Internet of things

Abstract

In this chapter we will describe pachube. This is a web based tool for showing graphics about values red from devices connected to internet.

This is intended to be short and concise, which will allows to understand the next entry of this blog, when we connect our arduino to this tool for track a temperature sensor.

The information described here was extracted from their URL: www.pachube.com

What is Pachube anyway?

Pachube is a realtime data infrastructure platform for the Internet of Things , managing millions of datapoints per day from thousands of individuals, organisations & companies around the world. Pachube's powerful and scalable infrastructure enables you to build 'Internet of Things' products and services, and store, share & discover realtime sensor, energy and environment data from objects, devices & buildings around the world.

What allows Pachube?

Manage realtime sensor & environment data :
Pachube is a data brokerage platform for the internet of things , managing millions of datapoints per day from thousands of individuals, organisations & companies around the world. Convenient, secure & economical, Pachube stores, converts & serves data in multiple data formats , which makes it interoperable with both established web protocols & existing construction industry standards. All feeds include contextual metadata (timestamps, geolocation, units, tags) that actually make datastreams valuable.

Graph, monitor & control remote environments :
Embed realtime graphs & widgets in your own website. Analyse & process historical data pulled from any public Pachube feed. Send realtime alerts from any datastream to control your own scripts, devices & environments. Out-of-the-box configurable tools include a zoomable graph , a mapping/tracking widget , anaugmented reality viewer , SMS alerts & apps for various smartphones . As soon as something is plugged into Pachube, you're ready to monitor & control it.

Build mobile & web apps that create value :
With a rapid development cycle & dozens of code examples & libraries, Pachube's simple yet sophisticated'physical-to-virtual' API makes it quick & easy to build applications that add value to networked objects & environments. That's because real value-creation comes from the applications that are built on top of sensor systems. Pachube handles the scalability & high-availability required for complex data management, so that you are empowered to develop applications that make decision-making more sophisticated.

Share data & create communities :
Pachube is built to encourage open ecosystems. Connect electricity meters , weather stations , building management systems , air quality monitors , biosensors , geiger counters — build communities around devices & data collection. While privacy options will soon be available, Pachube's unique openness promotes growth: most hardware & software libraries & real world applications are being created by its community!

Pachube's website is a little like YouTube, except that, rather than sharing videos , it enables people to monitor and share real time environmental data from sensors that are connected to the internet. Pachube acts between environments, able both to capture input data (from remote sensors) and serve output data (to remote actuators). Connections can be made between any two environments, facilitating even spontaneous or previously unplanned connections. Apart from being used in physical environments, it also enables people to embed this data in web-pages, in effect to "blog" sensor data. Through the extensive use of metadata, Pachube adds value to physical interconnectivity: it's not just about datastreams, but about the environments that make up the datastreams.



Pachube makes it simple to build applications, products and services that bridge physical and virtual worlds. With a rapid development cycle (it can take just one line of code to start prototyping ), and a sophisticated development path (working with both web-protocols and data formats that are interoperable with construction industry formats) people have used Pachube to build sensor-logging systems, remote monitoring apps, integrate building management systems, develop geo-tracking systems, create mashups and networked objects and a whole host of other things. For more on what you might do see What can I use Pachube for? .

Apart from CSV and JSON , Pachube also makes use of Extended Environments Markup Language (EEML) , which extends the construction industry protocol IFC. An extensive RESTful API makes it possible to both serve and request data in all formats. Data can be pushed to Pachube using an HTTP PUT request (especially useful for those operating behind firewalls or with non-static URLs) or Pachube can pull data from devices that are able to serve.

There are extensive tutorials and software and hardware libraries and examples available for all sorts of platforms.

Relevant URLs:

- http://www.pachube.com/ (main website)
- http://www.economist.com/node/17388392 "The Economist: Special Report on Smart Systems - Augmented Business"
- http://www.ugotrade.com/2009/01/28/pachube-patching-the-planet-interview... (interview with Pachube's founder)
- http://eeml.org/ (Extended Environments Markup Language)
- http://api.pachube.com/ (technical documentation)