Amsterdam has a first: Living Lab voor Smart City Apps
Hazerswoude – Rijndijk, August 18, 2015 – Amsterdam is actively positioning itself as a Smart City and is giving visitors, companies and students the opportunity to test the iBeacon Mile Smart City Apps. The very first LoRaWan network in the world enables users to communicate through the M2M communication protocol. Glimworm provides the iBeacons, Yenlo develops APIs that simplify the development of apps.
iBeacon
An iBeacon is a device that transmits a radio signal that can be picked up by smartphones, wearables and other devices, using Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology. Using iBeacons, the location of these devices can be measured accurately, enabling apps to receive very specific, location-based information.
iBeacon Mile
The iBeacon Mile in Amsterdam is 3400 meters long and stretches from Amsterdam Central Station to the Navy Base, along the OBA, Nemo and Maritime Museum. For this iBeacon Mile, a combination of 40 to 60 Glimword V2 and V3 Beacons and 20 Internet of Things (IoT) Beacons will be installed. These are the latest Beacons, equipped with a “smart” sensor that can be used on LoRaWan and does not only transmit but also receive signals. Machine to Machine (M2M) communication application features are also possible using this network. LoRaWan is a new standard M2M protocol that can send small amounts of data over long distances of up to 3 kilometers in the city and up to 30 kilometers in rural areas. The LoRaWan protocol is considered the future of IoT two-way processes.
When used together, iBeacons and the LoRaWan protocol make it possible to gather beacon data in large areas and send it to the cloud where the data can then be used. Glimworm and KPN have a worldwide premiere by implementing this network. It has been successfully installed and is now being tested on the iBeacon Mile.
Our Goals.
Many companies – both in software development and creative industries – find it difficult to develop Smart City Apps and applications because they lack a good testing environment. The iBeacon Mile is explicitly intended as a Living Lab, allowing all interested parties (citizens, companies and colleges/universities) to develop applications for it.
On July 23 of this year, the iBeacon Mile project was officially launched. The iBeacons are part of the City of Amsterdam’s Smart City Concept and provide new opportunities in the field of location based services and new business models. Amsterdam also wants to test the beacons as groundbreaking, innovative medium for communicating with city inhabitants and visitors. Think of crowd control situations, community building, travel information and educational purposes.
Consortium
The iBeacon Mile is an initiative of 20 parties that invest in the project in terms of finances or goods and services, and is conducted under the directions of the City of Amsterdam and iBeacon-maker Glimworm. Partners include KPN (LoRaWan infrastructure), Glimworm (Beacons), University of Amsterdam, Intel, Yenlo (WSO2), Waag and JC Deceaux.
Joint initiator Glimworm provides the iBeacons for this project. Project partner Yenlo develops Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that are based on the open source WSO2 API Manager, making it easier for developers to find the location of the beacon and the nearest Points of Interest.
SAIL 2015 Amsterdam and the future
Every five years, about 2.5 million visitors head to the Amsterdam harbor to attend SAIL Amsterdam. Over 60 of the largest sailing ships in the world are anchored in Amsterdam during the festival. SAIL 2015 has its own app that uses the network. This app provides relevant cultural information and actively uses the beacons on ships in the harbor and on the iBeacon Mile.
Starting late 2015, more than 2700 iBeacons will be installed.at bus and tram stops and billboards in Amsterdam and at Schiphol Airport. More beacons will be installed in so-called innovation hubs like universities, incubators and co-working spaces. Together, they will make up the world’s largest iBeacon network and thus the largest Internet of Things (IoT) Living Lab. In January 2016, The Netherlands will become European Union Rotating Chairman for six months and many events will take place in Amsterdam.
Read detailed project description here
About Glimworm IT
Glimworm is one of the leading organizations in the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) community in Amsterdam. Glimworm has contributed to several initiatives such as The Air Quality Egg and Smart Citizen Kit, as well as hosting the Sensmakers Meetup hosting approximately 2000 members from the Amsterdam IoT community. Glimworm made the first Dutch BLE-compatible sensors, Glimworm Beacons. In collaboration with the City of Amsterdam, Glimworm recently launched the Amsterdam iBeacon Living Lab. This Public Private Partnership is the first and largest open IoT Living Lab in the world, combining new technology with the new Lora network, creating interactive hyper-relevance in public areas.
More information about this initiative, visit www.ibeaconlivinglab.com.
About Yenlo
Yenlo is the leading integration specialist in the field of open source Java middleware for the benefit of chain integration and business process management. Yenlo is the # 1 Premier WSO2 Partner and delivers worldwide Software Development, Development Support, Product Support and Training in the field of WSO2. Yenlo is the main developer of the Digilink adapter for the WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus that handles millions of transactions between governments extremely reliably, fast and securely. Yenlo has extensive knowledge in the field of WSO2, Java, Glassfish and Oracle technology.
More information: yenlo.com or communities on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
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More information:
Glimworm, Paul Manwaring, phone: 020 616 56 40, e-mail: paul@glimworm.com
Yenlo, Tamara de Lange, phone: 071 8200082, e-mail: tamara.de.lange@yenlo.com
WILD werk, Jeanette de Wilde, phone: 030 2900059, e-mail: jeanette@wildwerk.nl
