🧠 Smart Kitchen IoT Platform (Thingsboard)

This project implements a lightweight IoT platform using Thingsboard, simulating realistic kitchen-related devices and data. It includes device registration, data transmission using both HTTP and MQTT protocols, data visualization through dashboards, and API access.

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🧪 Devices and Data Flow

We simulate two IoT "devices" with meaningful and realistic measurements:

📷 1. Smart Shopping Camera (HTTP)

A simulated camera reads handwritten shopping lists from a kitchen whiteboard every 10 minutes and sends recognized text to the IoT platform.

Example data sent via HTTP:

{
  "shopping_note": "osta 2 tomaattia, osta maito"
}

🧊 2. Smart Fridge Inventory (MQTT)

A simulated fridge tracks what's currently inside and sends this data via MQTT.

Example data sent via MQTT:

{
  "items": ["maito", "juusto", "tomaatti"],
  "timestamp": "2025-05-07T14:10:00"
}

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🧱 Architecture

graph TD
  subgraph Simulated_Devices
    A1(HTTP Client - Postman or Python) --> TB1
    A2(MQTT Client - Python script) --> TB2
  end

  subgraph Thingsboard_IoT_Platform
    TB1 --> DB[Data Storage]
    TB2 --> DB
    DB --> UI[Dashboard and REST API]
  end

  subgraph Usage_or_Applications
    UI --> U1(Display on dashboard)
    UI --> U2(Fetch via REST API)
  end

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👥 Task Distribution (3-person team)

Each member has a well-defined responsibility:

👨‍💻 Member 1 – Web & Simulation

• Hosts and develops a small web page to explain the system

• Creates and runs the scripts that send HTTP and MQTT data every 10 minutes

• Manages connection to Thingsboard (tokens, endpoints)

📊 Member 2 – Thingsboard & Dashboard

• Installs or configures the Thingsboard platform (local or hosted)

• Registers devices and sets up access tokens

• Designs dashboards to visualize:

  • Shopping notes

  • Inventory contents

• Configures widgets and tests visual updates

📝 Member 3 – Documentation & API

• Writes project documentation (e.g. this README, final report)

• Documents how to retrieve data via Thingsboard REST API

• Verifies and documents how to reproduce and test the project

• Takes screenshots of working system for report

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🚀 Technologies Used

• Thingsboard – Open-source IoT platform

• Python (requests + paho-mqtt)

• Postman or MQTTX (for testing)

• REST API and MQTT Broker (Thingsboard built-in)

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📦 How to Run

1. Install or access Thingsboard (see: https://thingsboard.io/docs)

2. Register two devices:

   • smart_camera (HTTP)

   • smart_fridge (MQTT)

3. Generate their access tokens

4. Run the Python scripts or Postman/MQTTX to send data

5. Create a dashboard in Thingsboard to visualize the incoming data

6. Optionally, retrieve latest data via REST API

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🧪 Example API Call (retrieve last known fridge data)

curl -X GET \
  http://<THINGSBOARD_URL>/api/plugins/telemetry/DEVICE_ID/values/timeseries \
  -H "X-Authorization: Bearer <JWT_TOKEN>"

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📸 Screenshots

Add screenshots here of:

• Devices in Thingsboard

• Received data in telemetry

• Dashboard views (e.g., shopping list text, fridge contents)

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🧠 Reflection

This project demonstrates how a simple and fun idea can be transformed into a fully working IoT prototype using real protocols, simulated sensors, and open-source tools. It reinforces understanding of the IoT architecture, device management, protocol use, and data visualization.

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🛠️ Future Ideas

• Add OCR integration for real image recognition

• Expand fridge simulation with weight sensors or expiration dates

• Add alerts (e.g., "maito loppuu", "osta lisää juustoa")