Project ‘Everyware’ – Further Expansion of Orbital and The IoT– Part 9 of 9

After spending the past few weeks adhering to the task of implementing an ‘off-screen’ working IoT concept and prototype, it has has certainly changed my perspective with regards to how I would go about undertaking such a project in the future. Upon reflection, the journey over the past few weeks (reflected within my blog posts) should demonstrate the significance of the IoT as an emerging marketplace and equally, just how important it is a source of innovation within the technological and business sectors of industry.

Whilst my understanding of the IoT realm has been significantly bolstered, I still feel that there is a lot more to learn. I believe that this is simply because the project brief only stipulated that the concept and a prototype needed to be addressed (whilst adhering to the set criteria), and other aspects pertaining to the prototype were not so significant/relevant and overlooked. Such points include:-

• Developing a marketing campaign
• Further development for prototype design aesthetics
• A more in-depth analysis of how viable the product would be to implement within the IoT
• Further research into policies regarding security and product misuse
• Finding alternative solutions regarding identified product issues

About The Orbital Concept

Positive results:-

Overall I would say that the project was a big success. As shown within my previous blog post (click here), the idea of bringing individuals together to promote social interaction could be achieved. Calm and ambient technology with the emphasis on P2P networking, was clearly the end result and it was a unique concept. Nothing else on the market exists like this and the best part was that it worked! I could be as bold as to state at this point, that the principle behind this prototype is to create a gateway into formulating and accessing social networks simultaneously in real-time, with the premise of; no interface being the best interface.

Negative results:-

As you can see from the image below, aesthetically the wristband does need some further research and development. The issue we encountered whilst creating Orbital was that the technology that we are trying to include, namely the RFID receiver, was just simply too large. Unfortunately, after performing some extensive research, there does not appear to be anything on the market to-date that could replace our current piece of equipment, so we shall have to wait for technology to ‘catch-up’.

(Fig. 1: Image of finished Prototype – Orbital)

What would be next for Orbital?

In terms of further progression as a marketable technology, the group fully intended for this product to be integrated into a festival environment. That being said, there are other applications. This may include issuing either additional models or just making the initial band ‘universal’. Other markets to explore would be, firstly, the travel industry; as it could transform the meeting experiences of back-packers globally. Secondly, a professional businessman’s edition (an obvious course of action) as never again after schmoozing in a room filled with a surplus of champagne and potential business partners would their name elude you. What ever the future may hold I strongly believe in this concept and it may even possibly be something that could be marketed to social networking giants Facebook and/or Twitter if perfected, for their own development.