 5mm thickness and cut to shape using predetermined CAD designs. RaspiTrap is split into two sections, one for the onboard electronics and the other for serving as a temporary home for our unintended mouse guest. The electronics consist of a Raspberry Pi development board with Arch Linux, a PCB for the IR barrier and a servo motor for the Pi camera module. A Wi-Fi dongle connects it all to a wireless home network. When the mouse ventures into RaspiTrap, it breaks the IR beam. This results in the servo pulling the pin holding the trap door up. Once the mouse is caught, an LED comes to life illuminating the inside of the trap and the Pi camera takes a photo of the new prisoner. This picture is then sent via email to a predetermined account. Thus, you get an update instantly and can hasten to release it somewhere far away where hopefully nobody tells the mouse the directions to your house!

August Smart Lock

With August SmartLock, you can convert your smartphone into a smart key. This innovative lock with a novel design aims to serve as a smart lock for your home. The lock is connected to your home network and can interact through both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Examples of its use are that it can unlock and lock your door as you enter and leave, Create virtual keys which can be shared with guests, so that they can let themselves in without your assistance. It also gives you a report of who enters and exits your home. No more do you have to double and triple check to see if your door is locked. August SmartLock comes with an optional accessory which can help you open and lock your doors remotely. So that’s 10 points to safety! The icing on the cake is that you don’t need any extra hardware to control and monitor the lock. Your smartphone is more than enough for the task, i.e., if it is Android or iOS.

Skully, Connected Motorcycle Helmet

Skully is a startup, which offers one of the best helmets (having the same name as the company’s) in its class. This device is a novel new helmet idea that draws upon inspiration from the pursuit of  making travel by motorcycle safer. A smart helmet designed to protect motorcyclists’, the Skully AR-1 comes packed with an array of features! The main uses and highlights are:

• HUD display with access to crowdsourced maps
• GPS system and guidance.
• Voice commands and navigation
• Rear camera whose feed is available in the HUD
• Music streaming on the move
• Calling facility, Hands-free

“Infinite Focus” an attribute of  the heads-up display makes it feel as if the displayed items are floating in the distance. The transparent display of the helmet shows turn by turn directions via GPS. The rear camera feed is present on the right side bottom of the visor. It can be adjusted according to different riding positions. This video camera allows for an 180-degree vision behind our back while riding. When the helmet is paired with the right bike, it can also show the vehicle speed, gear in use, RPM and other such indicators. The AR-1 has the added advantage of being able to save maps. We can save maps beforehand and load it during our travel without any access to the internet. Other features like real-time map updates with traffic status are also available.

Conclusion:

Veeble has been a major player in the windows vps web hosting industry since 2009. With highly passionate team we have been providing web hosting services in 130+ countries. Contact Us to host your own website and for various services like Unlimited cPanel Web Hosting and cheap managed vps with cpanel.