Fishbowl for Ultrabook

Introduction

Fishbowl is an application for the Windows 8 Ultrabook that will streamline registration and check-in processes across a wide spectrum of events, contests and other activities. The heart of the system is a NFC sensor that will allow users to quickly transfer information stored securely in the Cloud by swiping their smartphone, access card, ticket, or other NFC tag. In addition to the information transferred from the Cloud, the system will be able to log GPS information when available.

Background

Registration and checking in for events, contests and the like can often be confusing and difficult for the consumer/attendant because of the number of people involved or the amount of information they have to manually fill in with pen and paper. The administration side can also be a nightmare for the host. Fishbowl seeks to improve the process on both ends of the spectrum.

Here are just a few examples of where the Fishbowl system can be used

• Restaurant Free Lunch – scan your phone instead of dropping your business card in a fishbowl. You save your business cards (and trees) and the business doesn’t have to manually type in your contact information to their marketing database. Also, the business gains the ability to trend who visits their establishment regularly.
• Gym Access – Instead of issuing membership cards to track access to a gym, members could simply wave their smartphones in front of an Ultrabook.
• Tradeshows – Attendees can use their smartphones to gain access to the event. This would allow the event sponsors to know who has entered the event, at what time and possibly which entrance if GPS signals are available.
• Non-profit Raffle Tickets – Have users scan their smartphones instead of handing out tickets that entrants have to keep track of. Entrants don’t have to write contact information on a tiny piece of paper and the people running the raffle get a nice marketing list to work from.

More Details

The Fishbowl system will consist of the following pieces:

1. Website - A website where users can register and configure their Fishbowl account. The user will then be able share their information stored in the profile easily with other applications that use the Fishbowl API.
2. Web Service - A Web Service that is used to securely transfer information from the users account to the application.
3. Windows 8 Ultrabook Client - A Windows 8 client application built for an Ultrabook that uses NFC, GPS and communicates via the web service to allow users to register for contests and check in to events.

Using the code

We plan to publish several snippets of code that may be of interest to the Code Project community. At this time the code is a work in progress so there is nothing to post yet.

History

October 18th - Inital article submission.