IoT Interoperability Possibilities in Hypercat

The idea of connected devices means far more than wireless mouse, headphones and webcams that are connected to the internet. The Internet of Things is a jargon, but it’s also existent tangible thing. Consumers and IT businesses are looking to the ways in which connected devices can help to make life easier, more efficient, and more profitable.

A major part of how the IoT will evolve in future will depend on how data is stored and accessed -- this is what defining a standard will help with. Information that is created and stored by one device should be accessible to and usable by other connected devices. HyperCat will eventually help with the interoperability of devices by allowing the data to be stored in the cloud in standardised formats and made available to connected devices.

For instance, there are a lot of sensors around us. The parking sensors, temperature sensors, motion sensors, traffic signal sensors. IoT ecosystem is finding ways to ensure that data created by one device should be accessible and understandable by another device. Thus, making a standard protocol that would result in less cost of development and meaningful to IoT organisations as well as the end users. This results in the formation of Hypercat.

What is Hypercat?

Hypercat standard is an open, lightweight JSON-based hypermedia catalogue format designed for exposing information about the Internet of Things assets over the web.It is extremely simple, described by one participant as "the most of the companies unanimously agree on" with a strong security model. Using webservices such as HTTPS, JSON and REST, each Hypercat catalogue may expose number of Uniform Resource Identitifers. 

Hypercat is developed by a collaboration between dozens of UK technology firms, local authorities and educational establishments. It focuses on interoperable on Internet of Things by forming an open standard JSON based format, meaning the data published by street lights theoretically automatically can communicate with temperature sensors or parking sensors instead of just other streetlights. Instead of developing separate applications and services for each device, Hypercat defines a standard format which makes services machine browsable.

Hypercat makes life easier for everyone:
Developers - More data, quicker
Services and Data providers - More customers
End-customers - More choice
Ecosystems and markets - Removes barriers

An example of Hypercat Standard for streetlight geographical position:

{

    "item-metadata":[

        {

            "rel":"urn:X-hypercat:rels:isContentType",

            "val":"application/vnd.hypercat.catalogue+json"

        },

        {

            "rel":"urn:X-hypercat:rels:hasDescription:en",

            "val":"Sensor example"

        }

    ],

    "items":[

        {

            "href":"https://example.org/sensor1",

            "i-object-metadata":[

                {

                    "rel":"urn:X-hypercat:rels:isContentType",

                    "val":"application/senml+json"

                },

                {

                    "rel":"urn:X-hypercat:rels:hasDescription:en",

                    "val":"Sensor number one"

                },

                {

                    "rel":"http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#long",

                    "val":"-0.57"

                },

                {

                    "rel":"http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#lat",

                    "val":"51.23"

                }

            ]

        }

    ]

}
 

For more information about Hypercat Technology, you can visit,

Hypercat: http://www.hypercat.io/
Hypercat 3.0 Standards: http://www.hypercat.io/standard.html

The Developer community of Hypercat has also implemented the open standards specification in several languages so as to target the majority of developers and organisations:

Node.js

ARM R&D have contributed a Node.js module for manipulating HyperCat documents:

https://github.com/HyperCatIoT/node-hypercat

Java

AlertMe has contributed a Java library for manipulating HyperCat documents:

https://github.com/HyperCatIoT/hypercat-java

Python

1248 have contributed a Python library for manipulating HyperCat documents:

https://github.com/HyperCatIoT/python-tools

PHP

SenseTecnic have contributed a PHP library or manipulating HyperCat documents:

https://github.com/HyperCatIoT/hypercat-php

Tools

Pathfinder

Pathfinder is a reference standalone HyperCat 1.1 server implementing the API

https://github.com/HyperCatIoT/pathfinder

cat-server

cat-server is a simple standalone catalogue server

https://github.com/HyperCatIoT/cat-server

HyperCat, the buzz word has the potential to make or break the IoT. The big players need to get involved or we could end up with yet another format war.