Last year, Mozilla announced Project Things, which is a framework of software and services that help bridge gaps in communication between connected devices by giving “things” URLs on the web.
And days ago, the company began delivering on its earlier promises by announcing a new solution designed to enable anyone to build their own Internet of Things (IoT) gateway.
As Engineering and Technology pointed out, this is a pretty big deal as it allows IoT devices to communicate with one another “regardless of which tech company developed them.” Enabling all IoT devices to be managed through a single secure web interface allows users to directly monitor and control their home over the web, without a middleman.
“Last year, we said that Mozilla is working to create a framework of software and services that can bridge the communication gap between connected devices. Today, we are pleased to announce that anyone can now build their own Things Gateway to control their connected device directly from the web,” the company wrote in a blog post.
What’s more, this first-of-its-kid “Things Gateway” can be set up by anyone, technical knowledge notwithstanding. All you need is a Raspberry Pi, a microSD card, a dongle and the new Things Gateway software.
From IoT to WoT
According to Mozilla, for as long as accessory makers and service providers continue to create products which cannot communicate with each other, building a connected home will remain expensive and the IoT will not take off: the market is “fragmented and slow to grow,” the organization has warned.
“The ‘Web of Things’ (WoT) is the idea of taking the lessons learned from the World Wide Web and applying them to IoT. It’s about creating a decentralized Internet of Things by giving Things URLs on the web to make them linkable and discoverable, and defining a standard data model and APIs to make them interoperable,” the company wrote.
Though Apple, Google, Amazon and even Samsung have been battling it out around the clock to create their own standards of controlling connected home devices, it seems Mozilla beat them to the punch. For now.
Get Up To Speed or Get Left Behind
The future of connected devices is still up for debate, but organizations need to begin preparing for this industry-altering shift now. IEEE Continuing and Professional Education offers a multi-course IoT series to educate employees on how the Internet of Things will impact their day to day business. It’s available now on IEEE Xplore.
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