media servers, or voice-based assistants. Utilizing the cloud to analyze, train, and devise inference algorithms, IoT can predict the needs of inhabitants and respond to them. For instance, a smart refrigerator can process the grocery consumption trends of family members and download inference metrics to know when their favorite items will be running out. With the help of onboard storage, any device – light, curtain, home appliance, door, window, smoke alarm, thermostat, lawn mower, or security camera – can implement IoT while offline. Manually tedious tasks like the monitoring, planning, and regulation of electricity and water usage can be automated, resulting in enormous cost savings. For occupants, the autonomy affords them complete control of the house through their cellphones, as well as a sense of safety, security, and wellbeing. The concept of Industry 4.0 sprouted with the implementation of IoT in smart factories, where planning, operation, production, and maintenance of factory operations are delegated to AI. Machine- to-machine communication, a direct use case of
IIoT, uses embedded sensors to network with each other so production and delivery schedules are sped up through asset and inventory tracking. They further train on real-time data using the external cloud for predictive maintenance, employee training, and front-line worker safety. Lighting, both indoor and outdoor, zaps a major chunk of energy supplied to an office or establishment. IoT is seen here as a primary necessity to keep energy costs at bay. Motion sensors can alert the control circuit to adjust lighting based on people’s presence. And machine learning can be used to modify the brightness or warmth of the luminaire based on available daylight. Dedicated LED lighting standards like DALI and Zhaga allow for a modular and upgradeable approach of linking the sensor and communication gateway to a controller/driver board neatly packaged inside a luminaire fixture. CONNECTIVITY THROUGH THE IOT TRAIL Tracking the information flow in an IoT application from the sensor to the cloud reveals interesting
FLH Mini Sealed 2.5 mm pitch wire-to-wire connectors from Amphenol used in a Zhaga/DALI based smart lighting interface (Image credit: Zhaga Consortium; Amphenol).
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