Internet of Things Made Simple

by Erik Peterson

IoT is all the buzz and for good reason as man and machine continue get along better. Our world is changing.

Ardec has been and continues to be a player in IoT since 2001 with  patented tech that I and several of my brilliant talent were co-inventors on. Yeah, 15 years ago. Anyway, lets simplify what you need for IoT and I'll use some examples from that patent. 

Some background...the business idea was that the Ardec client wanted to sell age-verified items from a vending machine. Simple right. Well, we rocked the vendor conference in Chicago when we unveiled the system. It landed us in national news that syndicated across the US. I hope your IoT rocks too!

So how did Ardec do it?

IoT has three basic components: 1) smart electronics, 2) device packaging, 3) get connected.

1) Smart Electronics
Below is the diagram of the smart electronics complete with special sensors, logic, communications, etc.
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2) Device Packaging
Smart electronics need form, a way to be installed, provisioned, updated, etc. Most of all its usually the packaging that provides the connectivity from the electronics to the physical world. Below is the packaging ("device") in our system.

3) Get Connected
In Ardec's case we could have built the device without any connectivity. But I had this craving to just remote control the thing rather than send a technician on site every time the thing needed to be kicked.

We constructed multiple ways the system could connect over wired and wireless protocols to a software communications system with web API's. The comm server then connected to a business server where most of the logic was held. A web UI then gave the business a way to control or delegate control of 10s of thousands of devices. 

Ha ha, you know as I look at these drawings, I am sooooo glad for better drawing tools like LucidChart! 

Wrap up
​Your device needs smart electronics, packaging, and connectivity. Stop thinking about it and build it. Change the world! Ardec has a way of simplifying otherwise complicated systems. If you're into IoT let's chat about what you're doing. It's really is exciting to see, not the beginning of IoT, but its explosion.


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