Pachube is a web service that enables users to store, share and discover real-time sensor, energy and environment data from objects, devices and buildings around the world. Its concept was designed in pursuit of the aim to facilitate interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual. As described by its creators, Pachube enables participants to “plug-in” to any other participating project in real time so that, for example, buildings, interactive environments, networked energy meters, virtual worlds and mobile sensor devices can “talk” and “respond” to each other.
Given the simplicity via which the service facilitates a bridging of physical and virtual worlds, Pachube has been employed by users in a number of versatile practical and social scenarios world wide, indicating that its potential is virtually endless. Examples range from consumers who connect their home electricity meter to their iPhone in order to calculate their carbon footprint in real-time, or property developers who connect together several buildings to allocate resources and monitor energy consumption, to interaction, graphics, wearables and games designers who wish to infuse their creations with the intelligence of being able to network and foster communities of people who enter/view/wear/play them.
The development and maintenance of Pachube is currently a main focus of British interactive design/architecture centre Haque Design + Research.