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At the moment, there is a constantly increasing number of smart video cameras collecting and streaming video throughout the world. Of course, many of those cameras are used for security.
In fact, the global video surveillance market is expected to reach $83 billion in the next five years. But there are lots of other use cases besides security, including remote work, online education, and digital entertainment.
When it comes to the industrial sector, the Internet of Things (IoT) looks very different from how it appears in the consumer world of smart homes or smart offices. The smart sensors that track temperatures on machines in a manufacturing plant are different from the ones in your smartwatch that monitor your heart rate, and they have very different hardware requirements. Namely, they require industrial IoT boards.
IoT developers know this and need to choose their components accordingly. Some development boards are specifically designed to meet industrial requirements with a whole new level of fast response times, high performance, and low energy usage.
IoT manufacturers in every region have a host of data privacy standards and laws to comply with — and Europe is now adding one more. The Cyber Resilience Act, or CRA, has some aspects that are simply common sense and others that overlap with already existing standards. However, other aspects are entirely new and could present challenges to IoT manufacturers and providers.
Let’s explore the act and consider how it will change the world of connected devices.
Raspberry Pi Pico is a popular microcontroller (MCU) option for hobbyists and IoT professionals alike. It holds a special place in the IoT world because of its small physical size paired with relatively high processing power and low energy consumption.
Add to that the huge mainstream adoption of its larger siblings (Raspberry Pi 1 through 4) making Raspberry Pi hardware well-known throughout the IoT world. The Pico is also exceptionally cheap, especially compared to the siblings, and you can get started with one in just minutes. You don’t need extensive programming knowledge, and there’s enough documentation online to keep you busy experimenting for weeks on end.
Every time an IoT developer starts thinking about choosing an operating system for a new device, there is a myriad of options available to muddy the waters. Many are from well-known providers, like FreeRTOS from Amazon and Azure RTOS from Microsoft, or Zephyr RTOS from Linux, and they each have several features that are aimed at helping IoT developers make the most of their IoT device designs.
So how do you know which real-time operating system (RTOS) to choose? Let’s start by looking at the roles of RTOS within IoT. Then, we’ll discuss how FreeRTOS and Azure RTOS can each fulfill those roles in different ways.
With growing concern regarding data privacy and data safety today, Internet of Things (IoT) manufacturers have to up their game if they want to maintain consumer trust. This is the shared goal of the latest cybersecurity standard from the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).
Known as ETSI EN 303 645, the standard for consumer devices seeks to ensure data safety and achieve widespread manufacturer compliance. So, let’s dive deeper into this standard as more devices enter the home and workplace.
Memory allocation is one of those things developers don’t think too much about.
After all, modern computers, tablets, and servers count so much space that memory often seems like an infinite resource. And, if there is any trouble, a memory allocation failure or error is so unlikely that the system normally defaults to program exit.
Smartphones continue to evolve the functionality of connected devices. Mobile apps now serve as the principal means of device control in the Internet of Things (IoT). Instead of hardwired screens and buttons, today’s developers are offloading the vast majority of user interfaces to our handheld companions.
In this way, app developers must ensure their designs are user-friendly and technically sound. And, with more than one billion of them around the world, this means developers need to consider the ins and outs of the iPhone. Apple’s flagship device counts a unique operating system — iOS — that should not be ignored in app rollouts.
After years of trial and error in connecting battery-based devices with Wi-Fi—the ubiquitous yet power-sucking internet access method preferred worldwide—the Internet of Things (IoT) market is finally embracing low-power radio internet protocols.
Two of the most useful protocols today include Thread and Matter. But what are the differences between the two? And how does Thread work with Matter to enhance compatibility in IoT devices? Let’s explore.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing from strength to strength. IoT projects are in development across a huge variety of industries thanks to the technology’s automation, data gathering, and processing potential.
However, understanding IoT architecture is key to creating a successful IoT project and leveraging all of its benefits. Why? Because it can give you a clear vision of how everything works and how different components interact. In its essence, IoT architecture ensures data gets where it needs to and is processed correctly. Without proper IoT architecture, networks would become unreliable, defeating the entire purpose of investing in IoT in the first place.
The Internet of Things (IoT) shows no signs of slowing. The market for IoT reached nearly $5 billion last year, and experts believe it will only continue to grow. IoT has an extensive list of benefits for businesses, so it’s no wonder that more than 90% of executives think IoT is worthwhile and want to build a comprehensive IoT ecosystem.
But what exactly is an IoT ecosystem? One example would be a healthcare network that uses internet-connected devices to monitor patients' blood pressure or blood sugar and analyzes that information to make health recommendations. Another is an industrial IoT ecosystem, which might use smart devices to check fluid levels in machinery and increase or decrease those levels where necessary for machines to function correctly.
When discussing the current state of play for the Internet of Things (IoT), a quote comes to mind: With great power comes great responsibility. Cybersecurity becomes even more critical as more devices enter our homes and workplaces and send and receive sensitive data.
For example, in 2021, globally-connected devices grew by 9% to 12.3 billion. This accelerated growth and rapid adoption of connected devices have security experts worried. About 1.5 billion cyberattacks on IoT devices occur annually. In an ecosystem with many connected devices, infiltrating one of them puts the whole network at risk.
The latest slew of regulation changes by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has had a profound effect on the status of IoT companies in China. The gaming industry was the first to feel the wrath of the new CCP legislation. After being torpedoed with penalties and regulatory changes to alter entire areas of business operation, gaming companies like Tencent and NetEase watched the government compare their industry to a type of digital drug addicting the Chinese youth.
Now, there is serious cause for concern for the Internet of Things (IoT). Foreign investors have already begun to pull out after seeing a collective $50 billion decrease in the market value of China’s biggest tech corporations. Likewise, the fractious political situation between the CCP and Hong Kong — an international hub for IoT products — has added yet more uncertainty.
It’s no secret that materializing an idea, concept, or plan is often difficult. The process of going from a planning phase—in which everything theoretically works perfectly—to a finished product is almost always more challenging than expected. This is especially true in the world of the Internet of Things.
When launching a new IoT project, any experienced IoT developer will tell you that something will go wrong. Whether that’s going over budget, or due to faulty hardware, carelessness, or other general mishaps, it probably will happen. Therefore, you need to prepare yourself. This is when prototyping IoT devices come in.
Not all operating systems are built equal. In fact, there is plenty of variety when it comes to multitasking, overheads, memory use, and more. This spectrum of choices can make things difficult for Internet of Things (IoT) developers when it comes to choosing the right system for their device.
One type that is uniquely suited to connected devices—at least basic ones—is Bare Metal. Just as a Bare Metal server only hosts one tenant at a time, a Bare Metal environment is entirely dedicated to running a single application. This is in stark contrast to regular operating systems which run multiple programs simultaneously. Let’s take a look at the different types of operating systems and consider which is best when it comes to IoT.
App development has become an integral part of IoT device creation over the past decade. These days, it’s near impossible to find consumer connected devices that do not come with companion smartphone applications which offload most (if not all) of its display to the user handset. While a web-based UI will often be sufficient for industrial or enterprise-grade IoT devices, most manufacturers will have a hard time selling a consumer IoT device that can’t be controlled by the user’s smartphone.
As IoT mobile app development has evolved into a required front end layer for the vast majority of today’s connected consumer products, device developers have some important decisions to make in creating an app which is safe, fast and affordable. Let’s sort custom builds from off the shelf platforms, and cloud connections from peer-to-peer, in this development guide to IoT apps.