An IoT Cloud, Bluemix and MobileFirst Sample - What makes you happy?

Thomas Suedbroecker April 14, 2016

MobileFirst_Platform Bluemix IoT

Introduction

Question: What makes you happy, in the current and future world? IoT, PaaS or Mobile?

Actually a lot of different new topics can be combined more or less in one Buzzword called Cloud.

And my answer to that question is: “Only the combination of all these topics are strong enough, to address  the upcoming needs of consumers or business use cases. The Cloud is the clamp for all these topics.”

  • Internet of Things - we need to get physical information input from our 3D real world we living in.
  • Platform as a Service - is our single point of entry to develop and run the business critical systems of tomorrow.
  • Using MobileApps - to interact with the information and data from the real and “virtual” world, to do what we need to do: to be more effective, having more fun, being healthier…

All these topics are very interesting! With this in mind the starting point was born for the decision, to build sample. Building a sample which takes the advantage of all of that topics and helps getting to know, how all these topics working together in a Cloud environment.

The best place to do that is the “Platform as a Service” called IBM Bluemix.

Note: Not only thinking about the benefit of these topics is important, also to understand, how these topics fitting other technically is very important.

Here a sample “business usecase” for the integrated usage of IoT Cloud, Bluemix and MobileFirst.
This sample is the starting point, to build a whole System which runs inside Bluemix.

Monitor sensible ware (goods, food, electronics, etc.) temperature – ware which is stored in special containers that have sensors for location and temperature control.

Questions:

  1. Is the Temperature in critical condition?
  2. How can I notify the closest service operator or the driver in case of emergency?

Objective:

Monitor the state of the container and notify on emergency Report a problem if needed with Picture / Comment Get a list of currently available drivers to check the situation.

Solution:

The temperature sensors can be connected and managed over the Bluemix IoT cloud service monitored over a mobile application having the backend running on Bluemix. The mobile application allows feedback (comments and picture) Notifications can be sent via SMS, Twitter, email, voice, etc.

The System we build is called TempTracker. :-)

IoT Cloud, Bluemix and MobileFirstPlatfrom… trying to understand

This playlist does contain three videos, which trying to help you to understand, how the integration technical works.

  1. How to get Sensor Data into the IoT Cloud and use it in Bluemix with Node-RED.
  2. Use Node-RED to build your own logic and use a Watson service.
  3. Build a Mobile App based on MobileFirstPlatform and connect to the Bluemix Application.

Where to get more technical insights?

I hope the playlist helped you to understand the technical background in a very first step. If you want to dive more deeper in the different technical topics, here so links you can follow.

How to connect your Sensor to the IoT Cloud?

How to create a Bluemix Application, add services and use Node-RED?

How to configure the Cloudant database? Possible Information source:

How to configure the “MobileFirstStarter” container in Bluemix?

How to setup a local MobileFirst Server and upload the MobileApp?
Inclusive terminology note: The Mobile First Platform team is making changes to support the IBM® initiative to replace racially biased and other discriminatory language in our code and content with more inclusive language. While IBM values the use of inclusive language, terms that are outside of IBM's direct influence are sometimes required for the sake of maintaining user understanding. As other industry leaders join IBM in embracing the use of inclusive language, IBM will continue to update the documentation to reflect those changes.
Last modified on April 14, 2016