You’ve likely heard quite a bit of the ‘Internet of Things’ or ‘IoT’, but what does it mean? Eddy Home’s Vice President of Technology, Joe Deu-Ngoc explains the Internet of Things in plain language.
(The) Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept whereby everyday things are connected to the Internet. (That is not, at all, a useful definition).
What does that really mean and why do we care?
IoT is about information. Consider household things like refrigerators, thermostats, and Eddy IQs; These things provide meaningful information about the people who use them, their environment, their tastes, their habits, their lifestyle, and much more.
Think about your thermostat. What information are you providing by simply setting a temperature?
- Directly, this is an indication of a temperature that is most comfortable to you which can be used to heat or cool your home to your liking. However, there are many bits of information that can be inferred.
- The rate at which your home is heated or cooled is indicative of the efficiency of your HVAC system. Once the correct temperature is reached, the system would turn off.
- Eventually, that temperature would move from away from where you like it and the HVAC system would turn back on. Hmmm… More information. How soon until the HVAC system turns back on – along with other information like the outside temperature – may be an indicator of how well insulated your home is.
Would any of that information be valuable to a company with a background in Home Services? Equipment manufacturers? Home builders? Government regulatory agencies?
Now, think about your refrigerator.
- Do the types of foods that you like matter? (Could this affect your choice of restaurants or entertainment?)
- Does the rate at which you consume certain food items matter? (Tying to current events: would the knowledge of dairy consumption help with the dairy supply management?) Why do you have to remember to buy milk? Why doesn’t it just arrive at your house just before you run out?
Think about the water appliances that you use.
- Does the time that you spend in the shower/in the bath/on the toilet matter?
- Do the number of times you use appliances matter?
- What products could be offered to help you with your morning routine?
But why only consider one thing at a time? Why not combine the information from multiple things?
- How could the travel industry use the fact that a person always has their home set to 25° C year-round and loves certain foods?
- What applications are there in the health and pharmaceutical industry when a large population goes to the bathroom more than five times a night and has a similar diet?
At this stage, IoT is about getting the information. There are many complex problems yet to solve to even achieve that. At some point, we’ll get to doing something with that information. There will be many more problems to solve then and things will really start to get interesting.
Founded in 2014, Eddy Home is an industry leader in leak protection and water visibility solutions. Our suite of smart products offer a comprehensive water management system for homeowners that protects, controls, and conserves. Our products have saved thousands of customers millions of litres of water by continuously monitoring water usage in their home, and if something unusual is detected, alerting them to the issue. For more details, visit our website or contact our customer service team at 1.877.388.3339.
