Silicon Updates: Top 10 IoT device trends to come along with you into the future

Internet of Things - The trend that technology is running after. Connected devices, connected vehicles (C-V2X), smart homes, smart buildings and the list goes on - all of these are possible through IoT. Experts are estimating that more than 26 billion devices will be connected to IoT by 2020. This article lists the top IoT devices that will walk along with you into the future.

1. Gesture control armband:
The Gesture control armband allows the user to control technology just with the help of various hand movements, through wireless medium. Communication to the smart device through the Gesture control armband is achieved in three phases - sensing the electrical activity of muscles, recognising the motion of the hand and transmitting it to the smart device. The instructions are perceived by ElectroMyoGraphic (EMG) sensors, where these sensors are capable of sensing the electrical activity of muscles. The motion of the hand is recognised by gyroscope and accelerometer. The instruction received through both of these methods is transferred to the smart device to process and serve the purpose either with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth communication. Myo Alpha and Myo are the two gesture control armband models launched by Myo.

Myo Gesture control armband

These devices are not integrated with IoT. Myo is working on integrating IoT to these devices in order to achieve better results and user experience. Once these devices are integrated with IoT capabilities, the user can literally measure the activity performed daily.
2. Smart speakers:
Qualcomm is completely immersed into working with smart devices; Smart speakers is one of them. With Smart speakers installed into a home, the user can experience complete music. The speakers can be operated using any connected smart device - be it a smartphone or a tablet. The environment can be set in such a way that the user can synchronise all the speakers to play single track or multiple tracks based upon the requirement.

Smart speakers

Internet of Technology for Smart speakers helps the users to play music based upon the mood and the audience available in the given environment. This enhances the user experience with music.
Read more: Qualcomm's Smart speakers.
3. Zigbee Connected light:
Connected light is the technology that helps users to save energy efficiently by providing a "smart" way to control the lighting devices in the home. Zigbee is the alliance that was founded in 2002 to work on the same. Zigbee is the language of connected lighting in homes. Zigbee allows the users control the lighting devices using single smart device. It lets the users control every device individually with a smart device. The network formed by these connected light devices is called Light connected network. When IoT is enabled to such technologies, the way we conserve and consume energy can be improved a lot.

Zigbee Connected Light

4. Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS): 
Road safety is one of the major challenges of mankind. ADAS is a way to provide road safety. The ADAS consists of different sensors - RADAR, night vision devices, LIDAR, cameras, ultrasonic and Photonic Mixer Device (PMD). All of these sensors provide safe on roads through sensing the road along with the surroundings. With ADAS and IoT together, is capable of creating best possible safety on roads to the users. This results in reduced traffic and road accidents. In simple words to say, all the vehicles come onto roads in an effectively controlled manner to avoid side-effects of traffic.

Example ADAS Sensors

5. Smart buildings:
Smart buildings is the next big thing that can leap the lifestyle far forward. A smart building is a connected space that collects user data based upon daily activities through sensors. This data is uploaded to the cloud for analytics and the user is notified based up on the analytics. Sensors can be outfitted on building equipment such as building information management systems (BIMS), smart lighting, BEMS, facilities management systems, building security systems, elevators, furniture, walls and windows, and more.

Read more: Smart buildings.
6. Smart home:
Qualcomm has introduced Mesh Networking Platform that replaces the conventional Wi-Fi router with a new Wi-Fi gear. The major advantage of this Wi-Fi gear is that it is very easy to install and almost covers connectivity to the home entirely. The router can also be synchronised to cloud using IoT. This Wi-Fi gear also support voice assistance, as it has become one of the basic parameters of being smart. Communication with every smart device, voice assistance and access across wide device are the three major features of Smart home.

Smart home

Read more: Qualcomm Mesh network platform for smart home.
7. Smart Glass:
Smart Glass, unlike the preceding devices, is driven towards the health of the users. Water consumption is one of the activities that helps perfect metabolism of humans. Sometimes in a busy and sometimes involved in some activity, we neglect consuming water. The smart glass reminds the user to consume water and keep up the body metabolism. The demand and supply of fresh water are not meeting each other. Hence, water should be used with caution. Except for sensitive applications, usage of fresh water is to optimised. With IoT capability through  Smart Glass, water for consumption and other uses can be separated, which ultimately results in water conservation.

Smart Glass

8. Pulse Oximeter:
Oximeter, as the name suggests, is used to measure the level of oxygen in body. It is considered to be a non-invasive, painless, general indicator of oxygen delivery to the peripheral tissues. IoT integrated with Oximeter helps several major advancements in medicine. The analytics help the scientists to figure out the root causes for different diseases.

Pulse Oximeter

9. Connected vehicles:
Connected vehicles is another major sector of IoT applications. A city can be made systematic based upon the statistics collected from different ways people choose to drive. Connected vehicles, just like ADAS, helps to reduce on-road mishaps. This revolution has finally led to Cellular Vehicle to everything connectivity (C-V2X).

Connected vehicles

Read more: Connected vehicles through C-V2X.
10. IoT in agriculture:
As the global population is increasing, the demand and supply for food is not being balanced. With the intervention of IoT, farmers can get the insight of different factors like climate, moisture of the soil etc. Also, the insights based upon type of soil and season can help farmers conserving the land for different seasons for different season-based crop.

Smart Agriculture

Read more: Digital Agriculture.