Development of new Openhanced Location Starter Kit (hosted), now named Location Based Content Management System

Posted in: Android, Augmented Reality, Blog, LBS, OH-LBCMS, Open Source by openhanced on April 30, 2010 | No Comments

After releasing the OHLSK (Openhanced Location Starter Kit) we got very positive feedback and some people asked me the following:

- will you support multiple Layars in one install;

- will there be a hosted version available;

- 2d/3d;

- etc.

First thing we decided is to change the name from OHLSK to OH-LBCMS. The end goal is to build a multi purpose Location Based Content Management System that could provide a location store (multimedia included) for applications like:

• Layar;
• Junaoi;
• Mixare;
• Barcode scanners for product searches (can be used by museum);
• Simple vehicle tracking;
• Any other location based application.

In essence many of these applications need the same functionality on the backend and we are planning to provide them. It is not our goal to provide a massive location solution like SimpleGEO does, if you need to store millions of POI’s please look around somewhere else. It is our aim to target for the power users that want to click together very hyper local location solutions (one city or even an attraction park).

One option that we are investigating is to use our system as a frontend to SimpleGEO, that would be a good option. SimpleGEO would handle the realtime retrieval of POI’s and the OH-LBCMS would be the frontend to manage all the POI’s.

Another idea we have is to hookup special mobile pages (based on the excellent jQTouch framework by David Kaneda) to for example Layar or Junaoi actions. Below you see a sample of something we have created before (in English, sorry):

These mobile pages are natively rendered to either iPhone or Android and can contain specific functionality. Most of this is done by HTMl5, jQuery and CSS.

Planning

We aim for having an online version up and running around end of May. This will probably not have the 2d/3d functionality but it will be capable of registering multiple data layers.

Update: Openhanced Location Starter Kit Layar web service script

Posted in: Android, Augmented Reality, Blog, Mobile, Open Source by openhanced on April 16, 2010 | No Comments

After feedback from @swinnenstijn I realized there can be a problem when a Layar is configured without categories or maybe with the wrong ones. To solve this we changed the script so that you don’t need to specify a Layar filter. Right after configuring a Layar it should work.

Download the zip file, unzip it and change some db details on line 4-7. After that you can upload it to your webservice folder.

Download latest full version | Download updated Layar web service script

Overall

When you start with the OHLSK make sure to create categories first and then add POI’s to these categories.

Small changes in Layar web service script

Posted in: Android, Augmented Reality, Blog, Mobile, Open Source, iPhone by openhanced on April 13, 2010 | No Comments

OHLSK (Openhanced Location Starter Kit)

After some serious debugging last two days (thanks Josh) we have changed a few things in the script that is called by Layar. These changes are also finalized in the full version.

Please only download the update if you already have the full version installed, upload and overwrite webservice/layarpoints.php in your server but make sure to change the DB details for your situation!!!

Download latest full version | Download updated Layar web service script

On top of that we also show you a little more on what to do inside Layar to get it working.

In your Layar filter settings make sure that you have 1 Range Slider and one set of Radio buttons. The values of the radiobutton set need to match the Category ID of the OHLSK.

Above screen is the category list in the OHLSK solution.

The Layar Open Source creation tool will be released next week, the name is OHLSK.

Posted in: Android, Augmented Reality, Blog, Mobile, Open Source by openhanced on March 26, 2010 | 1 Comment

Right now OHLSK is the short name for Openhanced Location Starter Kit. It can be used as a backend for any mobile location client but right now it supports Layar out of the box.

In between business – we are working on: a big sports activity Layar, location based SMS services, mobile app., several new Mobile 2.0 concepts – i’m glad to say that there has been a lot of progress in the OHLSK. We needed to extract a Freemium set of capabilities from the total solution and that has gone well. Below are some screenshots of the final Freemium solution:

There are some things still to add or change:

• creation of Layar actions in multiple languages;
• authentication;
• spatial search optimization;
• URI types.

However, these are minor changes and it will not postpone the release. The release will contain extensive help on how to configure and install the solution on your own PHP/MySQL environment.

The total solution (with more capabilities) that we are working on serves as a base backend for all our concepts and projects in the future.

How to use the ZXing Open Source barcode scanner in combination with a mobile web app.

Posted in: Android, Blog, Open Source by openhanced on March 24, 2010 | No Comments

One of the great things of Android is the Intents functionality (An Intent is a simple message object that represents an ”intention” to do something) and some smart applications have implemented an even easier method to startup their application, an http URL.

After doing some experiments with the ZXing package we discovered that there is a way to launch the ZXing barcode application by using the URL http://zxing.appspot.com/scan For this to work ZXing needs to be installed of course.

We used this approach to show a small barcode demo to a few people. The demo is about scanning a barcode and starting our own customized mobile web application. When that is done we have the option to scan another barcode, that is using the ZXing URL to start the application.

To get this working you need to do a few settings in the default ZXing application.

1. Goto settings…

and select Custom search URL.

There we will fill out the URL of our mobile web application.

Of course you can replace this by your own custom URL. If you use this URL it will not work for you because we have only one barcode in our database right now.

Now we scan a product and then click Custom search.

Our product in the database is a box of stamps. Our database contains media that is related to stamps (Youtube video, Photo etc.).

Here we have the option “Scan new object”, this feature supports the ZXing option to start the application by an URL.

With ZXing you can build your own barcode database if you want!

Preview of a complete POI/Layar backend, frontend and browser based mobile solution

Posted in: Android, Augmented Reality, Blog, Mobile, Open Source, iPhone by openhanced on March 8, 2010 | No Comments

Layar client

Last couple of weeks we have done some extensive development to get a complete working concept (some will be used at current projects) around POI’s, Layar and backend integration PLUS Jquery based clients for Android and iPhone.

After analyzing some of the solutions available I think there is a lot to improve and also ways to extend the experience. A lot of layar developers for example focus just on the Layar client (which is perfectly fine) but we took this approach and extended it into an approach where Layar actions (available in the specification) kick of Jquery clients (Android and iPhone) where you can even execute more location based services. Below is a sample screenshot of how this looks inside Android (in Dutch):

By linking these almost native clients (nothing to install) for example the Layar experience can heavily be extended. When people select an action in Layar above screens can be opened from within Layar:

POI/Layar backend

There are a few POI/Layar backends available but again we think they are not flexible enough. We think that one infrastructure can facilitate both Layar data but also any other location based information. On top of that we are working on:

• a commenting system for POI’s/Layar;
• location based advertising;
• invitations by SMS for location based surveys or ads;
• generating coupons and a way for users to claim a coupon (location based);
• a retailer interface where store owners can add ads;
• and may other interesting solutions…

Below some screenshots of the backend:

The backend is suitable for multiple users and user groups. Users that register as a retailer will have an option to create location based messages or coupons.

All above work is in development and some will be rolled over to a live environment. A freemium version will be available so that you can create your own Layar in an easy way. We plan to release this around April.

Openhanced is announcing the Layar (@layarmobile) starter kit

Posted in: Android, Augmented Reality, Blog, Open Source, iPhone by openhanced on February 23, 2010 | No Comments

In the last month we have been working on a complete starter kit for Layar, including: an Open Source backend (multi user level) with supporting database, a GEO spatial search routine and supporting mobile web pages that behave like native apps (Android and iPhone). We will launch this web starter kit in the first week of April and everyone will be able to download the starter kit and install it on a shared or dedicated host.

Now that Layar (@layarmobile) really gains momentum we really want everyone be able to play around with it in an easy way. Right now there are a few solutions out there that support the creation of layars but we wanted to create a full system that can be used by everyone with just a small understanding of PHP and MySQL.

It is just a solution to check out how Layar works and it will not support 3D objects.

Below you can see a few first screenshots of the solution:

backend

mobile web apps.

yes this is the Nexus One

We use the mobile web apps. for providing access to different API’s when executing a layar action, all these actions are related to a nearby selected point. You can think of things like: nearby station, –tweets, –shops etc.

The backend system that we use allows administrators to setup different users that all can add and maintain their own points from within the same database, however, users cannot edit other peoples points.

We will release the solution free of charge and you will have all freedom to install it on your own environment to try it out.

P.S. I want to thank Johannes (@jlapoutre) for his tip on the GEO spatial search.

Using JQTouch or iWebkit to show pages from Layar actions

Posted in: Blog, Open Source by openhanced on January 22, 2010 | No Comments

Layar (Augmented Reaility) is a nice application and with the possibility to execute actions from within a Layar it even makes it better. However, we sometimes simply want to display web pages when clicking on an action. Of course not normal styled web pages but pages that look like the Android or iPhone.

There are basically two ways to style the pages that way, JQTouch and iWebkit. I prefer JQTouch because i think it looks more slick but iWebkit is fine too. See below QR codes to go to the sites.

Mobile- and Dutch versions of our site are live

Posted in: Blog, Open Source by openhanced on January 20, 2010 | No Comments

Openhanced just finished the Dutch version of the site (www.openhanced.nl) and also a mobile version. Both of the sites will do a language detection and forward you to the correct site based on browser language settings.

As a big fan of Open Source tools we use the Carrington Mobile framework by Crowd Favorite to show the correct site based on user agents. This framework is a plugin for Wordpress.

We hope you enjoy our efforts to bring you the best browsing experience possible independent of device.

Transform Twitgoo search query to Media RSS

Posted in: Blog, Open Source by openhanced on January 19, 2010 | No Comments

For a small internal project we needed to transform the Twitgoo search query (through API) to a Media RSS feed. Below you can find some sample code how to do this: