PICKING UP PEBBLES ON IOT ROADMAP

BY N.KAVITHA

Internet of Things to Internet of Everything has been buzzed around for some time and
people start wondering if it is a hype or a reality. This session deals about the disruptions that is
expected on the stable business models and well known use cases to redefining a new world with
Things as a Service rather than assuming connected homes, cars, health and industries as the
yield of IoT. Edge nodes are getting redefined with their power that rather being intelligent as in
yesteryears they might be able to assimilate data into information rather than transporting as Big
Data and Analytics in the layers above.
Overview
There has been continuous projections of exciting numbers of how Internet of Things will change
the world we live by making Things intelligent and connected. Intelligence is already in place with all the
embedded systems in its different names and versions as microprocessors, microcontrollers, real time
controllers, mixed signal controllers, DSPs, FPGAs etc slip inside the Sensing or Actuating Thing to make
it intelligent. With Wireless and IoT we take the next step of making these sensors and actuators wireless
with self-contained batteries so that they are placed anywhere with no hassles of wiring and ducts. And
when the size and cost of embedding intelligence and connectivity is minimal then it is prudent to enable
sensors and actuators with IoT which are the edge nodes of IoT facilitating a pervasive Internet of
Everything. And the Industry who are always the early adopters of any technology to aid productivity and
ensure quality jumped into a standard of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or Industry 4.0 heading too
what is termed as smart manufacturing.

Analytics

Cloud

Edge Nodes

Deployment Verticals of IoT

Internet of Things could be deployed in many vertical segments wherever sensing and actuation
and their intelligence and connectivity matters. Since all these new things that need to be connected are
keep to adopt only wireless technologies to seamlessly get connected to the Internet and the cost of
Internet connectivity is becoming literally null across the globe we can look at unexplored segment to
make things IoT enabled. Complex communication between things to things, things to machine, machine
to machine, man to machine, man to thing, man to man could be interleaved to create the next level of
intelligence in all the use cases and scenarios.

The major deployment verticals of IoT on disruptive models could be in

1. Education Campuses
2. Learning/Training Assessment
3. Building Automation (inclusive of homes and gated communities)
4. Smart Cities
5. Wearables
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 6. Health Care
7. Industrial Automation, Control
8. Predictive and Preventive Maintenance
9. Automotive Applications
10. Power Distribution and Maintenance
11. Navigation Support Systems
12. Entertainment and Engagement
13. Asset Tracking, Monitoring and Tamper Detection
14. Sports monitoring
15. Product Tracking through Life Time
16. Smart Agriculture

Challenges of enabling IoT

When connected things becomes ubiquitous and smart enough to manage and maintain
themselves there could be a very high level of hacking to rule or fool these systems. Data and its
information with the analytics and decisions all lay transparent across different layers of the Internet of
Things and security should be ensured. Many such IoT enabled System-on- Chip Devices for example
the Texas Instruments CC3200 comes with powerful crypto engine with 256 bit AES at the hardware
level. Security is to be physically present at the Hardware, Middle layer and at the Cloud Services and all
the Connectivity options so that complete secure transaction happens for the data that is sent to the
Cloud.

Power Management is also another important player to push IoT pervasive for energy efficient
systems that could be clocked few years with just simple coin or a pair of batteries. There are also many
Energy harvesting mechanisms that could be integrated with the devices to survive even with low power
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operating conditions. The microprocessors/microcontrollers of the current generation have a host of low
power modes that could be switched between working when we could put the system from the active
mode to one of these low power modes. They also have a quick wake-up when an external event occurs
which should be attended to immediately. There are Energy Efficiency monitoring in the IDE itself like TI
Energy Trace ++ which will give us an estimate of the life time of the battery based on the hardware and
the software where we navigate through different operating modes based on our Working requirements.

The eco-system and its spread with suitability is what makes any technology thrive or dive and
this is in place for the IoT as the cloud and analytics are already available and been in existence as a
mature model for the Computers which is been out smarted by the Smart phones.

There are many companies that offer services to connect different things to the Internet. These
platforms seamlessly integrate between the other company service providers above and below to
complete the eco-system. Since the connectivity to the Internet is complex and has multiple software
layers to connect from the edge nodes or the sensors/actuators to the different Middleware to the Cloud
Service Providers. There are many typical cloud services as different software Agents & API, Device
Configuration, & Registration, Communication & Protocols, Notification & Scripting, Web Dashboard and
Analytics with an intelligent and an accommodative DB or a web repository that is able to take in all the
audio, video, images and the alpha-numeric which is beyond entities, relationship and query as in a
conventional scenario.
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 IoT enabling systems brings the configuration of the Thing to be connected to the Internet to
anyone and not IT Managers or Technicians. This means that though it involves all the mechanisms that
could be available in connecting or configuring any system to Internet these small “things” provide
additional issues for us unlike PC/Laptop or Smartphones they cannot afford to have displays/touch
screens or any form of user interfaces. For an illustration if we have to put up a network of soil moisture
monitoring and irrigation systems with such IoT enabled sensors they will be enclosed in enclosures that
have to survive moisture, rain, weather conditions and will never be integrated with any form of display
or keyboard. Such embedded devices are called Headless Devices. If these things have to be connected
to the wireless network like the ubiquitous WiFi there are several provisioning available to connect and
configure to the system. So every Wireless protocol standard candidates for IoT have to ensure that the
headless devices have to be configured to get into the network.

How IoT could be deployed for Learning and Assessment?

As we have been describing in this paper, IoT should not be considered as a technology but as
an enabling platform. It could radically bring in changes to develop new market models, unexplored
zones, disruptive market and revenue streams, and the ability to interact with an still unconnected world
of things which have some information to share with us for making our lives more meaningful and better.
Cognitive IoT or things that can log data, assimilate the information and reason or learn out of this are
opening up a new paradigm named as Cognitive IoT. The ability for these sensors and actuators to be
able to tap information from inaccessible zones either by time or space which is achieved by their sheer
pervasiveness is creating a new combo of combining sensor data with contextual information to even
surpass the human understanding based on the patterns and their aggregated learning over the
generations.

Cognitive IoT in the Learning Environment

As IoT evolves to the Cognitive level this could be deployed in Learning and Assessment Process
to understand and estimate the following parameters more precisely rather than the conventional
estimates.

1. Learning effectiveness
2. Attention Span of individuals
3. Reasoning Skills
4. Memory and Recall
5. Thought process
6. Idea generation
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 7. Application of Ideas
8. Analysis and Interpretation
9. Evaluating Alternatives and making Informed choices
10. Creation of new solutions aid with technological transitiojs

Tools for Cognitive IoT in Learning Process

As the sensors can get connected to a big repository and global aggregation could be done new
devices could be used to tackle the issues that every teacher IoT evolves to the Cognitive level this could
be deployed in Learning and Assessment Process to understand and estimate the following parameters
more precisely rather than the conventional estimates. The following devices are being created or already
available in the market with continual improvements and research going on to enable Internet and
contribute to a new Learning Assessment model which gets automatically tailored to the learning group
and their needs.

 ePaper with Intelligence and Internet Connectivity

 Special Sensors that can tap neuro activity
 Continual Assessment sensing and actuation while teaching /lecturing
 Intelligent and Connected boards continually connected with learners
 Evaluation Tools on Tablets based on Reasoning and Applying skills

Conclusion
This paper presents a new dimension to learning tools and artefacts based on the new technology
and platforms for connectivity and computing which will enable every one providing knowledge and skill
to the consumers to be fruitful and optimized to the requirements and learning pace of the consumers of
the learning process.

This paper was presented at IFSTE Malaysia 2016

All images given in document are illustrative of the text and belong to the copyrighted.
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The author can be reached at

skt@stepsmail.com

N.Kavitha

The author is the Technical Director of STEPS Knowledge Services Pvt Ltd, India partners to Texas Instruments
University Programme. Currently handles Design and Development of Special Purpose Machines and Embedded
System Development, IP related activities and also involved in Training catering both to Corporate and Academia
on emerging technologies. An Electronics & Communication Engineer with more than 30 years of industrial
experience focused on design and development including fundamental and applied research. Holds MS in Software
Systems from BITS, Pilani, MBA in Finance, PG Diploma in IPR from NLSIU, Bangalore and DOM from IGNOU.
Speaker in various International and National conferences on topics related to Embedded Systems. Has worked
extensively with Design Houses, Consultants, OEMs, Collaborators in Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, UK,
USA, Japan and Malaysia, whereby gained the experience of converting ideas to products and meeting
international work practices and standards. Co-inventor in various patent applications relating to specific industrial
engineering applications. A passionate trainer to impart latest and emerging technology to the stakeholders who
are in need of the same.