www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqi28Qcvvdg

“It’s a way to connect physical things with social networking experiences. We are all connected.” -CheerLights

Colors from Twitter are processed via ioBridge’s Internet of Things Platform called ThingSpeak. ThingSpeak is a suite of apps to make things social and interact with each other and social networks. CheerLights takes advantage of the TweetControl app. This app can be used to monitor Twitter and then send a control signal to anything that supports HTTP like thermostats, ioBridge X10 Home Automation gear, kid’s toys, interactive trade show displays… and whatever you come up with next.

[via iDigi / My Web of Things]

Here is a video introduction to CheerLights:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqi28Qcvvdg

To join the CheerLights project all you have to is build a controller that subscribes to the “cheerlights” keyword, receives the latest color command, and sets the color on your lights. So, when you see the color change know that the color it is now changing all across the world. Instructions on how to build your own physical controller are based around GE G-35 Color Effects Lights and the ioBridge IO-204, ConnectPort X2, or Arduino Ethernet.

The last color processed by CheerLights is accessed through the CheerLights Channel hosted on ThingSpeak. With that data you could this a lot further and build all sorts of applications that read in that color value and do something with it. Your application could be an Android widget that shows the latest color, a set of Christmas lights, ambient orb, or dynamically setting the background color of a website.

ioBridge has been working on a way to distribute a command from a social network and distribute to thousands of end points in real-time – a many to many issue. The technology behind CheerLights paves the way for an alert system that could cascade across the globe.

[via CheerLights.com]

If you say, “Siri I’m cold”, the iPhone sends a command to the ioBridge API to turn on the furnace. Siri warmly replies, “Lighting the fire place, this is cozy.” What is really neat is how the interface is voice commands, but the language is natural.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhc7SKli4M4

Here are some other home automation commands demonstrated in the video:

• Siri turn on the Christmas lights
• Siri turn on the living room lamp
• Siri turn off everything

Markt makes use of SiriProxy to intercept commands spoken at Siri and reroute them to the ioBridge API to control the X10 widgets connected to the ioBridge IO-204. For more information about the project, visit Mark’s blog for a detailed description and things that you need to make your own voice activated home automation system.

[via MarkHodder.com]

Josh had some clear goals to ensure that the breast milk was stored properly:

1. Know the real-time temperature of the freezer
2. Send alerts if temperatures get too warm
3. Monitor the state of power at our home
4. Send alerts if power is out

In this case, adding some remote monitoring smarts to the otherwise “dumb” freezer, is the perfect solution. Josh ran a temperature probe into the freezer and connected it to a channel on the ioBridge Io-204 web gateway. On ioBridge.com, he created a data log to monitor the temperature of the freezer and set an email alert for the temperature required to store breast milk for an extended period of time. Josh also connected the Io-204 to the same power source as the freezer, so that if power was lost to the freezer it would also be lost the IO-204. ioBridge tracks whether these devices are connected, so that you can monitor their Online / Offline status. Josh cleverly connected an API call to the device to a site monitoring service and now is able to monitor the up time of his freezer just like monitoring the up time of a server.

The Internet of Things is in its infancy, but it can be very practical despite the recent articles referring to the number of devices to impress upon us just the sheer volume. To us it’s all about finding useful applications and introducing them to consumers to find our early majority product and service. We believe in and see a connected future, but we want it to be so useful that people don’t have to think about the technology. Like when you are using an iPad, are you concerned over capacitive touch technology or that it’s really easy to play games? Maybe by the time Josh’s baby grows up and enters college, the Internet of Things will be as common place and transparent as indoor plumbing.

Check out Josh’s blog for more details on setting up his breast milk monitoring system using ioBridge and a bonus project on using the Edimax Nanorouter to add Wi-Fi to the ioBridge IO-204 Monitor and Control Module.

[via MojoHo.com]

While at Remote Expo, we were able to grab some bits of video so that you could see our booth setup and see one of our consumer product demonstrations. One of our exhibits was a web-enabled garage door opener, designed for one of our customers, that features real-time control, integrated video feedback, and mobile and web application control. Here’s a quick video from Remote Monitoring & Control 2011 with introduction and demonstration by our CEO, Dr. Robert Mawrey.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUx-q0zh7ZA

Thanks to everyone that stopped by and thanks to the organizers for such a successful event! We enjoyed our visit to Nashville and look forward to working with the many people that we met at Remote 2011.

Ryan released the beer cannon around New Years 2011, and since then, he has captured the imaginations of TV producers behind great shows on the Science Channel, Discovery, and The History Channel. The producers were creating a new series called, JUNKies for the Science Channel, where people turn junk into new things. They wanted to recreate Ryan’s mini-fridge beer cannon as part of one of the episodes. Hopefully, this episode will introduce the mainstream into Internet-control of things and inspire a whole new crop of innovations.

The “beer cannon” episode of JUNKies premieres on the Science Channel on September 8, 2011 at 10pm (EST). For more information about JUNKies, visit the Science Channel website.

Congrats, Ryan!

One of our many TideAlerts.com subscribers had the idea to “watch” the tide levels during Hurricane Irene. After analyzing the data, we observed something interesting. The period of the tides did not change, but the amplitudes (the high tide and low tide marks) were greatly exaggerated as Hurricane Irene passed through Cape Cod.

The ioBridge tide project is another example of how the Internet of Things is emerging. We started this project 3 years ago and it provides an extremely useful service and is only possible by aggregating tons of sensor data and sharing it with users, developers, and researchers. This application is based on open data from NOAA and users monitoring environmental information and tries to find more meaning than just being a collection site of data.

By the way, here is what the tides looked like during Hurricane Irene at one of our public monitoring sites:

The good news is that by the time Hurricane Irene made it to Massachusetts, the storm was weak and all of our tide sensor sites survived.

Check out the Technology Review article, Cape Cod is Tweeting, Thanks to the Internet of Things, for more information about our tide project or contact us at support@iobridge.com.

The Mini Fridge Beer Robot is featured in Popular Science magazine in the June 2011 issue: Inventions of the Year. In this PopSci, you can learn how-to create your very own beer firing robot with a step-by-step guide. The beer robot, dubbed the ioFridge, is the perfect connection between man and machine! And, when we created ioBridge, you better believe we saw a future of armed machines that are web-enabled. Congrats on making PopSci and getting us one step closer…

The Web of Things Workshop features the latest research on the bleeding edge of this emerging Internet of Things that everyone seems to be talking about as of recent. Hans Scharler, co-founder of ioBridge and ThingSpeak, will be presenting on his involvement with the business of The Internet of Things. Hans will provide some business cases, share ioBridge projects turned products, show the latest ioBridge technology, and demonstrate a live web of things project.

“I am thrilled to be participating with WoT2011 Workshop,” said Hans Scharler. “The workshop will have some great research presentations and you’ll have an opportunity to meet the innovators behind our emerging industry.”

In addition to the Web of Things Workshop, a hackathon will be held to bring together people from different industries to implement their ideas relating to the Internet of Things. Lots can happen at a hackathon, as you never know what will emerge. The concept is to have everyone focus on a particular area and see what gets created. We will be providing sensors, hardware, and access to web services to help enable some interesting applications. For more information and registration, visit the Web of Things Hackathon site.

Web of Thing Hackathon [info]

Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 9am – 5 pm

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts [map]
998 Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94102

Web of Things Workshop [info]

Sunday, June 12, 2011 – 9am – 5pm

Hotel Nikko San Francisco [map]
222 Mason Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

Water Pressure Gauge Showing 9 bars

ioBridge IO-204 Module Connected to Sensors

Elad says this is his first step into the Internet of Things and learned a lot before he goes full-scale. “This operation, of connection stuff to the web is called Internet Of Things (IOT). The thing can be any device, even a toaster like this guy did connecting his toaster to Twitter (also done with an IO-204 module).”

Elad also wanted to share the discovery process and hold a contest. Elad’s contest is open to anyone that can correlate the data presented on his Water Simulation blog. You have until June 30, 2011 to figure it out. Visit Elad’s blog for more information or look him up on Twitter.

[via Water Simulation]

As my snowboarding trip approaches, I find myself checking Utah Snowbird’s snowcam a few times a day, wishing for more snow to accumulate on my favorite ski resort.

Snowbird Snow Meter

Noel shows you how to create your own snow meter using the ioBridge IO-204 and the Servo Smart Board. He connects the Snowbird’s weather data to ioBridge using the Widget API that controls a servo motor position that corresponds to the snow accumulation. Here’s a video of the Snow Meter in action:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Ld70ZKyyU

As a bonus project, Noel also shows you how to link the Snowbird weather feed to Twilio, so you can get personalized snow updates via the phone or SMS. Check out the complete “” on Instructables.com.

Let it snow!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVyLuosZ1rY

From the YouTube description:

This is the maiden voyage of my mini fridge that now shoots beers via iPhone. It is controlled by an iobridge via a web based iPhone interface and shoots the beers from an air cannon in the housing. Special thanks to Graham Phero for air cannon construction and Josh Lilly for web and graphic development.

Features:

• Vends 4 types of beer
• Broadcasts temperature
• Adjust temperature via iPhone
• Aim via webcam
• Auto tweet video per shot
• Fire beer with 50psi of deliciousness

Mini Fridge Beer Cannon Close-up

Update:

We got a chance to talk with the inventor of the Mini Fridge Beer Robot and here are some more details.

The app is served from a NetBeans server and interfaces with the ioBridge Widget API to send the controls for selecting the beer, aiming / firing the air cannon, and setting the fridge temperature. The app also displays the fridge temperature.

Here are screenshots of the iPhone web app in action:

Mini Fridge Beer Cannon Robot

“Perhaps the Best Beer Bot Ever To Grace a Dorm Room.”

-Gizmodo

This project is sure getting around with over 120k 200k views so far between YouTube and Break.com. To check the blog roundup, visit TUAW, Gizmodo, Break, BroBible, Wired.com, Engadget, and Comedy Central’s Tosh.0 Blog.

Here’s another take of the beer cannon in action:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMZfmbu6prU

Combine this with the Serv O’Beer and you have a complete drink delivery system.

Happy New Year! Cheers!

IOBR - Social Interactivity Toy for Kids

Here is a demonstration of the social thing toy for toddlers:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq1Th00tcPw

The IOBR uses the Brio Shape Sorting Box and the ioBridge IO-204 to connect the two systems together native using ioBridge web services. Their project uses the feature that two IO-204 modules (or more) can be linked together using the ioBridge web services.

IOBR Social Toy next to ioBridge IO-204

IOBR System Overview

If you are interested in learned more, visit the website passiripatti.com to find  a breakdown of the project, photos, and other amazing projects.

Internet-enabled Halloween Treat Dispenser

Noel wrote a web application using Oracle Application Express that connects all the parts together. At the heart of the design is an Arduino-based microcontroller that drives the servo-based dispenser mechanism. The commands are relayed from the web app to the Arduino using the ioBridge IO-204 via XBee radios. The Internet connectivity part is what allows tweets (@tweetfortreats) or text messages processed by Twilio to control the candy dispenser. The web application makes use of the ioBridge Widget API to parse commands from the Internet.

ioBridge IO-204 Module with XBee Radio

Just think of where this type of technology can go? Vending machines?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjC1UhfDdEU

If you are interested in learning more, Noel has put together an Instructables so others can create their own DIY Halloween project this year. There’s also more information on Adafruit, MAKE, Hacked Gadgets, and Noel’s My Web of Things blog. Happy Halloween!

Hans Scharler, of ioBridge, set out to make his thermostat aware of his location and the weather forecast. His project started off simple - adjust the thermostat as he leaves and when he returns. His real goals were to return to a comfortable house despite his schedule and to save money.

Scharler has lots to say about the matter…

A preset heating/cooling schedule only works when you are on schedule. What if you come home late? You have been wasting energy. What if you come home early? You might find a cold house.

Hans taps into location and weather data via an Application Programming Interface (API). He tracks his location using the Google Latitude service on his mobile phone and reads in the weather forecast from WeatherBug. Based on his position and the current weather, the system automatically sets his thermostat which is connected to his web application by the ioBridge IO-204. The IO-204 sits on your home network and what ever is connected to the IO-204 now has access to the web and any of the ioBridge web services.

Location Aware Home Automation

What’s next for this project? How about multi-person tracking? How about a coffee pot controlled by location? How about an office building regulating its power use considering only the location of its employees!?

ioBridge will incorporate location-awareness as a Plug In to the web services. You will be able to drop in Google Latitude connectivity native to the ioBridge platform. Other APIs that you have access to are Yahoo Financials, Google Calculator, WeatherBug, Weather.com, Google Weather, NOAA, Digg (although the API access is broken at the time), and Twitter. The ioBridge Plug In feature will allow you to connect to any API, even ones that are not prepackaged for you. With access to so much information, plus the ability to monitor and control devices, who knows what you will come up with. We were able to make a real-life Digg counter in about 10 minutes. Stay tuned.

For other coverage of this project, visit ReadWriteWeb, and MIT’s Technology Review.

Hans has all of the project code on his web site and details on how he linked the Google Latitude, WeatherBug, and ioBridge APIs together to create his location-aware thermostat.

"Hello World" on the LED Wall

You can draw your own images on the LED Wall yourself and also look through other people’s messages by visiting the project website at  wall.elnormo.net. If you visit the project site, you will also see how they created the LED Wall. Here’s a time-lapsed video of the project build.

LED Wall from Norm on Vimeo.

Here is the official press release via eRelease:

ioBridge Announces Funding and Commercial Contracts to Develop New Web-enabled Products and Services

MARLBOROUGH, MA – July 21, 2010 – ioBridge, Inc. (www.iobridge.com) sees rapid growth and announces series seed funding and multiple commercial contracts. ioBridge is the developer of Web-enabled hardware and cloud-based services and was recognized as providing one of the Top 10 Internet of Things Products for 2009 by ReadWriteWeb. ioBridge’s technology platform enables almost any device or thing to be monitored or controlled via the Internet.  The user base has grown very quickly, finding new applications for the flagship product, known as the ioBridge IO-204 monitor and control module. Users place the IO-204 on their network without setup and anything connected to the IO-204 is accessible securely via the Internet.

Users from around the world have created projects based on the IO-204 at their homes to remotely monitor fish tanks, open garage doors via a mobile phone, and report home energy use to social networks. Top technology magazines and Web sites, such as Popular Science, IEEE Spectrum, MIT’s Technology Review, and MAKE Magazine, featured ioBridge projects. The success of these projects attracted companies looking to use ioBridge hardware and engineering services to create new commercial products and use the technology for professional applications.

“Our inbox is filled with email from schools, businesses, and hobbyists alike looking to use our devices for their applications,” said Jason Winters, ioBridge’s President, Technology. “I am thrilled with the response.”

Over the past six months, ioBridge secured seed funding and landed commercial contracts for new consumer products and for a large scale environmental monitoring and control project. To support the growth, ioBridge added Robert Mawrey, Ph.D. as Chief Executive Officer and Hans Scharler as President, Software.

Robert Mawrey is the former Chief Information Officer of American Tower and brings with him twenty years of experience in electronic engineering, information technology, and strategic leadership. Robert holds a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa.

Hans Scharler was formerly with TESSCO Technologies, where he designed and secured SCADA and Smart Grid networks for utilities. Prior to TESSCO, Hans released data management Web applications to manage learning programs and emergency response planning and reporting. Scharler is the co-author of “IP-based Physical Security” and holds lectures on network security and IP-based services.

ioBridge will be announcing the release of the ioBridge Professional Platform. The new platform includes hardware and Web services that will be available off-the-shelf to ease integration with consumer products and professional applications.

About ioBridge, Inc.

ioBridge, Inc. (www.iobridge.com) offers technology and services that enable almost anything to be Web-enabled and monitored and controlled over the Internet. ioBridge’s technology includes a Web services platform that customers can use to extend the technology for many applications.  ioBridge provides OEM and commercial integration services and licensing of core, patent-pending technologies.

###

Green Pond Tide Monitoring Site

Christopher Mims, journalist at the MIT Technology Review, writes, “We’re talking about the Internet of Things. Using an ultrasonic level sensor to bounce sound waves off the sea surface in order to determine its height, an XBee radio to send that data to a receiver on shore, and most importantly, an ioBridge IO-204 to relay that information to servers in the cloud, Cape Cod resident and ioBridge hobbyist Robert Mawrey is able to broadcast to his entire community near real-time data on actual sea level.”

The technology behind the tide monitoring sites is based around the ioBridge platform. We will be releasing our Pro hardware and web services soon available for commercial products and services. The tide alerts site is just one example of the new things we have in store.

We collect the data on our demo site for everyone to take a look at and sign up for email/SMS alerts. We will be opening up the feeds for others to build applications. Visit tidealerts.com to check it out.

Tide Level Charts

This is not as far off as it sounds. The ioBridge Platform was created to make it easy to connect anything to the web, store data from sensors, relay data to other networks, and present the data on websites. People are already creating very interesting projects, products, and services on top of the platform. And everyday we are surprised by the diversity of the projects.

The Internet Doorbell

Now joining the Internet of Things…The Doorbell. The Internet Doorbell project is by Jason Garland. He created a super easy project that connects his doorbell live to Twitter or really any social network via Ping.fm and ioBridge push services. The instant someone presses his doorbell, the doorbell updates the input status on the ioBridge IO-204 and pushes the message to ioBridge and Ping.fm which updates Twitter (@jgarland79). This is a first step, just think of where it could take you. One day your doorbell gets pressed, you get notified, and you start up a voice-over-IP session with your intercom system. You could interact with (or annoy) your visitor from anywhere in the world.

Check out Jason’s blog for more details on the Twittering Doorbell and other very interesting projects. We also noticed a web-enabled water meter updating water usage.

On a related project, one of our Maker Faire projects this year was the “transcontinental doorbell” – involving two IO-204s linked together. When the doorbell button at one site is pressed it rings a doorbell 2000 miles away in less than 300ms.

"Gonzo" loves his automated cat door

As with most projects, Rogier started searching the Internet and found some interesting projects. He got the idea to combine some of his favorite projects and make a remotely controlled cat door and alert system for his cat, “Gonzo”.

Here are some projects that inspired him:

• Flo Control
• Social Networking for My Toaster
• Twitter Enabled Cat Door

When the idea was there, the execution was very easy using the IObridge module and components.

Rogier installed a Cat Mate Cat Door in his basement. The cat door opens when the electromagnet senses a magnet in the cat’s collar. By running the sensor and switch over the the ioBridge IO-204, Rogier can be open and close the door remotely. He is also able to monitor  when the cat comes in and out of the door. The messages get pushed to Ping.fm via the IO-204 and ioBridge web service. Rogier and his neighbor follows his cat on Twitter @fellnasegonzo to make sure Gonzo is home safe and sound.

Cat Mate Automated Cat Door

Cat Door Switch and Sensor

Windows Mobile Cat Door Control App

Windows Home Server Interface

We had on display web-enabled robots, toys, and interactive projects created by the ioBridge community. Some of those projects included, an iPhone and Twitter controlled Donkey Kong, X10 controlled lamp, streaming temperature sensor, and a remote controlled dog treat dispenser.

While we were there, we captured some footage of our projects on display and exhibits that we were able to see. There were so many great projects and so little time. We made a quick YouTube video and posted pictures to the ioBridge Flickr group.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEgYWneVcKs

Thanks to all of the volunteers, exhibitors, and sponsors who made the Maker Faire NC such a success.

Looking forward to 2011!

ioBridge is an exhibitor and sponsor at this year’s Maker Faire North Carolina. We will have on display web-enabled robots, toys, and interactive projects created by the ioBridge community. Some of those projects include, an iPhone controlled Donkey Kong and a remote controlled dog treat dispenser.

Maker Faire NC is free and open to the public. Stop by and visit us!

Maker Faire NC
Sunday, April 25, 2010 9AM - 9PM

Loehmann’s Plaza
1821 Hillandale Rd.
Durham, NC 27705

www.makerfairenc.com

Motion Feedback MP3 Player

Motion is detected with a Parallax PIR Sensor. When motion is detected, the output pin of the sensor goes high. That out is monitored by the ioBridge IO-204. With or without a network connection, the IO-204 sets the volume of a DIY MP3 Trigger board from SparkFun. The volume is controlled by sending serial strings to the MP3 Trigger. Steve took advantage of the new Onboard Rules that turn the IO-204 into a standalone controller. When the IO-204 is connected to the Internet, the IO-204 also data logs his activity by sending it to the ioBridge data logging service in the cloud.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7ozYBGHlto

To learn more about how to make your own, visit Instructables and Polymythic.com or YouTube. The project also is posted on Engadget and UberGizmo. Well done, Steve.

Martijn Pannevis (@PanMan) created the MomoMeter which is a physical meter that takes the pulse of Twitter for certain trending topics and hashtags. The thing gives you visual feedback on your pervasiveness on the real-time web. Martijn’s project uses an ioBridge IO-204, servo controller, and servo. He built a web app that queries the Twitter API and sends relative servo positions to the ioBridge Web API which moves the meter needle accordingly. Martijn Pannevis explains how to build your own internet of things thing with his presentation. (Photos by Filip Bunkens)

Web Powered Robot

The robot uses a pair of serial bluetooth adapters to form a wireless link with the ioBridge IO-204. The serial levels of the IO-204 are TTL and a circuit using the MAX-232 was required to allow the serial interface work properly. On the robot is a set of serial servo drivers that control the steering and speed.

IO-204 and Serial Bluetooth Adpater

The interface is standard web page using an embedded ioBridge.com serial widget to make the connection to the IO-204 base station module. You can control the direction and throttle by clicking on the itnerface and using the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard. The interface generates serial strings that the serial servo drivers react to when received. You can see the strings and the serial widget in the debug part of the web interface.

Web-based Robot Controls

Here is a YouTube video of the web powered robot in action – looks like a lot of fun to drive. One step closer…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UmOqWQZbcY

Water Tank and ioBridge IO-204

ioBridge IO-204 with Temperature Sensors

Eric monitors and data logs the temperatures of the the hot water storage tank, the collectors, and the outside temperature in real-time using the ioBridge IO-204 and temperature sensors. This data allows Eric to calculate BTUs collected per day and translate into a dollar figure to track savings. He has surrounded himself with the data to make sure there is no system damage, freezing, etc., by creating a web site to view the data, setting ioBridge message alerts, and using a Google Gadget to display the temperatures collected by the IO-204.

Visit EJESolar.com to see a live view of the data collected by the solar hot water system as well as some more details behind this solar hot water heating system. Ingenious!

Screen Shot of Solar Array and Collected Data (EJESolar.com)

Santa vs. Domo

We wanted to take a moment and thank all of our customers, users, developers, and everyone that makes up the ioBridge Community. Our wish to you and yours is that you have a safe and happy holiday season. Enjoy your downtime, friends, and family.  See you in the New Year!

Enjoy some projects…

• Xmas-Box.com — Interactive Christmas lights sync to music, songs are selected on web site, and if you are local you can listen to the music on your radio as you watch
• Pacific Lights – Control Christmas lights in New Zealand
• Serv O’Beer – Have your iPhone pour a beverage for your New Year’s party
• Santa vs. Domo – Play with some interactive toys on Andy Leer’s blog and let Santa have it
• iPhone Controlled Lights – Control your Christmas lights with a touch of your iPhone using the open ioBridge PHP Proxy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW1b7FM22yM

Cheers.

ioBridge user known as “Automatr” posted in the ioBridge Forum about his project to automate his chicken coop so he could watch, listen, and monitor the chicken’s environment 24/7 from anywhere in the world via the web.

Coop Automation - Live Video and Audio

This is the first chicken cam for sure. The project is very well done. Complete with a day/night infrared web cam, microphone, automatic door, light sensor, temperature sensor, and the ioBridge IO-204 connecting the project to the Internet for remote monitoring. Automatr can track temperature, light levels, listen in, and watch his chickens on his dedicated website, FussyChickens.com. He also gets messages posted to him when his automatic coop door opens and closes.

If you want to tune in and watch/listen to the chicken coop, head over to FussyChickens.com where there is a live audio and video stream from uStream.

Thanks for sharing your coop with us. These chickens are not getting away with anything now.

Nathan Kennedy of Pacific Lights and Kennedy Technology has created an interactive display of reindeer and Christmas Star stakes covered in Christmas lights. You can watch his display all the way from New Zealand and switch them on or off on his website. He uses the ioBridge IO-204 connected to an arduino to control the lights on his website. It’s lots of fun controlling someone else’s holiday display.

Christmas Lights Controlled via a Web Page

Noel Portugal of Oracle has created an interactive holiday lights display using a mix of technologies. The result is Christmas lights synchronized to songs that are selectable on a web page, www.xmas-box.com. Inside the box are solid-state relays to control the lights, an Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit, and of course, the ioBridge IO-204 module to add some interactivity to his website. Noel details the procedure to create your very own Christmas Light Controller Box on Instructables.com and on his blog. On a related note, Noel also won third-place for his Dropping Spider ioBridge project featured on Instructables this Halloween! His neighbors must love him!

The Xmas Lights Controller Box in Action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFg53oMUF5Q

Happy Holidays!

Hack Pittsburgh member Andy Leer created an interactive toy fight featuring Domo and Munny squaring off. You get to control one of the characters and watch the battle via a webcam live. Move over “Internet of Things”  - make way for the “Internet of Vengeful Toys”.

Munny vs. Domo

The Munny and Domokun are attached to servos. The servos are connected to the ioBridge servo controller and IO-204. You control the toys with  servo slider widgets. Andy’s blog mentions that the next version will have iPhone support.  Visit his blog to play and sweep the leg at the Domo Dojo.

The IO-204 connects to your network and establishes a link to the ioBridge web services  in the “cloud”. From there you can control, monitor, and share by using a point-and-click design interface or through open APIs.

We have released a new firmware called C4.0 which allows you to go beyond the cloud. C4.0 is an explosion of new features. You can create projects and products that work with the network cable unplugged. Using the ioBridge.com interface, you design rules and synchronize those rules to the module. Now, with or without the Internet connection, the module can make on-board decisions, turn fans on, control your lights, and sound buzzers.

The C4.0 firmware also includes high-frequency pulse counting. You may be asking yourself, “Why does pulse counting matter?” Well, pulse counting allows you to track inputs that are going on/off, around, or up and down. You can count the revolutions of your power meter. If you know how many times it spins around, you know how much power you have used. You can count the revolutions of a windmill to calculate wind speed. This feature keeps counting even if your network connection is not available.

Here’s more great news…If you already have the IO-204, you can upgrade your module to the new firmware by clicking upgrade on the module section of the ioBridge.com interface. All new orders ship loaded with C4.0 so you get all of the new features right out of the gate.

Details regarding the new firmware are available in the ioBridge Wiki. We are excited to see what you come up with!

ioBridge Demo

Friday, November 13th @ 7pm

HackPittsburgh Workshop

1936 5th Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15219

[Google Map]

HackPittsburgh.org

About HackPittsburgh

HackPGH is a non-profit group of makers from based in Pittsburgh, PA that runs a dedicated workshop for project development and training. To find out more about Hack Pittsburgh, visit HackPittsburgh.org – community-based activities, schedule of events, and projects.

Power to those who solder!

We have a steam powered steampunk pumpkin that blows smoke out if it’s ears. We have a spider dropping on it’s victim and snapping a photo and posting to Twitter via TwitPic. We also have a motion sensing, talking skull that scares co-workers in the owner’s cubicle. Check them out!

• Halloween Dropping Spider by Noel Portugal on My Electronics Notepad
• Jaw Dropping Skull (aka the Half Hour Hallow Hack) by Steve from Polymythic
• Steam Pumpkin by our own Hans Scharler of his personal blog called, “I am Shadowlord“

Well done guys. Thanks for your creative ideas and sharing your projects with the ioBridge community. And, Happy Halloween!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtpxKK6kfi4

Office Weather System

You can demo the system and check out the weather forecast, by visiting Ashley’s blog. While you are there check some other of his projects.

“Designed for the iPhone/iPod (and Mac/PC desktop), the TankedCam app allows you to turn your  Atlantis into an aquatic home automation paradise.”

Learn more at MoreControl.com and TankedCam.com.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5eYERAa1_A

Lamps

Using a few ioBridge IO-204′s, light sensors, relays, and wires, the lamps are able to sense when they are turned on and are able to turn on other light bulbs. Each participant received a controller box that houses the electronics and are interconnected using ioBridge.com web services.

ioBridge Controller Box

When Julia comes home from a late night of “studying” and turns on her light, her light comes on, and her bulb in her mom’s and dad’s lamp comes on as well. The same goes for her mom and dad – they all know when each other turns on a light.

Light On

Julia found her mom using it to signal her before she called Julia. They all learned a little about each others daily habits while having a glowing reminder of each others presence.

We were impressed by this novel use of the ioBridge system. Since our modules are connected thru our platform, the modules can interact with each other – Julia was the first one to create a project based on this functionality.

Our hope is that “The Strangers Project” made Julia’s family a little closer and discovered a few unexpected results of her “brilliant” project. For more information about Julia’s fascinating projects visit, juliatsao.com.

PIR Sensors, Webcam, and ioBridge IO-204 Module

Noel was able to pull this off with using the ioBridge Actions. An action is logic created through the ioBridge interface that allows automated events to occur. For example, an action can cause a servo to move to preset position, send an email, update your Facebook status, etc. In Noel’s case, he use the output of the PIR sensor to cause the servo to move to a set position. The output of the PIR is digital – “high” means motion detected and “low” means no motion.

Using two PIRs covering two regions, he was able to detect motion in two regions. If motion is sensed in one area, the webcam points in that direction and if motion is detected in the other area, the servo moves the camera to cover the other region. Very clever.

Here is a video of the webcam tracking in action:

The PIR sensor has been the subject of a recent Adafruit tutorial – it’s available on the Adafruit store and even your local Radio Shack (of all places). For more information about this ioBridge project and other projects Noel dreams up, visit his blog.

He wanted to turn off his HVAC system completely before leaving for an extended period of time, like going on vacation, and then turn it back on just before he gets to his house. Thomas found the controls wires on the thermostat and uses a relay to turn on or off the thermostat. He made it remote controllable with the ioBridge IO-204 module and control widgets placed on a mobile phone.

HVAC and Thermostat Control with the ioBridge IO-204

In additional to remotely being able to shut down his HVAC system, Thomas also monitors his temperature and whole house power using the analog inputs of the IO-204. He used AC clamps around the house power mains to get a power utilization relative to the current through the wires.

Power Monitoring for the Whole House

More details and photos are available on Thomas’ Smart Grid section of his blog.

“ioBridge enables sending data to – or controlling objects from – social networks, email, text messaging.”

Read the complete article at ReadWriteWeb.com, read our original ioBridge Projects post, and interact with Matt’s Office on Twitter.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVm1VKB43ww

Follow MattsOffice on Twitter

Matt’s Twitter application allows him to make updates to his Twitter feed and send commands to his IO-204 to turn on lights, send messages to his serial LCD screen, and get temperatures and light sensor readings. He also has a nifty extension that allows you to see a view from his office by sending him a tweet, which takes a snap shot from a digital camera and posts it on TwitPic.

Go ahead, follow MattsOffice and send Matt a message to his LCD screen – “@MattsOffice lcd Awesome ioBridge Project”. For more details, check out matthewmorey.com, a brilliant article on ReadWriteWeb, or YouTube video demonstration of the home automation project in action.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVm1VKB43ww

ioBridge IO-204 Controlling Spark Fun LCD

The JavaScript on Marc’s blog post includes control and animations examples for the LCD display. The display can be driven by an open I/O channel using the serial out functionality or from a two-way serial smart board.

Here is a demo of the screen in action:

We are not sure what he is up to, but I for-see an interactive website in his future. He already has LED’s blinking when users visit one of his sites. Check out Marc’s blog called MarcAThing – Physically Mashed Up for some cool photos and projects. Dank u zeer!

Update:

The PHP Widget Control API is now a part of the ioBridge Wiki and includes a few enhancements.

Maker Faire Projects

Lots of people helped out to make it happen – thanks to OharaRP and thecapacity for working the LED sign. Maker Faire had some really interesting projects – underwater robots from Jesuit Robotics, a Giant LED display, Tesla Coils, Art Meets Science, cool stuff in the Maker Shed, and lots of people.

Here are some photos from Flickr of our booth before we got swarmed:

In this photo OharaRP sent IOBridge to the sign from his iPhone.

XBee Wireless LED Sign

If you would like to learn more about this project check OharaRP’s blog or watch his very instructional demonstration of his Wireless LED Sign Project on YouTube.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PAir5JP9J8

On one channel of the IO-204, the water meter is connected to the digital input. On a digital state change, the module sends that data to the ioBridge servers. Included with the free user account is the ability to log two data feeds from your module. In this case, the type of log is a Digital Input Counting Log. Evey count is the equivalent to one gallon of water used. The project is rather interesting and the next step in conservation. Knowing water usage and finding your high water use times will help curb use in the long run. Details on the water meter project can be found on Jason’s blog and Instructables.

Web Based Water Metering with ioBridge

Check out Pete’s TankedCAM.com and Kevin’s BurpTheFrog.com for some really awesome interactive aquarium projects with full on Web 2.0 services.

Here is a cool video from TankedCAM demonstrating all of the interactive features.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5eYERAa1_A

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DtSdZZAp2w

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtUyzQBNT3k

www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-NNGHiohzE

For more infomation visit Hack-a-Day or Stephen’s Cygnet Engineering blog.

RFID Receiver, Arduino, and ioBridge

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaePrjwCLg4