Recently i got asked to work on an application that was completely different to anything I had never worked on before, usually the apps i build for clients are quite simple html/php based applications, mixed with a some bending of the facebook api. This time round it was different, it was an offline application that had tangible parts to it, namely RFID cards and readers! This application pushed my skills to the extreme and bent the facebook api.
The where, The When
The application was built to be used at Kiis fm jingle ball 2010
The why?
The application was to allow users to register and then swipe an RFID pass at certain places around the event/venue which would post to their facebook wall.
When users entered the event they where asked to register and allow the application to post to their Facebook wall and also grant the application offline access which meant that the user didn’t have to be logged into Facebook for the application to post to their wall
A user would then move around the venue and event swiping a thumb against a reader which in turn would send a message to the users facebook wall.. every thumb that a user had, had a unique identifier in the form of an RFID to match their facebook details
All wall posts linked back to the Nokia Inside Track Facebook Page therefore every time someone used the app, a message was posted to their wall with a link back to the Nokia Inside track facebook page
The how
A user would be given a thumb, it was designed to match the “like” button that facebook uses
Which would be swiped to read the RFID as they registered and accepted the facebook application which was done at a terminal- This is the screen they where then presented with when they registered to accept the application- This screen was presented to a user on a laptop or tablet and the RFID was passed to the application to identify the user when they moved about
Once a user had registered and accepted the facebook application they would then be allowed to move round the event and swipe their thumb using a reader at different points of the venue. The reader looked like this-
If you wanted to see what a wall post looked like-this is one below- there was ten different wall posts for the ten different stations about the event.
The numbers
The event ran over two days with about 4 hours each, therefore we had 3692 wall posts in 8 hours
| Total Wall Posts : |
3692 |
| Total Users : |
1167 |
Conclusion
This was a very interesting project which has gotten a lot of interest to be used again over time for different events and conferences, the client was happy with the results.
If you need a developer for a facebook app- email me- chris@justni.com
The rfid part of the project was carried out by Jason Dean at TheMews.TV
