{"id":3111,"date":"2016-08-18T10:50:33","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T09:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ee.yelkdev.site\/?p=3111"},"modified":"2025-03-13T02:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T02:27:09","slug":"hungry-innovation-behold-cake-button","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/ee-life\/hungry-innovation-behold-cake-button\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungry for innovation: behold the Cake Button"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here at Equal Experts we like to have pet projects and help the community. And of course, we are also geeks at heart.<\/p>\n

So when we at EE Portugal came across the problem I\u2019m about to explain, we had to solve it.<\/p>\n

The problem<\/h3>\n

Everyday at around 10:30am and 4:30pm, a company called YumYum arrives at our office building with a trolley full of croissants, pastries, sweet and normal bread (it\u2019s the Portuguese way!).<\/p>\n

Naturally we strive to stay healthy and avoid the temptation of sweets, thus whenever possible we choose brown bread. That means the last people that get to the trolley have no choice but to eat cakes. And to make things worse, EE\u2019s office is on the upper floor \u2013 so when we finally notice the trolley has arrived, it is already too late.<\/p>\n\"Cakes\"\n

The solution<\/h3>\n

We had already tried a low-tech solution: the receptionist tried to phone one of us, who would then shout to the room \u201cYumYum time!\u201d. But the people using headphones would always miss it.<\/p>\n

This situation was far from optimal. Clearly, an expert could do better.<\/p>\n

\n

What if\u2026 there was a magic button that the receptionist could press and it would notify the whole team on Slack?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Then I spoke with my colleague Mark Winteringham and he suggested: \u201cThe Internet Button is that magic you are looking for!\u201d<\/p>\n

The implementation<\/h3>\n

Before long, The Internet Button<\/a> was in our hands. The little package includes 11 LEDs, four buttons, an accelerometer, a speaker and a small chip (Photon) that controls all this and directly connects to wifi.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

 <\/p>\n

I programmed one of the buttons to push a message to our Slack channel on every click.\u00a0The code was written in C++, coded locally on Particle\u2019s local IDE (a flavour of Atom). The editor includes a button to compile the code and another to deploy it to the device. So the way it works is the code is sent to Particle\u2019s cloud, where it is compiled, and then sent to the physical device \u2013 all through wifi. It\u2019s great!<\/p>\n\"\"\n

 <\/p>\n

The glory<\/h3>\n

\u2022 EE\u2019s team is now the first to arrive to YumYum\u2019s trolley, even though we are on another floor.
\n\u2022 People who use headphones are back to a healthy diet.
\n\u2022 The receptionist\u2019s efficiency on this task was improved by 700%.
\n\u2022 Three companies are now subscribers of our YumYutton alerts.
\n\u2022 We are being asked to develop a visual and audible alert along the main floor.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

Lessons learned<\/h3>\n