Semester Two: Week Four: Conceptualisation and Refinement

This week, I wanted to settle on my idea completely so that it would clear up the rest of my time and allow me to work on the things that need to be done as they need doing. Although my initial idea was something that would encourage active citizenship within the community by allowing people to add notes to a local map so that others would find points of interest or be warned of local crime and dangers. Whilst I still believe this to be a valuable idea, I’ve changed it now. Using nodes known as beacons, business’s, council’s and other entities would be able to join what would be a virtual treasure hunt. The beacon would work by being placed in an accessible position within the location and participants scanning it. With the paired app, would bring up information about the location as well as go towards a total overall score which can be then used to access discounts and bonuses with partnered business’s. People would find these through the location service on their phones which would alert them when they get near. This would also benefit people by encouraging local exploration as well as helping local business. The beacons would be available for purchase, which would then require the business’s to connect to the network of beacons. To prevent over use of the products though, a written reasoning for the purchase would be required. This would bring about more income in local environments where the tax would then be used to improve the area. For the project, I would create a 3D mock-up of the device, a 2D animated video and a mock-up of the app’s interface.