DIY Interface for Enhanced Service Customization of Remote IoT Devices: A CoAP Based Prototype

Abstract

DIY vision for the design of a smart and customizable world in the form of IoT demands the involvement of general public in its development process. General public lacks the technical depths for programming state-of-the-art prototyping and development kits. Latest IoT kits, for example, Intel Edison, are revolutionizing the DIY paradigm for IoT and more than ever a DIY intuitive programming interface is required to enable masses to interact with and customize the behavior of remote IoT devices on the Internet. This paper presents the novel implementation of such a system enabling general public to customize the behavior of remote IoT devices through a visual interface. The interface enables the visualization of the resources exposed by a remote CoAP device in the form of graphical virtual objects. The VOs are used to create service design through simple operations like drag-and-drop and properties settings. The design is maintained as an XML document, thus being easily distributable and recognizable. CoAP proxy acts as an operation client for the remote device and also provides communication link between the designer and the device. The paper presents the architecture, detailed design, and prototype implementation of the system using state-of-the-art technologies.