Machine Learning Approaches for Convergence of IoT and Blockchain

A rapidly advancing fourth industrial revolution, brought about by a digital revolution characterized by the convergence of technologies, is blurring the lines between physical, digital and biological objects. The speed of the fourth revolution, which is evolving at an exponential rate, certainly cannot be compared with that of any previous technologies. Some of these technologies include the artificial intelligence (AI) and IoT currently being used in interactions and operations in various fields such as home appliances, autonomous vehicles, nanotechnology, robotics, cognitive systems and wearable devices; and nowadays the potential of blockchain technology is also being realized in many sectors as well, since security is a crucial factor everywhere.

Readers in many domains will be interested in this book as it covers two major areas of the field of machine learning—blockchain technology and the IoT. Also, it will be appealing for those who want to further their research in this area, as the latest topics are covered. Therefore, the target audience of this book is composed of professionals and researchers working in the field of machine learning with IoT and blockchain technology. Moreover, the book will provide insights and support from practitioners and academia in order to highlight the most debated aspects in the field. A detailed description of each topic relevant to machine learning technologies is presented along with the concepts involved in their convergence. In addition, research problems are included to facilitate further research based on the concepts described in the book.

First and foremost, we express heartfelt appreciation to all contributing authors for their hard work and patience. I would like to thank them for contributing chapters in this book. Thanks to the Scrivener Publishing team who helped us so much. Special thanks to Martin Scrivener for all his support, suggestions, and patience.

The EditorsJune 2021

Ananya Rakhra*, Raghav Gupta and Akansha Singh

Department of CSE, ASET, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

In this chapter, we will come across different kinds of industries and how Internet of Things and blockchain technologies are applied to them. We commence with an overview about what an industry is and the nature of various industries, followed by knowledge about the technologies of IoT and blockchain. These technologies have facilitated advancement and ease in one’s day-to-day life, the industrial sector being one among many where its impact is prevalent notably. Further, incorporation of these technologies across various sectors of industry and their scope has been focused upon. The advancements brought about, especially in fields such as that of healthcare sector, have revolutionized the previously existing methods, helping us attain better care and improved life expectancy. Also, the scope of these technologies beyond the industrial sector has been discussed. These technologies have facilitated specialization, so much so that its positive imprint can clearly be seen onto the nation’s economy. This text on the whole allows the readers to attain a clear understanding and also unveils the great scope for further research and development offered by this sphere.

Keywords:IoT, Internet of Things, blockchain, technology, industry, smart devices

Through the course of this chapter, we will come across various types of industries and how implementing IoT and blockchain through these industries will help facilitate the achievement of enormous endeavors beyond the scope one could think of a few years ago. These technologies have widened prospective and enhanced scope across varied fields; we will attempt to obtain an in-depth understanding of the same. Industries form the backbone of a country’s economy. Any organization that is involved in large-scale production or providing services to a lot of customers is categorized as an industry. According to the purpose of the industry, they are classified as the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. Classification based on the organisational framework of an industry is done as organized and unorganized sectors of industry. Categorization may also be done according to the ownership of the firm as either public or private sector industry. Each industry has varying demands and requirements based on the nature of production or service that they intend to provide. We will explore this phenomenon through the domains of various industries, for example, the agriculture industry, manufacturing industry, food production units, healthcare, military, it sector, and banking. We will see what the goals and functions of these industries are and how the efficiency and output can be highly improved, along with reducing human effort and also increasing accuracy. Then, we will move on to learn about the blockchain technology, its mechanism, requirements, advantages, and disadvantages. Blockchain technology is basically the practice of storing data into blocks that are connected to each other in the form of a chain. The distinctive feature of this technology is that once the data is entered into this chain it is immutable, which provides a very strong system to prevent any sort of tampering with the stored data, hence ensuring high level security. The chains are also encrypted and decentralized which further enhance its security. Next, we will look into what IoT is, how it works, and how it is beneficial to us. IoT is the acronym for Internet of Things, wherein we basically connect the physical devices to each other over a network enabling them to communicate and share information among each other. Here, devices are able to gain knowledge about their surroundings with the help of sensors. Common examples of IoT that have been incorporated in daily life are smart watches, smart lighting for households, surveillance cameras, etc. After understanding the functioning and applications of these, we will further see their combined applications of these two technologies in the industry. Incorporating these technologies in the industry opens up a very broad perspective to achieve new levels of specialization. Human tasks have been eased and accuracy and precision has spiked because of these. Profits made by companies have also seen increment; hence, it has proved beneficial to industries in a lot many ways. Further through the course of this chapter, after looking into the non-industrial applications of these technologies in depth, exploring various domains of implementation we will next see the applications and scope of these technologies beyond industries as well. In particular, we will be looking into how they have helped enhance life in different possible ways. First, we will get to know what smart homes are and study the involvement of these technologies in its creation and implementation. This advancement has brought about a lot of ease and pace into one’s day-to-day household tasks and also evolved one’s lifestyle. Then, we will read about how security via surveillance has been technologically boosted with the coming of IoT and blockchain into this sphere. The ways of monitoring have been specialized and the security of the data thus obtained is also highly increased due the usage of blockchain. Life and property are now being better guarded with the help of these. Smart solutions such as automated street lighting have also come up which contribute toward saving energy and resources, and incorporation of security mechanisms such as surveillance along with the street lights making the equipment multi-purpose and more useful. Let us begin with introducing what an industry is and how it functions.