KDDI, last Friday released Open Web Board, a development board based on Firefox OS that enables linking with various electronic devices equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) function, and Gluin, an application development tool that enables simple linking programming between electronic devices with just a few operations on a PC browser. The new platform is aimed for embedded-system developers and Web developers.
According to KDDI, the Open Web Board is a stick-type development board that enables connection with various commercial devices that support Bluetooth (R) Low Energy (hereafter "BLE") sensors. Furthermore, by connecting with a commercially-available Zigbee (R) communication module, it is possible to link with a wide array of embedded-system electronic devices. Gluin is an application development tool that lets developers centrally manage and accomplish graphic-based linking programming between Open Web Board and various other embedded-system devices such as mbed (TM) devices (ARM Ltd., UK) on the Web.
In conjuction with this, KDDI lauched the "au Firefox OS Portal Site", a community site that will serve as a place where KDDI releases details about upcoming developer events and as a place where developers can share ideas about devices and programming. The company will be providing Open Web Board for use with Gluin free of charge at developer events starting from the end of October 2014.
According to KDDI, the company will continue to utilize the open mobile platform, Firefox OS, developed by Mozilla and work with developers to create a new kind of value never seen before using Web technology to connect not just PCs and smartphones, but other electronic products.
