University IoT Assignment: Application and Interface Analysis

This document presents a student's solution to an Internet of Things (IoT) assignment, addressing two key questions. The first question explores the concept of a "no user interface," discussing its applicability and providing examples like unlocking a car via a smartphone app. The second question analyzes an IoT water level monitoring application, comparing the command/response communication model with the publish/subscribe approach. The solution calculates the time saved by redesigning the application to use the publish/subscribe model, considering factors such as propagation delay, sensor processing time, and message transmission time. The assignment demonstrates an understanding of IoT principles, communication paradigms, and application design optimization.

Running head: INTERNET OF THINGS
Internet of Things
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Question 1........................................................................................................................................2
Question 2........................................................................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................5

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Question 1
What does the statement the best interface for a system is no User Interface? When might this
apply and provide two examples.
Solution
A divided borderline, across which two or more different elements of computer system,
interchange various information is known as an interface. The interchange can be
within, computer hardware, humans, peripheral devices, software and amalgamation of these.
Some hardware devices of a computer, for example a touch screen, can both send and receive
information via this interface. However, other devices, for example a microphone or a mouse can
only allocate an interface to send information to a particular system. The user interface or UI is
the space where intercommunication between the computer systems and the users occur (Pfaff,
2012). The objective of this communication is to enable perfect management and operation of
the system from the side of the user, whereas the system gives a feedback data at the same time
that supports the decision making process of the operator. Examples of user interfaces are the
hand tools, communicative features of operating systems of computers, process controls and
heavy machinery operator controls.
Seizing of no user interface has been the case in the modern world where users consider
the computer systems with the best interface are those that uses no user interface. The statement
mentioned above has been promoted in that voice user interface or VUIs is the best as the system
interface compared to the graphical user interface or GUI (Johnson, 2013). Communicating with
each other is absolutely different from the way interaction is done with the graphical interfaces.

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There are various principles that are meant for designing no user interface for embracing
typical process (Pfaff, 2012). The examples of the above statement are the locking and unlocking
a car. The instruction is one have to walk to the place, where the car is kept, then he has to
retrieve the car keys from the pocket, then push the unlock button and finally open the car. The
step two and three in opening the car lock can be put together using a digital interface.
An app from phone is used by the user to perform the above examples. However, it is
realized that the app from the phone used for controlling the locks is digital interface but
sometimes, it go obsolete or sometimes one may forget a phone (Johnson, 2013)). The above
examples thus clearly define the statement that the best interface is the no user interface.
Question 2
An IoT water level monitoring application requires updates from a sensor periodically, using
the command/response paradigm. The application triggers a request every 1 s. The round-trip
propagation delay between the application and the sensor is 12 ms. On average the sensor
consumes 3 ms to process each request. The application consumes 2 ms to send or receive any
message. If the application blocks on every request to the sensor, how much of its time budget
can be saved by redesigning the application to use the publish/subscribe communication model
in lieu of the command/response approach?
Solution
The Internet of Things or IoT is the connection of various networks of computer with
various physical devices, buildings or vehicles (Wortmann & Flüchter, 2015). This type of
connection helps the objects to restore and exchange data. The Internet of Things enables the
objects to be managed and perceived across the entire infrastructure of network remotely. It

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provides opportunities for direct integration of the physical devices, building or vehicles into
computer aided systems, which further results into perfection, accuracy, and benefit in economy
and improvement in efficiency (Xia et al., 2012). The Internet of Things has immensely reduced
human involvement.
The given information for this problem is as follows:
The application triggers a request every 1 s.
The round-trip propagation delay between the application and the sensor is 12 ms.
On an average the sensor utilizes 3 ms to process each request.
The application utilizes 2 ms to receive or send any message
Therefore, the total time utilized by the application is (1+ 12 + 3 + 2) ms = 18 ms.
Therefore, if the application blocks all the requests, then the application will be saving 18
ms for the system. The designed application will be much more efficient and faster than the
present model.

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References
Johnson, J. (2013). Designing with the mind in mind: simple guide to understanding user
interface design guidelines. Elsevier.
Pfaff, G. E. (Ed.). (2012). User Interface Management Systems: Proceedings of the Workshop on
User Interface Management Systems held in Seeheim, FRG, November 1–3, 1983.
Springer Science & Business Media.
Wortmann, F., & Flüchter, K. (2015). Internet of things. Business & Information Systems
Engineering, 57(3), 221-224.
Xia, F., Yang, L. T., Wang, L., & Vinel, A. (2012). Internet of things. International Journal of
Communication Systems, 25(9), 1101.