Beyond
journalism
While IoT sensors are expanding reporters’ horizons in newsrooms, they’ve been revolutionizing work for years in other key industries. In manufacturing, sensors can be placed on machinery to track equipment health and help prevent downtime. In healthcare, IoT sensors can monitor patients at the hospital and at home.
Scroll through the carousel below to explore some of the other applications of IoT sensors
“IoT can be impactful in many industries. You can use IoT to supercharge automation in a factory, a clinic, or a railroad. Or you could use them for providing constant check-ins on the status of equipment, which can be helpful in maintenance use cases. And IoT Smart Climate Solutions can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding the waste of electricity, fuel, water and raw materials. In a world of 5G, millions of IoT devices can be connected at the same time, which can have a transformative impact on industry.”
– Phillip Coleman, AVP Product Management
and Development, AT&T Business.
Healthcare
Sensors transform the patient experience from the operating room to the waiting room. By connecting devices like tablets, monitoring systems and even patient beds, medical staff can have the most up-to-date patient information. Wearable sensors can track how much interaction is taking place between patients and staff, providing data to improve the care process and patient experience.
Devices that track patient vitals are also a key part of the Internet of Things for healthcare, especially for senior patients who might need more consistent monitoring. Connected oximeters, glucometers, blood pressure monitors and other wearables can remotely monitor patient health both inside and outside of healthcare facilities, reducing accidents and ensuring they get the care they need. As they advance, wearable health devices are becoming smaller and providing valuable health markers for preventative care.
Healthcare
Sensors transform the patient experience from the operating room to the waiting room. By connecting devices like tablets, monitoring systems and even patient beds, medical staff can have the most up-to-date patient information. Wearable sensors can track how much interaction is taking place between patients and staff, providing data to improve the care process and patient experience.
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Healthcare
Devices that track patient vitals are also a key part of the Internet of Things for healthcare, especially for senior patients who might need more consistent monitoring. Connected oximeters, glucometers, blood pressure monitors and other wearables can remotely monitor patient health both inside and outside of healthcare facilities, reducing accidents and ensuring they get the care they need. As they advance, wearable health devices are becoming smaller and providing valuable health markers for preventative care.
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Manufacturing
Factory floors are increasingly rife with sensors. Dedicated 5G networks and equipment sensors can work together to help automated robotics and machinery make visual inspection to help identify product anomalies, improving quality control. Vision sensors can also be used to implement “safety zones” where the facility is alerted if something enters or exits those zones.
Sensors embedded into building infrastructure can check for leaks, burst pipes or other emergencies, alerting crews before damage is done.
IoT-enabled forklifts and machines will find the most efficient routes around a factory, saving time and fuel. Sensor-enabled equipment can also check products for defects and consistency before they leave the factory floor, as well as tracking inventory to stop manufacturing delays before they happen.
Manufacturing
Factory floors are increasingly rife with sensors. Dedicated 5G networks and equipment sensors can work together to help automated robotics and machinery make visual inspection to help identify product anomalies, improving quality control. Vision sensors can also be used to implement “safety zones” where the facility is alerted if something enters or exits those zones.
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Manufacturing
Sensors embedded into building infrastructure can check for leaks, burst pipes or other emergencies, alerting crews before damage is done.
2/2IoT-enabled forklifts and machines will find the most efficient routes around a factory, saving time and fuel. Sensor-enabled equipment can also check products for defects and consistency before they leave the factory floor, as well as tracking inventory to stop manufacturing delays before they happen.
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Transportation
IoT sensors are powering tomorrow’s supply chains. At loading docks, sensor-enabled equipment can make sure that inventory is in good condition and IoT-integrated smart labels can track products as they travel the globe. Vehicles embedded with IoT-powered telematics can provide business owners constant updates about their location, keeping deliveries on schedule and fleets on track. They can also reporting the condition of what’s on board, whether it’s groceries or concrete.
Once the products arrive in stores or showrooms, wirelessly connected displays can update with the latest information about product availability, all pushed seamlessly from the cloud. Even vending machines are getting a sensor retrofit: IoT-enabled machines can send detailed information about consumer demand to keep products in stock.
Transportation
IoT sensors are powering tomorrow’s supply chains. At loading docks, sensor-enabled equipment can make sure that inventory is in good condition and IoT-integrated smart labels can track products as they travel the globe. Vehicles embedded with IoT-powered telematics can provide business owners constant updates about their location, keeping deliveries on schedule and fleets on track. They can also reporting the condition of what’s on board, whether it’s groceries or concrete.
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Transportation
Once the products arrive in stores or showrooms, wirelessly connected displays can update with the latest information about product availability, all pushed seamlessly from the cloud. Even vending machines are getting a sensor retrofit: IoT-enabled machines can send detailed information about consumer demand to keep products in stock.
2/2 Capturing
the invisible
climate and environmental journalism
After sitting silent for almost two decades,
a former denim mill in Marble, North Carolina is humming once again. But this time, the noises it makes sound a little different.
The factory floor is now home to a 250,000-square-foot cryptocurrency mine. Inside, rows upon rows of machines and cooling equipment power millions of computations every second, processing transactions of bitcoin, ethereum and other currencies across the globe.
But in the eyes of some residents who live near the crypto mine in Marble — and others like it across the Southeast — the factory ought to have stayed quiet. The drone of equipment in the mine has filled their town with around-the-clock noise, as if they lived next to an airport rather than a village in the Appalachian foothills.
This article is better with sound.
Use the toggles below to turn on the sounds of rural North Carolina.
Now hear what it can sound like inside a cryptocurrency mine:
In May, reporters from The Washington Post set out to find out just how loud these cryptocurrency mines really are. The most important tool for telling this story was a set of unassuming gray boxes. While these boxes might not look like much at first glance, they represent a new era of technology-driven reporting on climate and sustainability for the Post.
Understanding noise pollution
Each box houses environmental sensors connected to the AT&T network. Attached to a telephone pole or placed on a porch by a Post reporter, the sensors are part of an ever-growing ecosystem of connected devices: the Internet of Things, or IoT. The sensors track the ambient noise level, the temperature and the local concentration of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and dozens of other chemicals.
Taken together, the measurements allow the sensors to capture a snapshot of their surrounding environment. The sensors then transmit the data to Washington Post reporters. The data is logged onto a set of dashboards accessible from any device.
“Having access to granular data is essential to the rich reporting we aim to do,“ said Rekha Tenjarla, a senior creative technologist at The Washington Post. “We’ll then monitor and collect data that can later be presented as graphics and interactive elements in our storytelling.”
To understand the human impact of the bitcoin mine’s noise pollution, Post reporters spoke to residents about their experiences, and the resulting article includes some of their personal stories. But the heart of the article lies in the data. Captured by multiple sensors at different distances from the mine over multiple days, the data allowed Post reporters to dive in and get a full picture of how loud the crypto mining installation is.
Just how loud is a crypto mining rig?
Here are decibel levels for some things you encounter on a daily basis and how they compare to each other.
Reminder: Decibel levels scale logarithmically — an 85 dB noise is ten times louder than a 75 dB noise and 100 times louder than a 65 dB noise.
In the past, a reporter writing a story about noise pollution might have had to gauge noise levels by ear or use a less accurate method like recording the sound level with a smartphone. They also might only have had the opportunity to take a few decibel readings before filing their story.
But sensors like the ones configured by AT&T extend reporters’ reach. Equipped with these sensors, Post reporters can capture and analyze data from many places at once. Then, once they are back in the office, reporters can comb through weeks of data broken down by minute to search for patterns.
Reporters who cover pollution, climate and sustainability are often challenged with how to capture gradual changes that play out over years, like a global rise in temperature or the increased presence of a gas in the atmosphere.
IoT sensors offer reporters data on a longer, more accurate timeline, giving them a new way to cover environmental stories. The result is more impactful, data-driven reporting on a wide range of sustainability issues.
Configuring the sensors
Climate and sustainability reporting has become a cornerstone of The Washington Post’s coverage. As the newsroom has worked to become even more data-driven, the road naturally led to IoT sensors.
At first, AT&T Business worked with Post reporters to design an IoT solution that could track temperature and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air. The original goal was to report on the relationship between areas of the world with air pollution and areas that are warming the fastest.
Then, it became clear that different reporting teams at the Post might eventually want to use these sensors for multiple stories in different geographies. AT&T Business helped the Post to obtain sensors that are easy to set up and relocate for different stories. These sensors measure temperature, humidity, noise level, and the concentrations of dozens of air pollutants, including potent greenhouse gasses like methane and sulfur dioxide.
A crucial component for the sensors is connectivity. In many industrial applications, IoT sensors are simply connected to a Wi-Fi network where they can communicate with local devices.
But this wouldn’t be enough for the Post’s mobile journalism efforts. These sensors would have to be out in remote locations for weeks at a time, so they needed to reliably and wirelessly transmit information from virtually any country in the world.
Plus, data had to be granular enough for reporters to draw conclusions. It would not be enough for the sensors to take a reading every hour, they would have to record noise levels hundreds of times throughout a day.
The AT&T network offered a solution — each sensor is equipped with a SIM card that can transmit the hundreds of data points to reporters' dashboards.
“The Washington Post sensors are using the AT&T network through a global SIM, which allows devices to communicate in 150 different countries - you can go virtually anywhere with AT&T,” said Phillip Coleman, AVP Product Management and Development, AT&T Business. “We can connect sensors for many things that you want to track. For now the Post’s solution includes measuring noise, pressure, and air quality. If the time comes that the Post wants to measure ground vibrations, we can connect sensors for that and for many other use cases.”
The data captured by the sensors are pushed to a dashboard that is accessible from desktops and mobile devices alike, making the sensors portable to different locations and 150 countries across the world covered by the AT&T network.
Sensors like these can be hugely beneficial for journalists reporting on a whole range of stories around climate, sustainability and pollution. They could be used to gauge temperature on a hyper-local basis to report on the progress of climate change — or to track air quality and pollution over long periods of time to see how cities and businesses are tracking with climate goals.
Expanding the world of environmental reporting is just one pillar in the way that AT&T is using its technology to help combat the effect of climate change. The company’s Connected Climate Initiative aims to collaborate with leading businesses and research universities to eliminate a gigaton—1 billion metric tons—of greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.
The stories that The Washington Post tells have far-reaching impact, and it is significant for AT&T to be providing reporters with the technology they need to make a difference.
“Working alongside The Washington Post has been amazing,” Coleman said. “The reporters that are working on these projects, they really want to make an impact on society and we’re here to help them.”