Machine Learning Approaches for Convergence of IoT and Blockchain

IoT’s adoption across industries promises economic returns as it facilitates waste management, both of time and resources. Since it will reduce manpower and upscale production with increased accuracy, the transformation of the product will, in turn, positively impact the monetary flow of the company. The better the quantity and quality, the more flourished will be overseas trade bringing in currencies from across the globe, thus acting as another boost to the economy.

Figure 1.10 India’s economic growth from 2005 to 2018.

The above data and graph, i.e. Figure 1.10depict the economic growth observed in India staring from 2005 up until 2018. The value has been progressively increasing through the passage of these years. The amounts here are mentioned in Billion Dollars. Now, to observe the technological growth, let us observe the increase in number of internet user in the past 5 years. The data for the same is as follows.

Using the number of internet users as a parameter to estimate the rate of spread of technology, we can conclude that both technology and development go hand in hand with advancement in technology and we can create a much more efficient workflow in our industries, thereby increasing our GDP significantly as shown in Figure 1.11.

Figure 1.11 Internet users.

There are basically three models suggested in this part of the discussion which are not only limited to the industry. These models use combinations of different technologies to make a better system than an existing one. The models shown over here can be much safer and efficient; the three models suggested over here are as follows:

Smart homes

Intelligent CCTV monitoring

Smart street lights

Apart from finding applications in the industrial sphere, the technologies of IoT and blockchain find scope beyond it as well. We will look into some such aspects where we are widely exploiting these technologies in our day-to-day life. We will see how smart homes and security via surveillance devices such as cameras have been improved depicted in Figure 1.12is. Smart home is a living space wherein human effort required for basic activities is minimized giving superior comfort to the inhabitants. IoT and blockchain are enhancing the everyday living experience and making chores a lot easier and fun. They enhance the quality of life basically by providing automated appliance control and assistive services [19]. Feature exhibited by smart homes are major due to sensors, actuators, etc., being embedded in the structural fabric. Smart homes have evolved sustainability, comfort, healthcare, and security at one’s residence. Various components across the household are made intelligent by being aware of their surrounding with the help of IoT that is making components eligible to communicate and perform certain tasks with human interference. Any data that the sensors across various devices communicate to the cloud should preferably be stored onto a blockchain to ensure the security and to minimize the possibility of any information being misused. For a remote are such as a residential plot, private blockchain a preferred option as not many nodes are required to be given access or control to it. So, the centralized control would remain with the owner of the house who would be able to access the data as per his wish. Let is focus onto certain aspects of smart home particularly and discuss the same. One element of smart homes is smart lighting. These allow users to control the lights with the help of their mobile device or set fixed time or duration for the lights to stay on or off. Some smart lights are also linked to motion sensors, when these motion sensors do not sense any activity or commotion in a room for some fixed duration of time say 5 minutes, the intelligent system automatically turns the lights out. This feature extensively helps in minimising energy consumption and prevents any wastage of this resource. Apart from just controlling the power, the user may even be able to control the brightness or the shade and tone of the lighting according one’s own taste and preference. Another element is automated facial recognition of frequent visitors.

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.