Internet related News · 2015-03-26

Facebook announces new software development kits for Internet of Things

This report 1st appeared on our sister Site – The Internet Of All Things

Facebook took it’s second major step into the world of the Internet of Things (IoT) by announcing a new IoT software development kit (SDK) on Wednesday to support the development of “smart” devices. The announcement came at its annual F8 2015 developers conference in Los Angeles, USA.

About two years ago, FB had acquired Parse, a company that provides Cloud backened for application developers. After that first major step, FB is putting Parse to use in the IoT world, with an eye on future growth prospects, especially with the ever-growing influx of Internet-connected devices today.

According to a blog post by Parse, those interested can find the SDKs on GitHub, as well as a full set of Quick Starts and Guides on Parse. So what is it exactly that developers can do? With these SDKs, an IoT device will be able to receive push notifications, save data, and generally take advantage of the “offerings” of the Parse Cloud.

Many companies working in the IoT field use Parse, some of which are mentioned on the FB blog. Chamberlain, which makes a line of smart garage door openers, Milestone Sports, which makes the wearable running tracker Milestone Pod, and Roost, a company that makes smart batteries for smoke detectors, are some of them.

IoT SDKThe first Parse SDK by FB is an Arduino SDK targeted for the Arduino Yún, a microcontroller board with built-in WiFi capabilities. The SDK interface is in Wiring, & FB claims to have designed it to be as simple as possible.

Data for this is available in a developer’s Parse app, ready to be retrieved by the mobile app, another device, or simply logged for analytics purposes.

In addition, FB has also released an ‘Embedded C SDK’, targeted for Linux and Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS). These open source SDKs serve as reference implementations that are being used by leading chipset manufacturers to provide support for their hardware platforms.

FB has also released a full set of Quick Starts and Guides on Parse, for developers interested in pursuing IoT device development.

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