Today, let’s discuss the top ten application scenarios of the Internet of Things.
1、Smart Logistics
Smart logistics is a collective term for the application of new technologies in the logistics industry, supported by information technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence. It aims to achieve system perception, comprehensive analysis, and processing functions in various aspects of logistics, including transportation, warehousing, packaging, loading and unloading, and distribution. The realization of smart logistics can significantly reduce transportation costs across industries, improve transportation efficiency, and enhance the intelligence and automation levels of the entire logistics industry. Logistics is the best scenario for the implementation of the Internet of Things. I have also discussed with many friends that the application scenarios of the Internet of Things in the logistics field are very rich. Today, I will briefly list four main directions: warehouse management, transportation monitoring, cold chain logistics, and smart express cabinets.
Warehouse Storage: IoT warehouse management information systems are usually based on transmission networks such as LoRa and NB-IoT, completing tasks such as receiving goods, inventory, allocation, picking, outbound, and data querying, backup, statistics, report production, and report management throughout the system. Especially in unmanned warehouses, intelligent three-dimensional warehouses, and financial regulatory warehouses, there are a large number of IoT devices that monitor the status of goods in real time and guide equipment operation.
Transportation Monitoring: Real-time monitoring of vehicle travel conditions and goods during transportation, including the location of goods, environmental conditions, and vehicle behaviors such as fuel consumption, fuel level, speed, and braking frequency.
Cold Chain Logistics: Cold chain logistics requires strict temperature control, so temperature and humidity sensors can transmit the temperature of warehouses and cold chain vehicles to the backend in real time for supervision.
Smart Express Cabinets: Combining cloud computing and IoT technologies to realize the storage and retrieval of packages and backend data processing, using RFID or cameras to collect and monitor data on goods in real time.
2、Smart Transportation
Transportation is considered one of the most promising application scenarios of the Internet of Things. Smart transportation is a manifestation of the Internet of Things, utilizing advanced information technology, data transmission technology, and computer processing technology to integrate into the transportation management system, allowing people, vehicles, and roads to work closely together to improve the transportation environment, ensure traffic safety, and enhance resource utilization. Next, I will focus on the five major scenarios that are widely applied in the industry, including smart buses, shared bicycles, connected vehicles, smart parking, and intelligent traffic lights.
Smart Buses: Based on the operational characteristics of public transport vehicles, a smart bus dispatch system is built to plan and schedule routes and vehicles, achieving intelligent scheduling.
Shared Bicycles: Using smart locks equipped with GPS or NB-IoT modules, connected via an app, to achieve precise positioning and real-time monitoring of vehicle status.
Connected Vehicles: Utilizing advanced sensors and control technologies to enable autonomous or intelligent driving, monitoring vehicle operational status in real time, and reducing traffic accident rates.
Smart Parking: By installing ground magnetic sensors, connecting to smartphones entering the parking lot, to enable automatic navigation and online queries for parking spaces.
Intelligent Traffic Lights: Dynamically adjusting light signals based on traffic flow, pedestrian presence, and weather conditions to control vehicle flow and improve road capacity.
Vehicle Electronic Identification: Utilizing RFID technology for precise identification of vehicle identity and dynamic collection of vehicle information.
Charging Piles: Using IoT devices to enable positioning of charging piles, control of charging and discharging, status monitoring, and unified management.
Highway Non-stop Charging: Using cameras to recognize license plate information and charge based on route information, improving traffic efficiency and reducing vehicle waiting times.
3
Smart Security
The core of smart security lies in the smart security system, which mainly includes access control, alarms, and monitoring. Security is a major application market for the Internet of Things. Traditional security relies heavily on personnel and is very labor-intensive, while smart security can achieve intelligent judgment through devices. Currently, the most critical part of smart security is the smart security system, which transmits and stores captured images and analyzes and processes them. A complete smart security system mainly includes three parts: access control, alarms, and monitoring, with a focus on video monitoring in the industry.
Due to the large amount of data collected and low latency, most video monitoring in urban areas currently uses wired connections, while remote areas and mobile object monitoring use wireless technologies such as 4G.
Access Control System: Mainly based on sensing cards, fingerprints, iris, and facial recognition, featuring safety, convenience, and efficiency, capable of linking video capture, remote door opening, mobile location detection, and trajectory analysis.
Monitoring System: Mainly focused on video, divided into police and civilian markets. Through real-time video monitoring, using cameras for capture and recording, storing and analyzing video and images, ensuring safety.
Alarm System: Mainly alarms through alarm hosts, while some R&D manufacturers will integrate voice modules and network control modules into alarm hosts to shorten response time.
4
Smart Energy
The Internet of Things can be applied in the energy sector for remote control of water, electricity, gas meters, and street lights. Smart energy is part of smart cities. Currently, the application of IoT technology in the energy sector mainly involves water, electricity, gas meters, and remote control of street lights based on external weather conditions, enhancing utilization efficiency and reducing energy waste through monitoring. Smart energy can be divided into four major application scenarios:
Smart Water Meters: Utilizing advanced NB-IoT technology for remote collection of water usage and providing reminders for water usage.
Smart Electric Meters: A new type of electric meter with automation and information technology, capable of remote monitoring of electricity usage and timely feedback.
Smart Gas Meters: Transmitting gas usage to the gas group through network technology, eliminating the need for manual meter reading, and displaying data such as gas usage and time.
Smart Street Lights: By equipping sensors and other devices, enabling remote lighting control and automatic fault reporting.
5
Smart Healthcare
There are two main application scenarios in smart healthcare: wearable medical devices and digital hospitals. In the field of smart healthcare, the application of new technologies must be human-centered. IoT technology is the main means of data acquisition, effectively helping hospitals achieve intelligent management of people and materials. Intelligent management of people refers to capturing physiological states (such as heart rate, physical exertion, blood pressure, etc.) through sensors and recording them in electronic health files for easy access by individuals or doctors. Intelligent management of materials refers to monitoring and managing medical items through RFID technology, achieving visualization of medical equipment and supplies. Based on IoT technology, Yiou Think Tank summarizes the two main application scenarios:
Wearable Medical Devices: Collecting parameters of the human body and surrounding environment through sensors, transmitting them to the cloud via networks, processing the data, and providing feedback to users.
Digital Hospitals: Digitally transforming traditional medical equipment, enabling remote management, monitoring, and access to electronic medical records.
6
Smart Buildings
The application of the Internet of Things in the building sector mainly involves electricity lighting, fire monitoring, and building control. Buildings are the cornerstone of cities, and technological advancements have promoted the intelligent development of buildings. The application of IoT technology allows buildings to evolve towards smart buildings. Smart buildings are increasingly gaining attention as comprehensive intelligent solutions that integrate perception, transmission, memory, judgment, and decision-making. Current smart buildings mainly focus on electricity lighting, fire monitoring, and building control, enabling perception, transmission, and remote monitoring of equipment to save energy and reduce the need for building personnel. For ancient buildings, termite monitoring can also be conducted to protect them.
7
Smart Manufacturing
IoT technology empowers the manufacturing industry, achieving digital and intelligent transformation of factories. The manufacturing sector has a huge market size and is an important application area for the Internet of Things, mainly focusing on the digitalization and intelligent transformation of factories, including monitoring of factory machinery and environmental conditions. By equipping IoT devices on equipment, manufacturers can monitor, upgrade, and maintain equipment remotely at any time, gaining better insights into product usage, collecting information throughout the product lifecycle, and guiding product design and after-sales service; while environmental monitoring in factories mainly includes air temperature and humidity, smoke detection, etc.
The core features of digital factories are: product intelligence, production automation, and the integration of information flow and material flow. Currently, there is no company in the world that has announced the establishment of a fully digital factory. In recent years, some companies have begun to offer digital and intelligent factory transformation solutions based on production processes to other companies in the industry. The digital and intelligent transformation of enterprises is generally divided into four stages: automated production lines and equipment, equipment networking and data collection, data integration and direct application, and data intelligent analysis and application. These four stages do not proceed in a strictly sequential manner and are not isolated; their boundaries are somewhat blurred.
8
Smart Home
The development of smart home technology can be divided into three stages: individual product connectivity, inter-product interaction, and platform integration, currently transitioning from individual products to inter-product interaction. Smart home refers to the use of various technologies and devices to enhance people’s lifestyles, making homes more comfortable, safe, and efficient. The application of the Internet of Things in smart homes can monitor the location, status, and changes of home products, analyze their changing characteristics, and provide feedback based on human needs to a certain extent.
The development of the smart home industry is mainly divided into three stages: individual product connectivity, inter-product interaction, and platform integration. The direction of development is to first connect smart home individual products, then move towards interaction between different products, and finally develop towards a unified operation of smart home system platforms. Currently, various smart home companies are transitioning from individual products to inter-product interaction.
Individual Product Connectivity: This stage connects various products through transmission networks such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee, allowing for individual control of each product.
Inter-product Interaction: Currently, various smart home companies are integrating all their products into a networked system, allowing for interactive control between products, but products from different companies still cannot interact.
Platform Integration: This is the final stage of smart home development, enabling compatibility between individual products from different companies based on unified standards, which has not yet been achieved.
9
Smart Retail
Smart retail relies on IoT technology, mainly reflecting two major application scenarios: vending machines and unmanned convenience stores. The retail industry is divided into three forms based on distance: far-field retail, mid-field retail, and near-field retail, represented by e-commerce, shopping malls/supermarkets, and convenience stores/vending machines, respectively. IoT technology can be applied to near-field and mid-field retail, mainly focusing on near-field retail, namely unmanned convenience stores and automatic (unmanned) vending machines.
Smart retail transforms traditional vending machines and convenience stores through digital upgrades, creating unmanned retail models. By analyzing data and fully utilizing customer traffic and activities within the store, it provides better services for users and higher operational efficiency for businesses.
Vending Machines: Vending machines, also known as unmanned vending machines, are divided into single-item and multi-item vending machines, transmitting data through IoT card platforms, verifying customers, submitting shopping carts, and confirming payment receipts.
Unmanned Convenience Stores: Using RFID technology, customers only need to scan a code to open the door, select products, and after closing the door, the system automatically recognizes the selected products and completes the payment.
10
Smart Agriculture
Smart agriculture refers to the deep integration of IoT, artificial intelligence, big data, and modern information technology with agriculture, achieving information perception, precise management, and intelligent control throughout the agricultural production process. It allows for visual diagnosis, remote control, and disaster warning in agriculture. Agriculture encompasses both crop cultivation and animal husbandry. Crop cultivation is divided into facility planting (greenhouses) and field planting, mainly including sowing, fertilization, irrigation, weeding, and pest control, collecting data through sensors, cameras, and satellites to achieve digital and intelligent mechanization. Currently, the realization of digitization is often presented through data platform services, while intelligent mechanization is represented by autonomous driving in agricultural machinery. Animal husbandry mainly applies new technologies and concepts in production, including breeding, feeding, and disease prevention, and is less frequently applied, thus termed “fine breeding” to define the entire animal husbandry process.
Source: Logistics and Supply Chain Finance
