SmartRoom: FMT’s Innovative IoT Temperature Sensor

Are summer days, setting your room ablaze? Maybe winter chill is making your health go downhill? Well, there's no need to suffer through that anymore! The new SmartRoom device has a notification system and a temperature reader that helps to keep you regulated any time of year. FMT has adopted this technology for their conference room.

Here's how it works: If at any time, guests in our meeting room are feeling too warm or chilly, they can open up our mobile application, choose a comfortable temperature and send a request to one of our admins to adjust the thermostat to their likings. The notification system also has a setting for you to pre-set what the temperature range in your room should be between at all times. If at any time the room gets too cold or too hot, a message will be sent out automatically to adjust the thermostat to bring the room back to your preferred range.

How is this all accomplished you ask? In the ever-growing world of technology, internet connectivity is no longer bound to devices such as desktop and laptops. With the introduction of IoT boards, you can create a plethora of devices that you can control via the internet— which is exactly what we did at FMT. We even created a case to house the hardware with a 3D-printer!

How SmartRoom Works

Technology Stack:

• Azure
• C# & C
• SQL
• Twilio
• The Particle Photon IoT Wi-Fi Board

1. First, we programmed and set up the hardware of the Particle Photon via the particle.io website. You will also need to wire the board to a power source and sensor.
2.  We then set up an Azure IoT Hub streaming analytics in order to read the data and process everything that is sent from the Photon.
3. Next, we stored the data into an Azure SQL database to be used later.
4. The main user controller for this would be the web and mobile application. (However, only the web application can be used to adjust the room range.)
5. In order to read the data, we created a web-based API, which gets the current temperature reading and room temperature settings.
6. Twilio’s communication software is set up to send out the messages required.
7. The web and mobile applications then use the web API to determine when to send out a Twilio message.
8. The auto-send SMS notification is separate from Azure functions. It uses the web API and Twilio, similar to the web and mobile application, but it just scans the rooms every 20 minutes.

SmartRoom is just one example of how FMT utilizes IoT technology. Let us know how we can help you implement your IoT vision by filling out the contact form below.