IoTA Where IoT Meets Social Network

BharathKumar, Leila Abdollahi, Pavitraa Parthasarathy, Setareh Sarachi

University of Pittsburgh School of Information SciencesINFSCI 2430 : Social Computing

INTRODUCTIONInternet of Things (IoT) is the ever-growing network of physical objects, which are internet-enabled, to send and receive data over the network.

Type of Relations:• Device – Device Interaction (IoT)• Human – Device Interaction (SIoT)• Human – Human Interaction (Social Network inside

IoT)

• At the center of innovation, that is unfolding across technological border is not so much those devices that are being linked together but the “Connected Person”.

• At the center is the human being who is making use of the applications and services that are enabled by the devices – the things - and their unprecedented integration provided in the IoT.

“ In the next century, planet earth will don an electronic skin. It will use the Internet as a scaffold to support and transmit its sensations.” -Neil Gross (1999)

MOTIVATIONS AND OBJECTIVESAccording to Pew Research Center, in a world where Internet of Things is taking over the day-to-day interactions, people can be given social appreciation for managing solutions for everyday needs, which have social impacts, such as electricity consumptions. We want a solution to work with the community to build a better IoT world for social good.Objectives: To design a mobile application prototype to improve social interactions inside IoT and encourage social impacts of things.

Access for Devices•Managing the devices and being notified of job completion (Social Relationships)

Social Score

• Parameter based social score computing algorithm to share with your friends (Social Rewards)

Tips• Encouragin

g best practices in IoT by sharing tips

• Sharing resource utilization (Wisdom of Crowds)

METHODSLiterature

Review

• Researched existing academic works on including human – human interaction inside IoT. • Laid basis for integration of friends inside IoT on grounds of social computing theories such as Social

responsibility, Reward systems and Wisdom of crowds.

First Prototype

• Preliminary design features needed to emphasize the applications of IoTA .• Designed the paper-based application based on basic feature of friends connectivity, viewing friends

dashboard and social score.

User Study 1

• Based on first prototype design – Video introducing IoT followed by paper based survey of 5 participants as users of the application with 9 questions.

• Included emphasis on access feature of the application.

Second Prototype

• Created online design prototype with the access, social score and social wall page to meet the needs of users using Design.

User Study 2

• Video introducing IoT followed by comprehensive survey of 5 participants as users on overall design of the application with 18 questions. The users were used to complete task and their ease of use was observed.

Final Prototype

• Included the privacy aspects of the applications.• Settings page of the application.

SURVEY ANALYSIS AND RESULTGoal : Understand users interaction and understanding of IoTA application Results from the survey :• Since the IoT world is still unimplemented, not many were

aware of IoT concepts.• Most of the users found the design elements impressive.• There are varying opinions about how frequent the user will

use the application.• Privacy was a major concern for most of them – what I share

with my friends and whom I Share it with.

Major Privacy Concerns

Social Score Flowchart

x

StartcurrentReading

, previousReadin

g, numberOfAppli

ancenetConsumption =

currentReading - previousReading

normalizedConsumption =

netConsumption / numberOfAppliances

getPreviousAverageConsumption()

relativeConsumption = (normalizedConsumption / previousAverage)

* 100

socialScore = relativeConsumption

Stop

Social Feed• View friends’

posts, tips and scores

• Share posts, tips and knowledge transfer between friends

• Message each friend individually

Home Screen• Display energy usage

in real-time• Set usage target and

be alerted when you are trending over

• View current social score

• View users, who are connected to the same IoT server

IoT Screen• Control devices’

activity• View device’s usage

in a day, a week and a month

• Detail information about each device usage using graphs

• Add new device to IoT server

Access Screen• Accept or Ignore

access requests• Control which

devices friends have access to

• Block or terminate friend’s access

• Manage access the user has been given

Pay Your Bill OnlineYou can pay your bill online, from the application.

Compare Your Home to FriendsAllows you to see how efficient your home is compared to your friends, by providing rank based on your social score.Compare Your Home to OthersAllows you to see how efficient your home is compared to your neighbors by providing rank based on social score

Control Your AppliancesControl devices, connected to IoT server remotely from the application. You can receive notification from the appliance.

Tracking Devices’ ActivityGives information about the status of each device, if their job is done or if there is any technical issue.

Application Features

Control Your Friends’ AppliancesControl friend’s devices you have been given access to remotely from the application. You can receive notification from the appliance.

Friends ListAccess to friends profile. Call them or send private message. You can choose a friend to give IoT access to.

Bill ForecastingAllows you to see what your projected bill will be before it arrives.

CONCLUSIONS

x

Social experience with our application was successful in meeting its objectives.• Enhanced the security and privacy features by design by providing

access features with permissions. • Lower level of extroversion and education may lead to lower

contribution of social capital and collective action.• Future applications should encourage accountability through social

comparison and social roles. • Future social – energy applications could explore shared device

households. • Future social – energy applications could support social interaction

dynamics between people for tapping social capital.

SCOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT• Build open standards for sharing information inside IoT.• Bringing households and guests together in one place to share

resources may help reduce consumption based on social capital.• Improve social awareness by extending social comparison inside

application for other aspects such as sharing devices.