Using Blockly to Create Simple Sensor & Actuator Based Applications on the SensibleThings Platform

Abstract: Research at Miun investigates the so called “Internet of Things”. The research has so far produced components for sharing sensor and actuator information on the Internet, most notably the Sensible Things platform. The Sensible Things platform can run on many different devices such as smart phones, raspberry Pi devices, and desktop computers. However, programming applications based on the Sensible Things platform and deploying it on the hardware require knowledge of the Java programming language and the API of the platform. Today, many novice and first time programmers learn to program using the Blockly programming method, which include connecting blocks together to form simple procedures. Therefore, we have applied the Blocky method to ease the development of simple applications on the Sensible Things platform. After the work was done, the general users are now able to create entry level Sensible Things Applications.