[PROTA] Automation in IoT
Who are some of the trendsetters in the field of internet of Things?
You may be familiar with them.
What is IFTTT?
IFTTT is a website that provides service integration of web services and internet-connected products that provide open APIs.
IFTTT stands for If This, Then That!
If this happens, do that.
For instance,
as you can see from above,
This = photo is uploaded on Instagram
That = save to Dropbox
This becomes an automation rule, and they call it a recipe.
Users mix and match services to their taste to create recipes.
IFTTT provides over 150 channels for recipes. (based on 2014. 12)
What is Zapier?
Zapier is a web service that provides integration of open APIs.
With over 400 APIs, it provides rich experience to its users in automation.
As they word it, an automation is a Zap.
By selecting an API that would trigger and an API that would take an action as a result, a Zap will be created. It may be more complex than IFTTT but it gives user more freedom of choices that helps businesses manage more efficiently.
Why the spotlight on the two: IFTTT and Zapier?
Even before the excitement of IoT, automation platform has been around.
However, the reasons for the big change in people’s attitude is because of the followings.
1. Open APIs
2. End-user automation
3. The internet
Open APIs
Internet of Things is all about connectivity. In other words, isolation will not get any one far. There’ll be more than billions of connections, and collaboration will be the only way to get far and become great. That’s why everyone started opening up.
By integrating services, developers can build faster with less effort. Moreover, as a consequence of integration, more values can be provided to the end users that wouldn’t have been possible before. IFTTT and Zapier are exemplary services that make great uses of integration.
End-user Automation
Increase of the number of open APIs brings bigger possibilities but at the same time more confusion to ordinary users. IFTTT and Zapier wanted to solve this by letting users make the choices of the integration. What was possible with programming before can be done by ordinary users just by following logical steps with their mouse. With the tool in the hands of many, more can be achieved and more creative the automation experience will become.
The Internet
Internet brought richness to services and influenced how people lead their lives including the internet technology itself. Due to rapid mobile adaptation, internet has become everyday channel to most people worldwide and accelerated the world of connectedness. Internet of Things did not appear out of the blue. It’s destined to connect the world of physical and virtual things and help people lead quality life by integrating what wasn’t possible before. IFTTT and Zapier were the kind of services that aim to achieve this value.
What about us?
PROTA is a smart hub in the physical world that controls and monitors tactile things including IoT products. PROTA makes use of data from physical gadgets like sensors that check the CO2 level of local space that is hard to attain in the virtual services. PROTA bridges both on and offline environments, and it's the automation app, Ambiency that makes it possible.
If you'd like to know more, please visit our homepage.
For a brief recap of Ambiency, please check below.
How is it different?
Ambiency is a rule-based, automation app for PROTA.
It runs on one’s own machine that each user owns, keeping private data safe and not on some distant servers.
