The impact of social media on our everyday life needs no further elaboration. According to Facebook, there were over 1.94 billion active Facebook users in March 2017, an increase of 18 percent year-over-year. Further, according to Twitter, there were 328 million monthly active users in Q1 2017, an increase of over 9 million quarter-over-quarter.
The popularity of social media was the very principle upon which Botpartner, a start-up French-Taiwan cloud solutions provider with offices in Paris and Taipei, built what it billed “conversation of things” solution, which turns the user’s social media account into an IoT control center.
Here is how the technology works. The user types or talks a command, for example “turn on the light,” into his Facebook Messenger app integrated with Botpartner’s chatbot program. The text is then transmitted to Botpartner’s cloud server where the message is processed. It is then transmitted, via LPWAN, to the connected light in the user’s home, and it turns on.
The LPWAN technology used is Sigfox, which has already been deployed in 32 countries. Here in Taiwan, a large area in the north has already been covered as part of a trial run by Sigfox, which is seeking to obtain a license from the National Communications Commission to officially start operation.
Comments Luke Yen, a spokesperson with Botpartner, on the company’s solution: “Turning devices on or off using your smart device has been done for some time, but we’ve observed that you need to download and open different apps to control these devices. For lights, you need an app. For doors, you need an app. We think this is not very smart. Social media, on the other hand, is something that people are willing to spend a lot of time on, prompting us to design a solution that controls IoT devices using their social media accounts.”
Currently Botpartner’s solution works with Facebook Messenger, and Yen said they are planning to include LINE and Whatsapp in the future. Botpartner is a participant at Computex Taipei this year.
Use cases go beyond turning connected devices on or off. They can also include remote monitoring of senior citizens. Botpartner has prototyped a detector in the form of an insole that can be inserted into the shoe of a senior citizen, for example. The detector can detect usual steps taken by a senior citizen as he trips and falls. An SOS message is then transmitted via Sigfox to the cloud server, which in turn transmits a message to the SMS, e-mail or social media account of a family member, who can then take appropriate actions accordingly.
“I myself have a family member who fell and stayed in the hospital for some time, so this solution can be very useful to me or anyone who has family members that need to be taken care of,” he said.