October 2014
44
T
OOLS
& S
OFTWARE
Easy-to-use, accessible technology
for the Internet of Things
By Shawn Silberhorn,
Conrad
An open source,
easy-to-use tool such as
the WunderBar IoT Starter-Kit
helps to exploit the Internet of Things.
By using the relayr platform,
all users of the IoT – either with
or without a commercial motivation –
can quickly and easily evolve
their ideas from concepts to working
solutions at relatively low expense.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is set to play a
huge part in our daily lives. It is the focal point
for building a world that is connected in ways
previously unimagined. In a diverse range of
markets, from in-car systems to wearable med-
ical devices, developers and users are already
fully realizing the benefits of seamlessly con-
necting previously standalone devices to make
them smart, intelligent and communicative. In
the next few years, the IoT has the potential to
advance almost every area of our lives by invis-
ibly improving how we interact with technol-
ogy. The IoT is a network of physical objects
that contain embedded chips, allowing things
to sense their environments and communicate
data through the internet. In other words it will
enable objects to talk with each other, digitaliz-
ing the physical world.
The connected world as we know it today has
evolved from the convergence of wireless tech-
nologies, micro-electromechanical systems and
the Internet. However, we are now at a point
where it is conceivable that by 2020, 50 devices
or more in a typical home could be connected.
There could be in the region of 50 billion IoT
nodes worldwide and this number will almost
certainly expand, as the IoT can encompass a
huge range of home and industrial applications.
When you consider the extent of the industries
that are eager to make their products and sys-
tems connected and intelligent through the IoT,
it’s clear to see just how quickly the IoT could
grow. The home, for example, is just one place
that could gain from the implementation of
the IoT, with many everyday domestic appli-
ances having the potential to make themselves
more efficient or useful by becoming connect-
able. Commercially, fields such as manufactur-
ing, energy infrastructure, healthcare facilities
and transportation could also stand to benefit by
embracing interconnection through the Internet.
Open source hardware and cloud platforms
– such as convenient, easy-to-use solutions
like the WunderBar Open Source IoT Starter
Kit – will help to support the development of
the IoT ecosystem. A huge array of products
can benefit from implementing the IoT by
using such tools. Also essential will be reliable,
cost-effective electronic and electromechani-
cal components and devices, such as sensors
for temperature, level, position and proximity,
along with actuators, ultra-low power MCUs
and DSPs and power management solutions.
The WunderBar IoT Starter Kit for software
application developer and hardware engi-
neers is a collaboration between the Berlin
based start-up relayr and German-based
multi-channel electronics distributor, Conrad.
Developed and manufactured in cooperation
with the hardware experts at MikroElektron-
ika, and coupled with relayr’s Open Sensor
Cloud Platform (relayr Cloud), it is designed
to enable professional software application
developers to quickly and easily begin work-
ing on wireless applications and prototypes
without prior experience of developing for
hardware. It will also be of benefit to hard-
ware and software design engineers within
OEMs who are looking to use module-based
hardware as drop-in design solutions which
shorten development times.
Moreover using the WunderBar, software
developers can build apps that utilize data
gathered from the physical world. Kits like this
may also appeal to student software develop-
ers looking for easy-to-program sets as well as
makers - a rapidly expanding community who
are looking to self-build connected home sys-
tems that utilize the IoT. For all of these groups,
having software development kits (SDKs) for
iOS, Android and Node.js is crucial. Providing
a wide selection of SDKs means that almost all
developers are catered to by the WunderBar.
The relayr OpenSensor Cloud platform helps
enable device makers and manufacturers, app
developers and software companies working
with the WunderBar to leverage the power of
the Internet of Things. Developers are able to
create new applications and services that let
end users enrich their lives with connected
devices. Complex event processing and a rules
