Tim O’Reilly use to talk a lot about encouraging people to ‘Work on stuff that matters‘. Unfortunately, the IoT industry is often not the best example of this principle. The twitter feed ‘Internet of Shit‘ chronicles IoT solutions that should never have been built. For IoT to be successful we need more example of how IoT can make substantial and meaningful change in our lives.
For this reason, I was encouraged and impressed by the recent winners of the Eclipse IoT Developer Challenge. All three winners and many of the participants are working on use cases that have significant impact. For example,
Sleep analysis for mood disorders
InMoodforLife is an application to analyze sleep patterns of individuals affected by bipolar disorder. They are using off-the-shelf hardware components, open source software and deep learning research to analyze sleep patterns and then help predict mood disorders. The intent is to provide a solution that helps improve the approach for therapy and provide quicker treatment. This solution will have a significant impact for the individuals and families.
Smarter farming
Krishi IoT is working to make farming more efficient and smarter. They are solving day-to-day issues experienced by farmers, like irrigation, crop diseases, pest protection and are building a solution that is accessible and affordable by all farmers.
Reduce your home energy bill
RHDS has taken on the challenge of creating a solution that will reduce home energy consumption, increase comfort and create a healthier living environment. They were able to demonstrate in near real-time, a solution to calculate and present the Key Metrics of a professional Energy Audit. They used algorithms from Building Science, open source software and low cost sensors to create a $200 solution that would normally be done by experts at a cost of $300-$500.
IoT Solutions that Matter
All three of these solutions are examples of Work on IoT that Matters. Congratulations to all these winners that are demonstrating the creativity and innovation that is possible through open hardware and open software. We are proud to have Eclipse IoT involved in IoT Solutions that Matter.