If you’re like the team at Calysto, you may find it slightly amusing that Sunday, April 9, is IoT Day. I mean, really, isn’t every day IoT Day? But just as we celebrate Moms in May, and Dads and Chocolate ice cream in June, why shouldn’t we celebrate one of our favorite technology markets with its own special day? We have to give kudos where it belongs: The Internet of Things Council dreamed up this special day back up in 2010, and in 2016, IoT Day was celebrated with events and hackathons in nearly 20 countries.
For all the buzz about the IoT, finding real examples and use cases of larger scale IoT projects can be difficult—in many cases, using IoT is considered a competitive advantage and many companies may still be holding those cards very closely to their vests. Last August, analyst firm IoT Analytics was able to verify 640 actual enterprise IoT
projects worldwide. Not surprisingly, the bulk of these were Industrial IoT, Smart City and Smart Energy projects.
But from Istanbul to Indianapolis to India, and everywhere in between, the IoT is driving new opportunities with consumer, business and industrial applications. Last year, we celebrated with a list of 24 Cool IoT Facts, one for every hour of IoT Day. For this 8th year anniversary of IoT Day, we’ve put together a list of the eight most interesting IoT advancements and deployments that have happened since last year’s celebration. Let’s do this!
- Deutsche Telekom and Huawei launched what they call the “first standardized narrowband IoT network worldwide.” The activated system uses SRAN base stations, virtualized C-SGN (core network) and a cloud-based IoT platform. The first application is a commercial narrowband IoT smart parking system located in Bonn, Germany. The solution, which has parking sensors built into each parking space, communicates with motorists via an app that directs them to available spots.
- Vodafone is connecting the world’s first robotic exoskeleton that is FDA cleared for use with both stroke patients and spinal cord injuries: the Ekso Bionics’ Ekso GT™. This is a ready-to-wear, battery-powered robot that is strapped over the user’s clothing, enabling individuals to achieve mobility, strength or endurance not otherwise possible. Vodafone’s IoT managed connectivity service will ensure reliable communication globally for diagnostics and improved access to patient data, helping to improve the user experience with the suit.
- AT&T is working with Squadle Checklists to deliver an IoT solution that helps streamline restaurant management. The AT&T Control Center will help Squadle’s fast food restaurant customers monitor everything from the temperature of refrigerated food to the progress of employees on daily tasks, eliminating paper-based management.
- Analog Devices is working with farmers in New England to determine why locally-grown tomatoes are so tasteless compared to counterparts grown in other areas of the world. By precisely measuring growing conditions on the specific farm, farmers can make better decision throughout the growing cycle.
- A consortium of companies has teamed up to help the Hampshire County Council in the UK get smarter about sanding /gritting their roads in winter weather. Mayflower and Libelium have been working with Amey, Hampshire County Council’s highways maintenance contractor on the project to reduce the amount of unnecessary sanding of roads in Winchester, a coastal city in southern UK. Most maintenance teams still use weather forecasts to track conditions, but the tracking data can vary in temperature by up to 15 degrees in some areas. This creates situations where grit is unnecessarily placed on roads. The solution provides highway maintenance with highly precise and accurate data on the weather at locations along the roads, saving the council money and reducing its carbon footprint.
- Verizon and Mobotix AG are working with an oyster farmer in Cape Cod, Massachusetts to make sure food safety is front and center when a shipment of the delicacies leaves the farm. Ward Aquafarms has developed a system that tracks the temperature of oyster bags as they are shipped from farm to kitchen. It also uses IoT to measure water temperature and chlorophyll levels that could impact an oyster’s health.
- Deutsche Telekom and glass manufacturer RASTAL have developed a “smart bar” solution that allows restaurant and bar owners, event organizers and other hospitality companies to better measure and analyze consumption in real time. The companies use intelligent glasses coupled with a networked bar counter to record consumption data, which is then converted into useful business information via Deutsche Telekom’s Cloud of Things. This allows businesses to call up information on beverage turnover and sales, as well as dispensing losses, better predicting availability levels. Beverage deliveries can be better matched to consumption and waiting times for guests can be reduced, minimizing sales losses and optimizing routes.
- Everyone’s favorite pizza delivery company, Domino’s, has done a controlled roll out of IoT solutions across 300 locations with United Office’s Total Connect Now Operations Performance Suite (TCNOPS). Working with hardware vendors such as Samsung and Zen, Unified Office is helping Domino’s automate manual tasks such as temperature readings and ensure regulatory compliance with health safety standards.
These are a few of our favorites from 2016 and early 2017. What are yours? Happy #IoTDay!
