Internet of Things Applications

Placing wireless sensors to try to create a “smart” nursery for his infant son is not unlike what Steve Liang faces as he helps lay the groundwork for an emerging smart world.

“When I look at the sensors in the nursery, the number of apps needed to operate them is more than the number of sensors,” says Liang, an associate professor in the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering. “This is a real problem, because these systems are not connected to each other.”

Liang has visited everyone from the World Bank in Washington, D.C., to the governments of the Netherlands and Singapore, talking to officials about adopting a single open standard for the Internet of Things (IoT), everyday objects and devices fitted with small wireless sensors and actuators, or motors capable of doing tasks.

Somewhat like smartphones, everything from clothing and vehicles to buildings and industrial machinery could be given an embedded measure of digital intelligence connected to the Internet. It could allow them to independently sense their environment, gather and even act on data, and communicate and interact with each other as well as people, he says.

See more ar: ucalgary.ca