Figure 1.12 Smart homes technology.

      The owner of the house may add details of certain individuals who happen to visit regularly. Upon their arrival, the facial recognition system installed will automatically inform the residents about their presence, either through mobile device notification or voice assistance already existing in the house and access to enter may be granted accordingly. This will reduce human effort required and will increase convenience. Another element that is presently under the future scope for being included into the smart home technology is that of inclusive health monitoring.

Let us all see how IoT and blockchain can be used for physical security at any location as in Figure 1.13. Safety and security have met new heights with the help of these techniques for example, surveillance cameras. CCTV cameras (closed circuit television cameras) have been in use for quite some time now, but its functioning has largely been impacted by these technologies [20]. With the help of IoT, smart cameras have come up. What makes these unique and useful is that along with cameras that deliver live footage and some also save recent recording, we have installed other sensors to it [21]. A microphone accompanying the camera allows the user to communicate via means of voice to the person or event that they witness on the camera. Cameras come with vision both during day and night time. Motion sensitive sensors are attached to the camera to the camera, now what happens if we can program the device for if it is in the night mode or the user does not expect any motion at any particular time; these motions sensors may be activated. In case any movement is present in the range of the camera, it will capture multiple images for those instances along with the video footage so that the cause of the happening can be recorded. This is a great feature from the security point of view as if it happens to be a trespasser or maybe even a thief there is high probability that the suspect would be captured. Along with this alarm can also be incorporated within this device so that in case motion sensors are evoked or someone tries to damage the equipment, the alarm is set off [22]. Additionally, fire or smoke detectors can also be attached with this device making the equipment multipurpose. With the help of IoT, the camera along with all the sensors can be connected to the user’s mobile phone and all information gather by the camera and the sensors can be directly received by the user. To enhance this further, all the data that is generated by the device and all its attached sensors can directly be linked to a server or cloud storage and should be stored using a blockchain.

Figure 1.13 Specialized surveillance using IoT and blockchain.

      This will ensure that once the camera captures any particular event it cannot be erased or tampered with [23]. Another feature that can be combined with the surveillance technology mentioned so far is that once the images captured by the camera are sent out to the cloud, it can be put under two step processing. First step is face detecting and extraction wherein if there happens to be face in the pictures or videos captured by the camera, it would be recognized and an image of the face would be extracted as clear as possible. The second step is face matching, which will give details about the anonymous defaulter to be traced. However, only authorized personal will be able to access the required database resource for face matching in order to ensure that it cannot by misused. The surveillance cameras mentioned thus far can be used for residential areas as well as public spaces. The cameras with the face detection involved particularly can be used to track down drivers who do not abide by the traffic rules through the data delivered by the camera. Thus, IoT and blockchain together have set new standards for ensuring specialized safety [24].

Another application of IoT and blockchain is smart and adaptive street lighting system depicted in Figure 1.14. Under this concept, a sunlight sensor is attached to the street light which automatically switches the street light on or off detecting whether it is day or night time. In case as some instance due to weather or any such cause there happens to be darkness, these street lights will sense it and illuminate. Alongside, a camera should be put on the top of the pole to monitor the activities of the vehicles or people surrounding it. The input from the camera and sensor is to be stored onto a cloud server. Storage of the content of this cloud server onto a blockchain will help ensure the safety of the data transferred by the sensors and the cameras. Another feature that can additionally be present is to create a panic button on the street light poles, at a height reachable by humans. In case of an emergency or mishappening this button can be pressed which will set of an alarm in the nearest police station. The concerned police station will also be able to access the live footage of the place of incident via the cloud server. This will immediately inform the police regarding the requirement of their presence and also help them keep proof against the culprit that will later help while seeking judicial remedy.

Figure 1.14 Smart street lighting enabled with IoT and blockchain.

      In Indian scenario, cases like robbery, assault, and kidnapping can be tracked down and prevented. The problems that this technique solves are conserving energy by preventing wastage and turning the street light on or off as and when required; it also contributes to making streets safer by helping police trace defaulters and prevent many crimes. This also eliminates the need of man power required to regulate the power of street lights. Since this technique involves sensors and storage over cloud using blockchain, we refer to this as a “smart” street lighting system.

1.8 Conclusion

Let us now summarize all that we read throughout the chapter. First of all, we understood the concept of what an industry is, how it functions and its features and responsibilities. We particularly read about the functioning of the agriculture industry, the manufacturing industry, food processing units, healthcare, military, and information technology industry. Next, we discussed about the technology of blockchain. It is basically storage of information into blocks that are connected to each other; the benefits that this technology offers are security and decentralization of control over all information. Another technology mentioned in this chapter is that of Internet of Things, also called as IoT. This facilitates to establish communication among devices, enabling them to share information and perform task without the need of any human intervention creating smart equipment. Further, we observe how IoT and blockchain when put together find multitude of applications throughout various industries. We see how these technologies have brought about betterment in industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, food processing, healthcare, military, and IT. The scope of these technologies lies beyond industries also. We discussed some everyday applications such as smart homes, improved surveillance cameras, and smart street lighting systems. So, to conclude with, we may say that with the evolution of these technologies and their incorporation throughout various aspects of life, it has brought convenience and specialization into everyday affairs. Tasks and tools that were not even imaginable few years ago have now been made possible with the help of advanced technologies such as IoT and blockchain. A lot of applications have been explored and implemented, and yet, there remains huge scope for further research and development to ease and facilitate our being.

References

      1. Kenessey, Z., The primary, secondary, tertiary

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