Social networking is a core part of the global online experience. The Web 2.0 has been transformed into a social Web, extending the social capabilities of users. A big challenge for the Web is to become ubiquitous, blended with the everyday life of people. The Pervasive Web would be effectively enabled when physical things are seamlessly connected to the Web, offering real-world services to users. In a previous work, we examined the feasibility of utilizing existing online social networking platforms, to create a social smart home that promotes sharing of sensor and household devices between family members. In this presentation, we present some early experiences obtained from developing two real-world social applications, the first for environmental monitoring in a farm and the second for increasing energy awareness by sharing electricity consumption information between friends. Through these two deployments, we demonstrate the potential benefits of giving a social texture to pervasive applications. This work has been presented at the Sixth International Conference on Broadband and Wireless Computing, Communication and Applications (BWCCA), Barcelona, Spain, October 2011.

1. Lessons Learned from
Online Social Networking of
Physical Things
Andreas Kamilaris, Diomidis Papadiomidous and
Andreas Pitsillides
Networks Research Laboratory
University of Cyprus
BWCCA 2011, Barcelona, Spain

2. Motivation University of Cyprus
Embedded Computing...
... merged with Physical Objects

3. Motivation University of Cyprus
But also merged with the Web!

4. Motivation University of Cyprus
But also merged with the Web!

5. Motivation University of Cyprus
But also merged with the Web!

6. Motivation University of Cyprus
The Semantic Web The Pervasive Web

7. Motivation University of Cyprus
The Pervasive Web
“The user can access information
and interact with every connected
device and the global community
in an ubiquitous way.”
“Users will be able to know the right
content, at the right time, in the right
place and on the right device.”
Web-enablement of physical things.
Seamless connectivity and interaction with them.

8. Motivation University of Cyprus
• Two thirds of global Internet Population visit
Social Networking Sites (SNS).
• Facebook has more than 400 million active
users!
Social networking has become a fundamental
part of the global online experience.
The Web 2.0 is a social Web!

9. Motivation University of Cyprus
• SNS can constitute a driver for the transition to
the Pervasive Web
• The missing element of SNS for ubiquitous
interaction with the environment is the
inclusion of physical things to their interfaces.
• Online social networks can be transformed
into shared smart spaces.
• Social relationships between people
can be extended to social
relationships with their physical
devices.

10. Background Information University of Cyprus
• The Web of Things.
• Reuse of well accepted Web principles.
• Embedding Web servers on physical things.
• Representational State Transfer (REST).
• RESTful, open API.
• Extending Web mashups into physical
mashups.
• Combining physical mashups with SNS API.

11. Developing Pervasive SNS University of Cyprus
Core Elements:
• SNS
• Open Web API
• SNS Applications
• Web Mashups – Physical Mashups
• Web-enabled Physical Devices (Directly Vs Gateways)
• Device/Service Discovery
• Web Services (WS-* Vs REST)

12. Developing Pervasive SNS University of Cyprus
General Architecture:

13. Real-World Social Applications University of Cyprus
Environmental Monitoring Social Energy Awareness

14. Environmental Monitoring University of Cyprus
• Monitor the environmental conditions of the
greenhouse of the organic farm.
• Control of the lamps through Plogg smart meters.
• Awareness about temperature, humidity and
illumination in the greenhouse through Telosb
sensor motes.

15. Environmental Monitoring University of Cyprus
• RESTful Web Services
• RESTlet Web Framework for Java
• 6LoWPAN in TinyOS based on blip
Resource URI REST Method Parameters Values Return Value
Temperature GET - - text/plain
Humidity GET - - text/plain
Illumination GET - - text/plain
Leds PUT color Red,Green,Blue text/plain
Electricity GET - - application/json
Switch PUT state On,Off text/plain

16. Environmental Monitoring University of Cyprus

17. Environmental Monitoring University of Cyprus
Device/Service Discovery:
The URL points to a
WADL service
description file.

18. Environmental Monitoring University of Cyprus
Sharing the Greenhouse Space:
Facebook group SocialFamily.

19. Environmental Monitoring University of Cyprus
Interacting with Physical Devices:

20. Environmental Monitoring University of Cyprus
A Publish/Subscribe Mechanism:

21. Environmental Monitoring University of Cyprus
Evaluation:
• Nine workers at the farm - two weeks duration of experiment.
Impressions:
• “The application is easy to be used.”
• “Excited with the perspective of controlling the greenhouse
while amusing with my friends.”
• “The notifications are quite difficult to understand.”
• “The user must be online to be notified!”
• “I increased my monitoring activity.”
• “I became more aware about the farm.”
• “How much does it cost to fully automate the farm?”
• “This can be applied also in health monitoring!”

22. Social Energy Awareness University of Cyprus
• Energy awareness can reduce electrical consumption
by a fraction of 5-15%.
• Still, people can not clearly consider how much
energy they consume.
• Each area, city or country has different tariffs and
varied weather and physical conditions.
• A promising way to understand the ”semantics” of
consumed energy is to compare it with the amount
consumed by relatives, friends and neighbors.
• SNS are the ideal platforms for such comparisons, as
they maintain a highly accurate graph of users’ social
networks.

23. Social Energy Awareness University of Cyprus
• SocialElectricity Facebook Application

24. Social Energy Awareness University of Cyprus
Functionalities:
• People can compare their electricity footprint with
that of their neighborhood/village/town.
• Associates electricity with costs.
• Promotes sharing of people’s electricity consumption
figures with their friends at a street level.
• Useful statistics about the most energy-efficient
streets/villages/cities.
• Historical Data.
• A green competition.
• ”Region Awareness”

25. Social Energy Awareness University of Cyprus
System Architecture:
socialelectricity
TCP/IP
Database
User
Database Web
INTERACTS
Service
TCP/IP
socialelectricity
HTTP Hosted Application
University of
User Interface Cyprus Server HTTP
-Facebook
Application
Geocode Web
Service
TCP/IP
TCP/IP
GeoCode
Geocode Database
Server

26. Social Energy Awareness University of Cyprus
System Technologies:
• Microsoft Silverlight 4
• XAML
• C#
• Javascript
• ASP .NET
• MS-SQL Server 2008
• Microsoft Bing Maps
• Facebook API 3.01

27. Social Energy Awareness University of Cyprus
Preliminary Evaluation:
• Deployment at the Computer Science department of the
University of Cyprus.
• 72 students of the department.
First Impressions:
• “Highly impressed”.
• “Entertaining to compare my local energy consumption
with that of my friends.”
• “Your street has poorer energy performance than mine.”
• “I realized after using the application that I had a faulty
meter. I contacted EAC immediately to replace it.”

28. Social Energy Awareness University of Cyprus
Preliminary Evaluation:
• Energy Awareness
Not
Influenced,
22, 31%
Energy-
aware
Students,
Energy-aware Students 50, 69%
Not Influenced

29. Social Energy Awareness University of Cyprus
Preliminary Evaluation:
• High Electricity Bill
High
Electricity
Bill, 13,
18%
Not High,
59, 82%
High Electricity Bill
Not High

30. General Benefits University of Cyprus
• The integration of physical devices/services to SNS
would promote their sharing.
• Smart objects can become really ubiquitous.
• It can help people engage in beneficial activities.
• Strong incentives to people, for adopting
sustainable lifestyles.
• We can leverage the authentication/authorization
mechanisms of the SNS easily.
• Exploit SNS Open API to develop social mashups.
• SNS users, find it easier to accept and use pervasive
applications, as they become blended with their
overall online experience.

31. Concluding Remarks University of Cyprus
• Social networking will play an important role in
future personal/commercial online interaction.
• The physical world is a crucial part of it.
• SNS are mature enough for giving a social shape
to pervasive Web applications.
• SNS can constitute a key aspect for the transition
to a Pervasive Web, in the Web 3.0 era.
• Flexibility, simplicity, security, interoperability,
even sharing.
• Social API?

32. Future Work University of Cyprus
• Enhance our pervasive applications with more
advanced, social capabilities.
• Deploying SocialElectricity around Cyprus.
• Integrating the two applications together?
• Support other real-life scenarios such as health
monitoring.
• A Web-based, social API for embedded devices.
• Devicebook

33. Thanks for your attention!
Contact Details: Andreas Kamilaris (camel9@gmail.com)