You might be hearing this new buzz-phrase, “Internet of Things” quite a bit lately. You might be wondering what it’s all about. Let me try to explain.

A “thing” could be a lot of things, but it’s not people (and definitely not places). That leaves everything else. Now according to the Internet, there are 6,767,805,208 people on Earth and of those 6,767,805,208 people 1,802,330,457 have used the Internet. That’s (only) 26%. So, that means one out of four people do not know what Numa Numa is all about. This also means there are a lot more things than people. A thing could be a camera, mobile device, sensors, your air conditioner, a river, and even a toaster.

The trick to the “Internet of Things” or the “Web of Things” will be providing connectivity to all of those things. Once we do, we will be able to gain access to a lot of information. The next challenge will be making that data useful in our everyday lives. We are just at the start of this, that’s why we are just starting to hear about it (with some help with IBM commercials).

I have been fascinated by this concept since I first joined the Internet, back where GeoCities and L’Hotel Chat were the hip spots. For me the interest started off by controlling things over the web. Then, I started wondering what are my things doing. What temperature is it at my house? What’s going on with my freezer? Is it time to refill my humidor? How much power is my computer using?

Over a year and half ago, I placed my toaster on Twitter (@mytoaster). Since then, my toaster starting using other social networks and discovered online dating all by itself. That is a weird thought, “What if things get smarter and smarter?” Things will eventually be able to socialize with other things. My (sentient) toaster might even find another compatible toaster using eHarmony.

I am not saying that this is the best example of the Internet of Things, but what I am saying is that it’s a start. I believe in a future of connected things so strongly that I joined a start up company that enabled my toaster way back when I was more interesting than my things.

For a good primer on the Internet of Things, check the recent article on Silicon.com called, “Cheat Sheet: The internet of things“. My toaster even gets a tongue-in-cheek reference. Actually there are lots of great sites that are covering the Internet of Things and making things happen in this emerging industry – Singularity Hub, ReadWriteWeb, Wired.com to name a few.

My guess is that you will hear more and more about The Internet of Things until it hits Smart Grid proportions, then you will hear about the next big thing – the smart internet of things grid perhaps.

My first project with ioBridge was building a remote sensor network web interface on top of the Google Maps API. The sensor network allows for the real-time monitoring of tide levels. The project got written up on MIT’s Technology Review blog and the ioBridge Projects blog. You can demo the tide monitoring application at www.TideAlerts.com.

Change is not always easy. I had a great job and got to see all of the United States minus Alaska, Hawaii, and Idaho (yes, Idaho, I have flown all over you but never landed on you…). I got to design, maintain, pen test, and provide training for some of the largest networks in the US for utilities and telecommunications providers over a 10 year period. Yes, you can blame me the next time your call drops.

This also means I saw a lot of hotels and airports. I probably stayed at a Hampton Inn from 30 different states. I can’t tell you how many times I woke up to a USA Today being crammed under my door. For whatever reason on my first trip to a DSL testing company in Manchester, New Hampshire, I saved the room key. I know you are supposed to return them, but maybe in the excitement of it all, I kept it. This tradition continued with my next project in Lincoln, Nebraska and the next and the next. When I got home I would shove the room key in a box. I just dumped it out and could not believe it…Here’s a photo so you can see what I am saying…

I don’t advocate stealing room keys, but this pile is  a quick snap shot of 1000′s of trips and projects and experiences. With the new gig, I will travel less and that might be good. I am looking forward to it and might even join a bowling league where I can actually make the games. I will keep you updated on the progress. It’s time to start-up (.com).

]]> http://iamshadowlord.com/2010/06/new-gig-less-hotels-2.html/feed 1 http://iamshadowlord.com/2010/03/best-invention-since-sliced-bread.html http://iamshadowlord.com/2010/03/best-invention-since-sliced-bread.html#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:29:00 +0000 Hans http://iamshadowlord.com/?p=32 My toaster is back in the news with a post on FoxNews.com regarding “Things that Tweet”. I love things that can speak and soon the idea of a “web of things” will not be so odd.

The website “Global Toaster” reported that my internet toaster is a celebrity. Their site is chock full of toasters, toaster info, toaster love, and a toaster blog. Check it out.

Fast forward 20 years and I am still shoving LEDs into pumpkins. This year my inspiration comes from steampunk, a growing subculture fascinated with steam-aged garb and future technology fusion. Steampunk was born of the H. G. Wells and Jules Verne visions of futuristic technology and style. Call it what you want, Steampunk is an inspiring movement of makers and re-users of technology and materials.

Here is my steampunk inspired pumpkin.

This little story sounds made up. Well, it’s not.

My toaster has had a Twitter page since December 2008, tweeting the status of my toast making habits for all of the world to follow. On occasion people even write to the toaster to ask what it’s toasting. Oddly enough, it can tell you.

I get asked, “Why have your toaster on the Internet?” Well, it’s a starting point for future projects and part sarcasm. I have been working on gizmos, web control, and power / resource management projects with my friend Jason Winters of ioBridge for over a decade. One day I had the idea to overlay appliance usage data onto a graph of my power consumption for my house. My theory is to use this appliance meta data to reduce the power I use everyday by pointing directly to the power hogs. It’s a start to my internet of things at my house. If you want to get start your own Skynet, visit Wired’s Wiki on making things talk. I use the IO-204 control and monitor module from ioBridge.com.

OK, mostly it’s sarcasm.

My Toaster has been recently written about on Wired.com, ReadWriteWeb, PC World, Tiscali, De Morgen, XYCity China, etc. If you want to hear about it straight from the bread slot, you can get live updates from my toaster by following @MyToaster on Twitter.

I am now jealous of my toaster which has made for awkward moments when I want some crunchy Wonder Bread.

I took the leap and bought an Arduino from LiquidWare. An arduino is an open-source microcontroller that has a processor, some digital I/O pins, and analog inputs. You can create little standalone programs that monitor inputs, control LEDs, and pretty much anything that you dream up. My favorite projects are ones that involve the Internet. A microcontroller is rather simple by itself, but what if it could use the web to get answers, send email, maybe update my Twitter status? That means there is a unlimited number of projects ahead – Microcontrollers collaboarating in cyberspace. The missing link for the web part is the ioBridge IO-204. I know you are no stranger to the the IO-204, but for those of you who have not heard. The IO-204 sits on my network and relays data from its channels to ioBridge.com servers and back into my network. It allows for remote control and monitoring without network configuration and programming. One of the expansion boards is a two-way serial board that accepts serial strings and connects them to APIs of web services that ioBridge interfaces to and sends back responses. For instance, I can send the commands, “[[[calc|9*9]]]” and this returns 81. OK, maybe not impressive on the surface, but that result came from Google Calculator. Anything Google Calculator can solve, your microcontroller has access to those results. For more examples, visit the Serial Web Services API on the wiki.

//
// Message Center using Arduino and the ioBridge IO-204
//
// An open-souce Shadowlord Project
// www.IamShadowlord.com

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

// SoftwareSerial Pins
#define rxPin 2
#define txPin 3

// Setup Software Serial
SoftwareSerial softSerial = SoftwareSerial(rxPin, txPin);

// Global Setup
int middleLED = 11;
int rightLED = 10;
int leftLED = 12;

int leftButton = 5;
int leftButtonCurrent = LOW;
int leftButtonReading;
int leftButtonPrevious = HIGH;
long leftButtonTime = 0;
long leftButtonDebounce = 200;

int middleButton = 4;
int middleButtonCurrent = LOW;
int middleButtonReading;
int middleButtonPrevious = HIGH;
long middleButtonTime = 0;
long middleButtonDebounce = 200;

int rightButton = 6;
int rightButtonCurrent = LOW;
int rightButtonReading;
int rightButtonPrevious = HIGH;
long rightButtonTime = 0;
long rightButtonDebounce = 200;

int tempPin = 5;
int tempAnalog = 0;
int tempF = 0;

char* currentRequest = "";

// Start up program
void setup() {

pinMode(rxPin, INPUT);
pinMode(txPin, OUTPUT);

pinMode(leftLED, OUTPUT);
pinMode(middleLED, OUTPUT);
pinMode(rightLED, OUTPUT);

pinMode(leftButton, INPUT);
pinMode(middleButton, INPUT);
pinMode(rightButton, INPUT);

softSerial.begin(9600);
delay(100);

Serial.begin(9600);
delay(100);

Serial.flush();
delay(100);

// Setup LCD
clearLCD();
setBacklightBrightness(9);
delay(1000);

// Test LEDs
digitalWrite(leftLED, HIGH);
digitalWrite(middleLED, HIGH);
digitalWrite(rightLED, HIGH);

delay(1500);

digitalWrite(leftLED, LOW);
digitalWrite(middleLED, LOW);
digitalWrite(rightLED, LOW);

}

// Start main program loop
void loop(){

// Get Analog Input and scale as temperature for ioBridge temperature sensor on arduino
tempAnalog = analogRead(tempPin);
tempF = tempAnalog / 6.875;

// Monitor left button status and debounce
leftButtonReading = digitalRead(leftButton);

if (leftButtonReading == HIGH && leftButtonPrevious == LOW && 
          millis() - leftButtonTime > leftButtonDebounce) {
if (leftButtonCurrent == HIGH) leftButtonCurrent = LOW;
else {digitalWrite(leftLED, HIGH);
clearLCD();
delay(100);
softSerial.print("Outside: ");
delay(100);
softSerial.print(tempF);
delay(100);
moveCursor("02", "01");
delay(100);
softSerial.print("Atlanta: ");
leftButtonCurrent = LOW;
//Request temperature in Atlanta via ioBridge
Serial.print("[[[weather|Atlanta]]]");
digitalWrite(leftLED, LOW);
}
leftButtonTime = millis();
}

leftButtonPrevious = leftButtonReading;

// Monitor middle button status and debounce
middleButtonReading = digitalRead(middleButton);

if (middleButtonReading == HIGH && middleButtonPrevious == LOW &&
         millis() - middleButtonTime > middleButtonDebounce) {
if (middleButtonCurrent == HIGH) middleButtonCurrent = LOW;
else {currentRequest = "Google";
digitalWrite(middleLED, HIGH);
clearLCD();delay(100);
softSerial.print("GOOG: $");
delay(100);
middleButtonCurrent = LOW;
//Request Google Stock Price via ioBridge  
Serial.print("[[[stock|GOOG]]]"); 
digitalWrite(middleLED, LOW);
}
middleButtonTime = millis();
}

middleButtonPrevious = middleButtonReading;

// Monitor right button status and debounce
rightButtonReading = digitalRead(rightButton);

if (rightButtonReading == HIGH && rightButtonPrevious == LOW &&
            millis() - rightButtonTime > rightButtonDebounce) {
if (rightButtonCurrent == HIGH) rightButtonCurrent = LOW;
else {
digitalWrite(rightLED, HIGH);
clearLCD();
delay(100);
softSerial.print("Alert: ");
delay(100);
rightButtonCurrent = LOW;
//Send email via ioBridge  
Serial.print("[[[email|hans@nothans.com|Alert|Mom, is pressing your buttons]]]");
digitalWrite(rightLED, LOW);
}
rightButtonTime = millis();
}

rightButtonPrevious = rightButtonReading;

// Display serial messages
if(Serial.available() > 0){

delay(100);

char charIn = 0;
byte i = 0;
char stringIn[32] = "";

while(Serial.available()) {
charIn = Serial.read();
stringIn[i] = charIn;
i += 1;
}

if (currentRequest == "Google") {

softSerial.print(stringIn);
int stockPrice = atoi(stringIn);
delay(100);
moveCursor("02", "01");
delay(100);
stockPrice = stockPrice - 405;
softSerial.print("Change: $"); 
delay(100);
softSerial.print(stockPrice);
currentRequest = "";

}
elsesoftSerial.print(stringIn);
}

// End program loop     
}

//
// ioBridge Serial LCD Functions and Parameters (for SoftwareSerial)
//

void displayMessage(char* message){
softSerial.print(message);
}

void clearLCD(){
softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("Z");
}

void setBacklightBrightness(int level){
// level
// 0=Off -> 9=Brightest

softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("B");
softSerial.print(level);
}

void setBacklightTime(int level, byte seconds){
// level
// 0=Off -> 9=Brightest

// seconds
// 01 = 1 seconds => 06 = 60 seconds

softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("T");
softSerial.print(level);
softSerial.print(seconds, BYTE);
}

void moveCursorHome(){
softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("H");
}

void turnCursorOn(){
softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("J");
}

void turnCursorOff(){
softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("K");
}

void turnBlinkingCursorOn(){
softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("P");
}

void turnBlinkingCursorOff(){
softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("Q");
}

void scrollMessage(int row, int speed, char* message){
// row
// 1=First Line -> 2=Second Line

// speed
// 0=Slowest -> 9=Fastest

softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("S");
softSerial.print(row);
softSerial.print(speed);
softSerial.print(message);
softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
}

void moveCursor(char* row, char* column){
// row
// 01=First Line -> 02=Second Line

// column
// 01=First Position -> 16=Last Position

softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("L");
softSerial.print(row);
softSerial.print(column);
}

void drawHorizontalGauge(int row, char* leftLabel, char* rightLabel, char* length){
// row
// 1=First Line -> 2=Second Line

// leftLabel and rightLabel
// 2 character labels

// length
// a=Empty -> k=Full (filled in from left to right)

softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("G");
softSerial.print(row);
softSerial.print(leftLabel);
softSerial.print(rightLabel);
softSerial.print(length);
}

void drawVerticalGauge(int height){
// height
// 0=Bottom -> 8=Top (filled in from bottom to top)

softSerial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
softSerial.print("V");
softSerial.print(height);

}

The iPhone or iPod Touch has an accelerometer that detects how the device is oriented. As the devices moves off axis (from straight up and down) the screen rotates. I want to use that feedback to control the position of a motor or servo or cause specific events to happen depending on the device’s position.

Taking the ioBridge IO-204 module, I connected the servo controller and a servo to one of the channels. On the servo I taped a Best Western hotel pen to show the movement of the servo. I found from hours of testing that the Best Western worked the “Best” and Hampton Inn worked slightly worse.

On the ioBridge website, I created 3 widgets that corresponded with the orientation of the iPod. “Left” for when tilted towards the left, “Right” when I turned right, and “Forward” when I was holding the iPod normally (straight up and down).

Warning: The next part involves some light programming. I made a quick HTML file with some JavaScript that detected the orientation of the iPod and called the appropriate widget. The orientation code is below for those of you that are interested in trying this for yourself:

Load up the completed HTML file on your iPhone or iPod Touch and now you can control a servo with the turning of your iPhone. I call it “iTurn” (didn’t see that one coming, did you?).

Here is a YouTube video of the iTurn project:

That statement sounds odd. Well, let me explain. My friends would describe me as the kind of person that has a lot of time on their hands. They would be right. That time is never put to productive use, but over Thanksgiving I got the gumption to start a new project. Sometimes, I start little servo, robotic, web-based projects for my own gratification, but I get fed up with all of the time I invest just so I can impress my 3 friends that also have nothing do to over the holidays.

My friend Jason Winters has been working on an module that simplifies the connecting of projects to the internet. He sent me one of his ioBridge modules to beta test and my mind started spinning. My goal this Thanksgiving was to think of a crazy project that would be the most senseless thing someone has ever heard of before.

Again, My Toaster Twitters…

Twitter is a social networking site that allows you to tell the world your current status – kind of like a microscopic blog that gets to the point. You can write, “Hans is going to lunch” or “Hans is tired”, etc. It’s fun to follow people and see what they can do creatively with just a few characters of updates.

I use my toaster when I am home and I thought that the world may want to know when I’m toasting.

twitter.com/mytoaster

How do you make a toaster twitter?

I grabbed my old bagel / toast toaster and glued a switch to the outside, so when the slider gets pressed down it triggers the switch and when it pops up, the switch opens (couldn’t be any more binary then that).

The ioBridge module has a digital input that I can hook the switch up to and monitor that state of toasting or not. Using a terminal board, a pull up resistor (1k), and some alligator clips, I hooked up the resistor from the digital input to the +5v source from the module, and clipped my clips on the resistor and the ground. A few pictures are worth more than my description.

Here is the whole system hooked together:

The Web Stuff

Using the ioBridge website, I created an event widget that monitors the input state of that particular digital input. And when the input is “high”, the site sends an email to any address of my liking. And the same for the “low” state. I chose my Twitter Mail address, but really could of hit any social network, email by blog, or even UberNote.

Follow My Toaster on Twitter at twitter.com/mytoaster. I think I proved empirically that I have too much time on my hands.