You have until Sunday 23 July to explore Bristol like never before. A collaborative effort between city data project Bristol Is Open (BIO), Interdigital Europe and CTVC has created a treasure hunt style game, funded by the EU initiative POINT Horizon 2020, where you are on the the hunt for the tools to power an extraordinary 5G network.
“People should get involved if they have an interest in playing with such new technology”
BIO, a test bed for experimenters to trial innovative ways to improve our connectivity and network technologies, has called for keen technology testers to try out the game. Your contribution will be an important step in proving our novel IP networking technology; a fundamental aspect in developing a 5G network that is accessible to all.
Dirk Trossen, Senior Principle Engineer at InterDigital, tells us, “The objective of the project is to demonstrate (and test) a new networking technology that improves user experience through lower latency.”
The big red ‘X’
The instructions for this modern day quest won’t be given to you and your friends on a coffee stained paper map with the treasure hidden under a big red X. No, this is a techie scavenger hunt, so of course, there’s a Bio Trial Android app to help you out.
A hunt for gold: Where will this quest take you?
The game will take around 45 minutes to 1 hour, taking you on an escapade around the city in teams of 3-6. To take part, 3 of you must have an Android phone to access the app and it is advised to split up to make the most of the adventure. There are 6 locations to find in order to uncover the missing letters of a code; your map will be accessible through the BIO Wi-Fi network to guide you to the locations you must visit to play the game.
“Bristol is an ideal host for such a project due to the capabilities provided by Bristol Is Open”
Dirk urges technology testing enthusiasts to get stuck in: “People should get involved if they have an interest in playing with such new technology, get some insights on how improvements to future services could look like and, well, possibly learn something new about Bristol!”
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He goes on to comment, “Bristol is an ideal host for such a project due to the capabilities provided by Bristol Is Open in the form of an experimental infrastructure that allows for such tests as well as in the form of a joint venture that invites technology and user partners to perform such tests.”
But, this is also a competition. The race is on as soon as you activate the app so you must discover the code as fast as possible to be at the top of the leaderboard – if you do this, as well as answer the questionnaire, your team may be in for a celebratory feast as there’s the chance to win a £100 voucher for a city centre restaurant.
You can download the BIO Trial app from Google Play today. Get your friends involved and let us know how it goes! To keep up to date with the latest connectivity news, you can follow POINT on Twitter here: @PointH2020, or be a part of the online conversation with the hashtag #BIOTrial.
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Shona Wright
Shona covers all things editorial at TechSPARK. She publishes news articles, interviews and features about our fantastic tech and digital ecosystem, working with startups and scaleups to spread the word about the cool things they're up to.
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