Are you familiar with the term “Internet of Things (IoT)?”
As a consumer, have you wondered how businesses are knowledgeable on the upcoming trends? With the aid of advanced technology, firms are able to purchase large amounts of quality raw data, analyse customer behaviours and interpret meaningful insights that may potentially lead to improved business ideas and strategic tactics.
Singapore is ranked the 8th developed country in the world, and it is without a doubt that technology have tremendously improved our standard of living.
Based on Statista, the number of connected devices have dramatically increased over the years, and it is predicted to hit 75.44 billions by 2025.
We can utilise data from technology to find trends and patterns for a positive impact to improve lifestyle, transportation, health and conversation.
Are you eager to improve your lives with Smart Devices?
Here are examples of SMART Creation.
# SMART MIRROR
In 2018, an interactive mirror was invented to bring fitness regime at home to the next level. The device can personalise your fitness profile, track your fitness progression while showcasing live workouts and offers an interactive fitness coach where you can exercise any time of the day at home. Isn’t that awesome?
#HABITAWARE
Bad habits of biting your fingernails, thumb sucking or even pinching yourself when you are feeling stress?
Habitaware is a smart bracelet tracker to help people be aware of their Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors disorder. It caters to individual needs, whereby it sense your repetitive behaviours and sends a vibration. Once aware, you will choose healthier activities and retain your brain from behaviours to positive ways. With such technology advancement, solutions change people’s lives.
#SMART UNLOCK
This is Google, our best friend! It allows users to unlock phones without password when it is in our pocket, or even through face recognition! Isn’t that great?
#SMART PET FEEDER
Wishing to own a poodle that you saw at the pet store? At the same time, worried you might not be able to handle the responsibility when it comes to feeding it on time? Fret not, with an automated pet feeder, this will be the least of your worry.
# SMART HOME
Have you ever imagined yourself living in a house controlled by technology that eases your daily life?
One good example would be Google Home! With the device, it provides convenience in the everyday lifestyle of consumers.
With all the SMART features mentioned above, there are some advantages and disadvantages of IoT as well.
Below are 3 main advantages and disadvantages of IoT:
Advantages :
- Convenience : Bringing the ease of convenience to the consumer with seamless experience. As some might say, time equals money.
- Data: With more information available, it is easier to make the right decision. For example, you can easily check the weather forecast before heading to work to anticipate the shoes you’ll need, or you can easily access your SMART app to check what is lacking in your fridge at the supermarket.
- Tracking: With the latest technology, big data and IoT, drivers are able to receive live updates on traffic conditions. This allows drivers to anticipate heavy traffic and choose the best route to the destination.
Disadvantages:
- Infringement of privacy : With huge amount of data collected, there is a risk of a privacy leak where confidential details and particulars could potentially be misused illegally.
- Lack of Human Touch : When there is an increase in digital technology, users will grow to be heavily dependent. Over time, this might cause users to forget the way of doing it themselves without technology.
- Lesser Job opportunities: With improved technologies, machines can be created with 24/7 higher efficiency, speed and quality as compared to humans. Companies will be looking to investing in such machines, and choose to forgo hiring employees.
In Conclusion,
The Internet has revolutionised the world significantly. I firmly believe that the current generation strongly reliant on the Internet and no longer can survive without it. Accessibility, Effective and Efficiency is what a consumer is looking for when purchasing a product. Therefore when businesses are innovating a new product, they should analyse and leverage technology and the Internet.
What are your thoughts on IoT? Is there more disadvantages or advantages to you as a consumer? Leave your comment below and I will reply soon! Thank you =)
Joannewsh 
Interesting post! I feel that the Internet of Things indeed brings us lots of advantages especially in the era where technology is a crucial tool for businesses as well as government. However, looking at a bigger picture which is ” Is Internet of Things desirable in the future?”. Imagine, if one day all the billion devices in our workplace or home requires IOT and it breaks down due to its vulnerability to bugs and hackers. Therefore, i feel that there is still a long way to go to achieve a safe and reliable IoT society.
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Hi Alvin. Yes, absolutely, the Internet of Things has brought consumers an abundance of advantages. Such as bringing convenience to disable people where they can continue with their daily routine activities. In my opinion, the Internet of things is significant to a certain extent. As much as you will go “wow” when you step into the house fully remote by devices and technology, cybersecurity is crucial! That’s is one reason why it’s not fully implemented and go live in Singapore. An example to have a cashless society without any physical cash. Will all Singaporean agree to this idea? Likelihood no! In the meantime, researchers and cybersecurity department are working hard to stop hackers and bugs. Ultimately, it is crucial as a consumer not to let your guards down and not to store any sensitive document in the cloud. Always encrypt your documents and set a password to minimise the rate of hackers intrude in.
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IOT has developed the current world of technologies, example such as machine vision, deep learning, image analytics. Such technology enabled new creations such as autonomous vehicles, shopping, logistic. Privacy is something that is always restricting new technology to advance faster due to data control. For technology to advance faster, data must be fed into the system to create a deep learning on self which will enable a new advancement of technology. But then again will you be willing to give out your data for technology advancement?
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Hi Dave, I agree with you that technological innovation is mainly of the fast-paced advancement we see today, with full of possible benefits but also fraught with risk. Although this technology is actually designed to make our lives easier, privacy, data protection factor or even safety is always the restriction towards the advance of new product! For example, the invention of smart contact lenses! Google and even Samsung have been actively trying to implement it. However, due to safety issues and risk involved, companies are still doing their research. Next, cybersecurity is another factor that most people are a concern of, in terms of bugs and hackers. But we could also be giving cyber-criminals a window into our world, straight into our identities and into our bank accounts. How to keep those connections secured is the biggest challenge in the current and next future technology advancement.
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We are living in such an exciting time. It’s wonderful to see how technology can be used to complement our lifestyles. At the same time, I must agree about the privacy issue. Our personal data is extremely valuable. We must learn to take control of safeguarding ourselves if we choose to use these technologies by using VPNs and antiviruses. On the contrary to lesser job availability, I believe that this is a hidden opportunity to evolve ourselves through building our industry skills to stay relevant and also spark an increase in entrepreneurship across many industries while incorporating technology. This was a very interesting post, I had not known about some of the technologies mentioned.
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Hi Rachel. I am glad that you have some insights. Technology is used to help our daily life easier so that we can multitask and do prioritise our time on other things. As much as we love how technology has advanced with every device turning SMART, we still cannot neglect the most critical factor, which is cybersecurity. Google has many tips and methods that we can adopt in safeguarding ourselves to minimise the chances of hackers hacking into our system. Yes, the IT industry is currently in demand and schools are actually implementing compulsory IT modules into the curriculum. It will be beneficial for consumers to have the minimum knowledge on how to minimise on bugs and hackers. I do agree with you that there are many opportunities for people to stay updated while innovating and creating digital devices.
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Brilliant article! This highlighted many of the incredible new technologies on the market now. It’s amazing to see what people can come up with! There’s no doubt that the seemingly distant future is here. As with the development of all new technologies there are pros and cons. Keeping an open mind and up to date with the latest technology is key to surviving in our constantly developing world!
It’s scary to think about how many smart technologies are becoming the norm in households when you consider all the increased privacy and security issues that can come with them. That being said, there is are seemingly endless opportunities for those in cyber security.
As with all change, there’s something to lose but always something to gain!
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Hi Lewes, sorry for the late response, and I hope you have a good time reading my blog. It’s great having such advanced technology in our daily life, bringing entertainment, convenience and increase in productivity. There is no one size fit all strategy, what may work now does not work 5 years down the road. Hence, it is vital to be open-minded, having the adaptability to constant changes in the current evolving digital world. With the current generation, everyone wishes to own the latest smart devices. Some may want it because of feature and function that may seem “cool” or “in-trend” while others may want it because it eases the convenience and increase in productivity. Imagine yourself sitting in the living room, and you have the lastest smart robot to bring the glass of water from the kitchen for you without you having to walk over. Isn’t it great? Don’t you wish to own one as well? With that being said, it comes with disadvantages. Privacy and Security is one major issue for smart devices. Can you image system malfunction and you cant enter to your house due to Smart Door? Or worst case, your data and privacy are being hacked? Do you still remember the recent few cyber incidents happen in Singapore?
Firstly, there was a cyber attack on SingHealth personal data. Secondly, 3.7m Sephora’s member personal data up for sale on Dark Web.
You may read more on https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/sephora-data-breach-customer-records-for-sale-dark-web-11772722.
Therefore, Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) is putting their effort to have nationwide exercise tests complex in cyber-attack scenarios and emergency response plans. You may read more in this article: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/nationwide-exercise-tests-complex-cyber-attack-scenarios. An individual also must play a part in cybersecurity such as anti-virus and password encryption.
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Interesting article! I agree with you that the internet of things has definitely played a huge role in the world we live in now. It has solved many problems, and ease the convenience for many. Everywhere we go, there’s an internet connection. Even in shopping malls and MRT platforms, we can even be connected to the wireless@sg network! However, nothing is perfect. While everyone is enjoying the benefits of IoT, consumers still need to be mindful of the website they are using or secure with password encryption. It is dangerous if we are not mindful and may lead to an unnecessary cyber attack. Anyway, thank you for sharing such an insightful post! Hope to read more interesting articles in the future! 🙂
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Hi Phylicia. Sorry for the late response and glad you enjoy reading my post. Me too! I love how I can connect to the wireless@sg network at certain shopping malls and MRT platforms where I can save my internet data. When there are pros, there’s bound to be cons. Same goes to IoT. Even though IoT is beneficial and amazing, privacy and security are still the critical key concern to many users. With technologies being easily accessible, it’s simple for hackers to hack into the internet and invade your privacy. Can you imagine having a smart home, thinking that it’s all safe, cool and stylish, and tech-savvy? However, in fact, it’s dangerous and unsafe, as people may violate your privacy and enter your house without the need to know your door password. Would you still feel safe living with technologies surrounded at home? Come to think about it, it’s still pretty scary to equipped everything around you with technologies. Hence, I believe that as much as IoT has benefited society in many ways, there are still flaws towards IoT. As it is easily accessible by anyone unless there is face recognition or using biometric identifier via thumbprint. Probably a smart lock wouldn’t be a good option as it is worth the value of your entire home. If You are not carious, your valuable assets stored at home might be stolen in the case of trespassing. It will be too late by then.
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Hi Joanne, an insightful blog post on Internet of Things! There were clear explanation of what is is about and the various examples of how Internet of Things are applicable to our daily life making it a ‘smart’ living. I do have a fish pet at home and sometimes its frustrating that I am not able to feed it for a couple of days! However after coming across the auto pet feeding technology on your post, I hope that will be a problem of the past and something i do not have to worry about! It will surely be something that I’m looking forward to.
I feel that IOT is essential with the advancement of technologies, however it is important that Government and relevant authorities step up their security and measurements to better protect our data to prevent these from being misused.
We should not compromise the convenience that IOT can provide us just because we are worried about the risks involved, shouldn’t we?
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Hi Ying Han, glad that you enjoyed reading my post. With the advance of new technology, and creativity of the current and future generation, I am pretty sure in the next future, people will be inventing Auto Pet-feeding machine for fishes as well.
Yes, speaking of which, Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) trying their best to find strategic ways of cyber protection. They recently have a nationwide exercise tests complex cyber-attack scenarios to test Singapore’s cyber-incident management and emergency response plans. You may read more on this link: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/nationwide-exercise-tests-complex-cyber-attack-scenarios.
We should not let our guards down by taking technology advancement and artificial intelligence for granted. Especially when they bring us many conveniences to our daily lives.
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