Building mobile apps for IoT Devices: a case study of our work with the Holiday by MooresCloud

Presented by Secret Lab (http://www.secretlab.com.au)

Connected devices that support ‘hackable’ software development are becoming increasingly common: the Lifx, the Holiday by MooresCloud, Philips Hue, and so on.

This talk will explore the development of a number of iOS apps built for the Holiday by MooresCloud, including a device discovery app and a musical visualiser. The talk will summarise the best practices for developing IoT-related apps for iOS, how to talk to such devices in a reliable and network-friendly way, and best practices for UX and interaction with IoT devices.

We’ll showcase our past work, demonstrate what we’re working on now, and present a number of demonstrations of our approach to building mobile software for IoT devices.

Presented at YOW Connected 2014 in Melbourne, September 2014.

Transcript

1. Designing Apps for the Internet of Things
   SECRET LAB
   

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3. @parisba
   

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4. @desplesda
   

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5. Kerbal Space
   Program Book
   (!!)
   Unity Mobile
   Game
   Development
   

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7. The internet is made
   of hardware
   

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8. The internet of things is made
   of user facing hardware
   

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9. A pretty old field
   

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10. Regular people now
    have access
    

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11. You’re either building a device and
    need an app, or you’re building an
    app for existing hardware
    

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12. Making apps for existing
    hardware is less common
    but very cool
    

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13. We’re talking about stuff
    that applies to both
    

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14. Our experience
    

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15. • Seamlessness!
    • Performance!
    • Working with the App Store
    

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16. Seamlessness
    

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18. The ideal user story
    

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19. The Ideal User Experience
    Buy The Thing, Take It Home
    Turn It On
    It Does Something Good
    

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20. Most Things Do This
    Already
    

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22. The Heater User Experience
    Buy The Thing, Take It Home
    Turn It On
    Now Your House Is Warm
    

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23. The Microwave User Experience
    Buy The Thing, Take It Home
    Turn It On
    Last Night’s Curry
    

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24. Configuration
    Adds Work
    

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26. The Xbox One User Experience
    Buy The Thing, Take It Home
    Turn It On
    Play Video Games
    

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27. The Xbox One User Experience
    Buy The Thing, Take It Home
    Turn It On
    Play Video Games
    Sign In to your Xbox Live account
    

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28. The Xbox One User Experience
    Buy The Thing, Take It Home
    Turn It On
    Play Video Games
    Sign In to your Xbox Live account Create an Xbox Live account
    OR
    

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29. The Xbox One User Experience
    Buy The Thing, Take It Home
    Provide Wifi Details
    Play Video Games
    Sign In to your Xbox Live account Create an Xbox Live account
    OR
    Turn It On
    

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31. Plugging stuff in is
    easy
    

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32. HARD MODE
    

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33. Configure a device…
    • It has only one plug, for power
    • It needs wifi
    • It has no useful display
    • It has no useful input
    

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35. Most use a temporary
    ad-hoc network
    

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36. Buy The Thing, Take It Home
    Turn It On
    Disconnect from the wifi,
    connect to the device
    Open a web browser, go to a
    weird URL
    Provide Wifi Details
    

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37. Disconnect from the wifi,
    connect to the device
    Open a web browser, go to a
    weird URL
    Provide Wifi Details
    Reboot
    Reconnect to the wifi
    If it worked, awesome
    

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38. This is awful
    

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39. Also really scary
    

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41. Other approaches
    

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42. Got a camera?
    Show a QR code
    

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44. You generally can’t get
    away from this stuff
    

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45. Takeaway:!
    Make the rest of the experience
    as simple as possible
    

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46. Performance
    

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48. Internet-connected
    holiday lights
    

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50. Each light individually
    configurable
    

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54. Smooth movement =
    ~20Hz
    

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55. We achieved 5Hz
    

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56. Problem: 

    Designed for sporadic access
    

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57. Original design
    was HTTP
    

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59. Two problems: 

    latency and throughput
    

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60. Latency
    

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61. Latency: server was
    handling requests one at
    a time
    

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62. Throughput: 1 HTTP
    request per light update
    

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63. It sucked
    

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64. Solution: UDP!
    

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65. UDP:
    Low-level networking
    

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66. Works fine for this case
    

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67. Both problems fixed!
    

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68. Achieved 100Hz
    

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69. The HTTP method is
    still good!
    

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71. Takeaway:!
    Have a high-level API, and a
    performance-focused low-level
    API.
    

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72. You might not be able to make
    this happen, but if you’re a
    hardware dev, please do it
    

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73. IoT apps !
    on the App Store
    

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75. If you’re making the
    official app, make it free
    

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76. If you’re making a third-
    party app, charge a
    premium price!
    

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77. Third party app customers
    have loyalty to the
    hardware
    

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78. Takeaway: Keep in mind
    that you’re part of a bigger
    picture when making apps.
    

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79. Making apps for
    hardware is fun!
    

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80. 1. Reduce the workload
    2. Consider both performance and flexibility
    3. Remember the bigger picture
    

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