The Internet of Things, the connection of devices (other than standard products such as computers and smartphones) to the Internet, is in the process of transforming numerous areas of our everyday lives. And while it might not seem like an obvious application of the IoT, education is on that list.
The Internet has deeply rooted itself into our schools, and e-learning has become common practice in the American school system. But the applications of the IoT in education are numerous, and the implications for this disruption are tremendous.
The rise of mobile technology and the IoT allows schools to improve the safety of their campuses, keep track of key resources, and enhance access to information. Teachers can even use this technology to create "smart lesson plans," rather than the traditional stoic plans of yesteryear.
Below, we've compiled a list of IoT education examples, including the uses of the IoT in higher education, the future of the Internet in education, and examples of companies that are using the IoT to enter the education space.
IoT in Higher Education
The IoT can begin disrupting the education process as early as kindergarten and can continue to do so through 12th grade, but perhaps the most profound effects occur in higher education.
Students, particularly in college, are increasingly moving away from paper books toward tablets and laptops. With all of the necessary information at their fingertips, students can now learn at their own pace and have a nearly identical educational experience in their homes and in the classroom.
And while this trend provides increased convenience for students, it also makes the teaching process more efficient for professors. The surge in connected technology means that instructors do not need to manually grade tests on paper or perform other routine tasks.
Instead, professors can focus on the actual, personal instruction that is most valuable to their students. Devices connected to the cloud allow professors to gather data on their students and then determine which ones need the most individual attention and care. These statistics also let teachers properly adjust their lesson plans for future classes.
Third grade students study on computers using online learning in the lab at Rocketship SI Se Puede, a charter, public elementary school, on February 18, 2014 in San Jose, California.
Outside of the classroom, universities can use connected devices to monitor their students, staff, and resources and equipment at a reduced operating cost, which saves everyone money. And these tracking capabilities should also lead to safer campuses. For example, students would be able to keep track of connected buses and adjust their schedules accordingly, which would prevent them from spending unnecessary time in potentially dangerous areas.
Future of the Internet in Education
As of 2015, 73% of all U.S. teenagers had access to a smartphone, according to Capterra. Nearly 100% of all U.S. public schools have Internet access. And 70% of middle school students and 75% of high school students use laptops for educational purposes.
With that foundation upon which to build, it's easy to see how the Internet of Things is poised to radically transform education as we know it. Capterra points out that 69% of students want to use their mobile devices more frequently in the classroom, and most of those students want to use them to automate tasks that they already do now, such as note-taking, schedule checking, and research.
As for the schools, the greatest benefits would be increased energy efficiency and reduced operating costs. New Richmond schools in Tipp City, Ohio are saving approximately $128,000 each year by using a web-based system that controls all mechanical equipment inside the buildings.
Furthermore, Greentech Media points out that investment in these "smart schools" usually pays off within two years. And this tech can even be installed into older buildings by attaching smart sensors and other devices to existing control panels.
And the savings continue as schools invest in reusable resources, such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. Capterra notes that an average school spends an average of $30,000 to $50,000 per year just on paper, but reusable tech would completely eliminate that cost.
As more schools adopt this technology, expect to see more "smart schools" pop up throughout the U.S. until they are the standard for American education.
Examples of Companies in the IoT for Education Space
The foremost example of a tech company that has invaded schools is SMART, which pioneered the world's first interactive whiteboard in 1991. SMART boards changed the way teachers and students interacted in the classroom by moving lessons away from the dusty chalkboards that dominated education for decades.
But SMART is far from the only company sinking its hooks into the U.S. school system. IPEVO has also manufactured a wireless interactive whiteboard that serves as an alternative to the SMART board, notes the Huffington Post.
Ideapaint, which creates dry-erase whiteboard paint, dove headlong into the IoT by developing an app called Bounce with the goal of bringing more of the educational experience online.
And IBM has announced that it would invest $3 billion into the IoT over the next few years, and a significant portion of that money will go toward education.
More to Learn
Approximately 50.4 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools as of Fall 2016, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That's a slight increase from the 50.3 million who attended in Fall 2015.
With figures like those, it's clear that the education system isn't going away anytime soon. And with that emphasis on the importance of education, it's equally important for the Internet of Things to improve the quality of that education.
But education is far from the only area of our lives that the IoT will transform. Transportation, energy, homes, healthcare, and more will all feel the touch of the IoT in the coming years.
That's why BI Intelligence has spent months creating the most exhaustive resource on not just education, but the entire IoT: The Internet of Things: Examining How The IoT Will Affect The World.
To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the IoT universe, choose one of these options:
Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of the IoT.
This project is part of Microsoft’s Hack the Home initiative, which provides makers with free, open-source components for effortless interfacing with devices and services that makers use most to hack their homes.
The new Windows.Devices namespace from the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) APIs in Windows 10, enable developers to leverage the power of Windows while interacting with the real world via sensors and actuators.
This project uses the I2C bus and general purpose input/output (GPIO) ports available on the Raspberry Pi 2, to create an internet connected weather station using the SparkFun weather shield.
The instructions provided will give a developer first-hand experience setting up the required hardware along with writing and debugging the newly available Windows 10, UWP Windows.Devices API's. This lab will also demonstrate how to aggregate your data in cloud using the Azure Event Hub, via the easy-to-use ConnectTheDots API.
Hardware
Pinout Diagram (Raspberry Pi 2 --> Sparkfun weather shield):
GND-------(black)------GND
5V----------(red)---------VIN
3V3-------(brown)------5V (shield hack; not a typo)
GPIO2-----(yellow)----SDA
GPIO3----(orange)----SCL
GPIO5-----(green)-----D8
GPIO6-----(blue)-------D7
Software
Identify your computer name:
The weather station is actually two applications! What?!?! That's right. The first is a long running (indefinitely, actually) background task that reads the sensors and acts as a weather station server. The second, a UI that makes a request to port 50001 of the server and displays the data. The UI application is universal and can be deployed on any Windows device from the Raspberry Pi 2 all the way to a desktop PC - and anywhere in between!
You need to find the following line in the `Mainpage.xaml.cs` file from the `build2015-weather-station` project, and replace the computer name, "minwinpc", in the URL with the name of your IoT device.
//TODO: On the following line, replace "minwinpc" with the computer name of your IoT device (i.e. "http://:50001").
private Uri weatherUri = new Uri("http://minwinpc:50001");
Enable the "Task List" display
Double-click on any item in the list and jump straight into the source!
Each //TODO: is preceded by comments and HINTS to help you with the missing sections.
Install the weather station application:
Clone the linked repository (using the --recursive flag)
select the "lab" branch (default), if you want to learn the new UWP Windows.Devices API's and complete the code yourself
select the "master" branch if you want the completed code
Open "WeatherStationWeatherStation.sln" in Visual Studio 2015
Navigate to "WeatherShield.cs" in the "Solution Explorer" pane
If you chose the lab branch, Navigate to “View >> Other Windows >> Task List”, to view the remaining work (depicted above).
You will notice there is quite a bit of detail in the comment to help you complete the task. However, if you still need that extra nudge, there will be a “HINT” provided to remind you to look to nearby code for help (illustrated above).
Once the //TODO:'s have been completed, click the “Debug” menu item, and select “WeatherStation Properties…”
Under the “Debug” tab, in the “Start options” section
Select “Remote Device” as “Target device:”
Enter the IP address of your Windows IoT Core device in the “Remote machine:” field
Deploy to the Windows IoT Core device
Interface with and/or debug the application:
Set a breakpoint in "WeatherStationTask.cs", in the "PopulateWeatherData" function,/li>
Step through the individual I2C transactions as they occur
OR
Ping the IP address of your Windows IoT Core device on port 50001 in an internet browser window (i.e. http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:50001)
Integrating with ConnectTheDots:
Select the "lab_ConnectTheDots" branch, if you want to learn how to use ConnectTheDots and complete the code yourself
Open "WeatherStationWeatherStation.sln" in Visual Studio 2015
Navigate to "WeatherStationTask.cs" in the "Solution Explorer" pane
Use the "Task List" to jump to each “//TODO:” and write the necessary code
The AppSettings, ConnectTheDotsSensor, and ConnectTheDotsHelper files are all part of the code created to help you use the ConnectTheDots interface to the Azure Event Hub.
AppSettings: Saves the settings for connecting to the Event Hub
This information can be found under your ServiceBus in Azure.
Go to your "*-ns" servicebus instance -> Event Hubs -> ehdevices -> Connection Information -> Look for the SAS "D1"
Copy the connection string which should look like this (It contains information for your AppSettings)
Once you have it deployed, it should start sending data to the event hub and the data should be viewable on http://iotbuildlab.azurewebsites.net/ or your own website.
While vaccines save millions of lives each year and are among the most cost-effective health interventions ever developed, about 1.5 million children die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases, according to the World Health Organization. Some factors that contribute to the availability of vaccines globally include unreliable transportation systems and intermittent storage facilities, which make it difficult to preserve high-quality vaccines that require refrigeration.
But with the use of smart technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT), healthcare and medical device companies are improving ways to keep vaccines stored and protected throughout the supply chain. One great example is the Weka Smart Fridge, which enables clinicians in the field to better manage vaccine distribution, helping them save lives.
“Clinicians in areas of Africa and other regions where power is unstable or inaccessible can use our Smart Fridge to store and dispense vaccines. And the Fridge is small enough that you can put it in a van. So if you can’t bring the people to the vaccine, you can bring the vaccine to the people,” says Alan Lowenstein, COO of Weka Health Solutions.
The Fridge automates vaccine storage and dose dispensing to save time and enhance patient care. It includes remote monitoring services to ensure vaccines are stored at the right temperature, while automatic inventory tracing saves staff time and ensures a reliable vaccine supply. The refrigerator houses each vaccine in its own cartridge, in keeping with required storage protocol by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, access is limited through a small drawer on the front of the Smart Fridge to protect vaccines from temperature change.
The Vaccine Smart Fridge uses an IoT platform that collects real-time data from numerous sensors on every unit to enable 24×7 monitoring and analysis. BlueMetal, the 2016 Microsoft Internet of Things Worldwide Partner of the Year, worked with Weka to develop the IoT-enabled device that keeps vaccines fresh, secured and accounted for. The real-time visualization of vaccine inventory throughout the network enables Weka to understand the vaccination rates at every location. And by using business intelligence capabilities such as those in Azure Machine Learning, organizations can be alerted to upcoming vaccine shortages at specific clinics or in certain areas. For example, if a clinic unexpectedly runs out of a vaccine, the system can let a healthcare worker know there’s a physician’s office a few miles away that has a surplus of that type of vaccine in stock.
Controlled refrigeration and monitoring also helps reduce financial losses. “Physicians generally have $40,000 to $60,000 worth of vaccines in their refrigerators,” says Lowenstein. “If the clinic suffers a power outage or the traditional fridge fails, they risk losing the entire inventory of vaccines.” By using automated processes to manage inventory through IoT sensors, the Fridge can deliver proactive alerts on inventory shortages or changes in temperature.
In addition, Weka estimates that a medical practice that dispenses approximately 400 vaccines per month could reduce human-resource costs by more than $1,000 a month with the Fridge’s monitoring system. This system helps ensure that the first vaccines in the refrigerator are the first that come out, so patients never receive an expired or recalled vaccine, and it reduces the manual task of vaccine management by clinicians.
The Smart Fridge is a great example of how companies can accelerate digital transformation with smart solutions to increase staff efficiency and quality control and automate inventory management. Weka’s Smart Fridge is currently scheduled to go to market at the beginning of 2017.
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All NFL Players Are Getting RFID Chips This Season
Using real-time RFID tracking of NFL players, the Next Gen Stats portion of the NFL app for Xbox One and Windows 10 shows a play in detail. Image: Microsoft
In terms of size, speed, and strength, NFL football players have always been superhuman. This season, they’re all about to become cyborgs, too.
Last year, the NFL tested out Zebra Technologies MotionWorks RFID system in 18 stadiums to track vector data: A player’s speed, distance, and direction traveled during each game in real-time. This season, that wireless tracking technology will be embedded in every NFL player’s shoulder pads, and viewers at home can see all that data come to life in the redesigned NFL 2015 app for Xbox One and Windows 10.
Within the app, there’s a feature called Next Gen Stats that turns each player into an digital avatar for a “Next Gen Replay.” In coordination with a highlight clip posted shortly after it occurs live on the field, Next Gen Replay displays every player’s speed at each moment of a play, lets you toggle between players, and keeps track of the actual yardage a running back has run in a play or in a game.
“We will tie Next Gen Stats into every replay that comes into the Xbox,” says Todd Stevens, Executive Producer at Microsoft. “Replays like a one-yard touchdown run, you don’t really need Next Gen Stats. But some of these plays, like a long pass play, are truly spectacular. We wanted to give them a bit of special sauce.”
To do so, the Next Gen Stats section will also include features that highlight players rather than plays. At launch, which will be in late August, there will be a special section called Afterburner that highlights the speediest players in the NFL over time. More of those player-highlight collections are planned for the future in a section called Top Playmakers.
Tying speed, position, and distance data to 22 separate football players, animating them on a virtual field, and aggregating all their data over time might seem like a process that would take a while to add to each highlight clip. But according to Stevens, as soon as a highlight clip is posted to NFL.com, the Xbox NFL app will have all that stuff ready to go for each video.
“The only thing that keeps us from having it instantaneous is the human element to cutting the highlight,” Stevens says. “If somebody in Culver City for the NFL has to edit the highlight, as soon as it hits NFL.com we get it, and we can tie in the data instantaneously. We have all the data as the game is being played. You could see the little position graphics live. There are complications to showing that, but it’s something I think we’ll end up trying to do in the future.”
Along with the video-game-like presentation of real-world plays, there’s an actual gaming aspect to the Next Gen Replay feature. In a mini-game called “NGS Pick’em,” you choose eight to 10 players you think will run the fastest or travel the farthest in a game.
While Next Gen Stats is innovative, a few more features within the new NFL app for Xbox may be even more compelling for big-time fans. You can basically roll your own sports ticker: You select pop-up notifications for specific games, your favorite teams, and two fantasy teams from NFL.com, CBS, ESPN, and Yahoo. A little alert will pop up from the bottom of the screen to let you know if something notable has happened in tracked games, if someone in your fantasy matchup has scored, or if a new highlight clip from a game is ready. Using the Xbox One’s “Snap” feature, you can then view that clip in a sidebar without interrupting the main game you’re watching on the big screen.
“Our focus was to make this the best gameday experience,” says Stevens. “It’s super-simple to customize and slide in and out of things without missing any of the game. You hit one button and you go into that snap view, another button and I’m back in full screen.”
The new app will be available in late August, just in time for week three of the preseason. The NFL app and the Next Gen Stats features are free to everyone.
