As part of some “Social Web of Things” prospective research, we found interesting applications. We wanted to create our own intelligent object, a common use artifact enhanced with non-intrusive intelligence, and able to express itself using a Facebook page. Inspired by developments made by the Middlesex University, we decided to enhance a beer pump.
- A temperature sensor, to be able to monitor the beer temperature
- A FSR sensor, to be able to evaluate the beer level in the keg
- A shutter actuator (in fact, two exclusive relays), in order to lift up and down the whole thing
- A relay, to switch on and off the refrigerator of the beer pump.
In addition to the connection with Domus, the application server can export data and import commands using a RESTful interface or a SOAP web-service. We used this ability to create a connector with the OpenRemote solution. OpenRemote is a great Open Source project to build user interfaces for iPhone and Android devices, handling many home automation protocols. We proposed SOAP as one of these protocols. As OpenRemote handles authentication, it allow non-authenticated people to simply monitor the temperature from a smart phone, and authenticated people (meaning the Domus Team), to lift up and down the whole thing.
Bonus: making-of and proof of concept video
