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What is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the Internet. In the consumer market, IoT technology is most synonymous with products pertaining to the concept of the "smart home", including devices and appliances that support one or more common ecosystems, and can be controlled via devices associated with that ecosystem, such as smartphones and smart speakers.

These are some problems that technology could be solving in the near future:

• Using drones to deliver and facilitate a wide varriety of services;
• Providing a quality education for all;
• Generating cheaper power for everyone;
• Providing remote acces to healthcare and other services;
• Reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and their emissions.

Using drones to improve the efficiency and quality of services.

In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said about 86 percent of the orders the online retailer ships weigh less than 5 pounds. That’s lightweight enough to be delivered by drone. Amazon is now testing autonomous aircraft that can drop a book or a pair of shoes at your home within 30 minutes of receiving an order.

So it’s not difficult to imagine a day when you no longer have to rush out to the store in your pajamas for a quart of milk. In fact, Dominos has already begun to test drones for pizza deliveries in New Zealand. And Walmart is examining ways to deploy drones inside its warehouses to photograph and catalog inventory. The retail giant has offered few ­details on its plans, but if it used drones for transporting goods, too, it would be a game-changer: 70 percent of the U.S. population reportedly lives within 5 miles of a Walmart store.

In recent years, farmers have discovered that drones are very useful for monitoring the health of their fields. “It would cost me a couple hundred dollars an hour for a plane or helicopter,” says fourth-generation grain and apple farmer Jeff VanderWerff. “With my Phantom 3 drone, a device I paid $1,200 for, I can fly it every day.” At the moment, he has to use a giant crop sprayer to treat the entire field. “With drone technology,” he says, “I’m going to determine exactly where the problem exists and apply pesticide to that area alone. Rather than 80 acres, I might treat just 15.” That means fewer pesticides on the food, lower fuel use and emissions, and more healthy plants at harvest time.

IoT's role in improving education.

Learning used to take place exclusively in a classroom setting. Educational tools were either books or officially produced videos. One of the ways the Internet has changed education is by allowing anyone to share their knowledge with the world by publishing an educational blog post, e-book, or YouTube video.

In the realms of higher education, it has led to the possibility of online degrees. Established traditional schools now offer some of their courses online, while other schools have sprung up that operate entirely online, with students and teachers never once meeting face to face. In primary and secondary schools, this same technology allows for cyber-schooling, where children can complete their work from the comfort and convenience of home.

Students can benefit from having a range of tools and learning technologies at their fingertips, so if one solution doesn’t work for a student, another might. If the students in question are still young children, teachers can better personalize learning plans and incorporate different technologies that will help a specific student.

How technology will impact the energy industry.

Energy innovation is a key area where every nation is working on it. The old conventional plant are releasing high amount of carbon in atmosphere, which is affecting the health of the people. So, developed and developing nations are moving towards using natural resources as key element in extracting some amount of energy. These energy are termed as renewable energy as they can be renewed generation after generation. The energy from sun is used for heating and generating electricity. Solar PV and Solar Thermal are modern energy technologies ,which are used effectively for energy utilisation. Wind Energy is used by synchronous generators to generate electricity.

Researchers led by Manos Tentzeris have developed an electromagnetic energy harvester that can collect enough ambient energy from the radio frequency spectrum to operate devices for the Internet of Things, smart skin and smart city sensors, and wearable electronics.

Harvesting radio waves is not brand new, but previous efforts have been limited to short-range systems located within meters of the energy source, explained Tentzeris, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His team is the first to demonstrate long-range energy harvesting as far as seven miles from a source.

The researchers unveiled their technology in 2012, harvesting tens of microwatts from a single UHF television channel. Since then, they’ve dramatically increased capabilities to collect energy from multiple TV channels, Wi-Fi, cellular, and handheld electronic devices, enabling the system to harvest power in the order of milliwatts. Hallmarks of the technology include:

• Ultra-wideband antennas that can receive a variety of signals in different frequency ranges.
• Unique charge pumps that optimize charging for arbitrary loads and ambient RF power levels.
• Antennas and circuitry, 3-D inkjet-printed on paper, plastic, fabric, or organic materials, that are flexible enough to wrap around any surface.

Providing remote, cheaper healthcare.

Digital technology has become an integral part of healthcare and is all set to revolutionise the practice of medicine. Digital technology has greatly improved operational efficiency with respect to standards of medical care. The transformation has significantly enhanced the overall experience of both healthcare professionals and patients.

Healthcare has been associated with in-person consultations for decades. This has been a problem that obligates the patients to run to the nearest healthcare center for treatment. Now, the COVID outbreak and lockdowns made it even worse. The contagion effect of the virus restrained people in the four walls of their homes. So, what do they do if they need to see a doctor and have an emergency? The need for remote access or virtual consultations is the need of the hour, which needs to be taken care of to stay one step ahead in the technology adoption race.

Mobile app developers continue to grow the flexibility and performance abilities of these remote-oriented platforms. This creates a reliable experience for medical experts to provide quality care and advice to patients from miles away. With mobile healthcare solutions, telemedicine aims to raise the level of healthcare with wearables and smartphones to track health. The use of technology in healthcare has accelerated the development of products that experiment with technology such as holography, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, augmented, and virtual reality.

Reducing GHG emissions and creating a healthier enviorment.

There is no doubt that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Over the past 150 years, there have been significant increases in the concentration of “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere, notably carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, as well as a group of industrial GHGs including hydrofluorcarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. Greenhouse gases drive climate change by trapping heat in the atmosphere, which tends to raise the average temperature of the planet. This, in turn, alters the patterns and intensity of precipitation as well as the flows of air and ocean currents around the globe—all of which directly or indirectly influence the climate.

The most common contributor is CO2 from the combustion of fossil fuels. Because our use of energy also releases some non-CO2 GHGs, energy use accounts for roughly 85 percent of all GHG emissions.

The following graph shows the recent growth in global emissions of greenhouse gases:

Any successful strategy to reduce GHG emissions significantly will require actions not only to deploy the low-emission technologies that are available today, but also to foster innovation on new technologies that are needed. Accordingly, there has been growing interest in recent years on ways to foster such innovation, in particular, the role that governments can and should play in that process. Although research and development is a major element of the innovation process, there is growing recognition that technological innovation is a complex process that commonly involves interactions with other stages of technological change.

GHG emissions depend mainly on the types of energy sources and technologies used to provide the goods and services that society seeks. Thus, technological innovations can help reduce GHG emissions in a variety of ways. For example:

• New or improved technologies can enable devices such as vehicles, machinery and appliances to use energy more efficiently, thereby reducing their energy use and GHG emissions per unit of useful product or service.
• New technologies can create or utilize alternative energy carriers and chemicals that emit less GHG per unit of useful product or service.
• New technologies can create alternative ways of providing goods and services that are less GHG-intensive.