Cards, Coffee Machines and IoT: TechSpire HAHAthon 2.0

In the end of 2016 we were quite busy and full of ideas. Beginning of this year was just the right time to start actively discussing and implementing them. And so we held another “HAHAthon”.

The first topic we discussed were APIs, their applications and varieties. The discussion was led by Eugene, our project manager.

A good metaphor was born in the process:

API is like a coffee machine. You can press certain buttons to make yourself a cappuccino without even having to know how exactly it is made.

 In the end we all agreed that, like any other tool, APIs are good when they are truly needed. And sometimes it is better to write your own instead of using the pre-made one.

The second topic was a prototype which was prepared by our junior developers who are improving their mobile development and IoT skills.

They have conceived a cross-platform application that would react to the user’s environment and adjust the phone settings or launch apps accordingly. E.g. when a person enters their car, the phone automatically turns on the navigator. When he enters the office – the volume is set to 5 out of 10 and Slack+Skype are launched. And when he works out in a local gym after a long and productive day, the app will keep the phone quiet. A combination of GPS, maps APIs, wi-fi networks and RFID tags would be used for switching the settings.

It was a rather exciting discussion and Ira received lots of constructive criticism. Some of the suggestions were to add gamification to the app to improve monetization, create a web interface for the app and come up with a cool and catchy name for it. The prototype will grow into a full-fledged app one day, so stay tuned for news about it!

The last but not the least was our CTO’s idea about distributing the functionality of the passcards we use to enter the office. We’ve been working with RFID tags for quite a while now, so it was only natural that we use our IoT expertise to facilitate our own work.

The idea was as follows: we could write an application that will have smartphones transmitting the same frequency as the cards. It could open many interesting opportunities like different access rights, issuing temporary codes to our guests’ smartphones and integration with the abovementioned app. There were more ideas of varying usefulness, like adapting Arduino and NFC reader to save time on decoding the cards themselves or attaching a personal profile with funny achievements system.

Judging by the way people were discussing the projects after the meeting, this TechSpire HAHAthon has been a teambuilding event as well. An unexpected but pleasant side effect.

We are already planning another one. Next Friday we will be talking about our game development ideas. Paper Games: Aircraft is fun to play, but there are more concepts that we want to implement. So expect another report soon.