The extensive set of applications for IoT devices is often divided into consumer, commercial, industrial, and infrastructure spaces.
Consumers A growing portion of IoT devices is created for consumer use, including connected vehicles,
home automation,
wearable technology, connected health, and appliances with remote monitoring capabilities.
Home automation IoT devices are part of the broader concept of
home automation, which generally includes lighting, heating and air conditioning, media and security systems, and camera systems. Moreover, long-term benefits could include energy savings by automatically ensuring lights and electronics are turned off or by making the residents in the home aware of usage. A smart home, also known as an automated home, could be based on a platform or hubs that control smart devices and appliances. For instance, using
Apple's
HomeKit, manufacturers can have their home products and accessories controlled by an application in
iOS devices such as the
iPhone and the
Apple Watch. This could be a dedicated app or iOS native applications such as
Siri. This can be demonstrated in the case of Lenovo's Smart Home Essentials, which is a line of smart home devices that are controlled through Apple's Home app or Siri without the need for a Wi-Fi bridge. In addition to the commercial systems, there are many non-proprietary, open source ecosystems, including Home Assistant, OpenHAB, and Domoticz.
Elder care One key application of a smart home is to
assist the elderly and individuals with disabilities. These home systems use assistive technology to accommodate an owner's specific disabilities.
Voice control can assist users with sight and mobility limitations while alert systems can be connected directly to
cochlear implants worn by individuals with hearing impairments. They can also be equipped with additional safety features, including sensors that monitor for medical emergencies such as falls or
seizures. Smart home technology applied in this way can provide users with more freedom and a higher quality of life. The IoMT has been referenced as "Smart Healthcare", as the technology for creating a digitized healthcare system, connecting available medical resources and healthcare services. IoT devices can be used to enable
remote health monitoring and
emergency notification systems. These health monitoring devices can range from blood pressure and heart rate monitors to advanced devices capable of monitoring specialized implants, such as pacemakers, Fitbit electronic wristbands, or advanced hearing aids. Some hospitals have begun implementing "smart beds" that can detect when they are occupied and when a patient is attempting to get up. It can also adjust itself to ensure appropriate pressure and support are applied to the patient without the manual interaction of nurses. Moreover, the use of mobile devices to support medical follow-up led to the creation of 'm-health', which is used to analyze health statistics. Specialized sensors can also be equipped within living spaces to monitor the health and general well-being of senior citizens, while ensuring that proper treatment is administered and assisting people in regaining lost mobility via therapy as well. These sensors create a network of
intelligent sensors that are able to collect, process, transfer, and analyze valuable information in different environments, such as connecting in-home monitoring devices to hospital-based systems. End-to-end health monitoring IoT platforms are also available for antenatal and chronic patients, helping one manage health vitals and recurring medication requirements. Advances in plastic and fabric electronics fabrication methods have enabled ultra-low-cost, use-and-throw IoMT sensors. These sensors, along with the required
radio-frequency identification electronics, can be fabricated on
paper or
e-textiles for wireless powered disposable sensing devices. Applications have been established for
point-of-care medical diagnostics, where portability and low system complexity are considered essential. , IoMT was being applied in the
clinical laboratory industry. The application of the IoT in healthcare plays a fundamental role in managing
chronic diseases and in disease prevention and control. Remote monitoring is made possible through the connection of wireless solutions. The connectivity enables health practitioners to capture patients' data and apply algorithms in health data analysis.
Transportation The IoT can assist in the integration of communications, control, and information processing across various
transportation systems. Application of the IoT extends to all aspects of transportation systems (i.e., the vehicle, the infrastructure, and the driver or user). Dynamic interaction between these components of a transport system enables inter- and intra-vehicular communication,
smart traffic control, smart parking,
electronic toll collection systems,
logistics and
fleet management,
vehicle control, safety, and road assistance. In vehicle security applications, IoT-connected GPS trackers can operate for months or years on internal batteries, using low-power wide-area network protocols such as LTE-M to transmit location data to owners via smartphone applications when unauthorized movement is detected.
V2X communications In
vehicular communication systems,
vehicle-to-everything communication (V2X), consists of three main components: vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure communication (V2I), and vehicle-to-pedestrian communication (V2P). Eventually, V2X is the first step to
autonomous driving and connected road infrastructure.
Home automation IoT devices can be used to monitor and control the mechanical, electrical, and electronic systems used in various types of buildings (e.g., public and private, industrial, institutions, or residential) • The integration of the Internet with building energy management systems to create energy-efficient and IOT-driven "smart buildings". Additionally, the same implementation can be carried out for automated record updates of asset placement in industrial storage units as the size of the assets can vary from a small screw to the whole motor spare part, and misplacement of such assets can cause a loss of manpower time and money.
Manufacturing The IoT can connect various manufacturing devices equipped with sensing, identification, processing, communication, actuation, and networking capabilities. Network control and management of
manufacturing equipment,
asset and situation management, or manufacturing
process control enable IoT to be utilized for industrial applications and smart manufacturing. IoT intelligent systems enable rapid manufacturing and optimization of new products and rapid response to product demands. Furthermore, IoT can also be applied to asset management via
predictive maintenance,
statistical evaluation, and measurements to maximize reliability. Industrial management systems can be integrated with
smart grids, enabling energy optimization. Measurements, automated controls, plant optimization, health and safety management, and other functions are provided by networked sensors.
Agriculture There are numerous IoT applications in farming such as collecting data on temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind speed, pest infestation, and soil content. This data can be used to automate farming techniques, make informed decisions to improve quality and quantity, minimize risk and waste, and reduce the effort required to manage crops. For example, farmers can now monitor soil temperature and moisture from afar and even apply IoT-acquired data to precision fertilization programs. The overall goal is that data from sensors, coupled with the farmer's knowledge and intuition about his or her farm, can help increase farm productivity, and also help reduce costs. In August 2018,
Toyota Tsusho began a partnership with
Microsoft to create
fish farming tools using the
Microsoft Azure application suite for IoT technologies related to water management. Developed in part by researchers from
Kindai University, the water pump mechanisms use
artificial intelligence to count the number of fish on a
conveyor belt, analyze the number of fish, and deduce the effectiveness of water flow from the data the fish provide. The FarmBeats project from Microsoft Research that uses TV white space to connect farms is also a part of the Azure Marketplace now.
Maritime IoT devices are in use to monitor the environments and systems of boats and yachts. Many pleasure boats are left unattended for days in summer, and months in winter so such devices provide valuable early alerts of boat flooding, fire, and deep discharge of batteries.
Infrastructure Monitoring and controlling operations of sustainable urban and rural infrastructures like bridges, railway tracks and on- and offshore wind farms is a key application of the IoT. Even areas such as waste management can benefit.
Metropolitan scale deployments There are several planned or ongoing large-scale deployments of the IoT, to enable better management of cities and systems. For example,
Songdo, South Korea, the first fully equipped and wired
smart city, is gradually being built, with approximately 70 percent of the business district completed . A sizeable portion of the city, the first of its kind, is planned to be wired and automated to operate with little or no human intervention. In 2014, another application was undergoing a project in
Santander, Spain. For this deployment, two approaches have been adopted. This city of 180,000 inhabitants has already seen 18,000 downloads of its city smartphone app. The app is connected to 10,000 sensors that enable services like parking search and environmental monitoring. Additionally, city context information is used in this deployment, aiming to benefit merchants through a spark deals mechanism based on city behavior that aims at maximizing the impact of each notification. Other examples of large-scale deployments underway include the Sino-Singapore
Guangzhou Knowledge City; work on improving air and water quality, reducing noise pollution, and increasing transportation efficiency in
San Jose, California; and smart traffic management in western Singapore. Using its RPMA (Random Phase Multiple Access) technology, San Diego–based
Ingenu has built a nationwide public network for low-
bandwidth data transmissions using the same unlicensed 2.4 gigahertz spectrum as Wi-Fi. Ingenu's "Machine Network" covers more than a third of the US population across 35 major cities including San Diego and Dallas. French company,
Sigfox, commenced building an
Ultra Narrowband wireless data network in the
San Francisco Bay Area in 2014, the first business to achieve such a deployment in the U.S. It subsequently announced it would set up a total of 4000
base stations to cover a total of 30 cities in the U.S. by the end of 2016, making it the largest IoT network coverage provider in the country thus far. Cisco also participates in smart cities projects. Cisco has deployed technologies for Smart Wi-Fi, Smart Safety & Security,
Smart Lighting, Smart Parking, Smart Transports, Smart Bus Stops, Smart Kiosks, Remote Expert for Government Services (REGS) and Smart Education in the five km area in the city of
Vijayawada, India. Another example of a large deployment is the one completed by New York Waterways in New York City to connect all the city's vessels and be able to monitor them live 24/7. The network was designed and engineered by
Fluidmesh Networks, a Chicago-based company developing wireless networks for critical applications. The NYWW network is currently providing coverage on the Hudson River, East River, and Upper New York Bay. With the wireless network in place, NY Waterway is able to take control of its fleet and passengers in a way that was not previously possible. New applications can include security, energy and fleet management, digital signage, public Wi-Fi, paperless ticketing and others.
Energy management Significant numbers of energy-consuming devices (e.g. lamps, household appliances, motors, pumps, etc.) already integrate Internet connectivity, which can allow them to communicate with utilities not only to balance
power generation but also helps optimize the energy consumption as a whole. Using
advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) Internet-connected devices, electric utilities not only collect data from end-users, but also manage distribution automation devices like transformers. by monitoring
air or
water quality,
atmospheric or
soil conditions, and can even include areas like monitoring the
movements of wildlife and their
habitats. Development of resource-constrained devices connected to the Internet also means that other applications like
earthquake or
tsunami early-warning systems can also be used by emergency services to provide more effective aid. IoT devices in this application typically span a large geographic area and can also be mobile.
Living labs Another example of integrating the IoT is the concept of a "living lab." Living labs integrate and combine research and innovation processes, establishing within a public-private-people-partnership. Between 2006 and January 2024, there were over 440 living labs (though not all are currently active) that use the IoT to collaborate and share knowledge between stakeholders to co-create innovative and technological products. When companies intend to implement and develop IoT services for smart cities, they need to have economic incentives. The US government plays a key role in smart city projects; changes in policies will help cities to implement the IoT which provides effectiveness, efficiency, and accuracy of the resources that are being used. For instance, the US government provides tax incentives and affordable rent, improves public transport, and offers an environment where start-up companies, creative industries, and multinationals may co-create, share a common infrastructure and labor markets, and take advantage of locally embedded technologies, production processes, and transaction costs. One of the examples of IOT devices used in the military is the Xaver 1000 system. The Xaver 1000 was developed by Israel's Camero Tech, which is the latest in the company's line of "through-wall imaging systems." The Xaver line uses millimeter wave (MMW) radar, or radar in the range of 30-300 gigahertz. It is equipped with an AI-based life target tracking system as well as its own 3D 'sense-through-the-wall' technology.
Internet of Battlefield Things The
Internet of Battlefield Things (
IoBT) is a project initiated and executed by the
U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) that focuses on the basic science related to the IoT that enhances the capabilities of Army soldiers. In 2017, ARL launched the
Internet of Battlefield Things Collaborative Research Alliance (IoBT-CRA), establishing a working collaboration between industry, university, and Army researchers to advance the theoretical foundations of IoT technologies and their applications to Army operations.
Ocean of Things The
Ocean of Things project is a
DARPA-led program designed to establish an Internet of things across large ocean areas for the purposes of collecting, monitoring, and analyzing environmental and vessel activity data. The project entails the deployment of about 50,000 floats that house a passive sensor suite that autonomously detects and tracks military and commercial vessels as part of a cloud-based network.
Product digitalization There are several applications of smart or
active packaging in which a
QR code or
NFC tag is affixed to a product or its packaging. The tag itself is passive; however, it contains a
unique identifier (typically a
URL) which enables a user to access digital content about the product via a smartphone. Strictly speaking, such passive items are not part of the Internet of things, but they can be seen as enablers of digital interactions. The term "Internet of Packaging" has been coined to describe applications in which unique identifiers are used, to automate supply chains, and are scanned on large scale by consumers to access digital content. Authentication of the unique identifiers, and thereby of the product itself, is possible via a copy-sensitive
digital watermark or
copy detection pattern for scanning when scanning a QR code, while NFC tags can encrypt communication. ==Trends and characteristics==