Playwait project

Latest update on 20 March 2016

Introduction

Playwait is the project name for a smart and IoT connected waiting (room|line|list) gamification system including hardware, software, documentation, and support for retail business or similar (like city planners.)

Elevator pitch

• A patron queues up at a waiting situation as usual
• Their mobile device notifies of activities within reach
• The patron can play a game or read a wait forecast
• A neighbor patron joins and they play against each other
• Managers receive real time notifications of patron flows, waiting times, as well as data mined history reports
• The IoT system is designed according to (and extends) a promising Google labs beacon pattern called the Physical Web
• NFC and QR are employed in optional patron self identification allowing for scoreboards, game resuming, survey points, and targetted advertising
• Intuitive features are introduced incrementally to patrons' and managers' existing behavior to minimize interruptions
• Low cost implementation is gained by exploiting the convergence of existing hardware, software, and patron owned equipment

Playwait adds value to public areas, serving customers and employees

Use cases

Abbreviated set of actions

Beacon equipped interactions

Name: Physical gamification Actors: Physical web consumers Description: A patron engages in an activity requiring a limited resource and must wait in a room, line, or list

Name: Beacon enhancement Actors: Legacy service users Description: Eddystone beacon technology complements existing waiting associated place of activity

Patron reviewing local information

Patron enjoying local entertainment

Name: Report information Actors: Queued customer Description: A patron receives notification stating that information regarding service delay is available

Name: Deliver entertainment Actors: Queued customer Description: A patron receives notification of entertainment options distracting them from a lengthy wait

Resource notifies patron

Patron is the next one served

Name: Arrival welcome Actors: Consumers and service providers of a limited resource Description: A patron arrives at a waiting situation, wants to use a service, and the system offers a welcome notification and menu

Name: Front of the line Actors: Consumers and service providers of a limited resource Description: A patron becomes the next one to be served, and is notified of options (food at bin #5 or end game) for the consumed service

Physical web URL broadcast

Manager evaluates data

Name: Walk up and use Actors: Physical web consumers Description: A patron approaches a beacon tagged resource, and the resource roughly locates them

Name: Improve service offering Actors: Limited resource manager Description: A manager views data flows of patron requests interactions in database history

Original

Playwait is unique, as shown by absence of 'play while waiting gamification' search results. It also has a management interface to allow administrators to mine for data collected over a LPWAN (likely LoRaWAN) network. Consider the case of city planners comparing waiting line history of mens and womens public bathroom stalls.

Inventive

Industrial

By promoting a pilot system, Playwait will attract attention from market analysts and groups buying infrastructure with added value (like crosswalk smart stoplight sensors.)

Target Home Depot City of Las Vegas American Airlines

Costco Carrefour City of Singapore Emirates Airlines

Tesco Bauhaus City of Berlin Lufthansa Airlines

Playwait is retail agnostic and can complement civic, airline, clothing, hardware, book, food, garden, textile, pet, or other places where waiting areas or lines are found.

Value added

Classic time passers induce procrastination anxiety affecting both the consumer (who is annoyed by perceived time loss) and provider (who is accountable to expensive displays and data management contracts.) Playwait installs intuitive game systems in existing infrastructure to deliver fun, information, and increase sales.

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For example, the checkout lane is the last experience a shopper associates with a store, so a Physical web (IoT) based gamified system and offering the consumer an enjoyable and informative experience can increase customer loyalty and sales.

Educational

Playwait is a potential student challenge at educational events and hackathons. Rapid prototypes and live demonstrations inspire and motivate conference delegates.

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Biweekly progress reports and construction advice will be published in two or more online locations. A full length article will be published by a renowned publisher. The project plan is designed to benefit and add value to the community of IoT developers and their understanding of how connected devices can work toegether.

Project plan

Timeline

Dependencies

The project plan includes a timeline estimate and release roadmap.

Design doc

Mobile and beacon discovery

Edge evaluated telemetry data

The preliminary design includes a set of UML diagrams to be published in a general detailed design document located in the online archives.

Work flows

Implementing a Edison beacon

Implementing a nRF52 beacon

Many software components rely on Node.js which is hand coded with custom package.json files at times. The MRAA and UPM libraries provide high level support for sensor platforms, and the Intel XDK is used for developing shelf bound IoT devices or when constructing user interfaces for H2M communication with the system. Apache Cordova provides a abstraction layer for those human user interfaces. Lastly, the Intel System Studio for Microcontrollers integrates Eclipse to provide an IDE for Intel Quark D2000 and SE equipped devices.

Deployment

A hardware bill of materials is provided, and software can be freely downloaded from the project fileserver. Documentation for testers, system administrators, service technicians, managers, and users is available in the online archives. Staff carries out production deployment on a case by case basis to allow for custom configurations.

Pilot launch

Materials

Management device

1. 1 Dell Edge 5000 (#1001)
2. Beacon appliances (#1002)
3. …or Edison devices (#1003)
4. …or nRF52 devices (#1004)

Energy source

5. Solar battery charger (#1101)

H2M device

7. 1 Dell Venue 8 Pro 5000 tablet (#1201)
8. 1 QR code reading smartphone (#1202)

The bill of materials accomodates one test scenario which is scalable to waiting spaces of any practical size. Playwait is an inexpensive productivity enhancement to existing infrastructure.

Authors

The project is led by Michael Schloh von Bennewitz and staffed by two engineers.

Funding

The project is self funded and hosted by Europalab Networks. We are interested in working with other groups, and will enter the project in calls to bid. A business plan is available to investors considering funding the project.

Licenses

Playwait is licensed under the GNU Public License version 3, and contains Embedded CACert Root Certificates. For more information please read the CACert root distribution license. Components of Playwait contain software from other projects which are accordingly sublicensed.