Workshop page: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2015/wiki/Session:Build_an_IoT_Empire
The workshop is presented by people from the Mozilla assembly at #32c3, so it starts with an introduction on Mozilla and on the possibilities to make apps on Firefox and also on FirefoxOS that is not dead as some news articles stated. So there’s an active community of developers.
Different types of devices were distributed to the public in order to test it.
An overview of embedded devices based on the nFR51 chip shows that are low power programmable devices, with different form factor (from a usb key to a full prototyping board).
A first focus was on the use and discovery of simple Bluetooth Low Power Beacons, using the app “Physical Web” for Apple and Android. They talked abou another app called Blexplorer for Android
But the FR51 chip, also used in beacons, is available in the prototyping board, can so be programmed to, for example, transmit a customized URL to the proximity devices.
They used Developer.mbed.org, (registration required) and then imported the project named
“ble_physicalweb” (note: NOT update libraries). The source code could be updated to transmit a custom URL or anything else.
Then the workshop focused on the use of the WebIDE feature in Firefox (some focus on “Permissions” and "Adjust CSP)
More info available at the Mozilla assembly at #32c3.
[photo: one of the board tested during the workshop, @msanti]