by Raphael Hiesgen, Dominik Charousset, Thomas C. Schmidt and Matthias Wählisch

The Internet of Things (IoT) enables a large number of devices to cooperate to achieve a common task. Each individual device is small and executes a confined software core. Collective intelligence is gained from distributed collaboration and Internet communication. Corresponding IoT solutions form large distributed software systems that pose professional requirements: scalability, reliability, security, portability and maintainability. The C++ Actor Framework CAF [1] contributes such a professional open source software layer for the IoT. Based on the actor model of Hewitt et al. [2], it aids programmers at a good level of abstraction without sacrificing performance.

by Josè Danado and Fabio Paternò

‘Puzzle’, a mobile end user development framework, allows the end user to opportunistically create, modify and execute applications for interacting with smart things, phone functions and web services. The framework simplifies development of such applications through an intuitive jigsaw metaphor that allows easy composition on touch-based devices. Users immediately identified the utility of this feature, and found it easy to envisage using the framework in various scenarios in their daily lives.