Internet Orchestra of Things: A Different Perspective on the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as a global network that links together living and/or non-living entities, such as people, animals, software, physical objects or devices. These entities can interact with each other, gather, provide or transmit information to the IoT. Although the Internet of Things is a relatively new concept, various platforms are already available. Some of them are open platforms, enabling both the integration of people, systems, and objects from the physical and virtual world, and the visualization of data. For example, there are already some IoT platforms used, like Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, Amazon Web Services IoT Platform, IBM Watson IoT Platform, Nimbits, Open.Sen.se, ThingWorx, and ThingSpeak. But what if things could not only “work” and “speak”, but also “sing”? We propose a game in which the things connected to IoT can play in real time different sounds, according to the values of some monitored parameters. These things can be grouped in the IoT platform to create a virtual orchestra and make music. Besides this game allowing the creation of great songs, it can be widely used to explain the new ideas behind the fast emerging areas of the Internet of Things. In addition to many technical challenges, it is also worth considering the effect the IoT concept will have on people, society, and economy as a whole. Keywords—Internet of Things; music; game; education; RFID; robot