To me, IoT is one of the greatest recipes. It consists of basically three ingredients. We want to monitor things, connect with things or position things.
#1 The sensors
First, the sensors, sensors that make it possible to monitor things. We want to monitor things like the indoor air quality in this room, the temperature, and humidity, for example. Sensors are like the bread and butter of IoT. Sensors are also, perhaps, the most typical thing we think about when talking about IoT.
#2 The actuators
The second thing we want to do with the internet of things is to control things. Controlling things could be anything from low-end applications like turning on your coffee machine. It could be to remote control a lamp or increase the heat remotely. We use actuators to do things, like turn off the ventilation, start a pump, do something, or interact with something.
Connecting with things could also be a bit more complex. Connecting with things could be the high-level applications where we want to remote control a car. Remotely control something near real-time using the 5G networks, for example.
#3 The trackers
The third ingredient is finding things that have been around for quite some time—our lawnmower, boat, and car. But finding things could also be about finding the tiny things. The lawnmower, the car and the boat all rely on GPS coverage. They need to receive signals from satellites to determine their position and tell where they are.
Some of these devices can also use indoor wifi tracking or using cell towers or base stations. But new emerging technologies like Wirepas and Quuppa, two cutting-edge technologies, can be used for indoor positioning. They can be used to understand where things are indoors. Compared to positioning with wifi, they have much better precision, down to a couple of meters or even with Quuppa a couple of centimetres.
With 5G, finding things does not equate to using GPS signals. 5G can be used as a positioning network as well. So we can have access to finding even small things, things with just 5G connectivity.
IoT is about mixing these three things connecting with things, finding and monitoring things. In the past, we were used to building silos with different applications and systems. But with IoT, we can mix and match together, creating great recipes based on these three ingredients.
So these are the three main IoT ingredients. The possibility to monitor things, to control things and to find things. Now you have the ingredients. What will be your next recipe?