The IoT and Smart Environments: An Overview
Seyed A. Shahrestani · 2017
The enterprises are beginning to take advantage of the opportunities that the IoT offers by implanting sensors and actuators into their products and services. The IoT adoptions have also enabled the development of smart environments. These advances are drastically shifting the way businesses function and how people engage with the physical world. The pervasive nature of the IoT and the context-aware characteristics that stem from connecting everything together, support the provisions of ambient intelligence. The capabilities to communicate such intelligence with other machines, including those nearby and those providing cloud-based deep learning and AI capacities, hold significant potentials for improving people’s lives in many respects. This chapter outlines the fundamental structure and characteristics of the IoT and smart environments, focusing on those features that can be substantial for assistive technology developments and employments. The chapter also presents some of the typical applications of the IoT and smart environments, to demonstrate the advantages and implications of their deployment in aged-care and for empowering people living with disability or dementia.