Today a colleague dropped an Estimote on my desk (or rather I grabbed one from his desk and promised to return it in one piece…) and one hour later getting all the Gradle files to play nicely I have the Android Demo application up and running. Estimotes are small BLE beacons that can be used for e.g. tracking things, give notifications when a particular area is entered and give distances to objects. They are relatively cheap and are powered through a coin battery that lasts for between one and two years.
Its texture is foamy rubber and the shape is cut stone. It has an adhesive sticker on its back where there is a harder plastic piece that is glued carefully to the rubber cover to keep it waterproof. Although It seems easy to remove the cover if needed.
At the moment we are silently brainstorming about what to do with this. Playing hot potato, catch, hidden nuclear device or perhaps hopscotch? Hot/Cold hidden key? Office Curling?