OPK Vocabulary

[rjcorwin]

I started a hackpad that describes a vocabulary that should help us have a conversation. Help wanted! One of the terms is fubar... That definitely needs a better term.

https://opk.hackpad.com/OPK-Vocabulary.md-8Nhp0mvBMrB

[rjcorwin]

Here's a snapshot....

vocabulary

A talkey device is a class of device that physically connects to sensors and actuators.

A talkey device has a way of having a conversation where it tells what it is seeing on those sensors and also listens for commands to operate the actuators.

A talkey device may have a conversation over USB, Bluetooth, the Internet, or Sneakernet.

A gateway device connects to a talkey device over the medium the talkey device is capable of having a conversation over.

A gateway device is configured by a gateway's owner to perform the task of piping data from sensors to a database.

When a gateway device and a talkey device are connected and configured by the gateway's owner, the gateway device then pulls or listens for data from a talkey device's sensor and pushes that data to a database.

In some cases, the gateway device and the talkey device may actually be the same device, these are called fubar devices.

An example of a fubar device is one that...
... has a temperature sensor connected directly to the GPIO pins
... is optionally configured by the fubar device's owner
... is pulling from the GPIO pins at an interval and pushing that data to a database

Observations

• Some devices out there are talkey devices, some are fubar devices. In DIY we seem to see a lot of fubar devices, in commercial we see a lot of talkey devices.
• Some fubar devices from commercial entities often have their piping abilities preconfigured and locked down to piping to a specific server.

What the OPK project is doing

• We are building helpful software for Jane that empowers her to configure the task of piping data on both gateway and fubar devices.
• We are exploring how to make building talkey devices more accessible for developers.

On building pipe software for Jane

What is helpful for Jane? Jane uses an iPhone. It's a camera phone example, a fubar device. She configures how photos will be piped to what databases.

What is helpful?

• useable
• reliable

Advice

• When the need for piping data for a particular sensor is identified, ask ourselves the question of "Should we attach the sensor to a fubar or a talkey device?". If the answer is talkey device, then "What method will the talkey device have for having a conversation?"