The Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionising the way we interact with the world around us. Blueberry has the expertise to bring your IoT project to life, from the ground up. Our experienced team of developers can help you create a connected ecosystem of physical objects, enabling you to collect and exchange data in real-time.
The “Internet of Things” (IoT) refers to the network of physical objects – vehicles, buildings, appliances and so on – that are embedded with electronics, software, sensors and network connectivity so that they can collect and exchange data. If your company is looking to develop an IoT solution, we can help.
Here we look at the development issues that need to be considered.
To most people, IoT means either smart watches that can monitor the wearer’s health, a television with PVR / web functionality, or a smart fridge that keeps an inventory of its contents. Whilst IoT makes it possible for smart devices to create a smart home, the reality is that the Internet of Things is poised to be much more than that, whilst also being largely invisible. Most of the components will probably be housed inside featureless boxes sitting in the utility closet, or systems-on-a chip added to a device’s circuit board, allowing it to talk to other devices.
IoT is different from the internet as most people understand it because it refers specifically to machine-to-machine communication (M2M), rather than computers-to-people, and is being driven by the dynamic mobile devices market and advances in SOC (System-On-a Chip) solutions, sensors, memory, networking and power.
Real-world examples of IoT include:
Healthcare:
Patients with atrial fibrillation have been able to buy individual devices for as little as $75. Subscriptions to cardiac monitoring services leverage this lower-cost collection of data by enabling more timely interventions in case of a cardiac event.
Home:
British Gas is expanding its IoT profile with the already established Hive, a smart meter able to control heating and hot water remotely. British Gas are planning on developing a new platform called Honeycomb to work alongside it, enabling integration with smart energy applications so that homeowners can switch to ‘holiday mode’ when the house is empty. This is essentially one platform linking numerous connectable devices via IoT sensors.
Other examples of current IoT development include:
All sorts of goods might benefit from an RFID tag with which the user, salesperson or serviceman could, say, check the warranty expiration, or have it invisibly personalised against loss or theft.
Private CCTV cameras will be able to analyse vehicle and pedestrian traffic, efficiency of municipal cleaning, road repair operations etc. – and some future version of Street View may allow anyone to take a look at every street, in real time and perhaps 3D virtual/extended reality.
A prescription drug will come in a smart container that indicates when to take a pill or ask the doctor for a refill. The pill itself could itself become a diagnostic device, cheap enough to be disposable and able to take images or analyse body chemistry.
Connected cars will benefit from IoT navigation devices and services as signs, traffic lights and the roads themselves are equipped with sensors and transmit real-time information. Future self-driving technologies will also be dependent on IoT.
As with any complicated system, the reliability of IoT-enabled objects is not guaranteed. However the critical components can be designed to factor in possible outages or network problems (for example, the ability to operate in offline mode, or cache data to transmit once back online); power failure (autonomous backup power source, non-damaging shutdown, persistence of operating state and rapid boot-up); or device failure (a manual shutoff/override and ability of the device to provide some basic operation without IoT).
Malicious access to IoT-enabled devices could have devastating consequences, which means strong security protocols need to be considered at the design stage. A hacked IoT network could disrupt more than the operations of a business and go beyond breaches of privacy; it could threaten life if the devices are designed to interact with people. This makes software security one of the most important considerations of IoT development.
If you’re embarking on developing an IoT solution for your business, make sure you work with a software development company that understands all of its implications. For example:
As with any data‑intensive system, IoT solutions place heavy demands on time‑series and event data storage. Measurements from distributed sensors need to be collected, stored and queried efficiently over long periods, often at high volume. In many projects this is handled using a combination of relational databases and specialist time‑series tools, such as the InfluxDB time‑series database and the Grafana visualisation and dashboarding suite, or comparable platforms chosen to fit the wider architecture.
Wireless connectivity is at the heart of what drives IoT, and there are several communication protocols – such as GSM, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth – which can be used in tandem with options like Zigbee, Z-Wave, 6LoWPAN, Thread, Sigfox, Neul or LoRaWAN, to provide the desired combination of data rate, range, carrier frequency, power needs and so on.
With the rollout of 4G LTE‑Advanced and 5G, wireless networks now offer higher bandwidth and lower latency than earlier mobile standards. In practice, this means IoT solutions can support richer real‑time telemetry and control use cases, including applications that need frequent updates or rapid response.
For developers like Blueberry, who must consider network requirements and device capabilities, 5G enables network‑slicing, improved device identity and more flexible security options in environments where they are supported by the operator. These features are particularly relevant for industrial, transport and smart‑city deployments that carry mixed types of traffic on shared infrastructure.
5G also affects web and mobile apps that act as dashboards or controllers for IoT systems, as it offers the ability to send and receive data with significantly reduced latency compared to previous generations. This helps make many real‑time applications – such as connected vehicles, remote monitoring and augmented‑reality interfaces – more practical in everyday use.
For the overwhelming majority of IoT applications, a full PC‑class Intel or AMD x86 CPU is too powerful, power‑hungry and expensive. Instead, solutions typically use single‑board computers or microcontroller‑based boards, primarily based on ARM or similar low‑power architectures – such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi or comparable industrial modules – during prototyping and early development. Where volumes justify it, these designs can then be refined into custom, cost‑optimised hardware produced specifically for the product.
A downside of off‑the‑shelf development boards is that many are aimed at the hobbyist and education market, and may require physical access for certain types of maintenance. For production systems, Blueberry typically favours platforms that support secure remote management, over‑the‑air firmware updates and centralised device monitoring, whether that is provided by vendors such as Particle or by cloud‑based IoT management services integrated into the overall solution.
If in-house development is not an option, then ensure you outsource to a software development company that possess hands-on experience in a number of key areas:
The Internet of Things looks likely to become as ubiquitous as electric power, cellular communication or GPS navigation within the next decade.
The most likely development path for most aspects of IoT will be from the ground up – that is, companies with experience in their relevant field will decide to add digital presence to their operations, services or products.
If in-house development is not an option, then hiring a competent software development company with the necessary skillset is vital to ensure project success.
Blueberry has the expertise and experience to get your IoT project up and running. To make an enquiry contact us via phone or use our enquiry form.
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