Demystifying Connected Devices

There’s no escaping the Internet of Things, or is there?

As part of the Mozilla Privacy Arcade running through this year’s Global Sprint, we’ll be wrangling the IoT Escape Room Challenge, a fun, social way to learn about the Internet of Things.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the system of connected devices that surround us and keep track of our behavior. Our smartphones and watches are connected devices. The garage doors, thermostats, and refrigerators we control with apps are connected devices. The cameras that follow us around town and the fitness trackers we strap on our wrists are connected devices. All of these “things” sense and report something about us or our environment and share that data over an expanding Internet that is only partly made up of the desktop machines, laptops, and tablets we think of as computers.

An escape room is physical space full of puzzles for teams of players to figure out together. Each puzzle reveals a bit of the room’s story and part of what the players need to get out in time.

The IoT Escape Room challenge imagines connected devices as clever traps — as honeypots of convenience that lure us into their ecosystem and don’t let us back out. Imagine a store that wouldn’t let you out until you bought something. Imagine a car that would only run on gasoline from a gas station partnered with its manufacturer. Imagine medicine that would only work if you were insured and had paid for it.

The IoT Escape Room Challenge asks what would happen if our connected devices turned against us and made us prisoners of our own homes, businesses, or hangouts.

During the challenge, participants invent scenarios and puzzles for players to solve like those in popular escape rooms. The different here is that each puzzle has to do with a connected device. Somehow, players must break the code, follow the clue, or trick a device to get the next piece of information they need to break free.

You might like to contribute if you…

• Love to tell stories.
• Love to invent and solve puzzles.
• Love to design or sketch sets or learning spaces.
• Love to teach and facilitate.
• Love to tinker.
• Love to build.
• Love to code.

There are lots of ways to contribute! Some contributors might just come up with ideas for stories or puzzles. Others might sketch designs for lightweight, easily portable escape rooms that libraries, makerspaces, and schools could use to teach the public about online safety issues associated with the Internet of Things.

You might contribute by…

• Writing IoT escape room scenarios.
• Inventing IoT-based puzzles.
• Designing or prototyping easily buildable, inexpensive, portable IoT escape rooms or sets.
• Building an IoT escape room.
• Writing a facilitation guide for an IoT escape room experience.
• Contributing code for IoT devices and puzzles run on open-source processors like arduinos.

The big idea is to finish with stories, puzzles, designs, and facilitation guides that others could use to build and run IoT escape rooms in their communities that teach people about the challenges and opportunities of connected devices.

In May and June, we’ll help escape room designers connect with one another and prep for the sprint. Then, during the sprint itself, on June 1st and 2nd, 2017, contributors can work together to invent or further refine their designs and prototypes for games that teach about safety and inclusion on the web.

Go here to register for the sprint and see if there are any local sites near you. If you’re interested in hosting a site — which is like organizing a meetup to work together face-to-face on June 1st and 2nd — let us know!

If you’re curious about connected devices or any of the Internet health issues at play in this challenge

1. Visit the IoT Escape Room Challenge repo.
2. Sign in or create a GitHub account.
3. Click on the “Issues” tab near the top of the page.
4. Visit Issue #1 to introduce yourself to our community of contributors.

If we can provide any more information or answer any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! Look for another post next week about the Offline Games Challenge.

Follow the Mozilla Privacy Arcade project online with @MozLearn and #mozsprint.