With IoT Fuse, Minnesota supports Internet of Things

Think a kitchen appliance connected to the Internet sounds ridiculous?

So do many motivated Minnesotans who could make it a reality.

"Anyone ever have a strong emotional connection to a toaster?" Muhammad Abdurrahman asked playfully Thursday during his afternoon keynote address at University of Minnesota-hosted IoT Fuse, perhaps the first Internet of Things-focused conference in Minnesota.

The Playtabase founder and inventor of the Reemo, a gesture-control remote for IoT-connected devices, said his company's goal was to "create solutions people love."

Answers to problems: It's also where the morning keynote speaker said developers should start.

Joel Young of Digi International advised the audience to consider consumers' needs, then find their place in completing that puzzle.

Explaining the IoT can also be a conundrum.

Jim Anderson of SmartThings described the concept as "building intelligence among devices."

Colleague Meagan Weidt, who sat with Anderson at a sponsor table, added that as in all good relationships, with the IoT, "communication is key."

"We're all about building that," she said about the connected-home device maker that started in Minnesota with a Kickstarter campaign that raised $1.2 million in 2012.

Presenter Mike Waddick of Punch Through Design said IoT is all about the passive generation of data — a process that can cause concerns or create new problems.

About 70 employees shared one private bathroom at The Nerdery, explained Michael Szczepanski, who presented on smart offices at IoT Fuse.

After hours one evening, he and a few other software-making colleagues installed a vacancy notification sign. Starting the next day, sensors on the door sent the sign (and employees' workstations, if they wanted) a "yes" or "no" signal, along with a green check mark or red X.

The sensors were also gathering and compiling data about bathroom use, which brought up the question of "Is someone watching me?" Szczepanski said.

In an interview after his talk, the designer said he allayed coworkers' concerns by exposing the source code to reveal the system was collecting no personal information.

Szczepanski said working in a professional culture that "embraces the weird and quirky" also helped.

A culture of creativity in Minnesota is helping the state lead IoT development in some areas, according to Young.

He said the Land of 10,000 Lakes is home to an "openness to innovators," a description fitting most of the audience in Keller Hall. By a show of hands, the majority of attendees called themselves tinkerers, and about half said they were entrepreneurs.

Kirby Griese Jr. drove from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to attend IoT Fuse. The hobbyist, who is developing a bark tracker to register his dog's noises when home alone, said it was required: He has to travel to find IoT-related events.

Place can be a major component of supporting ideas such as the IoT — and so can timing, Young said.

Dramatic cost reductions in silicon, sensors, data storage and processing, along with other factors becoming more efficient, have helped push the IoT beyond the realm of possibility and into the real world, he said.

"I'm not sure how useful some of it is," Joel Gerdeen said.

The north Minneapolis resident said he could control some functions of his home through the Internet while at a cabin in Bemidji — in 1999 — a sign that many IoT concepts may be older than the people putting them to use in 2015.

But many, such as Gerdeen, are deeply experienced, and most appear nimble.

The former Honeywell employee is now Apple developer.

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More online

Find a recap of IoT Fuse in a live blog on the Times website at http://bit.ly/1H39w96.

Read more about the presenters at http://iotfuse.com.

For information on meetings and other IoT opportunities in Minnesota, check out MinneStar (http://minnestar.org), local Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (http://tc-ieee.org), a group for Arduino enthusiasts (http://arduino.mn) and a monthly meetup on the IoT and related topics (http://meetup.com/iotmpls).