In the world of the Internet of Things there is a growing design phenomenon called “Optimistic UI”.

Optimistic UI displays the action as complete at the same instant as the button press. When you press “On” the button will display the “On” state without any reference to the thing that is being switched “On”. There is an optimistic assumption made that the thing will just come “On”. Hit and Hope has been sanitized and is now called Optimistic UI.

Hit and hope leads to anxieties:

· Did it work?

· Was it already on?

· Do I have a data connection?

· Was my command received?

· Is there anybody out there?

A classic example of Optimistic UI is a pan tilt control for a security camera app. The command to pan left is shown as “done” before the camera has moved and the streamed image is transported to and displayed on the mobile device. As you use the app and experience the multi-clicks, overshoots and streaming lag you can actually see the optimism being defeated — and yet it prevails.

The argument for Optimistic UI is that it is better to show instant feedback than to have users wait for a confirmation signal. This design preference is compelling because computationally powerful, high-resolution touch screens are so seductive. By comparison the communications link between the device and the thing is less attractive and slower. It is tempting for designers to work with the computing and forget about the communications. User expectations also promote Optimistic UI. Most of our UI experience is based on instant feedback. For example: switching on a light or pressing the accelerator in a car. Instant feedback is also expected on many app UI’s. The mere inconvenient fact that IoT feedback signals are often high latency, delayed, narrow-band, remote or non-existent is simply ignored.

 

Figure 1: Optimistic UI switch on an app: Communications routing via a 2 bar mobile network, AWS, account management, home router, system hub and actuator to the target thing.

A more honest, less optimistic, approach is to deploy a ghost state. When you hit the button a “ghost state’ is displayed until the remote thing gives a 500 OK response. Then, only then, does the button show as “done”.

Going back through time there are many example methods and protocols for dealing with delayed switching. The EOT is just one example. The Engine Order Telegraph (EOT) on the bridge deck of a ship signals commands to the engine room. A full ahead command is dialed into the EOT up on the bridge. This causes the order dial to move and a bell to ring below in the engine room. The engineer hears the bell and reads the dial and sets the engine to full ahead. When the engineer gets the engine running at full speed he moves a second dial to full ahead. This shifts the corresponding confirmed dial on the bridge and rings a bell to indicate, “full ahead — now”.

 

Figure 2: In this EOT photo we might assume the Ship is stationary as the SLOW AHEAD has been ordered but the engine status is STOP.

Optimistic UI is misses a great opportunity. Rather than ignoring the process perhaps a better approach is to make the process a UI feature. The beautiful J.W Ray & Co EOT above may serve as point of inspiration. It is possible to re-think the UI so that it does give an indication of process in action sparked by a button press. Facebook Messenger and What’s App indicate when a message is sent and when it is received. Ghost states and other process indicators do not need to visually dominate the UI but they can significantly enhance the overall information value.

 

Figure 3: EyeSpyFX IPIO app: Front Door is Disarmed, back Door is Armed, Yard is in process, showing a ghost state about to Disarmed, Hallway is in process, showing a ghost state about to be Armed.

For EyeSpyFX I/O control app; IPIO we have made a modest attempt at indicating the process in action. We have re-designed simple switches to show two distinct sides: an Off/Disarmed/Open side and an On/Armed/Closed side. When a switch is thrown a ghost state appears before an indication of the new state is confirmed by the system and displayed by the app.

We have called it Positive UI.

Maybe before the idea of the desktop was the idea of “home”. Home is where all things can be found and started from. It is a merge between destination and start point.

The Internet of Things (IoT) brings the idea of home one step further. Control and monitoring of the physical home and all the appliances within is now commonplace. Nest, Alexa, X-Box, Hive, Apple Home just a few of the vendors.

The boundary traditionally drawn around the computer screen has been eroded. Our home space and our information space have collided. In that space we are no longer visitors who can go back home, we are here, permanent participants in a physical and information merged habitat. (Predicted by Bill Mitchell in his 1995 book City of Bits).

A new home page is doubly valuable because the border between work and home has also dissolved. Work is not just a place that is a location, it is with you always, in your pocket as an email, as an IM, on a website, in a phone call. We are always “on”. There was a time, a few decades ago, when going to work and coming home were two discreet entities. Long before that they were one – when we were farming homesteaders. Now home and work seem closely aligned again. If a new all encompassing home can be captured its value is made even greater because it includes work.

Every manufacturer of home appliances – fridges, cookers, microwaves, vacuum cleaners, TVs, heating systems, lights, curtains windows all have IoT systems. In EyeSpyFX we are working on a number of these projects. Information companies also think of home as their natural territory. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon all have Home systems.

The merge between physical space and information is incomplete at this moment in time. IoT devices are a still a little bit clunky – they have gateways and need to be paired. Information is still mostly accessed via a screen. But this is just a moment in time and our current model is just transitional. Steadily physical space and information are coming together. Expect high stakes and profound change!

There is also a cyber hippy point about harmony and home. Home is a personal and family living space. We protect it, nurture it and shape it. The attainment of home as a physical and information hybrid entity is a gold rush for the soul.

Everyone has heard about IoT. The Internet of Things is a hot topic. It means different things to different people. The idea of a world filled with a network of smart things that sense and react to our environment and help us to live better is a sort of long term elixir goal.
In EyeSpyFX we have been working on IoT projects since 2002. Most of our work was and continues to be about building software for security cameras and access control systems.

Recently, we have been applying our experience and expertise in a slightly different, but related project area. We have turned our attention to the factory production process of IoT products. We have been building systems for safety, functional testing and digital identity christening of IoT products.

As each product (object/appliance/thing/device) approaches the end of a factory production line it is tested for functional performance and it is christened. Our new software, developed for a special client, manages the entire testing and christening process. It performs electrical safety, electronic and computational functionality tests. When the functional tests are complete, our software christens the product with its unique digital identity. It then generates a complete product report.

To perform the safety and functional tests our software uses computer vision to locate objects and read screens. It integrates with electrical safety equipment, robot arms and sensors and is sequenced with production line PLC’s (Programmable Logic Controllers).

This sort of end of line testing is common to most electronic goods as part of the factory Quality Assurance process. However, the christening operations are more characteristic of IoT products.
Each IoT product, although mass produced is made unique by the christening process so it can be identified as a singular individual. EyeSpyFX software christens the product with its date of birth, unique name, encrypted gateway pairing credentials and all aspects of its digital identity. A full report is then generated and sent to the manufacturers central product information repository.

When the christening operations are complete the product can be put in a box and shipped. When the box is opened and the product is switched on for the first time it will send a message to various systems saying; “I am on, my sensor data report is…etc”. The product will make contact with the utilities from which it draws power, the service centres where it sends health reports, the other products and sensors in the neighbourhood whom it syndicates with and via an app, with the people who own it.

And so another smart thing is added to the global IoT population. Maybe some day the elixir goal will be achieved.

Smart interacting things

App developer:

We are looking for an app developer to join us to work on exciting challenging software projects. Ideally the applicant will have a degree in computing science and be interested in technology.

EyeSpyFX provide IoT app development services and products to security camera and access control manufacturers. Our clients include many of the world lead security camera and access control manufacturers. We also have our own in-house range of software and hardware products to develop and maintain.

We take on difficult projects so it is essential that you are highly motivated and interested in technology generally. You will need to continue to learn new development techniques to allow you to grow and change with range of projects we deal with.

We would welcome CVs from students who will graduate in June 17 and from people with one or two years of experience.