BlueWay_Graphic

BlueWay

Myra Einstein, David Yates, Robert Faludi, Arly Ross, Leif Mangelsen

BlueWay at the Spring Show provides personalized guidance to friends, business contacts, locations, projects, and services by taking advantage of technology already carried by most users.

http://itp.faludi.com/blueway

Classes

Fundamentals of Interaction Design, Networked Objects

Keywords

Bluetooth, physical computing, network objects, signs, presence, Processing

Description

Visitors at a BlueWay kiosk can have have their picture taken and linked to their Bluetooth-enabled device. As they move through the space, BlueWay senses the visitor’s presence using their Bluetooth ID and displays their location. Participants receive pertinent wayfinding information when and where they need it. Their presence is depicted on master display maps, so other people can also quickly find them. These signs even benefit guests who do not register with the system, because the useful information they provide is visible to everyone.

Personal Statement

At ITP, we're always wandering around looking for each other. It occurred to us that many students and staff were constantly broadcasting a Bluetooth ID, and that displaying these would reduce the need for "the big walkabout" while also giving a sense of presence and community.

Background

People in offices and schools often spend significant portions of their day looking for each other. This is both frustrating and a tremendous waste of human resources. "Have you seen Sandra?" "I need Samir's signature, did he go to a meeting?" "Jeff wanted us to wait for him, but I haven't seen him so maybe we skip the meeting?" Of course, in/out boards and schedules help a little bit, but in our era of electronic gadgetry and pervasive networking, there must be some better solutions.

Audience

BlueWay is helpful for offices, schools and any gathering place where it's hard to see everyone from one spot, yet people need to find each other. The underlying technology would also be useful for personalized directional signage, and automated wayfinding systems.

User Scenario

At a kiosk, guests select their Bluetooth ID from a list and take their own picture. As they move through the Show, a large display shows their picture, in the most recent location that their ID was sensed. Each guest can see where they are, and also where their friends are. If they have a relative who is showing their work, that person will likely be standing next to their piece. So BlueWay can help visitors locate projects. It will ease the task of connecting with friends and help visitors make personal connections.

Implementation

BlueWay consists of a kiosk unit and at least one large display. There will be five sensors distributed across the floor, with a base station picking up their readings.

Currently we have one sensor unit and the base station completed, with ID information being streamed to the Internet successfully. The interface for the kiosk and display are being built in Processing, and mostly rely on code from previous projects.

Additional Documents