A configurable, heterogeneous device cloud for web applications

A key challenge during the development of Web Applications on top of multiple heterogeneous devices is to discover and get access to device-specific resources. In order to enable access to these resources, users must install proprietary software on their devices. Other devices use protocols like UPnP to connect seamlessly with the environment. A Web Application, which uses resources from heterogeneous devices, must support several interfaces. New and changing interfaces can force the developer to modify his Web Application. An interface, that abstracts the underlying heterogeneous user devices and offers their resources to Web Applications, is required. This diploma thesis delineates the solution statement for the described problem. An architecture is required, which enables and virtualizes the resources of user devices. The shared user resources are accessible through a uniform interface, so that Web Applications can easily use them. User devices and their services are mapped to a RESTful API, which abstracts from the executing resource. In doing so, the communication protocols or API's used by the underlying resource are completely hidden from the user of the RESTful API. This increases the interoperability for a looser coupling between the parts of distributed devices, because the user can replace resources with new ones without an update of the Web Applications, which use these resources. This facilitates the creation of mashups, which combine traditional Web 2.0 services with resources from the user. The user controls the access to his resources with a user-configurable rule-based system. This system provides fine-granular adjustments for the access rights to user resources. The described concept is the base for a prototype implementation.