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The Wolfram Approach to the IoT

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to share with you some notes and pictures about a short talk I gave on "The Wolfram Approach to the IoT" to members of the IoTBCN Meetup group. I started by showing them Stephen Wolfram's blog post "The Personal Analytics of My Life", which is what got me interested in the Internet of Things. Then I introduced the Principles and Concepts of the Wolfram Language and I talked about my IoT projects with Fitbit and Runkeeper.

Concepts WL

The second part of the talk was dedicated to Wolfram Connected Devices Project and Wolfram Data Drop. I showed a few devices among the 4000+ curated devices, and I invited them to suggest a device if not listed in there.

IOT BCN

Arduino, Raspberry Pi and Electric IMP work great with Data Drop. After showing them a few WL examples using these devices and their Databins, I ended my talk with an overview of Wolfram Data Drop IFTTT Channel. The possibilities offered by this channel are endless and it makes data from devices like littleBits instantly computable. Simple things like a doorbell can be injected directly into the Internet of Things. See for example how easily I collected and computed three months of data from my doorbell using an IF Recipe, a cloudBit module with a sound trigger, Data Drop and the Wolfram Language:

IF recipe Data Drop

cloudBit module

t = Databin["890nfWXB"]["Timestamps"];
byDay = GroupBy[t, DateValue[#, "DayNameShort"] &];
Graphics[{RGBColor[0, 0.61, 0.64], 
  Table[Disk[{First@#, i}, Log[Last@#]/6] & /@ 
    Sort[Normal[CountsBy[
        byDay[i /. {0 -> "Mon", 1 -> "Tue", 2 -> "Wed", 3 -> "Thu", 4 -> "Fri", 5 -> "Sat", 
           6 -> "Sun"}], DateValue[#, "Hour"] &]] /. Rule -> List], {i, 0, 6, 1}]}, Frame -> True, 
 FrameTicks -> {{List @@@ {0 -> "Mon", 1 -> "Tue", 2 -> "Wed", 3 -> "Thu", 4 -> "Fri", 5 -> "Sat", 
      6 -> "Sun"}, 
    None}, {{#, DateString[#*3600, {"Hour12Short", " ", "AMPM"}]} & /@ Range[1, 24, 2], None}}, 
 PlotRangePadding -> 0.5, ImageSize -> 800]

Doorbell week plot

This is somehow the tip of the iceberg of what's coming. And I expect to see more and more IoT projects done with Wolfram Technologies.

IoT Box

POSTED BY: Bernat Espigulé

Thanks for the post, Bernat,

I'll try not to hijack your post, but you mention the Datadrop several times so I think this is loosely on topic. (And truth be told, I've sent this very question to the data drop folks via the data drop contact link but that inbox might not be monitored all that frequently...) I'm very interested in integrating IoT/remote sensing concepts into my teaching, and RPi/Wolfram/Datadrop is in my opinion a low-hanging fruit solution. The 5-bin maximum for the free account (the only type of access that would be feasible for classroom purposes) has a big warning that bins expire after a month. However, I've seen bins in my account sitting there for much longer than a month. Is this warning no longer valid? Is it a "could be deleted"? If WRI is contemplating what are appropriate limits to the free service, bins that can persist for the semester (6 months) would be ideal for me.

On a similar note - in order to use this tool effectively in the classroom, I need better introductory materials. Wolfram typically has a "big explosions" approach to demonstrating features, which is cool if you have the time and talent to work through the code. (There is no doubt that one can do some amazingly complex things with compact code if you are highly experienced in Wolfram Language programming). I've yet to see a simple demonstration that shows how one takes a simple set of data, creates the correct structure (association), attaches units and interpretations, such that it can be easily viewed and analyzed through WolfrmaAlpha. Granted, I can take the time to put that together; however if WRI is interested in penetrating the education market with IoT, then providing these resources (so that I can focus on topical content) would be very helpful.

POSTED BY: BoB LeSuer
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