Edge Devices: Transforming Field Work And Safety

By Katherine Allen, product manager,Trimble Mobile Computing Solutions, www.trimble.com, www.trimblemcs.com

Hands-free work can improve mobile worker efficiency and safety.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become such a common term recently that the revolutionary reality of what it means for field workers has become lost in the buzz about things like “smart home appliances.” For the mobile workers doing professional work in almost any industry, IoT will come to mean safety on the job, automated data collection freeing up hands for other work, and better bottom-line performance for their businesses.

How? Through the use of what today are called edge devices. These are the first generation of what will eventually become automated collectors of discrete data information. The data will be processed for a fuller, richer understanding of a mobile worker’s surroundings, freeing up that worker to accomplish more on the job.