The IoT will improve your holidays

Maybe it’s just a matter of days before you close your laptop and drive to the airport or maybe there are still a few days to go before you can say “Goodbye everyone, see you when I’m back!”. In either case, you have long been waiting for your. Hotel chains, airlines, museums and restaurants are taking advantage of modern technologies to make sure their guests enjoy unique experiences. No doubt, the technology that’s currently having the biggest impact on the travel and hospitality sectors is the Internet of Things, i.e. a newtwork of wifi connected devices infusing connectivity into everyday objects and enabling users to manage them at a distance.

Here are different ways the IoT will contribute to making your holiday a unique experience.

  • Luggage Tracking

The Bluesmart suitcase has a built-in GPS chip that lets you track it anywhere in the world, so you don’t need to worry about your luggage going missing anymore. It’s controlled by a smartphone app, which is great as long as your phone doesn’t run out of battery. 

Other option is the use of Urban Tracker, recently, major brands and luggage retailers have started to implement luggage tracking systems into their products.

 

  • The information you need on your smartphone

Beacons technology allows businesses, as well as town councils and tourist centres, to send tailored information to travellers and help them find their way to the nearest museum, hotel or store.

 

  • Leave the concerns at home with chatbots

Thanks to Chatbots, we might never know. Chatbots(also known as Talkbots or Bots) are voice-activated, smart and easy to use applications making all human-to-machine interactions (HMI) much faster and speeding up daily-life tasks. Installed on smartphones and mobile devices, chatbots enable users to activate and operate connected devices at a distance. Chatbots allow users to perform their every day tasks and take care of their home, wherever they are in the world.

 

  • A connected SD card

Mobi have created a great solution for transferring photos from one device to another – an SD card with built in WiFi, which you can connect to an app on your smart device. The Eyefi Mobi SD card functions like a regular SDHC card, works on most cameras and thanks to the built-in WiFi, it pairs your camera to your phone, tablet or laptop where the images appear instantly.

 

  • A smart bikini

The Neviano UV Connect smart bikini includes a built-in UV sensor that connects to an app on your smartphone. The app can tell you when you’ve been in the sun for too long, allowing you to take a break. It even allows you to send a message to a partner or friend to let them know they need to reapply sunscreen.

 

  • An intelligent umbrella

Wezzoo’s smart umbrella – Oombrella, will make sure you never step out into the rain unprepared again. It comes with a little capsule attached to the end of the handle, which has four sensors to measure temperature, humidity, air pressure and sunlight. The sensors communicate with your phone via Bluetooth and will send you an alert if it’s going to rain.

 

Enjoy your holidays!

Read more here and here.

 

 

Fourth meeting MAtchUP project (Valencia, June 2019)

The last week of June, the fourth meeting of the MAtchUP project was held in Valencia. The three lighthouse cities (Valencia, Dresden and Antalya), together with the follower cities (Herzlyia, Kerava, Ostend and Skopje), have met to share the advances obtained. 

The agenda of the event included among others:  5 parallel sessions, 15 video interviews and  the Valencia Study Tour, the goal is to help cities to integrate environmental and social needs in their urban plans, and to pave the way towards energy transition.

In the parallel sessions the MAtchUP partners discussed the main pillars of the project: energy, mobility, ICT and non-technical actions. The three cities showed their developments and results about the city platforms, such as open data portals, representations of data sets and dashboards.

The first stop in the Valencia Study Tour was in the Traffic Management Centre: the visitors could saw, how the real time city traffic information, provided by over 3000 detectors installed all over the city; is processed and controlled, for an efficient and safe traffic for all road users. 

Continuing with the visit, the city council presented two of the main projects of the Valencia smart city strategy. One of them, is “Decidim València” citizen participation project; the first dedicated department, created to put in place tools and mechanisms for citizens participation through dialogue and digitalization, decentralisation, co-design working groups. And the second one, is València App, it provides real time information and integrates all services from the open governent projects as a one stop shop at citizens disposal.

Later, the partners visited de García Lorca Public School, which participates in the 50/50 programme about enerty efficiency. Thanks to this activity, students, parents and teachers are now more aware about the environmental, economic and social impact of their consumption.

The meeting was closed with a visit to the Albufera Natural Park of Valencia. The following plenary meeting will be in one of the follower cities, Skopje, in December of this year.  See you soon!

Good teams make the success of a project. @matchupEU