CatDroid talk: thinking different, sharing ideas

Think different, 
Unleash your potential!

@LoicOrtola

http://loicortola.com

A changing world
2
2005
2013
AUG | Barcelona, May 13th 2015

A changing world
3

New challenges
!   Battery life
!   Connectivity
!   Diversity of devices, versions, screen sizes
!   Lack of standards
!   DORA (Develop Once, Run Anywhere)
But also
!   Increase of chemical waste
!   Electromagnetic radiations
!   Security leaks, ID Theft

4

New tools for new uses
Gyroscope, Accelerometer, GPS, BLE, Cardio
frequency meter, NFC, WiFi

Location, location, location
! Where you are on earth
!   The direction you’re looking at

… Basically, we can see through your eyes.
6

Relative Location: Virtual Reality
!   Oculus Rift
!   Google Cardboard

Dive city rollercoaster

Proton Pulse

VRSE

Orbulus

Vanguard V

Use cases: IMMERSION
7

Relative + Absolute Location:
Augmented Reality
! Layar
! VuForia
! MetaIO
! evenTribe AR (Stay Tuned)

Use cases: Advertisement / Services / Gaming
8

Meet BLE
!   Relies on GATT (Generic Attribute Proﬁle)
! Device Advertises itself
! When paired to a central device, will stop advertising. (only one-to-
one)
!   Exchanges Data at periodic intervals
!   Transaction = Set of services, which hold Characteristics
!   Official services (16bit address):
https://developer.bluetooth.org/gatt/services/Pages/
ServicesHome.aspx
!   Custom services: (128bit address)

More info https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/bluetooth-le.html
Example:
HeartRate Service: 0x180D
3 Characteristics: Heart Rate measurement, Sensor Location, Heart Rate
control point
9

BLE limitations
! Throughput:
!   ACK vs no-ACK?
! Packet <= 20byte data
!   Max number of packets / event (usually btw 2 and 6)
! Connection interval (central & peripheral, usually tens of ms)
Example: iOS 8.3, 30ms min connection interval

iPhone 6, iOS 8.3 + nRF51822 = 16kbps throughput

! Frequency emission:
!   2.4 Ghz (same as Wiﬁ)
!   Can be diffracted, absorbed, or interferred by water

10

iBeacons
! Instead of being constrained by a one-to-one relationship to push
and pull information, one can use the payload bits of the
advertisement mode to broadcast data.
!   Pros: Costless, energy efficient, asynchronous
!   Cons: Unidirectional, public, lightweight

Looks like a hack! But that’s awesome!

Even better: Signal strength can be used to give « proximity »
contextual info. Some also say « indoor geolocation » (Woooow)
11

Proximity: Target Advertisement
! BeaconWatcher
! Kontakt
! BlueUp

“Welcome to the underwear department. Tap here to get 20% off
the latest Superman boxers”

Use cases: Advertisement / Services / Gaming
12

Let’s brainstorm
How to extend the actual technologies to
brand new concepts?

Indoor Geolocation
! iBeacons have algorithms to compute distance to Beacon

Question:
How can we perform indoor Geolocation with this idea?
14

Indoor Geolocation
15
1 2
3
d1 d2
d3
x
y

Indoor Geolocation
!   Truth is… The distance computation algorithm looks like
this:
! txPower: Factory calibrated, read-only constant which indicates the
expected RSSI at a 1 meter distance of the beacon
!   RSSI: Received Signal Strength Indicator

protected static double computeDistance(int txPower, double rssi) {
if (rssi == 0) { return -1.0; }
double ratio = rssi / txPower;
if (ratio < 1.0) { return Math.pow(ratio,10); }
else { return 0.89976 * Math.pow(ratio,7.7095) + 0.111; }
}
16

Indoor Geolocation
!   Truth is… The distance computation algorithm is completely
arbitrary.
!   Does it work?
!   No. There can be complete aberrations in terms of distance
!   Can we do something?
!   The more beacons, the better the estimation?
Not really -> Device calibration deltas, Battery level, Device position
blurs everything away
!   Why?
!   2.4Ghz
17

Indoor Geolocation
!   Solution: Stop thinking like everyone else. Let’s change the
paradigm.
!   I cannot do triangulation and distance estimation with
beacons.
!   But I can tell which is the closest!

18

Indoor Geolocation
!   Solution 1: Beacon Grid
19

Indoor Geolocation
paradigm.
beacons.
!   But water absorbs or creates interferences with the signal

20

Indoor Geolocation
!   Solution 2: Signal heatmaps

Calibration

Runtime

-76dbm
-80dbm
-78dbm
-77dbm
-90dbm
-80dbm
-78dbm
-77dbm
21

Indoor Geolocation
paradigm.
beacons.
!   But bluetooth or wiﬁ advertising does tell me there is a device
around.

22

Indoor Geolocation
!   Solution 3: Wiﬁ / Bluetooth proximity
Results should be close to Solution 1
00:0C:XX:XX:XX
-76dbm
23
00:0C:XX:XX:YY
-56dbm

Inter-Device communication
!   NFC needs a compatible device (Android vs iOS)
! Wiﬁ requires a router
!   Bluetooth is only one-to-one
Question:

How can we develop other ways of inter-device
communication?
24

!   The Old-fashioned Way:
Every phone has a camera. We can scan coded visual
information

QRCodes…

… Or encoded images

25

!   The SquareUp Way:
Every phone has an audio jack.

…Remember morse code?

Cons: May look like we are exchanging

Pokemons with our Cable Link

26

!   Audio Watermarking
How to hide bytes in the 12-15khz frequencies?

è AWT2

Play your favorite music, and seamlessly transport
information

…Radios already do this remember?

27

!   P2P gods
!   If Device 1 connects to Device 2 and 3 and Device 2 to Device 3
and 1 etc…
!   We are creating an Ad-Hoc P2P network!
Wait… Are you saying we could solve internet connectivity
problems in the subway?

After crowdsourcing, why not crowdconnectivity?
28

Exchanging ideas: 
Developer Libraries & Marketing tools
New libraries,
Memory Leaks ﬁnder,
Automated App Deployment
Instant App Bundling

Out this week
! LeakCanary, by Pierre-Yves Ricaud (Square)
!   20+ Android leaks discovered and issued to google in a couple
days
!   Amazingly useful to understand design ﬂaws in your app
!   Discreet, lightweight, transparent in production

30

Maps
!   Google Maps: Requires API-Key, requires commercial
license if commercial use, lack of good caching, brings
Google Play Services and its 40k methods…
! OpenStreetMap: Yes! You can do anything if you know
how to make a TileServer (switch2osm.org)
!   But…
!   Libraries still too young for vector tiles (OperPassAPI/mapbox-gl)
!   Historical android library (osmdroid) sucks!
!   Since 02/15, mapbox-android-sdk can be considered mature
enough, with an interesting set of technologies and a solid
community of contributors
31

Misc
!   Dagger 2
! CouchBase Mobile?
!   Jackson
!   Android Annotations
! OkHttp
!   Picasso, Universal Image Loader
! Crashlytics
! Piwik
!   Fabric
!   Retroﬁt

What about you?
32

App Templating
!   You developed the Awesome World Congress 2015 App
!   May be used for lots of similar events, with pretty much the
same codebase.
!   Feature-driven developments are interesting but tough to
loosely couple with content.
!   Deployment is time-consuming, upgrades and migrations
even worse.
Question: How can we provide loose coupling btw code and
content, and optimize deployments and upgrades?
33

App Templating
!   You are developing the Awesome World Congress 2015
App (Congratulations! :D )
!   Features:
!   3D-Map (an embedded MBTiles ﬁle, plus an OpenStreetMap layer
with coordinate bounds)
!   AR View
!   Schedule of the conferences
!   Set of POIs (companies, stands) and their description
!   Speakers Biography
!   Built-in tweetdeck
34

App Templating
!   Develop, templatize

! Develop your app as usual
! Backend, DB, Android/iOS Mobile App, Website
!   Brand your product for the Awesome World Congress 2015,
and make a huge impression.
35

!   Develop, Templatize
! Classical way:
!   for each show {
git checkout –b congressXXX2015
git commit… git commit… git commit…
git rebase / git merge / etc…
}
!   Stop making n-times the necessary
adjustments and customizations.
! Proposed Way:
! Templatize your code once,
then customize with content
36
Now, your app was SO cool that 50
more shows and events want you to
make theirs, with the same features
Congress XXX App
App Templating

!   Why do this?
!   Because you completely separate your
codebase from your content.
!   Because deploying new versions is easier
(no 50 branches to rebase)
!   Because you gain loads of time
(compilation can even be avoided)

!   Metrics?
!   Depends ;)
37
App Templating

Instant App Creation
!   Sometimes, an app template really makes sense for anyone
to make very custom services.
!   Sometimes, an app is disposable (POC).
!   Marketing guys only care about TTM.
Question: How can we allow non-technical people to create
real native apps in a friendly environment?
38

Instant App Creation
!   Well, you’ve already made a template and separated your
code from your content
!   Simply APIfy and bring nice widgets to provide an abstraction of the
complexity

Example:
the “Make your congress App” website:
•  Upload an excel or csv file with your POIs
•  Upload a Google calendar file with the schedule of conferences
•  Upload an excel or csv file with the list and bios of speakers
•  Choose the coordinate bounds and overlay your map
•  Choose the theme color, customize the wording, change the app
name, the app icon, the splashscreen
•  Click “Generate”, wait 20 seconds, download your APK
39

Thanks guys, it was a blast!
!   Let’s follow each other! @LoicOrtola
!   And let’s keep in touch!
40
lortola@ebusinessinformation.fr concept.designmyapp.mobi
developer.designmyapp.mobi
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