Domain Specific IoT Applications

IoT applications span a wide range of domains like:

 Home Automation
 Smart Cities
 Environment
 Energy systems
 Retail
 Logistics
 Industry
 Agriculture
 Health
 Home Automation
Smart Lighting
Smart lighting for home helps in saving the energy by adapting the lighting to the
ambient conditions. Energy can be saved by sensing human movements and their
environment. Wireless and Internet connected lights can be operated remotely using
mobile or web application.

Smart Appliances
Smart appliances makes the management easier and also provide status
information to the users remotely. For example, a smart refrigerator can keep track
of items and notify the user when a item is low on stock. Examples of smart
appliances are TVs, refrigerators, music systems, washing machines, etc.
Intrusion Detection

Home intrusion detection systems use cameras and sensors to detect intrusions and
for raising alerts. Alerts can be sound, SMS or email sent to the user. An advanced
system can even send an image or a short video clip related to the intrusion event.

Smoke/Gas Detection
Smoke detectors installed at home can detect smoke and alert the users. Smoke
detectors use optical detection, ionization, or air sampling techniques to detect
smoke. Gas detectors can detect harmful gases like CO or LPG. These detectors
can send alerts in the form of email, SMS, or voice.
 Smart Cities
Smart Parking
Smart parking makes the search for parking space easier and convenient for drivers.
In smart parking, sensors are used for each parking slot, to detect whether the slot is
occupied or not. This information is aggregated by local controllers and sent over the
Internet to the database. Drivers can use an application to know about empty
parking slots.

Smart Lighting
Smart lighting systems for roads, parks, and buildings can help in saving energy.
Smart lighting allows lighting to be dynamically controlled and also adaptive to the
ambient conditions. Smart lights connected to the Internet can be controlled
remotely to configure lighting intensity and lighting schedule.
Smart Roads

Smart roads equipped with sensors can alert the users about poor driving
conditions, traffic congestion, and accidents. Information sensed from the roads can
be sent via Internet to applications or social media. This helps in reducing traffic
jams.

Structural Health Monitoring

A network of sensors are used to monitor the vibration levels in the structures. Data
from the sensors is analyzed to assess the health of the structures. By analyzing the
data it is possible to detect cracks, locate damages to the structures and also
calculate the remaining life of the structure.
 Surveillance
Surveillance of infrastructure, public transport and events in cities is required to
ensure safety and security. City wide surveillance requires a large network of
connected cameras. The video feeds from the cameras can be aggregated in cloud-
based storage. Video analytics applications can be used to search for specific
patterns in the collected feeds.

Emergency Response
IoT systems can be used to monitor buildings, gas and water pipelines, public
transport and power substations. These systems provides alerts and helps in
reduce mitigating disasters. Along with cloud-based applications IoT systems helps to
provide near real-time detection of adverse events.
unfavourable, unwanted
 Environment
Weather Monitoring

IoT-based weather monitoring systems use different sensors to gather data. That
data is sent to the cloud-based storage. The collected can be analyzed and
visualized with applications. Weather alerts can be subscribed by users from such
applications.

Air Pollution Monitoring

IoT-based air pollution monitoring systems can monitor harmful gas emissions by
factories and vehicles using gaseous and meteorological sensors. The collected
data can be analyzed to take decisions on pollution control approaches.

Noise Pollution Monitoring

IoT-based noise pollution monitoring systems use a number of noise pollution
monitoring systems that are deployed at different places in the city. The data on
noise levels from the stations is collected on servers or in the cloud. The collected
data can be analyzed to generate noise maps.
Forest Fire Detection

IoT-based forest fire detection systems use number of nodes deployed at various
locations in the forest. Each monitoring node collects data about ambient [Link]
This data will be collected and analyzed for the presence of fire and corresponding
people will be alerted.

River Floods Detection

IoT-based flood monitor systems use number of sensor nodes to monitor the water
level. Data from the sensors is aggregated on the server or in the cloud.
Monitoring applications raise alerts in case of rapid increase in water level or when
rapid flow rate is detected.

Watch this video to learn about IoT applications in energy, retail, logistics,
agriculture, industry, health and lifestyle domains:
 Energy Systems
Smart Grids
Smart grid is a data communications network integrated with the electrical grid.
Smart grid technology provides predictive information and recommendations to
utilities, their suppliers and consumers, and how best to manage power. Smart
meters can capture real-time power consumption and allows to manage power
distribution remotely.

Renewable Energy Systems

Renewable energy sources (like solar and wind) produce variable output. Variable
output produces local voltage swings that can impact power quality. IoT-based
systems integrated with the transformers measures how much power is fed into the
grid.

Prognostics Predicting

Energy systems have a large number of critical components whose health is

essential for working correctly. IoT-based monitoring systems allows for the data to
be gathered about these critical components. Analysis of massive amounts of data
gathered by sensors can provide predictions for the impending failures.
 Retail
Inventory Management
The inventory in a store or warehouse can be managed by using IoT. The products
or items in the store can be attached with RFID tags. By using the RFID tags, the
RFID reader or software can automatically show the number of items in the store or
warehouse. If a product goes out of stock a notification can be sent to the store
owner automatically.

Smart Payments
Now-a-days new types of payments are coming into picture like QR codes, NFC,
contact less technologies etc. These technologies enables smart payments.

Smart Vending Machines

A smart vending machine contains several items. A consumer can insert money and
get the item they want as shown in the image below. Several sensors can be
attached to these vending machines such that whenever an item quantity is less, the
owner of that machine will be automatically notified so that the owner can be
arrangements to get that item beforehand.
Also, the vending machines can maintain the history of the consumers. So, when a
consumer visits the vending machine next day, it can suggest the same item that the
consumer purchased before.
 Logistics
Route Generation and Scheduling
While delivering packages to various locations, different sensors can be fixed in
those routes and they can be monitored remotely through an application. By looking
at the data sent by the sensors, the delivery company can automatically know which
routes are less congested and schedule the delivery of packages in such routes.

Fleet Tracking
A delivery company will have several delivery personnel working with them. Different
people will use different vehicles for delivering the packages. Sensors can be fixed
to those vehicles and their location can be tracked to know how long will it take to
deliver the package.

Shipment Monitoring
The packages can be fixed with RFID tags or other form of remote tracking sensors
to send data periodically to a server via Internet. The delivery company can use that
data to track where the package is and update the user about the remaining time
that will be needed to deliver the package.

Remote Vehicle Diagnostics

A vehicle rental company can fix sensors into the vehicles before giving them for
rent to the customers. The company can check the data sent by the sensors to know
the current location of the vehicle and easily track them.
 Agriculture
Smart Irrigation
Irrigation refers to the watering of plants. By using different sensors like temperature
sensor, humidity sensor, soil moisture sensor, etc., data can be collected about the
soil and the environment and let the framer know when to turn on the water
sprinklers to provide water to the plants. This process is illustrated in the figure given
below.

Green House Control

A green house is an artificial field that can be grown inside buildings or on the roof
tops. It is a controlled environment in which several types of sensors are fixed to
gather data about the soil, environment and other parameters.

The data from the green house is aggregated at a local gateway and sent to the
server via Internet. The data at the server is analyzed and appropriate alerts are
sent to the owner of the green house. This process is illustrated in the figure below.
 Industry
Machine Diagnosis & Prognosis (Identification and Prediction)

The machines used in the industry can be fixed with sensors. The data from the
sensors can be used to diagnose the machines. We can know if the machine is
working up to the expected performance or not. The data analysis will also let the
owner of the machine know when the life of machine will be over.

Indoor Air Quality Monitoring

The quality of air for the working personnel inside the industry is also important.
Often times leakage of dangerous gases leads to the death of industry personnel.
Sensors can be fixed at different location to monitor the working environment for any
leakage of hazardous gases and notify the appropriate personnel to deal with it.
 Health & Lifestyle
Health and Fitness Monitoring
With the advent of IoT remote healthcare has become an viable option for attending
to patients. There is no need for patient to visit hospital for every minor health
problem.

The doctor can attend to such patients from a remote location. Different sensors can
be fixed on near the patient to monitor the health vitals of that patient. The data sent
by the sensors is monitored by the doctor and appropriate decisions are made.

Wearable Electronics
Now-a-days there are different types of wearables available in the market to monitor
health and lifestyles. Some examples of such wearables are smart watches, smart
glasses, smart patches, smart garments, etc., as shown in the below figure.