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The Ephemeral Communication

and Positioning API

Some use cases Fredrik Beckman

fredrik@pingpal.se

A simple implementation

of a “Uber like” Taxi

dispatch system

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A Superior Taxi service

“It’s late and it’s raining. You need a cab so you use the cab company’s app to order it.

With the order confirmation you also get a pin on a map representing the cab so you can follow it on its way to you. When it is approaching you know when it is time to step out into the rainy street and get into the car.

You arrive at your destination. Pay the driver (since the app hasn’t had those payment features released yet), get out and watch him drive off, as you realize that you’ve left your briefcase in the backseat.

So you bring out the app again, tap on the cabs pin and talk to the driver directly. He turns around and you pick up your briefcase, with a warm feeling of good user experience and remembering to use the same cab company next time you need one.”

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The user story

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Delivering to a person

anywhere and anytime,

not only to an address or

a post office

Mobile commerce that is

truly mobile

Last Mile Delivery redefined

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“You are on a windsurfing vacation. It’s

that perfect day, beautiful sun and a

strong wind.

You crash and break your mast.

Well isn’t that too bad, no more surfing

this season since you are leaving

tomorrow. But one of the locals comes

to your rescue. He has the “Surfer

Dude Deliveries” app, a local dealer

with onsite deliveries.

You browse through the online store

and find a used mast at a bargain

price, order it, pay with your PayPal

account and approve sharing your

position with the shop.

Half an hour later a VW bus arrives at

the beach just where you are waiting

and tanning. The mast is perfect!”

Delivery Anywhere

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“Back home again you finally manage to invite that girl to a restaurant.

You have a great time and things really click. She leaves to powder her nose and you decide to do something romantic.

You know there is an online flower shop close by so you place an order and agrees to share your position.

Your date returns and you decide to take a stroll in this beautiful evening, knowing that the surprise will still work since the shop has your ID and tracks your position.

Walking down the street you are caught up by the flower delivery guy on his bicycle and he hands over the bouquet of roses to your date.

Success!”

Truly mobile commerce

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Events, fairs, theme

parks, etc. attracts many

visitors.

Ephemeral messaging

and positioning is a tool

for superior visitor

service.

Superior visitor service

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“You received a V.I.P. discount coupon in the

park app a few days ago and decide to bring

the family for an all day out.

You pass the gate and get a notification asking

if you want to download the days program.

Hmmm…quite a lot going on today and many

wills in the family. You decide to split up and

meet again in an hour.

When that hour has passed you are back at

the meeting point, but where are the kids? You

wait a few minutes and start to wonder where

they are. You call them and no answer.

So you ping them and get their current position

on the park map. Oh…they are still on the

rollercoaster. No wonder they didn’t answer. So

you send them a message and tell them to

meet you outside the candy shop.

But the candy shop is closed. So you open the

customer service chat and ask which shops

are open. They send you the position and the

right store is highlighted on the map. You

forward the chat message to your kids and ask

them to meet you there instead.”

A day with the family

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People move over vast

areas and when

something happen it is

essential to know where

they are, even if there is

only 2G/GPRS network

coverage.

But family members

position is highly private

information.

Safety applications

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“A couple of years ago the two PingPal founders Fred and

Andy were doing one of their favorite things; downhill

skiing. The lift broke down and they got separated and

went powder hunting on their own. Fred didn’t find

anything but ice and roots so he tried calling Andy that of

course didn’t answer. He could:

1. Have crashed

2. Gone to the Apres-ski

3. Found powder and too busy to hear the phone or bother

to stop.”

A good ski resort app has to perform well in a challenging

environment:

• It’s got to work in low connection speeds, meaning

minimal data signaling and locally stored maps.

2G/GPRS has the best coverage and reach so that

must be sufficient.

• Radio towers quite far away means high power

signaling, meaning straining battery and nowhere to

re-charge. So it is important to minimize data traffic.

• Using the GPS requires heavy calculations and

power draining, so constant tracking and sending

positions at short intervals is out of the question.

Positions should be shared only when needed.

• Automatic positioning should be possible at

emergencies.

• Be able to position ad hoc groups of people, for

instance a one-day skiing party loosely joining a

mountain guide.

Safety at a ski resort

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Not everyone or everything has a

smartphone

Equestrian sports are highly popular in

many countries, and in Sweden that is

the sport that tops the injury statistics

for teenage girls.

The equestrian riding schools have the

safety responsibility for their students

but accidents do happen. Horses scare

easily and the rider gets thrown off.

If the rider is out of sight a good safety

app would send an alarm automatically

and pinpoint the rider’s position.

Since a runaway horse can run quite

far before calming down the service

should also include a positioning

device mounted on the horse.

Horses can be dangerous

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Team management in

the field that complies

with employee privacy

rules and legislations

Mobile Workforce Management

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The project manager set up temporary with

sub-suppliers like electricians, plumbers,

etc, sharing information and engaging in

online discussion knowing that the shared

data, like drawings, maps, legal documents,

contracts and discussion will “evaporate”

and not end up in the pocket of the sub-

supplier and incidentally brought to a

competitor .

To effectively manage the site you need to

know where people and material deliveries

are. However, in many countries it is illegal

to track co-workers in the field, but you still

want to be able to manage the people.

Today the only option is to call and ask

where they are, but that can be inconvenient

if you are dispatching hundreds of

resources.

With ephemeral positioning you get the

same level of integrity protection as the

simple phone call especially if you give the

user the possibility to control to whom and

when his position should be shared.

A construction site

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The PingPal Solution

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Inside PingPal

“Perceived fixed line”

Chat, Position, Data

P2P streaming, VoIP

Persistent Connection

UniPush™

Distributed Logic

Privacy Protection

Ephemeral messaging

Asynchronous API calls

User & group management

Scaling

Dashboard

Routing

Transaction

Authentication

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