In the Philippines, if you try to ask friends or random people what they know about IoT (Internet of Things) , you would most likely get a clueless reaction. I suppose this tells us a lot about the state of IoT in the Philippines. I am certain that IoT is not an entirely unknown thing in the Philippines as there are already a growing number of people who are curious, inquiring and even strongly interested with IoT. It is just a matter of time before what they dub as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” would eventually get into every Filipino´s phones, homes, cities and make a tremendous impact in the country.
But what then is IoT? Wikipedia defines it in a detailed way “The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.”
So to keep things simple, IoT is the interconnection of all things with embedded sensors, software and network connectivity to the internet, but what kind of interconnection is this? It may seem quite complicated to visualize for someone who is new to the concept.
Remember that Smartwatch you got for tracking your fitness progress or checking your heart rate and vital signs. In some of the local shops here in the Philippines, you will see Alexa, an AI virtual assistant created by Amazon that allows you to listen to music, keep and track your schedule, create a shopping list, provide news and updates and perform other tasks including talking to when you are bored.
In the US, if you have watched the series Silicon Valley, you would learn of driverless cars. Tesla has been building Full Self Driving cars. Its CEO Elon Musk, during Tesla´s quarterly earning call in October 2019 spoke about how near it is in releasing its long anticipated self driving cars.
To better see the future of IoT, check out the video below. This is only for Smart Home applications. Imagine if it will be prevalently used in our daily lives, businesses and government across industries. The scope and impact is immeasurable.
For your IoT questions and inquiries, feel free to reach us at info@adapsense.com
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Nestor Michael Tiglao is an Associate Professor at the Electrical and Electronics Institute (EEEI) at University of the Philippines. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Philippines and completed his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal. He is currently the CEO of Adapsense Technologies Inc.
