EddyStone & Physical Web Beacon

I had a chance to get an EddyStone / Physical Web beacon and play with it.

This is my beacon. Fumi Beacon :)



It's one of the devices from the Physical Web project.

The Physical Web project is an experimental project started at Google but an open project for all. They are planning to enable people to walk up to any smart device - a vending machine, a poster, a toy, a bus stop, a rental car - and not have to download each and every application, but interact with them with just a tap.

The project is open sourced and up on GitHub: https://github.com/google/physical-web
EddyStone (open beacon format from Google) is also on GitHub: https://github.com/google/eddystone

So, how do we actually use it?

Let's start with the simplest thing. Fumi beacon will direct people to Fumi's blog (here!)

It's super easy.

Step1: Download the Physical Web app from Google Play Store
Step2: Open the app on your Android phone, select "edit URLs"
Step3: Put the beacon under your phone and push the button (there's only 1 button)
Step4: In the text box, enter URL you want to direct the beacon to

And you're done! Fumi's Beacon directs everyone who interacts with my beacon here :)
Honestly, I didn't think it's so easy!

Then, you can of course have some more fun with it.

For example, in this video the toy that has beacon in it broadcasts a URL to a webpage that contains JavaScript to directly connect to the toy via Bluetooth. You can change the LED color, sound, etc. The toy is a standalone device that can be played with by youngsters, while the webpage interaction lets the parent easily configure and personalize the toy.



I saw demos of beacon + parking meter and payment, beacon at restaurant use case (instead of the hardware that you take when you are waiting for the queue at the restaurant, your Android phone will be a replacement), etc.

If you are interested, here is the Physical Web Cookbook :)

Oh, and for those of you who are using iOS:
Exploring the Physical Web with Chrome for iOS

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki

Visited Lick Observatory

I visited the Lick Observatory this Friday. It is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California on the summit of Mount Hamilton.

While larger telescopes in Hawaii has a large queue for researchers using it, Lick is an excellent facility for researchers to have greater access, and Google is one of their sponsors :)

36-inch (91-centimeter) Refactor telescope

Pictures of the 36-inch telescope before turning off the light.

With this telescope, we watched M13 and Ring Nebula.





Pictures from earlier in the evening:







View of the dome from outside.

Pictures after turning off the light.







40-inch Nickel Telescope

This is 40-inch Nickel Telescope, with which we were able to see the NGC 6543m the Cat's Eye nebula.

The talks

Astrophysicist professor Alex Filippenko gave us a Science Talk!

I also joined the history talk by Ron Bricmont, where we were able to learn about the history of the observatory and James Lick.

Amazing views

Beautiful sunset view from the observatory.

















Beautiful night view.





Beautiful panoramic view of the valley.





Pictures I took while climbing Mount Hamilton- we saw lots of deers, squirrels, turkeys, birds etc.

Amateur Astronomer Telescopes

Many amateur astronomer showed us various stars with their telescopes. Even during this brightness, we were able to see the Saturn!

After sunset, the sky was so clear and we had the best condition to view the stars, that we felt like the stars are falling on us. It was new moon so excellent condition, and we were able to see lots of shooting stars due to the Perseid Meteor Shower. It was amazing!









Further reading:

Hand-book of the Lick Observatory of the University of California by Edward Holden

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki

2015 Novato Space Festival

This weekend, I joined 2015 Novato Space Festival.

I was able to see 5 legendary astronauts, very exciting!!




Poster of the festival.

Astronauts who came to the festival:

• Al Worden - Apollo 15 Moon Mission
• Jerry Ross – Seven Flights on the Space Shuttle
• Yvonne Cagle
• Rhea Seddon - One of the first female astronauts
• Hoot Gibson

Photos from the Q&A session





















Ever been curious what is in the back pack of the astronauts?

This is the 3D printer that is deployed in ISS, created by a startup called Made In Space.



Objects created by the printer.

Synthetic regolith, made with moon dirt. Since shipping filaments to moon is too expensive, they plan to use moon dirt to create materials to 3D print.



Zero-G 3D printer validation, photo credit: Made in Space.

Tardigrade - a bug that can survive in the vacuum of outer space. They can survive in extreme environments- they can withstand temperatures from just above absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water (100 °C), pressures about six times greater than those found in the deepest ocean trenches, ionizing radiation at doses hundreds of times higher than the lethal dose for a human.



They can go without food or water for more than 10 years, drying out to the point where they are 3% or less water, only to rehydrate, forage, and reproduce. This is a picture of them dried out, but if you add water to them they will rehydrate.

This bolt & nut from shuttle launch weighs 100 pounds!



Robot.

























And of course, there were Star Wars cosplayers :)



Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki