"Hello Lamp Post"-communication with the city through SMS messages

This summer, residents and guests of Bristol will be able to communicate with the city with their mobile phones. The Hello Lamp Post project will revive the mailboxes, bus stops and lampposts that will not only tell the news and ask about your business, but will also share the secrets of their motionless, but rich in life events.

You expect a friend in the central square. He is very late, and in order to brighten up the languid minutes of waiting, you turn to the mailbox standing nearby using SMS messages. Its metal entity is unlikely to have a warm conversation, but after the first message he comes to life and begins to lead a constructive dialogue. The box will ask you about your situation, ask how his friend is doing a lamppost on the opposite side of the street, and also ask you to describe the view from the back, because it is not visible ... The conversation will surely lead you to the next meeting, in which you can be revealed some city secret, and getting to know the mailbox will not only be funny, but also productive.

All this became possible thanks to the Hello Lamp Post project, which won the annual Playable City contest. The project exists on the verge of virtual and real space, when communication with a visible object occurs in offline mode. In order to introduce the townspeople to a new initiative and clearly demonstrate its essence, the organizers selected several popular objects, more or less familiar to the inhabitants of Bristol.

As the recipient’s address, a special code applied to the object is used. The first message, thus, has the following view: "FC2392 Hello a lamppost." The reaction of the lamppost can be different: it can complain to the rain or tell the news heard. A large proportion of replicas generated by objects is the information received from their previous interlocutors. As a result, residents communicate with each other through the city.

The project performs not only an entertainment function, but also information. Objects can give historical certificates or report useful information, in particular, the schedule of public transport. Users offer their own objects- from ships in the port of the city, ending with graffiti on the walls, but the question arises regarding the reliability of the code. To become a participant in Hello Lamp Post, you need to register on the project website. All user messages enter the remote server where they are processed, so the participants will not need any special program.

The test period of the project is 3 months. Upon its completion, the results will be summed up and decisions are made regarding its further development.