Potential Use of IoT Applications in Traffic, Healthcare and Agriculture

There’s no question that IoT applications in the modern world have been shifting our experience in different industries. On the development of Internet of Things (IoT), we had a warm coffee chat with Ms Van Dang, Savvycom CEO to discuss further both the tip and the undercovered of IoT.
Q: How do you think the IoT has developed in the past years?
A: According to Forbes, thanks to the smart ability to connect everything down to one place, which is highly convenient to collect, keep track, store, analyse and interpret information in a comprehensible way, IoT is being more and more accepted and consumed worldwide, especially by businesses. We have received so many inquiries and requests on IoT these days, which evidences for the IoT development nowadays.
Q: What do you think are the current popular industry for applications of IoT?
A: My personal top 3 would be traffic, healthcare and agriculture.
Q: What do you mean by saying “traffic”?
A: When it comes to applications of IoT in traffic, it often means the automotive. Road vehicles, while travelling around the city, can meet so many difficulties relating to parking, traffic jam, steal, etc. To ease the drivers’ life, many solutions have been offered throughout the years, and IoT is one of them. You might not notice it, but IoT applications are almost everywhere on the road, no matter it’s embedded in our vehicles or the traffic flows. That’s why I listed “traffic” in my top 3.
Q: Can you name some of IoT applications in solving traffic-ache?
A: There are lots of things IoT can do for the traffic in terms of convenient parking, traffic jam avoidance, stealing prevention, etc.
Firstly, IoT might work for parking by collecting and spreading real-time information and communicating about the parking slots available. Therefore, the driver can find unoccupied space quickly.
Another interesting application of IoT is the vehicle antitheft tracking system, which is very useful regarding security purposes. The vehicle anti-theft tracking system is developed on the base of IoT. It is controlled by a well-known technology called RFID module whereby digital data encoded in its special tags or smart labels are captured by a reader via radio waves. So if the vehicle is stolen then the sensors report back to its owner with current location via communication through devices.
Also, the IoT plays an active role in the traffic flow by collecting information from different resources such as traffic cameras, vehicles GPS, sensors on the road etc. The data derived from these sources is analyzed to understand the traffic pattern and enables them to find new ways to optimize and run the traffic flow more smoothly.
Our company, Savvycom, had come to tackle the traffic issue as well by introducing REALM, a smart GPS tracker. Apart from the basic function as other GPS tools: helping drivers to find the shortest and easiest route, REALM allows users to form a group tracking among drivers heading to the same destination and maintain communication with each other in real-time. Moreover, it has the ability to create a virtual fence, which will immediately alert the group leader if there is any member goes out of track. This will optimise the time spending for finding the right direction and guarantee that every member shows up at the same time without anyone being lost behind.
Q: Are IoT applications really needed for the healthcare industry?
A: It depends on each person hierarchy of priority, but it’s no doubt that IoT is totally capable of improving the level of convenience and professionality to the medical sector.
We have IoT wearable devices, like smart-watches, to record our biometrics, temperature, etc, then read it to notify us of any possible sign of illness so that we could have a heads-up before the diseases get worse. We also have IoT telehealth services, the healthcare system integrating wirelessly with communicating devices and system apps that connect the health providers and patients to diagnose diseases, monitor blood pressure, and record patient’s medical health history and provide consultation in a remote location. There’s no need to worry about geographical locations anymore.
With such applications, patients will get more comfort and convenience, while doctors and medical services will become more trustworthy than ever before.
Q: What makes you think agriculture is a place for IoT applications?
A: Just the same logic as with traffic and healthcare. Agriculture is the economic spine of many countries, including Vietnam, so a must is to maximise the productivity of agriculture. Then look around and you can see IoT has become a great sidekick to the agriculture counting up to today.
For example, IoT helps in increasing productivity of crops by managing different activities, one of which is water management for crops, in which proper water supply is mandatory for agriculture otherwise it causes extensive damage to crops. To do it, IoT integrates with sensors to manage the requirement and supply of water for crops. Therefore, IoT helps agriculture to reduce water wastage and regulate water supply.
On the other hand, IoT can ensure the timely communication of real-time data to agricultural processes like harvesting, weather forecast and soil quality etc. Through this, the farmer has plenty of information before harvesting the crops in advance and he can plan activities accordingly.
Q: Is there any challenge you think IoT might face?
A: Of course opportunities will come along with challenges. Any IoT developer or applicator shall consider the security level for user data and their protection. There is a risk where DDoS attacks manipulate IoT devices to become their botnets, unconsciously facilitating DDoS attacks to the target, so guarding against their threats is never of redundancy.
The technology level among regions is also a problem. No matter in which country, the technological standard is still inconsistent and remains fragmented depending on different areas. The challenge then becomes providing an IoT application that suits the technological stages of as many places as possible.
There are also other challenges relating to international and national regulation, regarding intellectual property rights, cyber-crime, technical and boundary limitation in some areas of technology, etc.
Q: Do you have any suggestion on how to overcome those challenges?
A: Those are the all-time challenges. They can’t be solved in just one day, nor have the same answer for all types of the company having such problems. Lots of research, brainstorming and analysis must be exerted to find the proper solution for each of the challenges depending on the competencies of each company. Therefore, while confronting IoT challenges, I recommend that one should either build an in-house consulting team to improve the firm’s competitive capability or outsourcing from a consulting or technology firm for suitable, professional and efficient advice.
In conclusion, we would love to capture this topic in the infographic as below.

In case you need any consultation, feel free to contact us, Savvycom. We will be happy to provide you with a free consultation for future cooperation.