It can be utilized in energy, smart factories, disasters, etc.

The Internet of Things (IoT), including smart cities, smart farms, smart factories, and smart homes, is being integrated across the public and industrial sectors. Accordingly, a venue was provided to showcase various technologies, including personal IoT, public IoT, and industrial IoT.

At the '2017 International Internet of Things Exhibition' held at Samsung COEX starting on the 11th, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) showcased 12 new IoT technologies to support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The technologies unveiled on this day included FaaS (Factory as a Service) smart factories and energy IoT-based microgrids for industrial applications, augmented cognitive services for disaster response firefighters, underground space safety IoT, and energy safety IoT for disaster safety applications, and next-generation leading technologies such as a hyper-connected self-learning engine common framework and wearable human care technology based on psychological, emotional, and sleep state recognition.

Researcher Son Ji-yeon explained, “As product lifecycles shorten and become more personalized, the market is shifting from a supplier-centric model to a consumer-driven one,” adding, “There is a need for technology to control smart factory manufacturing equipment systems capable of producing a variety of heterogeneous products on a personalized basis.”

Kwang-soo Kim, a principal researcher at the UGS Convergence Systems Laboratory, introduced the UGS Service Platform technology. This technology is a software platform that collects data from IoT devices installed underground to monitor the condition of buried structures and visualize underground spaces. It is used to prevent ground subsidence phenomena, such as sinkholes, in advance.

Researcher Kim stated, “We implemented the project in Songpa-gu, Seoul, as a pilot area in 2015. There is currently no information available regarding accidents occurring in underground spaces or the risk levels of buried utilities.” "When the 'Special Act on Underground Safety Management' goes into effect next year, an underground safety management monitoring system will be necessary," he said.

Director Kang Ho-yong explained the LPWA network technology capable of 5km/5-year IoT services. It consists of wide-area/low-power IoT network stack software, UGS nodes, and UGS IP. It supports multi-PHY and uses the 920MHz frequency band. As an international standard technology developed in Korea, it was first developed by ETRI.

Next, high-performance broadband omnidirectional embedded antenna technology capable of being embedded in manhole covers was introduced. Surface-embedded antennas are required to transmit sensor information regarding underground utilities to wireless networks. This technology enables medium-to-long-distance signal transmission, implements omnidirectional radiation characteristics to minimize dead zones, and maintains no height difference from the ground surface.

Energy IoT-based technologies were also showcased. As renewable energy policies expand, distributed energy resources, such as solar energy storage devices, are becoming more widespread. ETRI developed a service that controls and enables independent operation of single and multiple microgrids using IoT protocols, as well as an energy safety service used to prevent safety accidents, such as fires, in traditional markets and underground shopping complexes.

Technology to determine psychological state using wearable devices in daily life was also unveiled. Health risk situations such as respiration, oxygen saturation in the body, and sleep status can be identified, and monitoring is possible with a wrist-type wearable device during sleep.

Kim Hyun, Head of the IoT Research Division at ETRI, stated, “We must drive the era of intelligence across all industrial sectors and social systems through the joint efforts of industry, academia, and research,” adding, “We will strive for industrial commercialization by sharing IoT application technologies, the core of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with the public and fostering cooperation.”