ATO2014: Open Source & the Internet of Things
Erica Stanley was up next to talk to us about Open Source and the Internet of Things (IoT).
The Internet of Things (Connected Devices) is the connection of things and people over a network. Why the Internet of Things? Why now? Because technology has made it a possibility. Why open source Internet of Things? To ensure that innovation continues.
Some of the applications we have for connected devices are: Health/Fitness, Home/Environment and Identity. Having devices that are always connected to us allow us to do things like monitor our health so that we can see when something might be wrong before we feel symptoms. Some devices like this are vision (Google glass) related, smart watches, wearable cameras, wristbands (fitbit), smart home devices (some of which are on my wishlist), connected cars (cars that see that the car in front of you has stopped versus slowed down) and smart cities like Raleigh.
There are many networking technologies these devices can use to stay connected, but bluetooth seems to be the default that is being used. There is a central device and a peripheral device – the central device wants the data that the peripheral device has. They use bluetooth to communicate with each other – the central device requesting info from the peripheral.
Cloud commuting, another important technology, has been one of the foundations for the Internet of Things – this is how we store all the info we’re passing back and forth. As we get more ability for our devices to learn we get more devices that can act on the data they’re gathering (there is a fitness app/device that will encourage you to get up and move once in a while for example).
Yet another technology that’s important is augmented reality showing us results of data in our day to day (Google glass showing you the directions to where you’re walking).
One challenge facing us is the fact that we have devices living in silos. So we have Google devices and Samsung devices – but they don’t talk to each other. We need to move towards a platform for connected devices. This will allow us to have a user controlled and created environment – where the devices I want to talk to each other can and the people I want to see the data can see the data. This allows us to personalize our environment but also secure our environment.
Speaking of security, there are some guidelines for developers that we can all follow to be sure to create secure devices. When building these devices we want to think about security from the very beginning. We need to understand our vulnerabilities, build security from the ground up. This starts with the OS so that we’re building an end-to-end solution. Obviously you want to be proactive in testing your apps and use updated APIs/frameworks/protocols.
Some tools you can use to get started as far as hardware: Arduino Compatible devices (Lilypad, Adafruit Flora and Gemma), Tessel, and Metawear. Software tools include: Spark Core, IoT Toolkit, Open.Sen.se, Cloud Foundry, Eclipse IoT Tools, and Huginn (which is kind of an open source IFTTT).
One thing to keep in mind when designing for IoT is that we no longer own the foreground – we might not have a screen or a full sized screen. We also have to think about integration with other devices and discoverablity of functionality if we don’t have a screen (gesture based device). Finally we have to keep in mind low energy and computing power. On the product side you want to think about the form factor – you don’t want a device that no one will want to wear. This also means creating personalizable devices
Remember that there is no ‘one size fits all’ – your device doesn’t have to be the same as others that are out there. Try to not get in the way of your user – build for people not technology! If we don’t try to take all of the user’s attention with the wearable then we’ll get more users.
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