Every day we are seeing more and more new and existing technologies revolutionize every industry as more devices become connected to the Internet. Most commonly known as smart devices or otherwise called IoT, the Internet of things has become one of the fastest-growing markets in technology. From connected vehicles, home appliances, wearable fitness devices that track our activities, and tracking devices to detect our location, IoT technology is fast becoming a part of everyday life. At Kscope16, each attendee received a beacon attached to the back of their badge, and ODTUG used this new technology to count session and conference attendance as well as identify exhibit hall hot spots throughout the week. These beacons used a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology that sent signals to receivers located in the session rooms and exhibit hall.
In the spirit of innovation and sheer geek curiosity, we decided to repurpose these beacons through a new challenge: ODTUG's first annual GeekAThon! The challenge was simple: Use at least one beacon and its Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal to solve any problem in a meaningful way be it personal, business, environment, or otherwise. Three winners would be chosen by a panel of judges based on a number of criteria ranging from creativity and innovation to purpose and documentation. The judges were excited to see everyone's enthusiasm. Today, we are proud to announce that three winners have been chosen! Congratulations to all of the winners!
First Place Winner: Team Texas Heat - BLE Beacon Gate Opener
In first place comes Christoph Alexander Ruepprich, a.k.a Rocket, and his son Christoph Martin Ruepprich of Team Texas Heat. Christoph combined his beacon with Raspberry Pi technology to create a location-based geofence near his property that would open his driveway gate as he approached his house. In short, Christoph pulls into his driveway like a boss.
Description:
Second Place Winner: Team C2 Consulting - BMusic iOS App
Coming in second place is Team C2 Consulting. Members created the BMusic iOS app. The team combined beacon and iOS technology to play music when it identifies a beacon within its proximity.
Contributors:
- Neelesh Shah
- Luke Xing
- Amory Julian
- Anton Nielsen
- Rich Soule
- Hayden Hudson
Description:
Third Place Winner: Team Father and Son - BlindDate
Team Father and Son consists of Dick Dral and his 19-year-old son Michiel, who is an aspiring but experienced programmer. Together, their concept combined beacon and GPS technology to create 'BlindDate,' an app that connects people in the real world who want to meet and talk based on a number of demographic, geographic, and technographic cirteria such as age, interests, gender, and more.
Description:
"Finding someone to talk to about a subject you both are interested in. The pairing is purely on subject, location, and language. Both partners are directed toward a meeting point using GPS navigation. The last tens of meters of the navigation will be done using the iBeacon because GPS is very inaccurate at short distances. Imagine you are in town on your own and you would like to meet and talk to somebody. There are many people around you and sure, some of them are interested in the same subjects as you are. But how do you know who and where they are? You cannot see their thoughts. Here is where BlindDate (BD) comes to the rescue. People can create a profile on BD, registering age, gender, spoken languages, and subjects of interest. All users are provided with an iBeacon. Based on profiles of registered users, BD supplies you with a list of people who are in walking distance, speak your language, and share one or more interests. To avoid prejudices, no picture is shown. After starting the app, you can chose a subject you would like to talk about. If there is another user nearby interested in the same subject, then BD picks a meeting point and both users get a map with directions to the meeting point. The user that arrives at the meeting point first will locate no beacon. So he or she just sits down at the meeting point. When the other user arrives at the meeting point, he gets directions to locate his partner in the form of a sort of compass indicating direction and distance. A special iBeacon locator algortihm is used to determine the location of the iBeacon."
Watch the video below for a demonstration of how their concept would work. Click here for their complete documentation to learn how they came up with their idea.
Once again, the GeekAThon judges and everyone at ODTUG congratulate all of the winners for their hard work!
- ODTUG Marketing Team