Lecture 3.1: Societal Benefits of IoT

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From the course by University of California, Irvine

Introduction to the Internet of Things and Embedded Systems

3332 ratings

University of California, Irvine

Introduction to the Internet of Things and Embedded Systems

3332 ratings

Course 1 of 6 in the Specialization An Introduction to Programming the Internet of Things (IOT)

The explosive growth of the “Internet of Things” is changing our world and the rapid drop in price for typical IoT components is allowing people to innovate new designs and products at home. In this first class in the specialization you will learn the importance of IoT in society, the current components of typical IoT devices and trends for the future. IoT design considerations, constraints and interfacing between the physical world and your device will also be covered. You will also learn how to make design trade-offs between hardware and software. We'll also cover key components of networking to ensure that students understand how to connect their device to the Internet. Please note that this course does not include discussion forums. Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Define the term “Internet of Things” 2. State the technological trends which have led to IoT 3. Describe the impact of IoT on society 4. Define what an embedded system is in terms of its interface 5. Enumerate and describe the components of an embedded system 6. Describe the interactions of embedded systems with the physical world 7. Name the core hardware components most commonly used in IoT devices 8. Describe the interaction between software and hardware in an IoT device 9. Describe the role of an operating system to support software in an IoT device 10. Explain the use of networking and basic networking hardware 11. Describe the structure of the Internet 12. Describe the meaning of a “network protocol” 13. Explain MANETs and their relation to IoT

From the lesson

What Is the Internet of Things (IoT)?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a popular buzzword right now, but unlike many fads which have come and gone, the Internet of Things describes an important trend which is having lasting effects on society at large. The term itself, “Internet of Things”, is used to mean a variety of ideas, depending on the motivation and background of the speaker. This course will start by providing a definition of the term. We will talk about how various trends have enabled the Internet of Things, and how it changes the way design is performed. We will also discuss some of the ramifications that IoT is having on society today.

Lecture 3.1: Societal Benefits of IoT5:23

Lecture 3.2: Risks, Privacy, and Security11:08

Meet the Instructors

Ian Harris
Professor
Department of Computer Science

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Let's talk a little bit about the benefits to society that Internet

of Things can have.

And that's why we do these things, right, presumably is to benefit society,

to help people.

So, we'll talk a little bit about that.

So, generally, these IoT devices,

the use of Internet of Things technology makes life easier, that's the goal.

In lots of different ways depending on the device, but

it's supposed to make life easier.

So for instance,

some lectures ago we talked about an Internet refrigerator, right?

An Internet refrigerator that was intelligent,

could order your food for you.

It takes care of things you don't necessarily want to take care of, right?

It takes care of these details that you would have had to spend time on, but

now you don't, right?

It says okay, you need this food, I will order this food.

And I don't have to worry, necessarily, about doing that ordering, right,

because I'm busy, I have more important things to do.

So, it's supposed to make things easy for you.

Are my accounts balanced?

Let's say I have my phone device, I'm using it to do my banking,

right, and it balances my accounts.

It says oh, you owe this much, I will simply transfer the money, right?

So that was a details where maybe I don't want to deal with those details, right?

I want to do something fun with my life, but I have to balance my accounts and

pay my bills.

But my device can deal with that for

me rather than me having to think about it consciously all the time, right?

So, that's generally the goal of IoT is to just enhance these

devices to make them better.

And the key thing,

key aspect of that is to make them better without adding complexity.

So, you don't wanna have to, sure,

say I would like to have a refrigerator that can order my food for me, right?

But I don't want to have to write code to get it to do that.

I want it to be easy, almost as easy as a regular refrigerator, but

still do these nice things for me.

So, you enhance the features of some devices

to make them do things that are very helpful to you.

But, you don't want to enhance the features in such a way that it increases

complexity.

So the complexity is dealt with by the computational infrastructure inside

the device.

IoT can also help you be independent of people, right.

So you don't need to have as many people as you used to have to do certain things.

So this is good and this is bad, right.

So, certain things that you would have had humans deal with,

now your IoT device can deal with for you.

So, for instance, fewer doctor visits, right.

If I had my health monitor on my wrist, I don't have to necessarily go to the doctor

to have the doctor tell me oh, your blood sugar level is fine, right?

Or, your heart rate is fine, everything is going well.

My device can see that and report back to me and say yes, everything is fine, and

I don't need to see the doctor as much.

Now, there's still always a need for a doctor, but

maybe just when something calamitous happens.

Maybe on a regular basis, I don't need to see the doctor as much.

So, going to the super market.

I don't have to go the supermarket if my fridge is buying my food for me, right?

And ordering it on Amazon Fresh, or something like that.

I don't have to deal with that nearly as much.

So I don't have to actually interact with people as much as a I had to.

Now, interactions can be good.

But also, depending on people for things can be burdensome.

So maybe if you have a bunch of Internet of things,

IoT devices that are helping you, you can depend a little bit less on people, and

take care of things independently.

And actually, this is very helpful for people who are infirm, or

maybe you're older, you're infirm and you don't wanna have to depend on people.

You wanna be able to live independently.

IoT devices can help you a lot.

So for instance, cars that are coming online that drive themselves, right?

Ultimate IoT device, drives you to where you wanna go.

That can be really helpful if you're old enough where you can't,

maybe you lose your license cuz your vision is bad, or something like this.

Your reaction time is slow.

If you have a car that can drive itself, drive to wherever you wanna go,

that's a pretty big advantage, right?

So not having to depend on a person, to hire a person to do that,

you can just have your IoT device do that for, could be very helpful to you.

Also, IoT devices, they got Internet right there in the term,

they connect into the network, so you can actually connect to people.

So in some ways,

it can enhance your interaction with people in a different form.

So maybe not in person interaction, but

you can talk to people on the network, right.

Through any device that you feel like using, right.

So you can have all sorts of personal interactions, but

also professional interactions.

So you can do, we get this a lot at work now.

Rather than going all the way to a conference and

spending money to fly out there, stay at a hotel.

We can have meetings online and I don't have to move anywhere.

I can just use the camera in front of me.

I can use my phone, and just do a conference right there, right.

So its a lot cheaper, and it's not the same as in person interaction, but

it can save you a lot of money in the long term.

Thank you.

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