iWisps

Used IBM Data Science Experience for data analysis, model evaluation...
Sample recommendation results when run directly via browser
Results of performance and stability tests
iWisps running in Bluemix Containers Service
iWisps running in Docker Cloud/AWS
Swagger interactive documentation for iWisps REST service running on iPhone 6

Inspiration

Top tech companies like Apple and Google are investing in beacon devices. This project demonstrates how the concept of beacon can be used, together with the power of Apache Spark, to discover knowledge in the Yelp dataset and to build a recommendation web service which empowers local businesses and personalises customer experience.

What it does

It helps local businesses to identify potential nearby customers that would rate their service highly and, by employing targeted messaging, increase the sales:

“Hi Aaron, visit us today and when you buy 3 wines, you’ll get one for free - Appellation Wines.”

Additionally, it allows users to get personalised and context aware recommendations for any service category they may require, like Thai food:

“You will definitely like ‘Spirit of Thai’ restaurant which is just round the corner from you.”

Finally, it provides a lookup for best rated businesses in each category:

“For best French food in Edinburgh, visit ‘Martin Wishart’.”

How I built it

Used IBM Data Science Experience for data analysis, model building...
Built Dockerised Play! stateless web service exposing REST interface
Tested portability by running both in IBM Containers Service and Docker Cloud
Tested performance and stability by running Gatling tests
Used Swagger to allow for interactive exploration and to document the REST API

Challenges I ran into

I'm happy to say that this was a rather pain free project.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Being able to complete this complex undertaking in a short time frame.

What I learned

I realised that I'm much more effective at using APIs (Swagger) than building websites :)

What's next for iWisps

Develop a smartphone app allowing users to take advantage of the iWisps service and act as a beacon. Also create a business service that integrates with iWisps and can receive signals from the smartphone app when in a certain proximity and is capable of sending notifications to the app.