pitti.mobi

physical into virtual tagging

Florence, Italy. January 2008

pitti.mobi is an innovative, breakthrough mobile service that delivers compelling, dynamic interactions for improving fashion trade-show experiences. Using mobile phones and the internet, buyers and sellers can exchange contact information, catalogues, and media.

Concept
Core concept of business information exchange between buyers and sellers improving trade show experiences with navigation systems, rating systems, tourist guides, etc.

Hardware
Our first prototype phone application was implemented on Nokia’s E65 smartphone. This device was chosen based on its small form factor, technical features, slidable keys, and fashionable looks.
The phone software works over any type of Internet connection, however we opted to use Wi-Fi instead of cellular due to cost considerations. In particular it would require each phone to have a data plan from a wireless service provider.

Software
The pitti.mobi application has been developed to run on Java(J2ME)-enabled devices that allow program access to camera, phone, and Wi-Fi functions. The application communicates with the server using the phone's Wi-Fi connection and data is maintained and interacted with online using the Drupal content management system. This first prototype is capable of running on any of Nokia’s N and E series phones and can easily be installed on a phone by sending the pitti.mobi application package via Bluetooth from a computer. We successfully installed the software on numerous other Nokia smartphones such as the E51 and E90. The software can be made to run on other makes and models of phones, provided they have the required features mentioned above.