just a matter of time before users begin to experience substantial bottlenecks in IoT connectivity, proficiency, and overall performance.
Currently, a big percentage of connected devices rely on centralized and server/client platforms to authenticate, authorize, and connect additional nodes in a given network. This model is sufficient for now, but as additional billions of devices join the network, such platforms will turn into a bottleneck. Such systems will require improved cloud servers that can handle such large amounts of information traffic. This is already being addressed by the academic and industrial community which is pushing toward decentralized networks. With such networks, some of the tasks are moved to the edge, such as using fog computing, which takes charge of time‐sensitive operations (this will be discussed in detail in chapter 7), whereas cloud servers take on data assembly and analytical responsibilities.
1.2 Conclusion
IoT and wearable devices are enabled by the latest developments in smart sensors, embedded systems, and communication technologies and protocols. The fundamental premise is to have sensors and actuators work autonomously without human involvement to deliver a new class of applications. The recent technological revolution gave rise to the first phase of the IoT and wearable devices, and in the next few years, these devices are expected to bridge diverse technologies to enable novel applications by connecting physical objects together in favor of intelligent decision making.
Benefits are substantial, but so are the challenges. This will require businesses, governments, standards bodies, and academia to work together toward a common goal.
In short, IoT and wearable technology are representative icons of the most recent industrial revolution. Given that we advance and evolve by transforming data into information, knowledge, then into wisdom, these technologies have the potential to change the world as we know it today, in new and exciting ways.
Problems
1 What are the main differences between IoT and wearable technology?
2 What is it meant by “things” in Internet of Things?
3 What are the main differences between IoT and M2M?
4 Can you think of other potential challenges found in IoT and wearable technology other than the ones mentioned in this chapter?
5 Give examples of wearable devices/applications that do not require Internet connectivity.
6 List five real‐world examples of smart clothing.
7 List five real‐world examples of the headwear form in wearable technology.
8 List four components common between IoT and wearable devices (an application of your choice).
9 Are wearable devices a form of M2M? Why?
10 If you are asked to add more somewhat essential characteristics to IoT, what would they be? Why?
Interview Questions
1 In simple words, explain the term IoT.
2 Who are the key players in the field of IoT?
3 Who are the key players in the field of wearable technology?
4 What is M2M? Where does IoT intersect with M2M?
5 How is wearable technology expected to have an impact on our daily life?
6 How is 5G technology going to affect the deployment of IoT?
7 What will happen in terms of jobs losses and required skills as IoT makes devices more intelligent?
8 How would wearable technology affect businesses?
9 What is the difference between the “Things” in “Internet of Things” and sensors?
10 What is the connection of IoT to Big Data?
Further Reading
1 Aazam, M. and Huh, E.‐N. (2014). Fog computing and smart gateway based communication for cloud of things. Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Future Internet of Things and Cloud (FiCloud '14), Barcelona, Spain (August 2014), pp. 464–470.
2 Atzori, L., Iera, A., and Morabito, G. (2011). SIoT: giving a social structure to the Internet of Things. IEEE Communications Letters 15 (11): 1193–1195.
3 Bertolucci, J. (2010). Reliability report card: grading tech's biggest brands. PC World 27 (2): 82–92. Chan, J. November 4.
4 Erfinder, A., Engebretson, A.M., Morley, R.E. Jr., and Popelka, G.R. (1984). Hearing aids, signal supplying apparatus, systems for compensating hearing deficiencies, and methods. US Patent 4548082.
5 Guo, B., Zhang, D., Wang, Z. et al. (2013). Opportunistic IoT: exploring the harmonious interaction between human and the internet of things. Journal of Network and Computer Applications 36 (6): 1531–1539.
6 Hayes, A. (2017). A brief history of wearable computing. Bradley Rhodes ‐ MIT Media Lab, MIT Wearable Computing Project. https://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/lizzy/timeline.html (accessed January 2017).
7 Holland, J. (2016). Wearable Technology and Mobile Innovations for Next‐Generation Education. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, ISBN‐13:9781522500698.
8 Khaleel, H.R. (2014). Innovation in Wearable and Flexible Antennas. Southampton, UK: WIT Press.
9 Liang, G., Cao, J., and Zhu, W. (2013). CircleSense: a pervasive computing system for recognizing social activities. Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom ’13) (March 2013). San Diego, CA: IEEE, pp. 201–206.
10 Mashal, I., Alsaryrah, O., Chung, T.‐Y. et al. (2015). Choices for interaction with things on Internet and underlying issues. Ad Hoc Networks 28: 68–90.
11 MISTRAL (2011). The sensor cloud the homeland security. http://www.mistralsolutions.com/hs‐downloads/tech‐briefs/nov11‐article3.html (accessed March 2020).
12 NIEPMD (2014). National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (Manual), ISBN: 978‐81‐928032‐1‐0.
13 Peña‐López, I. (2005). Itu Internet Report 2005: the Internet of Things, Report no. 7.
14 Popat, K.A. and Sharma, P. (2013). Wearable computer applications a future perspective. International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT) 3 (1): 213–217.
15 Raad, H. (2017). The Wearable Technology Handbook. Ohio: United Scholars Publications.
16 Raj, P., Raman, A.C., Nagaraj, D., and Duggirala, S. (2015). High‐Performance Big Data Analytics: The Solution Approaches and Systems. London, UK: Springer‐Verlag http://www.springer.com/in/book/9783319207438
