Advantech product engineer Ken Chang recently gave an enlightening presentation entitled UTX-3115 for Internet of Things (IoT) Applications, available here. It details not only the design philosophy behind Advantech’s UTX-3115, but also how Advantech’s strategic alliance with Intel and Wind River made possible the delivery of a comprehensive IoT-gateway solution within the compact footprint of a miniature UTX embedded box PC.
Chang’s presentation covered four main topics:
- Content of the IoT
- Intel’s Intelligent Systems Framework (ISF)
- Wind River’s Intelligent Device Platform (IDP)
- Advantech’s UTX-3115
This post condenses the first of Chang’s four topics, Content of the IoT. The three remaining topics will follow in separate posts.
How do things become IoT-connected smart things?
The Internet has become more than a global network of people who communicate with one another using computers; it is now also a platform that connects devices to the world around them. This is accomplished in four ways:
- Unique Identity: First, each thing is given a unique identifier that differentiates it from all other IoT-connected things.
- Connection: Then, the thing is given the ability to communicate.
- Sensors: Next, we equip the thing with sensors that provide data about the thing itself and/or about the environment around it.
- Machine-to-Machine Control: Finally, the thing is controlled via machine from anywhere in the world.
What will we do with IoT-Connected Things?
Of what practical uses are IoT-connected devices? Three scenarios illustrate the potential impact of the Internet of Things.
- Connecting with Things: With IoT, smartphones will deliver critical data about products that we pick up in the supermarket – data that goes far beyond what can be communicated via a printed product label. We’ll approach a piano and know who has played it recently and what they played. IoT-connected things will deliver a completely new way of interacting with the world and learning about the things we encounter.
- Monitoring Things (and People): The next generation of affordable wearable devices will monitor heart rhythms, using powerful algorithms to provide 24/7 detection and early warning of potential cardiac issues, and deliver those predictions long in advance of critical events.
- Manage Things: If we know what things are doing – in real time – we can better manage those things. With real-time data of city energy demands, we can better manage current energy flow and anticipate future energy demands.
IoT Challenges
Realizing the full promise of IoT is not without challenges. The Internet of Things has grown by more than 300% in just the last five years, and future growth will be exponential. Indeed, there are already more things than people capable of creating data, and the IoT is just getting started. But this phenomenal IoT growth has challenges.
- 90% of the new data exchanged via the IoT is unstructured.
- Most of this new growth consists of devices that are purpose-built to serve specific, limited functions within isolated networks.
- Most of these new devices are also proprietary and highly vertical.
- IoT implementation of these devices has heretofore been relatively expensive.
- These challenges are compounded by the fact that 85% of new IoT-connected devices are installed in existing legacy infrastructures.
By leveraging Intel’s Intelligent Systems Framework and Wind River’s Intelligent Device Platform, Advantech’s diminutive UTX-3115 answers these challenges, providing major industries the vital data they need to track inventory, manage machines, increase efficiency, save costs, and even save lives. Look for more in subsequent posts.