Abstract

The aim of this project is to create an online weather system which enables a user to check real-time weather parameters of a place anytime and anywhere with just a few buttons click. In this project, a weather station will be built to collect weather parameters. Data collected will then store into Google Cloud and analysis of weather will be done. A mobile app or web will be developed to display the real-time weather conditions and users will receive notification as a reminder to get themselves prepared for their plans.

Project Introduction

Weather condition plays an important role in our daily life as weather and climate are the most ubiquitous factors for home and environment planning. Moreover, the tremendous development of Internet nowadays made possible to monitor weather conditions and collect the respective data in-situ. All the objects, sensors and devices can be linked through the Internet to share and analyze the data collected at various locations. The IoT can be much more extensive in predicting and knowing the weather conditions in particular place by connecting this weather station to the Internet.

The climate of Malaysia is so capricious that hard to predict nowadays. As people grow into a developed country with advanced technology to help humanity and bring convenience to the society, it is now the time for the weather broadcasting to be implemented into the mobile phone instead of keep on checking through only television or radio. However, with the mobile weather checking syste, we have in this era still often we see people rushing for schedule under the rain without umbrella; laundries are still showering by rain; home planted plants are wilted due to the hot and dry weather.

Therefore, the objective of this project is to create an online weather system which enables the user to check real-time weather parameters of a place anytime and anywhere with just a few buttons click. On top of that, people will receive real-time notification or reminder to get themselves prepared for their plans in the current weather.

Figure 1: Overall flow of project

Figure 2: Project architecture

Favoriot platform is chosen because it is a new cloud-based platform designed for IoT which supports the integration, collection, and storage of data from several devices into the internet. It has a scalable big data storage. It also helps developers in building vertical applications to display data in many forms. Favoriot platform is suitable to be used in this project that needs several functions provided in this platform in order to obtain desired results.

Design Methodology

There are three phases to achieve the stated objectives above:

Weather station design and prototype development

These weather parameters are measured using Sparkfun Weather Shield sensor and the Raspberry Pi 3 with built-in Wi-Fi is used to capture all the data from the weather sensor. The measurements taken include temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, light intensity, wind speed and direction, and rain precipitation.

Transferring data to initial state cloud platform

Raspberry Pi 3 will stream the data directly to the cloud. Cloud platform that are suggested to be used in this project are Favoriot because it fully managed data, supports monitoring, logging, and diagnostics, data analysis and helps developers in building vertical applications.

Application of Internet of Things (IoT)

A stream of weather parameters/information can be displayed in a professional graphical fashion which can be accessed from mobile phone or web. Favoriot also allows the development of next generation of applications of the web that is reliable, fast and engaging. Real-time notification will then be sent to the user as a reminder.

Preliminary Result

The SparkFun Weather Shield with built-in Si7021 humidity/temperature sensor, MPL3115A2 barometric pressure sensor, and the ALS-PT19 light sensor was connected to Raspberry Pi 3 as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: The hardware of this project

The weather parameters such as temperature, humidity, and pressure are taken from the weather shield and loaded into Raspberry Pi 3. The weather parameters were displayed at the Lx terminal of the VNC viewer as shown in Figure 5. Data collected from the sensors were successfully streamed into Favoriot and shown in the dashboard as shown in Figure 6. However, the data streamed into the Favoriot is not tally with the data collected from the sensors as for now.  In addition, the current weather conditions are updated to multiple social media every hour to notify the user as shown in Figure 7. The number of update post can be determined by modifying the python code.

Figure 5: The weather parameters displayed in Lx terminal of Raspberry Pi 3

Figure 6: Data is being streamed and displayed in Favoriot

Figure 7: Twitter post showing the current weather condition

Expected Result

The expected results toward the end of this project are described as below:

Prototype

A prototype of weather station by using Raspberry Pi 3 and Sparkfun Weather Shield sensor is designed and developed for climatology monitoring. The weather station is able to be interfaced to the Favoriot cloud platform. Weather parameters are able to be collected and saved in the cloud.

Application

Weather parameters can be analyzed online with graphical presentation. People can access the weather-related information via mobile phone or web easily. Notifications will be sent to the users too as a reminder.

Figure 8: Expected results of Favoriot data analytics for weather parameters in (a) line chart and (b) column chart.

Figure 9: Expected results of weather app development using Favoriot platform

[Note: This project is being done by UTHM, our FAVORIOT’s University collaborator. Article was written by Pui Yan Muck]

You can check out the whole LIST of IOT PROJECTS by our University Collaborators.

The Internet of Things (IoT) technology can assist in the effective conservation of resources and energy management. With IoT, managing water level and detecting leakage within water pipeline distribution system can be automated. This is the golden opportunity as the field of water management and distribution progress with the advancement of IoT.

Water shortage has been part of the crucial complications that encountered by many municipalities around the globe and surplus during transmission has been acknowledged as the main problem.

Thus, the key idea for this project is to design a real-time low-cost wireless system called as SMART2L to prevent Non-Revenue Water (NRW) commonly known as unbilled water wastage. SMART2L integrates Internet of Things (IoT) technologies using FAVORIOT platform that will make a change to the way of people live and manage their water resources smartly.

[Note: This project is being done by UNITEN, our FAVORIOT’s University collaborator. Article was written by Haikal Hafiz Kadar]

You can check out the whole LIST of IOT PROJECTS by our University Collaborators.

“All we know Health is Wealth.So the health issue is very important for our daily life. Especially it is very important and sensitive issue when it’s related to Elderly patients.We must be very careful regarding the handling of the Elderly people.
Favorwatch is not only a watch but also giving huge benefits for its users.

First of all, I would like to say this favorwatch is very helpful for everyone.But this watch is more helpful for the Elderly people. The Favorwatch is a great invention by the team of Favoriot. I have used the watches for my residence Elderly patients in my Centre. The favorwatch is very helpful and acts like a 24 hours security system for the Elderly people.It has few great features like 24 hours pulse rates, blood pressure, ECG monitoring, steps, calories.The beautiful feature is Fall detection and SOS button for any kinds of help. The SOS button is connected to the nearby emergency department and also connected to the relatives by the mobile connectivity. It has a SIM card inside and also it is voice enabled. So the Elderly people also can talk with their relatives. It has also the GPS system inside so that the person is easily reachable. So the Favorwatch is very useful for the Alzheimers, Dementia, Parkinsons patients. The Favorwatch will bring more features in the near future.” – Prof.Dr.Zahid Haque,Ph.D, D.Sc MBBS,MPH, MBA, LL.B,FRSPH(UK),FAAFP(USA), Board Certified(USA) , Chairman, PLZ Newage Care S/B

“Things and human intermingle in the cyberspace where the interactions can have real consequences in physical space. Managing, connecting and visualizing these “things” are of utmost importance. Favoriot helps to bring this data to life with rule-based smart action” – Dr. Rozeha A. Rashid, Head of Advanced Telecommunication Technology Research Group (ATT RG), FKE, UTM

“From data to information, information to knowledge, knowledge to wisdom, the journey is fraught with trial and errors. It won’t hurt to have Favoriot help you with your first step and beyond” – Mr. Hadi Fikri Abdul Hamid, Ph.D. Student, ATT RG, FKE, UTM

“Favoriot – my to-go-to authority on all things IoT. It is my best source to learn the latest trends and to leverage on IOT-driven solutions that can make life better, even for my elders.” – Caroline Ang, Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia

‘There are people who just talk and expect things to happen. There are people who rush to supposedly make things happen without talking or thinking through. Favoriot and especially Dr. Mazlan Abas its evangelist talks, shares, educates and tries to ensure that IoT projects by whatever parties are for the right purposes and for the right situations and environments to achieve success for the benefit of all.‘ – Abdul Fattah Mohamed Yatim, Deputy Chairman of National Industry Standards Committee on IT, Communications and Multimedia (codenamed ISC/G), Department of Standards Malaysia. (The National Standards Committee on Internet of Things, codenamed TC/G/16, is a committee under ISC/G.)

“Today, STEM education plays important roles in the development of the younger generation for their future career. Favoriot is promoting #GenerationIOT, in the synergy of the great IOT platform by Favoriot and IOT learning kit from us (MyInvent), we believe our partnership could grow together, then help our younger generation be ready for their future.” – Mohd Ariffin Zulkifli, IoT Engineer/Trainer, MyInvent Enterprise.

“IoT journey could be tough, but you will not be alone with Favoriot. Being part of the ecosystem of IoT with Favoriot bring us move further.” – Tan Chin Luh, Technical Consultant, Trity Technologies

“Whenever I want to connect my IoT devices, the word that will appear in my mind is Favoriot. It’s the best choice of an IoT middleware platform for an IoT developer. Real-time data from the IoT devices can be viewed in graphs. Notification messages can be sent via SMS and email when an event occurred makes Favoriot far superior to others” – Dr. Ansar Jamil, Lecturer, FKEE, UTHM

“Favoriot is awesome and user-friendly!. Visualized data provided based on the real-time aggregation of the data stream.” – Muhamad Nabil Asyraf Ghazali, Student, FKEE, UTHM

“Internet of Things is a complex and connected solution which need to deliver in the simplest manner for a complex problem, this type of solution offering was not possible 10 years ago, while it’s now possible with the development of Low Power Wide Aera connectivity, Cloud Computing, and Artificial Intelligence. Commercialisation of IoT solutions need multi-domain expertise, an organization such as Favoriot provide solutions that reduce time to market and scalability advantages.

EcoSystem owners can depend on Favoriot commitment to ensure robust interface and manage the security’s issue that is required when massive devices are interconnected.” –Mu. Pathma, CEO, Promosys Technology

“Development of IOT system has been growing rapidly nowadays and it comes along with the cybercriminal problems. Favoriot can be the total solution in order to manage the security issue and managing your systems.” – Muhd Arif Ridhwan Mohd Jalil, Electronics Engineer/IoT Trainer, AR Team Electronics

“Dr. Mazlan is one of IoT’s CEOs that worrying about elderly. He has the human touch.” – Francisco Maroto, CEO, OIES Consulting

“Favoriot is a rendezvous for all of the sensors where the data are collected, aggregated and transformed into meaningful ways.” – Helmi Fazalul, technical Sales manager, Xperanti