OctomMY™ tries to simplify discovery of other nodes . What does this mean?

Discovery means finding other OctoMY™ nodes nearby, where nearby has a rather broad meaning for convenience' sake:

• Local Network Discovery: Find nodes on same local network (zeroconf)
• Bluetooth Discovery: Find nodes within bluetooth range (QBluetoothDeviceDiscoveryAgent)
• NFC Discovery: Find nodes via NFC (QNearFieldManager)
• Camera Discovery: Find nodes in camera viewfinder (zbar + QCamera + QRWidget)
• Zoo Discovery: Find nodes via the online robot community (http://zoo.octomy.org)

All discovery works in the same basic way:

• User puts node into "pairing mode" when she wants the node to be found or to find others.
• A list of remembered and newly discovered node is presented in a way that allows the user to select which nodes to pair with, and which nodes to ignore.

Camera Discovery

Camera discovery is a unique concept that allows OctoMY™ nodes to discover each other using their camera and a QR "badge" displayed on screen. This can be used to pair when no network is available, or as a security measure as part of multi-factor authentication

Zoo Discovery

The OctoMY™ zoo is a place where nodes may register themselves and organize into social groups. Nodes may share data among themselves with varying degrees of privacy. It's a little like Facebook for robots. All publicly shared nodes as well as nodes explicitly shared with you will become available for discovery

Pairing

Each node holds a list of "acquaintances" that are in one of the following statuses:

• Discovered: A node that has been discovered but not paired or ignored.
• Ignored: When you really don't care about a node.
• Paired: A node that you trust and that you have accepted as a "friend".

Pairing can be done in different way and with different levels of security depending on your needs. Here are some commons ways:

• zero-sec: Blindly trust a stranger. Fine for hobby projects when you want to save time. Not recommended for zoo friends.
• PSK: Provide evidence that the user has access to both nodes by verifying a pre-shared key.
• MFA: Provide multiple evidence that the user has access to both nodes by verifying pre-shared keys over several different protocols (such as over lan + bluetooth + camera). Made for the paranoids, and for supporting dangerous robots.