Context is key to building an amazing user experience for the physical world. Two years ago, we introduced Estimote Stickers to enrich location context with information about nearby objects. A small beacon device, easily attached to any everyday item, turns it into a smart object.
That’s how the Nearables concept was born. It resonated strongly: we see a lot of amazing projects utilizing Estimote Stickers to build an engaging user experience. Many fantastic teams are using stickers in their projects.
Varier designs and manufactures chairs that move with your body. Through the unique combination of progressive design and ergonomics, Varier chairs give freedom of movement to the body – just like nature intended.
Hellicar & Lewis Sound Clips is a collection of sensors that can detect movement, together with an iPad application designed to augment storytelling with fantastic sound effects.
For the past two years we’ve listened to them (and many others!) closely, and we heard what the developer community expects from stickers. Physical Web support, better iBeacon integration, and fleet management features. Inspired by your feedback, we’re bringing all of this to Estimote Stickers.
Packet configuration support
Until now stickers only supported a custom Nearable packet. We designed it as the most efficient way to report the presence and conditions of an object. Combined with extended Estimote Cloud information, it provides enriched context with data about an object. Many people love sensor data in the Nearable packet, but we also understand that not all projects require such a rich set of information. That’s why we’ve decided to introduce full support for two additional protocols, iBeacon and Eddystone-URL.
The Physical Web
This year Google made a big bet on beacons. The Nearby API and Physical Web were integrated with both Android and iOS.
We love the innovation Google introduced, so we decided to add Eddystone support to all our products. We started with beacons and now we’re bringing it to stickers as well. You can configure and broadcast custom URL addresses thanks to Eddystone-URL and Physical Web. These packets can be picked up by mobile devices and used to engage users even without companion apps installed.
We’ve already put the new Physical Web capabilities of Estimote Stickers to the test. A few weeks back we manufactured a limited run of branded t-shirts to hand out at Google I/O. All shirts had stickers sewn in and set to broadcast URL addresses. A simple companion app enabled users to edit the link they wanted to broadcast. As you may have seen on Twitter, the Physical Web shirts were a hit:
iBeacon packet
iBeacon was a catalyst for the context revolution on mobile platforms and it became the standard for delivering contextual information. It’s a core part of many existing beacon deployments. From now on, Estimote Stickers fully support customizable iBeacon data. You can define your own Proximity UUID, Major, and Minor values on stickers.
Motion Only Advertising
iBeacon and Eddystone-URL are limited to broadcasting only the presence of a beacon. We decided to extend this with Motion Only conditional broadcasting mode. When enabled, it allows stickers to broadcast only when in motion. This allows you to take action only when a user is directly engaged with an object.
Stickers Fleet Management
We also wanted to make configuring stickers easier, as more and more companies deploy them at scale. That’s where Fleet Management kicks in. You can now easily configure settings of your devices using the Estimote Cloud dashboard and apply them by connecting via Bluetooth, just like with original Estimote Beacons.
We also actively monitor data about your fleet. Health information of your entire network, like missing devices or battery status, is always accessible. No code changes are required either. Just update the Estimote SDK in your application and that’s it! Everything you need to know about your setup is in the Estimote Cloud Dashboard.
Our complete Fleet management solution is now available on Android, too! You can easily connect, synchronize, and adjust settings directly from the Android SDK, with the app soon to follow.
Just a click away
To get all these amazing features, the only requirement is a simple firmware update. All stickers on the market are fully compatible. Our new features are supported from version 4.6.0 of iOS SDK and 0.10.6 of Android SDK.
Marcin Klimek, Product Manager at Estimote
Wojtek Borowicz, Community Evangelist at Estimote