Towards a Toolkit for the Rapid Creation and Programming of Smart Environments

“Smart” environments rely on the interconnection of various devices that are equipped with sensors and actuators and are statically or dynamically deployed in rooms or buildings or worn by users. Although it has become much easier to build and program single device installations with platforms such as Arduino, it still remains a challenging task to build whole environments with heterogeneous interconnected devices. A lot of this effort is due to the implementation of similar functionality in different programming languages for different device platforms and the bridging of the different communication technologies, protocols and formats between devices. The author believes that the right toolkit can widely cover this technical complexity so that designers and users of a smart environment can focus on the interaction design and the programming of intelligent and useful behavior. Such a toolkit is currently being developed within the meSch EU project and is presented and demonstrated by the author.