Atcom Next (2016)

Atcom Next is the annual [Atcom SA] (https://www.atcom.gr/?ref=oramind.com)'s event hosted in Athens, which showcases how the company sees the future of the Digital and Technology world. In [Atcom Next 2016] (https://next.atcom.gr/next2016?ref=oramind.com)the main theme of the event was the “Phygital Dining” where Atcom envisioned the future of the t were a lot of innovations that stranded out during the event. Atcom NEXT’s innovations set a new standard for the Greek industry, pushing the boundaries of what was possible with technology. We implemented Augmented Reality features as early as 2015, long before they became widely adopted. Our solutions seamlessly merged the digital and physical worlds, introducing experiences that the global industry only began exploring years later. Through cutting-edge technology and forward-thinking execution, we created a truly pioneering experience that set us apart from the competition.

Coffee Ordering System — Proximity-Based Ordering

Attendees received their coffee as they approached the bench, without needing to order in advance or wait in line.

Since attendees had received physical invitations requiring them to download the Atcom NEXT app beforehand, we already had their essential details (name, profile image, and job position if they logged in via LinkedIn). Within the app’s “Coffee & Burger” section, users could set their coffee preferences.

As attendees approached the bench, their face and job profile appeared on a large screen, while the bartender received a display of their face and coffee preference on a dedicated screen. This setup enabled the bartender to prepare the coffee before the attendee even reached the ordering point.

Beacon Technology & Signal Processing

iBeacon devices were placed around the bench in discrete spots, configured to transmit using maximum power and all sharing the same UUIDs. This tagged the entire coffee bench area as iBeacon-enabled, and the high transmission power ensured mobile devices received a full-strength signal.

Stronger signal meant clearer beacon indications, reduced interference, and greater pickup range — which brought us to the most difficult problem: determining the trigger distance at which to fire “user entered” and “user exited” events to the screens.

We used received signal power to figure out whether the user was inside the area and estimate their distance from the signal’s source. We ran extensive tests and calculations to arrive at a heuristic for determining the optimal notification distance, factoring in that 600 people would be in the same room near the beacons, but only a dozen would be waiting to be served at any given time.

For location tracking, we used background location services on both iOS and Android. On iOS, we additionally leveraged the Significant Location Change service, so the application would launch from a fully “killed” state when an attendee first approached the venue.

The application sent events to a NodeJS server, which streamed “enter” and “exit” events to both the bartender screen and the front display screen in real time using socket.io.

I developed the event’s iOS application, which managed user registration and meal preferences while leveraging iOS smart proximity sensors to track attendee locations within the venue. This enabled automated actions, such as notifying the bartender in advance about the coffee to prepare.

The application also featured AR capabilities. To register, users pointed their device at their physical invitation, triggering a 3D model displaying their name on top of it. At the time, ARKit and Google’s ARCore had yet to be introduced, making this a pioneering AR implementation for iOS and Android. I built it using OpenGL and C++, leveraging the device’s camera sensors.

Interactive Ordering System (Phygital Lunch)

We set up tables with touch screens running Windows, and built a Windows application that created burger orders through a playful interface, sending HTTP events to our NodeJS server.

Once an order was placed, it was linked to an attendee via a QR code scan. This notified the Node server, which then updated both the kitchen and grill teams.

A screen at the grill displayed the number of burgers being prepared, grouped by type and doneness. Two kitchen screens, one per cook, managed orders in a queue. Each cook handled one order at a time, seeing only their assigned tasks.

Real-time updates were powered by an HTTP API and WebSockets, ensuring resilience even in case of network failures. Once an order was ready, the attendee received a push notification.

In this case, I developed the food ordering backend system using NodeJS and WebSockets.

Talk / Presentation

My colleague Paris Stagkopoulos and I gave a talk on how we built these solutions, sharing the thought process behind every aspect of the experience.

Key Learnings — The Challenge of Ambient Intelligence

The difficulty of Atcom NEXT lies in the connection and interaction between the digital and physical realms. During development, we found out the hard way that creating Ambient Intelligence solutions require much more critical thinking than purely digital applications, since real-world scenarios like metal interference, low-connectivity, or unexpected user behavior can render any solution useless in minutes and ultimately destroy the user experience.

I personally spent entire days developing aspects of the event, only to scrap the results completely countless times before reaching something I felt confident would work without flaws.

Read More / Media

• Atcom Next in Atcom’s Website
• More information about the event can be found in my article here: A Showcase of Ambient Intelligence appliances
• Atcom Next 2016 has an official site here: https://next.atcom.gr/next2016