An extensible discovery service for smart things

Abstract

We present DiscoWoT, a semantic discovery service for Web-enabled smart things. The service is based on the application of multiple Discovery Strategies to a Web resource's representation, where arbitrary users can create and update strategies at runtime using DiscoWoT's RESTful interface. Its goal is to provide a future-proof mechanism for enabling both, human users and machines, to semantically discover functionality provided by Web-enabled devices. Ultimately, it aims to allow for the facilitated discovery, selection, and utilization of smart things. DiscoWoT incorporates a transparent mechanism for deferring resource discovery to external handlers and can thus interact with other services within discovery service federations. It may be accessed by arbitrary users for ad hoc discovery of functionality offered by Web resources or incorporated into infrastructures for Web-enabled smart things. © 2011 ACM.