In addition to the economic benefits for manufacturers, manufacturers, traders, etc., the connected objects of the Internet of Things (IoT) offer socio-economic benefits to society and humanity as a whole.
IoT objects offer many economic advantages: manufacturers are informed of the degradation in performance of a machine and can deactivate it during off-peak periods; warehouses and physical businesses manage their stocks better and energy suppliers bill actual consumption without having to send an agent on site to read the meters.
In addition to corporate deployments, the IoT is increasingly adopted by healthcare professionals, nature conservation organizations and educational structures, to provide better patient care, preserve wildlife and provide resources. students away from traditional schools.
IoT technology at the service of nature
Black rhinos in Mkomazi National Park in Tanzania were recently equipped with IoT sensors to allow rangers to precisely track their whereabouts in order to better protect them from poachers. The guards are informed several times an hour of the position of the mammals so that they can intervene very quickly.
Likewise, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, Virginia Beach, keeps a history of each of the fish in the 170,000-liter aquarium via an RFID system to provide the means to improve their conditions. of life, health and longevity.
And there are many other examples of IoT applications to better protect the habitat of animals and the ecosystem in which they live.
Deployments are expected to multiply and become more robust with the growing maturity of 5G and AI technologies, which will produce ever more complex data and decision-making information (e.g. on malnutrition) to better support conservation efforts.
In any case, these systems are expected to facilitate monitoring of wildlife and to be increasingly economical. Indeed, if the controlled environments already have for the most part robust technological and Internet infrastructures, many uncontrolled environments do not have them and must be satisfied with the GPS and the mobile telephony to collect the data.
As in the health sector
In the healthcare industry, IoT devices are increasingly used to monitor patient vital signs and constants at home. Not only do patients enjoy their convalescence at home, which is cheaper than being hospitalized, and they free up beds for more critical cases.
There are many applications: post-natal monitoring of the state of health of infants, detection of falls in the elderly (with alert from first responders), post-operative monitoring. Being able to monitor a patient’s state of health in real time makes it possible to intervene more quickly and to push back the frequency of consultation appointments.
With the pandemic, the practice of tele-consultations has exploded. All parties save time and money and this makes it possible to schedule more regular consultations than in person. Whether urban or rural, patients appreciate these consultations and are reassured because any problem can be detected as quickly as possible.
And in education
Everyone has been able to measure the educational benefits of IoT during the COVID-19 pandemic where students of all ages have had to adjust to homeschooling. And even if the schools have now reopened, occasional closures due to COVID or other (eg snow) remain possible, but without interrupting the program, by simply switching to another operating mode.
In addition to distance learning, IoT makes it possible to use virtual reality, augmented reality and other learning experiences, both in the classroom and from a distance.
But as in the case of wildlife and health conservation, there are remote rural areas, especially in developing countries, which still do not have access to reliable internet infrastructure. Access to educational resources can then be achieved through the cellular connection and IoT connected objects.
We are only at the beginning of exploring the many socio-economic benefits that IoT objects promise. To see them, it is necessary to continue deployments in connected environments as well as in areas constrained to combine GPS and cellular networks.