The Internet of things (IoT) enables new services for consumers, municipalities, public bodies, and the European industry.
Such IoT services are based on data from various sources such as smartphones, dedicated sensors, or from the web, just for example.
The implementation of IoT services and solutions is still a challenge, because many different IoT platforms and standards are emerging that are not compatible; they create small, isolated, proprietary islands or silos in the global IoT landscape.
These are owned by "big players" such as Amazon, Microsoft, or IBM.
Citizens, consumers, SME, and other "smaller players" are in the risk of becoming fatally enclosed in proprietary platforms.
This would turn values and needs such as the privacy of consumers, but as well the future European industrial development into a pawn in the hands of a few "big players".
The overall objective VICINITY project is to open the IoT also for small and medium-sized companies (SME), public bodies, and even citizens, providing them with an open platform that fulfils highest standards regarding privacy.
The VINICTY IoT platform addresses the problem of interoperability in the IoT. Compared with competitors, the following key selling points are addressed:
First , the VICINITY project provides a platform that offers "Interoperability as a Service" among the existing silos.
VICINITY in particular targets consumers and entities such as municipalities or SME to allow them to offer IoT services without being restricted by limited interoperability.
Second, the VICINITY project will enable consumers to use these services with the highest standards of privacy and in line with latest EU legislation:
Like in social networks, a user decides which IoT data to share with which "friend", and for which purpose.
Unlike in most social network, the user's data will not be sent to a server.
Data will, depending on the choices of the user, be encrypted, aggregated, and anonymised, and only shared in that way directly with "friends".
Third, VICINITY provides a tailored and proven approach for SME and public bodies that strive to implement IoT projects: the platform is open source with a vast set of supported devices, and professional and lasting support at different levels, from operation as “platform as a service” to professional consulting is available.
The VICINITY IoT platform has been evaluated by four larger pilot-sites in the European Union and within a high number of smaller and medium-sized projects.
The applications of VICINITY cover first of all the energy, health, and traffic domains, but in other projects VICINITY is also used in industrial applications.
