Internet of things (IoT) is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. It is permeating into almost every facet of our lives and changing the way we live, work, or even play. As we all know, IoT is all about data and connectivity and the emerging data culled from connected things can ultimately reshape and optimize our cities and make them better places to live. If harnessed appropriately, it offers a huge opportunity to address myriad concerns from citizen services to cleaner air to public safety.

There are unlimited possibilities for the potential of IoT. Here are some use-cases that are relevant to us.

Fighting air pollutions:

India is fighting against air pollutions. According to data compiled in IQAir AirVisual's 2019 World Air Quality Report, 21 of the world's 30 cities with the worst air pollution are in India, with six in the top ten. The Indian government has unveiled a five-year plan to reduce air pollution, in the 102 worst-affected cities in the country by 20-30 percent by 2024. Cities can take advantage of technology to cut down air pollution. For example, by attaching sensors to moving objects, such as cars and public transport, information can be collected to draw pollution maps and also to understand trends and patterns in the worst polluted areas. The data can be used to create a customized plan to tackle air pollution in a specific area.

Safer and decongested roads

In India, more than 150,000 lives are lost each year in road accidents. With smart signals, traffic can be better managed, helping to reduce accidents and congestion. The recent community CCTV Nenu Saitham project in Hyderabad City Command has adopted a state-of-art smart video implementation, which will track, monitor, and analyse the video feed to detect criminal activities, traffic violations and road conditions . By harnessing IoT, the CCTV cameras can be made to talk to each other and to the traffic signals. They can share information on traffic bottleneck in real-time so that action can be taken to mitigate the situation. Always-on-coverage, that is, on-camera storage, in addition to 24/7 back-up storage, is crucial. It is essential that storage solutions that are designed and tested specifically for the needs of the smart video industry are used; for example, WD Purple microSD™ cards for CCTV cameras.

Better Garbage management: 

With rapid urbanization, India is grappling with massive waste management concerns. According to the estimates of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Mumbai and Delhi generate about 11,000 and 8,700 tons per day of solid waste, respectively. IoT can help in improving the efficiency of waste management solutions in terms of waste collection and recycling. With the help of IoT, waste collection routes can be optimized, for example, the sensors in bins that are full can send alerts and accordingly, the route map can be customized. Over a period of time, patterns can be drawn and studied to understand and to take action accordingly. For an efficient garbage management system, a deeper collaboration between the citizens and governments and the industry is required, where measures are taken to reduce, recycle and manage the waste and technology can enable us to do this efficiently.  

It is just the beginning

There are immense opportunities for the connected societies that are driven by data. However, unless data is distilled into actionable insights and appropriate actions are taken, it is of no value. But harnessed correctly, IoT and, therefore, data has the potential to change everything around us radically. The onus is on us to take advantage of it for the larger good. And remember, it is just the beginning, with the emergence of new technologies and 5G, infinite use cases will come to light.    

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house