IOT
A cloud connected
printer network for colleges.
IOT - Internet Of Things
A cloud connected printer network for colleges.
“Internet of things' often abbreviated as IOT is about connecting every hardware device to the Internet (Cloud). By connecting all the hardware to the cloud we get to leverage the hardware better to make the - production process efficient, resources sharable and maintenance simple.
With recent advancements in hardware design and computational efficiency - “IOT” is finding wide variety of applications in “Home Automation”, “Industrial Design” & “Smart cities”
One such application we built in IOT Domain is for our client - ‘IIT Madras’. Students at IIT Madras needed to have access to document printers all throughout the day whether it is to print their assignments, project submissions or for personal purposes. Even though IIT Madras had the resources to support the student needs, they lacked the process to manage 8000 students using 15 printers located across the campus.
As we are commissioned with the project, we were quite excited to solve this problem. We wanted to build a solution with which both the management as well as the student community can be happy. Instead of approaching this problem from our habitual engineering thought process we wanted to approach this creatively.
| Industry | Client | Category |
|---|---|---|
Printing Technology |
IIT Madras |
IOT |
Idea:
After some internal brainstorming we came up with the big idea - “Uber for document printing” - “What if there is an app to print documents to your nearest printer and pick them up on the fly” - “Flexibility of having a printer without actually owning it!”
Implementation:
To implement this solution we programmed a “Raspberry pi” to interface with document printer via CUPS - “Common unix printing system interface” - We were able to control all printer functions as well as track the status of print job and ink levels with this interface.
Once we had the “Raspberry Pi '' interface in place. We wrote a web server that acts as a router that Raspberry Pi’s across the college campus can interface with.
This allowed us to develop a website and a mobile app for students across the campus to upload documents, pay online and print to their nearest printer.
Outcomes:
- Massive adoption rates among college students. 50% of the students (4000 Users) adopted the technology in a span of 3 months from launch.
- Achived 95% printer up-times at 40% low maintenance costs.
- Made all the printers accessible 24x7 on campus vs. 8 hour slots before this solution.