If the Internet of Things is the question, is HTML5 the answer?

We’ve heard a lot about the Internet of Things, but what exactly does it mean for techies like you and me? For starters, the number of smart, connected devices each of us owns is growing. These could include home lighting or heating devices, smart appliances such as washing machines and fridges, or even consumer goods like toasters and coffee makers.

Having smart control of these devices – and receiving feedback from them on performance – can be a really appealing idea for consumers. You might have a coffee machine that makes coffee just in time for your arrival when your phone notices you’re heading home, or a system that responds to the fading daylight by lighting the rooms you’re actually using. For app developers looking to build programs for the management and interaction of such devices, however, it can seem like a real challenge. The next generation of Internet of Things applications will go beyond the simple needs we see today such as cutting energy bills, to influencing our lives based on our desires and preferences. The latter is a complex programming scenario.

As Divya Naidu Kolar Sunder at Intel puts it, “To go beyond such basic needs, we must each participate in designing the ways in which our devices should work together, and how gathered and sensed information can trigger actions to benefit us.”

Achieving collaboration between different devices, operating on various platforms and manufacturer technologies will be no easy task, prompting Intel Labs to research and plan for a distributed programming environment that will span all sorts of different smart devices already in existence. You can find out more about Intel Labs’ research into this HTML5 framework and of course there’s plenty of support for would-be Internet of Things coders on the Intel Developer Zone.

This blog post is written by Softtalkblog, and is sponsored by the Intel Developer Zone, which helps you to develop, market and sell software and apps for prominent platforms and emerging technologies powered by Intel Architecture.