The Internet-of-Things or IoT (terrible name since everyone knows that IoT stands for Inter-operability Testing) seems to be quite the buzzword around lately – replacing the previous version which of course was Machine-to-Machine [M2M]. Nest and other home telemetry/automation tools seem to be quite the cliche-du-jour for the digirati.
Consider what Nest actually does – local (in house) temperature compared with external (nearest location/airport) temperature and a few interesting algorithms to handle temperature differentials, learn preferences, awareness of presence and away type scenarios. Of course given that it seems to automatically download updates, I’m sure it’s logging and submitting lots of information ‘to improve the product’
Likewise, we have hubs finally coming onstream to try and manage all the possible combinations of hardware and software for home sensors and everything else (or so they promise).
Think home sensors/lightbulbs/whatever – currently we have a plethora of specs to choose from for household comms and telemetry: X10, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Lightwave RF. Telldus, etc. Currently each manufacturer has their own choice of spec, controller software, etc.
Fortunately the Open Source/Open Hardware groups are are already experimenting with options to handle this – a good example is the Home Automation Hub (HAH) project which sets out to turn an Orange Livebox router into a home automation server, with an extra bit of hardware that – like the TellStick – allows it to control a range of gadgetry, and even keep an eye on energy consumption too. Likewise the dovado routers I’ve raved about before have the beginnings of some interesting Home Automation features with integration with Telldus sticks and the use of GPS to determine sunrise and sunset times for the location.
Open Source Open Hardware Hub
Key features as I see them are:
- Compact
- Reliable
- Minimum Downtime
- Low power
- Open
Publish & Subscribe
So, assuming that we can get all these sensors talking to our hub, and that data recording (and potentially taking local actions based on that – heating, lighting, etc.) what do we do with it.
The hobbiest answer is to put it up on a website for your own entertainment. The more interesting options are open to the hub provider, and I see a few possible approaches here:
- Act as a relationship broker: making partnerships with different consumers of the telemetry e.g. allow the hub to submit information of the users choice to projects of their interest e.g. SmartCities, utility providers, etc.
- Act as a centralised clearing house: store all users data, sell it in bulk (users are the product) and plan to be bought at some point by Google/IBM/whoever
- Act as a centralised broker – grouping your users according to, for example, energy usage patterns and negotiating (optional) bulk deals from utility providers. For example, contacting the Power company and saying here is aggregate usage data for 30k ‘night owls’ – can we get a special deal, since they are offsetting the base load cost, but not adding to peak loads.
Providers/Website subscribing to the date
