These days beacons are being deployed at large scale in retail, museums and other public venues. But the technology can also improve your everyday life and Mailbox iBeacon project designed by Sacha Bertram is a great example. Estimote Beacon together with Geofency app is used to send a notification to your phone every time you receive a letter.
The idea was born while Sacha Bertram was playing with beacons:
One day, I was thinking about putting a beacon in my mailbox for the purpose of notification about new mail. But it seemed quite complicated: I would have to construct a switch, that turns the beacon on when I have new mail and off when I don’t.
Then, the new Estimote firmware was published, one of its features being the Flip to Sleep mode. That meant, I could use the beacon itself as a switch and wouldn’t have to construct another one.
The project is a great example how to use Flip to Sleep feature in a creative way. It is based on conditional broadcasting - you can simply turn your beacon upside down to mute it. If you put it in motion, or change the orientation again, it will return to broadcasting.
Sacha Bertram (@pARtcours) is a professor at Mediadesign Hochschule in Munich, Germany, graphics designer and app developer for Augmented Reality, smart home, iot apps and location based services.