IoT Ideas and How to Develop Them into Apps

The Internet of Things is a prevalent and influential creation that is constantly used nowadays. Because of its influencing power, this has led to the conception of applications as it has an immense potential to grow in several industries. However, before we delve deeper, let’s tackle the basics and identify what IoT is and how are we going to develop it from an IoT idea into an actual app.

What is IoT?

IoT (normally referred to as the Internet of Things) is an interconnected network mainly functioning for the purposes of data exchange between systems and sensors. It can be bi-directional, and it includes and uses connectivity protocols. That’s why it’s existing today because it’s a beneficial tool when you want to leverage or create a new business application, provide a network between system and sensors, and enhance an existing process for more efficacy.

• IoT Examples

A great example of this are sensors that can interact directly with a physical quantity. One of which are heat sensors that you can connect to a maintenance system for better performance and more efficiency.

App Development for IoT

Why do we need to develop applications and integrate it into IoT? The answer is quite simple – to make everything easier. For example, we have apps nowadays which are widely used for different hardware functions. Take your air conditioner or a TV remote for example. They are being controlled by your phones these days. With just one tap, you can already access several devices. Hence, app development is considered crucial for IoT because it provides the basic firmware (a tool to communicate) between system and sensors.

IoT App Ideas

These IoT app ideas can range to whatever extent you want them to. From turning on the air conditioner on the basis of the location of your car to getting a notification about buying milk from your fridge, these IoT ideas are as limitless as the human imagination! To give you some IoT project ideas, here are some fields that you can explore:

• Home Applications

Our home is something we spend our lives caring about! So, there’s always that curiosity to update it to the community standards and make it as comfortable as we can. Imagine your TV starting up whenever you are in the room and it is time for your favorite show. Your house actually turning the lights OFF/ON whenever you leave or enter the room. Your kitchen notifying you whenever you are running low on supplies. That would really relieve you quite much, right? So, this is the key factor of finding the best IoT project ideas in home usage. Futuristic? Yes. Imaginative? Yes. Doable? Only a matter of time and effort. What is important here is the ability for these devices to communicate with one another to provide the user with a customized, easy experience of tasks you can’t even imagine machines being able to do.

• Industrial Applications

This is by far a never-ending scope when it comes to IoT app and IoT ideas meshing together, which ultimately becomes something useful for individuals who are searching or IoT project ideas. Now, we can use ideas like there is a shortage of a consumer product with a random (say A) barcode and another product (say B) is present in excess. So, the system automatically detects the variation and puts the products on BUY and DO NOT BUY lists. Similarly, for much larger industries where room for error is kept negligible, consider a system which only has to start up when the error code ABC is displayed by a sensor and determine whether it can be corrected by removing or replacing the product (quality control).

• Military or Security Applications

Say, someone is in a restricted area and that area is prohibited for some reasons. If you apply IoT in this scenario, you can allow a system to categorize the non-essential personnel and send them out. Same goes for burglar alert systems or proximity alert systems. All is up to your imagination to designing and ultimately moving to productivity.

Ways to Develop IoT Apps

To get started, you must first choose a field you’d like to tackle on and then proceed with choosing a hardware. Once you’re settled, select a centralized storage and then follow it by developing a server of data to manage your algorithms. When it comes to the user’s front end – the interface which will be in front of the user, you can choose your preferred tools, websites, and training institutions to guide you in the making of your IoT app or projects. To give you some ideas, here are some amazing IoT tools that you can use:

• Azure IoT Suite
• IBM Watson
• Oracle IoT
• KAA IoT
• Amazon Web Services

Creating apps from IoT ideas is not that difficult and intimidating. Now that we are in an age that it’s highly valued, it’s high time that we start exploring this industry as it definitely has a lot of potential in succeeding.