EW Project 1: Presentation & Post Project Thoughts

So we did our presentation and it all seemed to work rather well. Alas we didn't have time to prepare for the presentation as I would have liked. The slides were fine, but we didn't prepare for who talks about what, when enough.

Here's a link to the presentation: http://goo.gl/gNmtdQ

The demo went rather well. Everything functioned as expected. The cards scanned and as if by magic, the respective names appeared and disappeared on the 'Fountain Zone' on the website. The appropriate LEDs also lit up on the model to signify the location of the cardholder's friends around the park.

As this was a more of a 'proof of concept' project there are plenty of ideas we didn't apply that would be great for actual implementation.


  • Instead of having to scan RFID cards in set locations, we could use active RFID or iBeacons. This kind of technology allows tracking to be performed without the need to manually scan in and out, as you can be location tracked in a 3D space. The Louvre museum in Paris has a fantastic implementation of this. Visitors are given Nintendo 3DS devices with this sort of tracking hardware built in using a custom 'game' cartridge. As the visitor moves around the museum, the 3DS can determine what exhibits are in the surrounding area and provide the visitor with audio and visual information about the exhibits they are near. Here's a link that explains more: http://www.louvre.fr/en/museum-audio-guide. This was actually one of the initial inspirations for our idea.
  • Instead of cards, an RFID (or whatever technology is chosen) sticker can be attached to any object the user would like. This upping the personal aspect of the project, and making it more seamless. 
  • Scaling the project. The technological and practical aspect of the project is scalable to almost any size and application. While here we focused on the OAP population and the idea of a social space, this project can be applied to almost any space. For example: a theme park could implement it to allow families to know where each other are should they get split up. It can also be used for groups and individuals to see where the busiest and quietest locations of the park are. Could be especially useful for the park management for collecting statistical data on park usage, albeit with privacy concerns.


Overall the project went pretty well. I was especially happy with the development side of it. I managed to teach myself a lot of Arduino stuff that will really help me out with my final year project.

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