When we think about how we interact with the Internet of Things we might think of using the web an app on our smartphone; but rarely do we think of our phones as the sensor node – most of the time it’s our gateway for other sensors or a control device.
In reality the smartphone offers just about everything we could possibly need to act as a sensor node in many cases. I actually moved away from wearing a Jawbone Up fitness tracker because I was able to find an app that took advantage of the accelerometers in my iPhone to do the same exact thing. And, it did it better with less hassle as I no longer need to charge a separate device and then sync the data to my phone to have access to it.
Our phones are packed to the brim with sensors and more than enough computing power to boot. Granted battery life and durability have been consistent issues over time with smartphones, but their ability to pull data from the world around us has been on a consistent rise.
It is now easy enough to replace a lot of wearable tech by adding a simple application to our smartphone so it can take over that function with hardware it already has built in, no need to adorn ourselves with something new.
While the smartphone might not be the be-all-end-all of sensor nodes, it does a pretty good job for a lot of things. It’s packed with numerous sensors, had various ways to connect back to the Internet, and for the most part with almost always have it on us. The Internet of Things is the future and the smartphone is going to be a very big part of it. Until next time, stay connected.
Dana Blouin is an expert in the field of the Internet of Things and connected devices. Follow him on Twitter @danablouin