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I don't understand why IoT and home automation has to be so complicated. Why don't we just make devices consume/expose some semantic description of the state of

I don't understand why IoT and home automation has to be so complicated. Why don't we just make devices consume/expose some semantic description of the state of the world, and call it a day? Below is an example using RDF, SPARQL, and some made-up ontologies. Here's my kitchen light. @prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> . @prefix lightBulb: <http://example.org/models/lightbulb/> . <http://example.org/people/9876543210> _:me <http://example.org/things/0123456789> _:kitchen-light _:kitchen-light rdf:type <http://example.org/models/lightbulb> _:kitchen-light lightBulb:hasOwner _:me . _:kitchen-light lightBulb:hasName "Kitchen light" . Let's turn it on. _:kitchen-light lightBulb:isOn true . Which of my lights are turned on? SELECT ?light ?name { ?light rdf:type <http://example.org/models/lightbulb> . ?light lightBulb:hasOwner _:me . ?light lightBulb:isOn ?isOn . ?light lightBulb:hasName ?name }

Eridrus 9y ago
Now make it work remotely in NATed environments. And make it work for low power/battery driven electronics which don't have the power budget for WiFi. Oh and they don't have a whole lot of RAM and CPU cycles to spare, so pulling in an XML library isn't really the option of choice. And how should authentication work, including initial setup? It's a lot more complicated when you drill into the details. You might be willing to accept a bunch of trade-offs, but that will limit this to a niche product.
- salgernon 9y ago
  > You might be willing to accept a bunch of trade-offs, but that will limit this to a niche product Several years ago I was helping a guy that had a home automation product with a scriptable interface. This was when X10 was prevalent. He was very proud of it and described all the behaviors he'd coded in loving detail. But one stuck out in my mind: "When I get into bed, the lights go out!" "But", I said, "what if you wanted to read in bed?" He glared at me: "The Bed is for SLEEPING." These systems need to work for us, and not require us to bend to what they're capable of.
  - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    This is why I ended up writing my home automation software. I want it to do what I want, what makes my life easier. Not what makes a better product.
fenwick67 9y ago
The schema for representing device state is only one small piece of the problem.
nl 9y ago
Congratulations. You "solved" the easy part.

Eridrus 9y ago

Now make it work remotely in NATed environments. And make it work for low power/battery driven electronics which don't have the power budget for WiFi. Oh and they don't have a whole lot of RAM and CPU cycles to spare, so pulling in an XML library isn't really the option of choice. And how should authentication work, including initial setup? It's a lot more complicated when you drill into the details. You might be willing to accept a bunch of trade-offs, but that will limit this to a niche product.

salgernon 9y ago
> You might be willing to accept a bunch of trade-offs, but that will limit this to a niche product Several years ago I was helping a guy that had a home automation product with a scriptable interface. This was when X10 was prevalent. He was very proud of it and described all the behaviors he'd coded in loving detail. But one stuck out in my mind: "When I get into bed, the lights go out!" "But", I said, "what if you wanted to read in bed?" He glared at me: "The Bed is for SLEEPING." These systems need to work for us, and not require us to bend to what they're capable of.
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  This is why I ended up writing my home automation software. I want it to do what I want, what makes my life easier. Not what makes a better product.

fenwick67 9y ago

The schema for representing device state is only one small piece of the problem.

nl 9y ago

Congratulations. You "solved" the easy part.