5 Questions about the Internet of Things

Asked by students. Answered by Overdrive

What happens when you put a bunch of curious teenagers and Overdrive together?

Lots of questions about technology, entrepreneurship and hacking.

On 30 March 2017, Overdrive had the pleasure of meeting the students from Xavier School (Manila) to share ideas about smart cities, technology and more.

Here are 5 questions that were fired.

1. “How do you track a lost dog with IoT?”

Overdrive: It works with crowd-sourced technology. This means using other smart devices to show you where the dog is.
Firstly, the dog needs to have a tracking device attached to it.

Our phones are examples of smart devices. If your phone has the software that is connected with the tracking device, you will be able to detect the nearby dog.
Now, imagine if you were a governor of your city. You can attach sensors to the street-lamps to make the tracking even better!

2. “Can you control a car with IoT?”

Overdrive:  Yes, you can. But we will not switch the engines off (as that will be dangerous!) We simply disable the ignition of the car so the driver will not be able to restart it.
Also, we can also lock and unlock the doors remotely.

3. “What can you attach the NFC sticker to? Can it be attached to my bank account?”

Overdrive: The NFC sticker can technically be attached to anything. But more importantly, why? Why would you want to do that? What is the purpose? That is something you need to ask yourself when you create tech solutions.

4. “What is the biggest challenge that you face when you create things?”

Overdrive: The environment that you face should not stop you from building something you want. For us, the main challenge was resources. Cars are expensive in Singapore, and it would be costly to experiment.

But that did not stop us. We manage to make our programme work for a Toyota, Audi, and even a Ferrari. The best part? Not destroying any cars in the process. What’s important is to keep trying and failing – that’s how you learn.

5. “What can Overdrive be connected to?”

Overdrive: Everything. Including a potato.

Smart cities are not just about moving parts and swanky technology. The Internet of Things affects everything. Even a potato. For example, you can grow potatoes more efficiently with IoT. You can use technology to measure the soil levels, humidity levels and more to ensure the healthy growth of a potato. Case in point? Technology is not just about software. It affects everything.

Overdrive is glad to be part of the Little Entrepreneur programme, where we meet bright young minds to talk about tech and entrepreneurship.

Interested to find out more about what we do?

Drop us an email at ask@overdrive.sg