The solution is patterned on a "do-it-yourself" (DIY) approach and utilizes inexpensive hardware, open source software, and free services from the IBM Bluemix cloud. The local device is comprised of a RaspberryPi computer and PlayStation3 Eye USB camera with four (4) internal microphones. Total cost of hardware is under US$80 on-line.
The experimental setup includes several installed devices monitoring areas of the home. The IBM Bluemix cloud provides a suite of services for the application, including this Web site, which is a Node.js CloudFoundry application. The Bluemix environment enables this application context to apply to other services, notably the IBM Watson image recognition services. In addition, the Cloudant NoSQL repository stores the historical event and image recognition information.
Bluemix also provides the dashDB hybrid relational data warehousing service. This service automatically replicates from the Cloudant repository and provides an SQL interface for SELECT, PROJECT and JOIN. This SQL services can also be consumed by Watson Analytics and other third-party software packages from IBM and business partners (e.g. Looker).
Also on Bluemix, the IBM Internet of Things platform and associated Real-Time Insights provide device registration and system status monitoring for the RaspberryPi. General purpose conditionals can be applied for integration with email, IFTTT, Node.Red and arbitrary web-hook.
In addition, this site utilizes Mixpanel (www.mixpanel.com) to provide user tracking.