Reality Editor AR App Connects IoT Devices By Drawing Lines

The number of Internet of Things devices, basically appliances and electronics that can connect to networsk like the Internet, are growing month after month. But each IoT trinket is veritably like its own island that may or may not have bridges to other islands. Wouldn't it be nice if you could all get them to tak to each other like good friends? While there are certainly some attempts to do just that, the best and coolest way would be to simply draw virtual lines between them, which is the premise and promise of MIT Fluid Interfaces' Reality Editor.

The idea is simple enough. If you want to link the functionality of two IoT devices together, simply point your smartphone's camera at them and drag a line from one to the other. Of course, there are nitty gritty details like the app identifying the object and then listing out the different functions of each object, but the basic idea is simple, easy, and not to mention fun. It's like IFTTT in a semi-physical world, Minority Report given some life.

Many such IoT devices try to automate their operations, or at least learn from users' behaviors, but they can't cover all use cases. The Reality Editor tries to give users a bit more control and leeway to let their imaginations run wild and do things that the manufacturers and developers may have not thought of.

Reality Editor isn't just a proof of concept. It is an app that can already be downloaded from the iTunes App Store. That said, the current implementation needs more work, of course. For one, said devices need to at least support the Open Hybrid platform to be able to work with Reality Editor. For now, the app makes use of QR Code-like identifiers to, well, identify devices, but in the future, it should all be automatic.

SOURCE: MIT, Reality Editor