IoT Hackathon

The Technology Association of Georgia held an Internet of THings (IoT) hackathon.

The Brief: 

You have about 24 hours to develop an IoT-based product for use in High School football stadiums.

Assumptions for the job to be done:

• Stadium sizes range from very small to very large
• Budgets range from bake sale sized to tens of thousands
• Product should be easily scalable
• Product should solve a real problem

Our solution:  A friend-finder application

The application, based upon GPS and the date and time, knows which stadium you are in.  The application can launch automatically, manually, or by scanning a QR code poster at the venues entrance.  The application turns on bluetooth and triangulates its coordinates within the venue via bluetooth beacons placed throughout.  For lower budget installations, QR codes are placed on the backs of seats and anyone can “triangulate” by scanning the QR code closest to them.

In addition, you will get an alert when your located friends leave the venue or are in the parking lot

You may notice that the application design looks a little similar to the Validentity design also linked on my portfolio page.  This is because the hackathon gave us 24 hours from concept to “finished” product before the first round of judging.  I decided to use a template that I already had on my laptop (the template being my design for the Validentity mockup).

Use Case #1: Find-a-friend

To locate a friend, they must already be in your contacts list (so you have to actually know them) and you simply look them up.  From there you send them a location request.  The friend then receives the location request from you, and chooses which action to take (decline the request, scan a close by QR code, send current location, automatically send your current location to the requestor as long as you are in the venue).  You then get (if not declined) a notification on the stadium map showing where your friend is located.

As you add more friends’ locations at the venue, the app can track them all simultaneously.

If your ride decides to leave, you will be notified when he or she enters the parking lot so that you can run out there and not get left behind.

Use Case #2: Track your child - the digital leash

Upon entering into the venue a parent sends a location request to their child, takes their child’s phone and turns on the automatically send location feature.  This feature can be password protected so that only the parent can turn it on or off.

If the child becomes separated from the parent, either one can find each other at all times simply by viewing the application.  If either one leaves the venue and enters the parking lot a notification will be sent as an alert.  This will prevent children from accidentally wandering too far off and out of the venue, let a parent know when their older child plans to leave the venue, and will alert the parent if a child is taken against his will out of the venue (the will of the child is an assumption that the parent must make depending on the circumstances.  The application is not psychic)

click on any image to see a larger version

Entering the Stadium

Based on GPS and the date/time, the app knows which game you are attending at which stadium.

Once inside, low-power bluetooth sensors triangulate your exact location in the stadium.  Alternatively, QR codes are placed throughout and the app can scan it to determine your exact location.

Send Location Request

The user searches through his phones contacts list to find friends (the application automatically logs you in based on your phone number and IMEI) that the user wants to find, and selects a friend.

In this case "you" are "Steve," and Steve is looking for "Bob Smith"

Receive Location Request

The application looks to see if Bob Smith is at the game.  If so, a location request is sent to Bob, from Steve.

Bob may choose to decline the request, scan a QR code and send that as your location, or send your BTLE triangulated location.  In addition, because each location request is a one-time request, you may elect to automatically send your location to Steve as long as you are both in the stadium.