Internet of Things Essay

Most coffee machines are designed exclusively for making coffee. With the advancement being evidenced technology, coffee consumers are increasingly demanding information regarding the products they consume [1]. The advent of the internet of things has opened many fronts in how consumers can interact with devices and appliances. Automating a coffee machine so that it may connect with IoT is one of the challenges that engineers and tech savvy individuals are contending with without profound success [2].

Existing solutions
Running a basic home automated system is a huge challenge. This is particularly the case for a coffee machine. Some coffee machines used in coffee shops comprise of a diagnostic port. The port is used for adjusting the price of coffee dispensed by the machine. For a home coffee machine, such a port would be rendered useless. In recent past, coffee machine manufacturers have sought to make the port useful in home settings [3]. In fact, some engineering students reverse-engineered and made their discovery public. However, they did not reveal how the diagnostic port could be made useful in the face of IoT. Typically, basic home coffee machines lack power backup unit. They have two switches activated through the button on the machine.

Proposed solution
In connecting the coffee machine to the IoT, it is important to ensure that it runs fully independent of any control mechanism. This means that it operates as if it was IoT enabled. To achieve this, two things will be required to be done. It should be possible to control the power of the machine [4]. It should also be possible to communicate with the coffee maker in activating the functions such as making coffee or rinsing the cups. We propose to use an ‘ESP-01’ module for connecting the machine with wife. We will then make a subscription to a service provider to listen to commands. For the front end can be an open office. A web interface could also be added on the machine for direct control through HTTP Get commands [5]. The module will facilitate the obtaining of information from the internet including the companies that are supplying the best quality coffee.

References
[1] Gemalto, “Disrupting the coffee ecosystem with IoT Innovation,” https://www.gemalto.com/brochures-site/download-site/Documents/M2M_CS_Bonaverde.pdf
[2] Ibot, “Making a smart coffee vending machine just 7 days,” http://iamibot.com/success-stories-coffee-machine/
[3] H. Bob, “IoT of caffeine: Connecting the coffee maker,’ https://www.ariasystems.com/blog/iot-caffeine-connecting-coffee-maker/
[4] S. Said, “Bonaverde teams up with Gemalto to disrupt the coffee ecosystem with IoT innovation,” https://www.gemalto.com/m2m/customer-cases/iot-cloud-connected-coffee-machine
[5] C. Jen, “Introducing case: The cognitive coffee-maker,” https://www.ibm.com/blogs/internet-of-things/case-cognitive-coffee/