As an IoT enthusiast, we often wonder how technology has made life simpler in terms of comfy. The term “spoon fed” is what I would like to use. Gartner estimates that about 8.4 billion IoT devices were in use in 2017, up 31% from the previous year, and it will hit 20.4 billion by 2020. Total world spending on IoT hit about $2 trillion in 2017. Take this estimation on one hand, and on the other hand, let us think about our lives without appliances or devices with IoT enabled. So, we will take a use case of an appliance which is now an IoT enabled and not before and compare their results and effectiveness.
There are many examples of IoT enabled devices such as,
- Pacemakers are now WiFi enabled, the doctors can now track the information about the patients. All the implants are becoming IoT enabled nowadays.
- The ornaments and dress we wear are also becoming IoT enabled as IoT wearables.
- Appliances such as Washing Machine, Refrigerator, Air Conditioners, Thermostats, Security cameras, Lights are together as a setup now known as Smart Home!
- Agriculture or “Precision Agriculture” – sensors kept in the soil to sense the moisture level and self-driven tractors are implemented in the farms. Also, it is mandatory in the USA to have sensors fed to the cattle to track them from their birth.
- Smart buildings or Smart parking garage that can talk with trucks and vehicles.
- Traffic lights and parking meters are IoT enabled that can communicate with the vehicles.
Did You Know?
The very first IoT device is a coke machine! Read more on “The little-known story of the first IoT device : IBM”
We will see an example of an appliance which has been made IoT enabled now and which was not earlier.
Washing Machine
Non- IoT enabled : Example WW9000 Washing Machine with ecobubble , 10 kg
The washing machine is primarily used for washing and drying the clothes. It comes with two steel tubs, which is an inner tub and the outer tub whose role is to prevent water spillage to other parts of the machine. There are so many control knobs such as to select the load, to select the water inlet such as hot or cold water, to select the mode such as save mode or normal mode and finally a program to select which comes to heavy, normal, light or delicates. In our modern day non-IoT washing machine appliances, the selectivity of the programs varies.
Operation
Fill, Agitate, Drain and spin are the main functions of a washing machine. It comes with a clear embedded system where all the functions are done by a microcontroller. All the operations are connected to the microcontroller, when the machine is ON and the program is selected, the microcontroller is triggered and it functions.
About WW9000 Washing Machine with ecobubble , 10 kg:
- Four sensing technologies detect the load size, the amount of water needed and the degree of soil to select the best wash programme. It even adds the right amount of detergent for you.
- Comes with a Digital Inverter Motor and a spin speed of 1600 rpm.
IoT enabled:
Example : SAMSUNG WW7800M
- The new WW7800M with QuickDrive technology is Samsung’s latest washing machine slated for release in 2019.
- It has an AI-powered laundry assistant called Q-
rator .
Three key smart features;
- Laundry Planner
- Laundry Recipe
- HomeCare Wizard.
Laundry Planner:
It comes with a customized timing and a proper schedule for the time period of each wash. It allows the users to manage the laundry schedule.
Laundry Recipe:
It provides automatic recommendations for optimal wash cycles based on the information such as color, fabric type, and degree of soiling provided by the user.
HomeCare Wizard:
Onboard support structures for alerts of any problems and to provide troubleshooting support if needed. Also allows the users to monitor the washing machine by means of remote i.e, from anywhere in the world.
Q-rator: The Samsung’s new washing machine WW7800M comes with an Artificial intelligence technology powered laundry assistant known as Q-rator.
QuickDrive technology: Innovative QuickDrive™ technology reduces the washing time by up to 50% without even compromising the cleaning performance.
Comparison of Non-IoT enabled device and IoT enabled device:
| Comparison | Non IoT enabled device | IoT enabled device |
| Example | WW9000 Washing Machine with ecobubble , 10 kg | WW7800 QuickDrive Washing Machine with Hygiene Steam, 9kg |
| Quick Drive Technology | No | Yes |
| Q-rator | No | Yes |
| Motor | Digital Inverter Motor | Digital Inverter Motor |
| Smart Check | No | Yes |
| Energy Consumption (annual) | 119 KWh | 130 KWh |
| Annual Water consumption | 11500 L | 9400 L |
| Last memory | No | Yes, in the provided app “Samsung Connect” |
| Add Wash ( adding clothes in the middle of the wash) | No | Yes |
| Smart Control | Yes (only on WiFi and Samsung app) | Yes |
Improvements done when a device is IoT enabled:
- Smart home devices are becoming more popular every day, by 2022, the global smart home market is expected to exceed $53 billion. This IoT enabled devices are not a luxurious dream for anyone anymore. We all possess a smart phone and internet connectivity in our homes.
- We all can access the information of our devices sitting anywhere in this world.
- There is no need to select the program and the mode daily for the washing machine! It senses your favorite program and saves in its memory.
- You can receive notifications when your wash is done.
- You can monitor or check the status of your wash in a single app.
- You can even schedule the wash or start a wash cycle.
- Downloads new wash cycles and dryer cycles for special fabrics and load.
- You can even sync with all the smart home devices and your smart dryer can monitor for when local energy use is low and run cycles during off-peak hours for additional savings on utility bills.
Potential problems:
- So, when a device is made IoT enabled the first thing comes to our mind is the internet connectivity. Most of the problems arise when there comes with
a low connectivity or a problem with syncing your devices to your app, or via Bluetooth. Mostly all the wireless network issuesexperiences this kind of problems. - The host company’s server issues are the next most intolerable problem for the customers. Think for a while, if there is a server problem from the company’s side,
however the great smart home IoT enabled device at last works as a normal device withouta proper internet connectivity and good server. - In some cases, the Wi-Fi router is
a biggest problem; it often keeps dropping off- because of a poor connection or an unstable bandwidth. For this kind of problems, we can install a mesh router system which might extend the signal in a long way. - The Samsung WW7800M comes with a warning message- “No liability is accepted for any damage caused by incorrect information entered by the user”. It may warn the users to prevent any damage to the appliance, but what may occur in case there was any human error or an illiterate person handles the appliance.
- Describe potential privacy issues arising with the IoT enabled device that did not exist with the original.
Potential privacy issues arising with the IoT enabled device that did not exist with the original:
Apart from proving ease and comfy technology, IoT enabled or smart home appliances collects many data via sensor and from users. Every new household appliance connected to the internet generates more data about the user’s patterns and behavior creating yet another digital trail of personal details. This data is more than likely to be stored in some company’s servers and could easily fall into the wrong hands.
The customers must be careful while clicking the term “Agree” where not many would prefer to read the small printed license material in their privacy policy. Even the company may deny all the access to the customers if at all they do not provide details of their data usage to them, this is a trick employed by many companies now that leaves the customers with no option and finally accept their terms and provide their personal details.
Estimation of the price difference between the non-IoT enabled devices and the IoT enabled devices:
As we have two examples seen above,
- IoT enabled washing machine—
WW9000 Washing Machine with ecobubble, 10 kg== 1470 Eur
- Non IoT enabled washing machine–
WW7800 QuickDrive Washing Machine with Hygiene Steam, 9kg== 1043 Eur
Conclusion
Image Source: stuff
Despite all opinions on the pros and cons of the IoT enabled Smart home washing machine, when it comes to price, as we had already seen there is not much difference at all. I have chosen a non-IoT enabled device with some advanced technology. The only difference is seen in the control and comfy ease usage of the appliance. For example, if you are buying a Smart home Washing machine, the next thing you feel is to buy a smart home refrigerator and the list goes on. This way you can connect all the devices in a single Smart hub and control them sitting anywhere in the world.
In future, when it comes to the technology advancements such as 5G, Machine learning, and Artificial Intelligence, Industrial IoT 4.0, etc; everything would be changed to Smart so as the machines will start to understand us by AI and machine learning technology, and we can control them using the Internet of Things. With considering all these situations, I would conclude by saying that IoT enabled devices or Smart devices can save you money and also help show where you can save money by keeping track of energy use and expenditures.
