Ph.D.

student Adrian deFreitas uses Impromptu, a system that accesses shared apps
only when needed, such as a public transit app when the user is standing near a bus
stop.
Carnegie Mellon University will turn its campus into a living laboratory for a Googlefunded, multi-university expedition to create a robust platform that will enable Internetconnected sensors, gadgets and buildings to communicate with each other.

Anind Dey (right), director of HCII, is lead investigator on the project.

The goal of our project will be nothing less than to radically enhance human-to-human
and human-to-computer interaction through a large-scale deployment of the Internet of
Things (IoT) that ensures privacy, accommodates new features over time and enables
people to readily design applications for their own use, said Anind K. Dey, lead
investigator of the expedition and director of CMUs Human-Computer Interaction
Institute.
Just as Carnegie Mellon pioneered distributed computing in the 1980s by deploying
the first fully wired university campus, the expedition will use the CMU campus to
develop and test the new IoT technologies.
Carnegie Mellon researchers will work with colleagues at Cornell, Stanford, Illinois and
Google to create GIoTTO, a new platform to support IoT applications. Initial plans for

GIoTTO include sensors that are inexpensive and easy to deploy, new middleware to
facilitate app development and manage privacy and security, and new tools that enable
end users to develop their own IoT experiences.
We funded the Open Web of Things expedition to encourage universities to explore
various aspects of system design that could help enable the Internet of Things, said
Maggie Johnson, director of university relations for Google. From the many excellent
proposals received, weve chosen Carnegie Mellon to lead because of their vision for a
living laboratory, validating system design through daily use. Cornell, Illinois and
Stanford were selected to join based on their unique approaches for tackling critical
challenges related to privacy & security, systems & protocols and HCI.
We believe the collaboration with and across universities will accelerate innovation and
IoT adoption, she added.
Google initially will provide $500,000 to Carnegie Mellon to launch the expedition. In
addition to Dey, the lead team includes Yuvraj Agarwal, Chris Harrison, Jason Hong,
Andrew Moore, Anthony Rowe and Mahadev Satyanarayanan from CMUs School of
Computer Science and College of Engineering.
Though privacy and security are features of GIoTTO, a second CMU team, led by
Computer Science Professor Norman Sadeh, will develop a novel technology to further
protect the privacy of IoT users.
We will demonstrate the use of personalized privacy assistants that help users
configure the many privacy settings necessary to ensure that they retain adequate
control over their data, Sadeh said. Joining him on that team are Lorrie Cranor and Lujo
Bauer.

"Snap2It" lets users link to a printer or projector simply by taking a smartphone photo of it.

The promise of the IoT is that embedded sensors in buildings and everyday objects can
be interweaved to create smart environments. For instance, CMU researchers have
created Snap2It, a system that lets users link to a printer or projector simply by taking a
smartphone photo of it, and Impromptu, a system that accesses shared apps only when
needed, such as a public transit app when the user is standing near a bus stop, or a
retailer app when visiting a store.
The mission of the Google expedition is to fulfill the IoTs promise by creating a complete
system of interoperable IoT technology and finding answers to key research questions,
such as how to preserve privacy and ensure security in an increasingly sensor-filled
environment.
To create the living lab for the IoT, the expedition will saturate the CMU campus with
sensors and infrastructure, recruit students and other campus members to create and
use novel IoT apps, and eventually expand these efforts to the wider Pittsburgh
community.
The City of Pittsburgh has emerged as a leader in embracing innovation to enhance
city services and improve the quality of life of our citizens, said Pittsburgh Mayor
William Peduto. Collaborations with its university community have been an important
element of the citys innovation strategy. We welcome the opportunity for the city to join
with CMU and Google to create a living laboratory for the Internet of Things.

By creating open IoT technology that can be freely shared and enhanced, Google and
the expedition researchers hope to accelerate innovation and adoption of the IoT.
An early milestone will include the development of our IoT appstore, where any campus
member and the larger research community will be able to develop and share an IoT
script, action, multiple-sensor feed, or application easily and widely, Dey said. Because
many novel IoT applications require a critical mass of sensors, CMU will use
inexpensive sensors to add IoT capability to dumb appliances and environments across
the campus.