So, imagine today feasible situation:
I have internet connection at my home and I have an smart-phone that allows me to be connected to internet in almost everywhere. I participate in some social networks, I have my own blog and I use many kind of services provided by the www-world. My ISP (internet service provider) gave me a wifi router for free when they installed the cable allowing to access wirelessly to internet. (common man – common ISP services). But short time ago somebody told me on a router which besides that functionality it also allowed to build a domestic wireless sensor network in an easy manner. He gave me the name of what he called “a cloud based platform” so I typed it on Google and started to investigate on this product.
Wifi Routers
The first thing I noticed is that if I was willing to create a wireless network of sensors I could do it by downloading and installing a new free firmware (I would call it better "middleware") in the case that I had one of the specific brand of routers listed in their web. In this case I only had to buy a kind of usb antenna and the wireless sensors. But that was not the case and, after making some others inquiries, I finally bought a pack including a router with an embedded sensor network technology, a set of sensors and IP cameras (2 movement detectors, 2 power plugs that allow to measure energy consumption and on/off function, 2 magnetic sensors, 1 CO and smoke detector and 2 cameras).
I substituted the router I had and configured the wifi network and connection to internet. Easy through the web server that all wifi routers include.
To configure the sensor network I have first of all to open a new account in a specific web address mentioned in the documentation. I did. I introduced my personal data and, as I was connected through my new router, the system automatically recognized the gateway (the very router). I named it as “my” home. Now I had a control panel permitting me basically:
- install sensors
- manage sensor and scenarios
- configure performance rules and alerts
- define my social graph to share information and alerts
Even before starting to install my sensors I already had access to a multitude of them because their owners had labeled them as public. So I could started to configure some scenarios from the information belonging to others entities. I could know the energy consumption of a green building situated in Holland or be informed on the gamma radiations of the surroundings of the nearest nuclear-power facility. I even could know the gps coordinates for each line city bus in Helsinki. I thought this last was useless to me as I do not live there but I thought this numbers could be converted in a real time position on a map and maybe in the future a similar service would be offered in my town.
Windmill
I installed my sensors. The only thing I had to do is to push a button on each sensor to link them to the network. The option for installing sensors on the control panel guided me during all the time and finally asked for a name for each of them. Done. I had the information gathered from my private sensors in the cloud and my private control panel web application was showing it.
The next step was to put the wireless sensors and cameras in the right place inside my apartment. While doing so I already had in mind which would be the rules of performance of the whole system and knew the conditions defining the contexts I wanted to monitor and related actions. I easily created a new scenario and introduced those rules and actions with the help of a rules editor provided by the web application. The web application offered me a set of predefined rules/performances I could choose and configure that was based on the type of sensors I had installed but I preferred to define my own ones. Done, I had now a basic security system installed at my home that would always alert me, and depending on the specific circumstances – predefined context – sometimes will alert to some of my relatives and sometimes to some of my neighbors. The ways all of them would be alerted were through one of several of the following: sms, phone call, mobile&web app and through some traditional social networks. And it took about one hour to install it. Great.
Plug&Play (picture from domotica.net)
At this moment the site suggested me to download and install some smart phone applications. That would allow me to access to the system everywhere and, additionally to the mentioned ways, being alerted by the application too. There was a huge list of applications rated by popularity and classified by phone operating system. There was also an option to show the most suited application depending on the devices I had installed. I used it and I chose the most popular one. That app basically implemented the same functionality than the web app I already was using. The scenario and the rules I created through the web browser were already there.
Android Market (picture from islabit.com)
I thought the best was the price: compared to what was being offered by some security companies, the equipment cost to me around 60% less and the service ten times less. I have not an alert center service but I was alerted directly and some relatives or neighbors at my discretion. It was enough to me.
But the best was arriving.
I soon realized (well, I already knew) that I could add other kinds of devices non related to security issues. I bought two temperature&humidity ground sensors to install in the base of some plant pots I have in the balcony so, with an electronic valve I also bought, I could water the plants, only when they were thirsty!. I talk about this to a friend that run a little winery that have his own vineyards and uses to stress the stocks to obtain a better quality. Fortunately there is a router with embedded 3G technology that has no need of land communication network. He is trying the system now and the last time we met he was delighted by the first results and by the dramatic reduction of costs compared to other similar systems he had been offered – and installed – before. He is now thinking and researching on how to apply other types of sensors and actuators on their production. He thinks that now that he has the freedom to create rules of governance and the availability of many kinds of sensors in the market – as trunk diameter, stem diameter, fruit diameter, dampening sheet or luminosity sensor, among others – he is able to try different techniques, improving the productivity and quality of the whole production and making it in a quick and comfortable manner.
One of the things (I) most valuated from the beginning was the openness of the platform to the installation of any type of sensor regardless of the manufacturer providing it, and to the development of new applications by developer communities. As the site of the platform explained, the system was opened to any manufacturer willing to join it by using the public API the middleware (firmware) of the gateway provided. But if you wanted to be sure for full compliant devices and work in the easy way I explained in the above paragraphs you should choose among the gadgets from a list of certified products the site issued. There was a lot of them from many manufacturers.
Among the applications developed by the community I found one related to the weather. A company was using the platform to install their weather related sensors around the city I currently live and it had developed a complex algorithm using the information coming from the mentioned devices and the gps of the telephone. The app, now running on my phone, is able to implement an amazing accurate rain radar within the range of next six hours and for the whole city (extremely better than the existing weather apps). I like to practice sports as tennis and basketball , I do it outdoors and the courts are 20 minutes away from my home so I find this application particularly useful as it already avoided some unnecessary trips to me. Green app!.
Other useful gadget I found was the fall detector/heart rate/panic button wristband device. My father lives with us and he is eighty two. Short time ago he fell accidentally while staying at home. As he used to live alone he was lied down on the floor for several hours. I bought the wristband, pushed the network link button and automatically I had the information on the application. I created a new scenario and a new rule to be alerted if a fall was detected, the panic button was pushed or the heart rate dropped under a predefined value. I am more peaceful minded now when I am at work and he is alone.
(from forodefotos.com)
This last made me think on the advantages this platform could provide to the health services. I can imagine chronic disease patients to choose being monitored from their own homes, shorting their staying in the hospitals and reducing the number of required visits to the GPs. I can imagine health insurance companies to foster this platform as it improves the quality of life of their customers while cutting the hospital staying and the home hospital assistance fees. I can imagine an improvement in the quality and in the efficiency of the public health services.
The platform is only limited by what the sensors can measure, what the actuators can made and the imagination of the users and developers. So we could say “almost without fences”. e.g. Environmental Surveillance: a “green” association is selling a set of sensors to monitor people closest surrounding. Under the slogan “Would the earth be the same if it could speak to us?” the association aims to make aware to people on the planet pollution situation and related climate change by sharing information coming from particulars and/or organizations sensors through the drawing of a real time world map free of tendentious interpretations. The platform gives a percentage of the benefits obtained by the use of these sensors to the “green” association.
But it is easy to think on other fields the platform could be useful: Automotive, Telecommunications, Intelligent Buildings, Pharmaceutical, Retail, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing, Product Lifecycle Management, Food traceability, Media, Entertainment, Insurance, Recycling,...
My last discovering has been an app that make my smart phone to act as a sensor. I could then upload to the system the information coming from the gps, luminosity, accelerometer or compass functions of my telephone as if they were ubiquitous sensors and use it to create or complement new rules.
I could continue writing more stories on the use of this platform but it would be better to take a look directly and to start imagining. The address is:...............well, beautiful tech-story. Do not try to look for a system in the market performing as described above. You may currently find promising IOT platforms you could classify in three major categories: (1) those using (or not) open standards but proprietary philosophy, (2) those offering consulting and project development for other companies and (3) those totally open but based on some level of DIY (do it yourself) schema. None of them is suitable to achieve a wide/massive use of IOT by individuals (end users).
Take a look to this list of IOT platform and check the (market) state of the art: http://postscapes.com/internet-of-things-platforms
IOT platforms list
So, What should it be done to expand the common use of IOT technology among end - individual - consumers? A clue: The approach should be done from a “business ecosystem” point of view and “end user” centered.