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Right now its all buzzwords and vaporware. We are in 2004 talking about the "cloud." However, its coming, much like the cloud has.

by alttab 12y ago

freyr 12y ago
There's a critical difference. Although the cloud and the IoT both began with buzzwords and vaporware, the cloud had clear and compelling potential benefits for customers from the start. For every "cloud," there are many overhyped technologies that went nowhere, despite industry's best efforts to thrust them upon us.
Someone1234 12y ago
A lot of people here are sceptical but I keep looking for products on Amazon I just assume would already exist but don't. Three examples: I was recently looking for a door chime ("door bell") and since I have WiFi already all over the house I wanted something that could piggy-back off of that to increase range but also maybe send the notification to my phone or similar. Doesn't exist. Only ye-olde style RF doorbells no different than what they sold 50 years ago. I wanted a motion sensor that wasn't part of a security system, just a single stand alone motion detector which could send a text message ONLY during set hours (e.g. 11 pm to 6 am) when motion was detected. But nope, also doesn't exist (in fact there is a serious lack of variety in motion detectors, the closest I found was a Honeywell one which set off a doorbell when motion was detected, but cannot be shut off based on time of day). I want to know when the clothing dryer is done. I often don't hear it. I have WiFi, but yet I cannot receive an update digitally yet. Why? I cannot speak to everyone but for me personally I WANT this stuff. I'd happily buy this stuff. It doesn't exist. Where is it? Make it and I'll buy it.
- alttab 12y ago
  Don't get me wrong I totally get it. When you plug your device into a message bus like you would a power cord into the wall, things begin to make sense. Here is how I see it coming together: - STANDARDS: The "message bus" needs to have essentially an HTTP protocol standard, that both producers and receivers on both ends can understand. - Hardware, appliances and objects generate their own implementation of an end-node adhering to the protocol. - Wifi Routers allow the firmware to run "master" nodes, that would have a mobile app and a web front end to configure and customize. But because having to VPN into your house to manage anything, or even have to have a VPN at all would be silly. So now we host it in the cloud and the devices simply pull. To design the APIs, platform, SDK, and hosting solution would look a lot like what Apple and Google are doing with their all-encompassing themed keynotes this year. I'm actually worried about interoperability more than anything.
  - x1798DE 12y ago
    >STANDARDS: The "message bus" needs to have essentially an HTTP protocol standard, that both producers and receivers on both ends can understand. I think a better analogy to what we need should be an HTTPS protocol standard. HTTP was designed in an era of slow computers when security and privacy were not particularly high on the list of developer priorities, and now we're seeing an agonizingly slow move towards universal HTTPS adoption. It'd be nice to actually start out with security-aware protocols for once.
- jkestner 12y ago
  It's hard to meet every need when connectivity is still to expensive to try throwing in everything, but that's why we made a general connected object - your examples can be mostly met by http://supermechanical.com/twine http://supermechanical.com/twine, some with the breakout board to wire into existing circuits.

Right now its all buzzwords and vaporware. We are in 2004 talking about the "cloud." However, its coming, much like the cloud has.

by alttab 12y ago

Right now its all buzzwords and vaporware. We are in 2004 talking about the "cloud." However, its coming, much like the cloud has.

freyr 12y ago

There's a critical difference. Although the cloud and the IoT both began with buzzwords and vaporware, the cloud had clear and compelling potential benefits for customers from the start. For every "cloud," there are many overhyped technologies that went nowhere, despite industry's best efforts to thrust them upon us.

Someone1234 12y ago

A lot of people here are sceptical but I keep looking for products on Amazon I just assume would already exist but don't. Three examples: I was recently looking for a door chime ("door bell") and since I have WiFi already all over the house I wanted something that could piggy-back off of that to increase range but also maybe send the notification to my phone or similar. Doesn't exist. Only ye-olde style RF doorbells no different than what they sold 50 years ago. I wanted a motion sensor that wasn't part of a security system, just a single stand alone motion detector which could send a text message ONLY during set hours (e.g. 11 pm to 6 am) when motion was detected. But nope, also doesn't exist (in fact there is a serious lack of variety in motion detectors, the closest I found was a Honeywell one which set off a doorbell when motion was detected, but cannot be shut off based on time of day). I want to know when the clothing dryer is done. I often don't hear it. I have WiFi, but yet I cannot receive an update digitally yet. Why? I cannot speak to everyone but for me personally I WANT this stuff. I'd happily buy this stuff. It doesn't exist. Where is it? Make it and I'll buy it.

alttab 12y ago
Don't get me wrong I totally get it. When you plug your device into a message bus like you would a power cord into the wall, things begin to make sense. Here is how I see it coming together: - STANDARDS: The "message bus" needs to have essentially an HTTP protocol standard, that both producers and receivers on both ends can understand. - Hardware, appliances and objects generate their own implementation of an end-node adhering to the protocol. - Wifi Routers allow the firmware to run "master" nodes, that would have a mobile app and a web front end to configure and customize. But because having to VPN into your house to manage anything, or even have to have a VPN at all would be silly. So now we host it in the cloud and the devices simply pull. To design the APIs, platform, SDK, and hosting solution would look a lot like what Apple and Google are doing with their all-encompassing themed keynotes this year. I'm actually worried about interoperability more than anything.
- x1798DE 12y ago
  >STANDARDS: The "message bus" needs to have essentially an HTTP protocol standard, that both producers and receivers on both ends can understand. I think a better analogy to what we need should be an HTTPS protocol standard. HTTP was designed in an era of slow computers when security and privacy were not particularly high on the list of developer priorities, and now we're seeing an agonizingly slow move towards universal HTTPS adoption. It'd be nice to actually start out with security-aware protocols for once.
jkestner 12y ago
It's hard to meet every need when connectivity is still to expensive to try throwing in everything, but that's why we made a general connected object - your examples can be mostly met by http://supermechanical.com/twine http://supermechanical.com/twine, some with the breakout board to wire into existing circuits.