Inter ecosystem compatibility for the Internet of Things using a web browser

Kapil Kumar, Joy Bose

Abstract: There are many existing ecosystems for the Internet of Things (IoT), such as SmartThings, Nest, Apple HomeKit etc., that are not mutually compatible. This makes it difficult to organize and control different devices at the same time. This is a bigger problem for users who have IoT devices from multiple ecosystems at home. In this paper, we present as system that allows the user to manage multiple ecosystems using a single interface within the web browser. Our approach allows additional advantages and features, such as enabling users to set rules to trigger actions on devices with a different ecosystem, incorporating context awareness and having a single search query facility for devices across ecosystems. The web browser has the additional advantages of having platform independent functionality and being preinstalled on many devices. We present the system architecture and implementation details of a simple proof of concept system.