Role of IoT in enabling smart cities

As there is a lot of talk going around  smart cities, it was only natural that IoT or Internet of Things, which is considered to be an important component for smart cities across the world, to be integrated in the government’s flagship smart cities mission project, to make them more intelligent and self-reliant. And today, we are seeing that IoT has become an integral part of smart cities, so much so that for each one of our needs, the developers want to offer an IoT solution.

Role of geospatial technologies in IoT

Now drawing the connection between geospatial technologies and IoT, this study explains that in a network of billions of connected devices, to identify and operate one device remotely would be very challenging unless the device knows its geographical location on Earth. Every element that will be connected in this network must identify their unique identification, location and functionalities in order to function properly.

How IoT is making a difference?

The concept of IoT is being developed to make the internet even more immersive and pervasive. So that a wide variety of devices such as, home appliances, surveillance cameras, monitoring sensors, actuators, displays, vehicles, and so on, can be fostered under one network of connected devices.

Employing IoT will enable the development of a number of applications that make use of potentially enormous amount and variety of data generated by such objects to provide new services to citizens, companies, and public administrations. For instance, when we talk about smart cities, we don’t think of cities that have the word – smart, only in their name, instead, we think of cities that work from to their own intelligence.

For a better understanding of how it works, let’s say that you live in a smart city and you are planning to go out for dinner. But first, you want to buy that dress you were checking out last week at the mall near you. So you pick up your phone and you log on to that fashion store’s website and you choose the dress, select the size, pay for the bill, and order the dress to be delivered to your home. The website’s server immediately takes a note of your request and sends an alert to the store-staff about the order. The staff immediately processes the order and sends out a drone to deliver your package. Then the UAV flying across the city, lands in your apartment’s balcony and drops the package and returns to its owner. Immediately, you get a notification on your phone saying that the package has been delivered. And you go check in balcony where it’s waiting for you. Similarly, there can be numerous example where the devices are connected to each other, working in synergy to facilitate your needs.

The US city, Denver is a better example of this. Located south of Denver International Airport, the futuristic neighborhood of Pena Station Next began getting smart LED street lights last month. The technological implementation of IoT in Denver is being planned by Panasonic, where the company has covered the parking with solar panels, plus a storage microgrid is almost done. The area is being developed for the future’s autonomous shuttles to transport residents to the nearby RTD rail stop, shops and restaurants.

Getting developed by Panasonic, the city – Denver was chosen to create a smart city lab and test different technologies. Click here to see some of the future technologies that may show up in Pena Station Next.

The future of IoT

According to a report, many industry experts and excited consumers have pegged the IoT as the next industrial revolution. Whereas, according to some, the power of IoT is applied to more technology use cases – keep it grounded and real. Now it’s a data first world long-term as we collect the data and determine what it can tell us about interoperability, cross correlation benefits. The web of devices is correlating – triangulating disparate data to obtain unforeseen insights.

Based on an analysis done by management consulting firm, McKinsey, the total market size of IoT that was up to $900M in 2015, is expected to rise by $3.7B in 2020 attaining a 32.6% CAGR.

(Source: Geospatial World)